You are hereby granted permission to guard your financial wealth...even from your family. While generosity is wonderful, be sure that your family, both old and young, understand the consequences of giving more to them than you can afford. It is possible that bailing out a family member would actually ruin your retirement. Sobering thought isn't it?
My journey around the web today took me from Boomer Girl's Guide to Buck$ome Boomer and an article called The Power of Saying "NO" to Preserve Your Retirement. The author, Kay Lynn Akers, is a boomer sharing her thoughts on the financial side of getting ready for retirement. Her post today revolved around the problem that parents have in saying no to their children when they are in need or even just want more than they can afford. I could relate to what she had to say...we all want our family to be happy. But.....
The fact is, we need to guard that part of our financial wealth that takes care of us in our retirement years. If we don't do that, our children will be left with the responsibility of helping us at that time. Will your children be able to do that? One of the comments left on The Power of Saying "NO"...suggested one guideline we might be able to use:
I think the key is to never raid one’s retirement funds.... But I do help out (and sometimes bail out) my children from time to time....(Grace from Graceful Retirement)There is no one size fits all answer for this dilemma. But when it comes to our retirement funds, the funds that will pay our bills when we retire, the answer is alway "no". That money should be kept separate from other money...untouchable probably. It may be easier to say that you don't have it than to give a flat out NO!
This is another one of those conversation I think you need to have with your children and probably when they are very young. Like you, they need to realize that all the money you make is not for spending now. Part of that money will be needed to buy groceries and medical care somewhere on down the road. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we never started to raise their expectation to begin with?
I invite you to visit Boomer Girl's Guide and Buck$some Boomer. They are both very popular blogs.
Just a thought.
b
Related articles
How To Calculate Retirement NeedsPlan your retirement marathon... 10 years at a timeStudy: Boomers Give Up Savings to Help Parents, KidsFamily vs Retirement Tradeoff for Baby Boomers?
Bare Bones Budget from Nanny's Place
