Penny shares her mother's story of inadequate retirement savings, a useless long-term-care policy, and losses from the 2008 crash. She argues families need to talk money with aging parents, pay down debt early, and start investing to compound wealth over time.
Chapters
Hey Wise Guys, it's Penny with Penny Wise Coaching. I am coming to you today on March 28th with a little bit of message and hopefully motivation. So I want to share with you today these beautiful flowers that I bought thanks to a favorite realtor of mine, Blas Estrada, in Northern Colorado, who gives out little monthly gifts, and that's one of the ones that I had an opportunity to buy some flowers. So those are for my mom. And in reality, my mom passed away 6 years ago. I'm kind of of the mindset that putting flowers on a grave doesn't do anybody any good. So I'm enjoying the flowers from my mom. And I wanted to talk to you a little bit about her story and how that impacted my money story, and maybe that will share downhill to you as well. So as I said, 6 years ago my mom passed away, and 2 days later would have been her birthday at age 77 almost. And it's, it's been a rough journey. This is a tough time of year for me. You know, we're in Holy Week, we're excited about, you know, thinking about and kind of melancholy about the sacrifice that Jesus made and the rejoicing that we get to have on Easter morning. And while Easter has always been my favorite season, it's kind of a bittersweet time for me. But I really want to use that time this week to tell you about her story and how you might be able to make things different for you. So my mom told me about a year before she passed that she was upset with her CPA because he told her that she could run out of money. My dad had passed away about 15 years before that. And she'd been retired probably easily 10 years. I need to go look up what year it was, but you know, when she told me that, I explained to her that her CPA didn't have anything to do with her retirement. He just did her taxes. And so I quickly asked her how much she had left and I'm doing the math and figuring out, oh yeah, you have about 15 months worth of money left. And by the way, you know, if you can't live on what you're living on now, what are you going to do when you're down to just Social Security? And her response to me was, I'll be fine because I have a paid-for house and a long-term care policy. I'll be fine. I said, well, then what are you doing with $1,500 a month? And honestly, my mom was very frugal. She really wasn't doing anything crazy with her money. Mostly she gave it to people that were needy. And she gave it to doctors for medical bills. She had a slew of medical issues the last probably 10 years or more before she passed away. And so when I started realizing that she had limited funds left and we had this great long-term care policy, I said, let me see the policy. So we see that it has a 90-day deductible. Great. Do you know what that means? Yes, it means I have to pay the first 90 days, right, to the tune of $15,000 to $30,000 over 3 months. So where are we going to get that money if all this money that you have left is gone? That I— or that long-term care policy is not worth the paper it's written on. So all of a sudden we're scrambling trying to figure out how to get her deductible met by using home care so that we could get qualified for the deductible without waiting until she needed to be in a nursing home. And let me tell you, that was stressful. And the reality is my parents were hard workers and they did not want to be on, on government assistance. And they taught us to work from a very young age. We, my brothers and I, had checkbooks by 14 years old or 12 years old and paper routes, and we knew how to work. But honestly, we were never really taught how to budget and how to invest. And I think my parents always thought, well, we don't have enough money. We're not one of those people who will get to retire with a big bunch of money. And so they started late in life and they saved what they could. And my mom thought she had enough money and retired about 65, 66, something like that. And then unfortunately, she was a victim of the 2007 and '08 crash and her retirement plan went in half just like all of ours, but she didn't have time to recover like I did. And she was already taking money out of it to supplement her Social Security at that point. So obviously, it's like pulling a plug out of a bucket, you know, and I didn't know until just a year before she died. And, you know, most of us are not talking to our parents about money. So that's one thing is I tell you, talk to your parents about money. If you still have parents or grandparents, start talking to them, try to open up that door and have some discussions so that you're not shocked like I was. And honestly, I loved my mom more than most people. And she was my greatest fan. And she never wanted to be a burden. My dad didn't want to be a burden. They did not intend this. And you don't intend that on the ones that you love. And so I'm encouraging you today to do everything you can to ramp up your game, to start paying off your debt, to quit paying crazy interest rates on credit cards because you're buying and buying and buying, and find some money to invest. 'Cause the reality is today you're the youngest that you're ever gonna be. And I'm working with a number of seniors right now who are on a fixed income and have very little saved and they're stressed out about that too. And I've learned about some great resources and ways to help seniors and maybe using their home and, and opportunities through investing. So if you have that situation, please call me and let's talk about some ideas. But the reality is you have to start today so that you get the value of all the time that you can let it grow. And the reality is today you are the youngest you're ever going to be. So start today. It's not going to get any easier. You have to make little choices, lifestyle choices, to make things turn around. So I'm really passionate about that. I hate the fact that the statistics say something like 50% of seniors have $0 saved, and I'm working with a number of them and watching them scramble to try to make money in their 70s and 80s, and that's not a way to live. So let's all try to learn from those who went before us and make things different. Because it's hard. And, and to be in that sandwich generation of taking care of your parents and your kids, not a fun place to be. So I'm going to challenge you today to what can you do today to make your life different, to get, get ahead of this, to really be intentional with your money so that you can have a retirement in a way that you want in the future. So please reach out to me if things are not going in the way that you want. They're not moving fast enough. It's a phone call. Give me a call. Reach out to me on my website. Schedule some time that we can chat so I can help show you how you can move the needle even when you feel like you don't have any money to invest. So in the meantime, I hope you'll be wise.
