Comments on: 4 Important Questions to Ask Your Parents http://allfinancialmatters.com/2006/09/19/4-important-questions-to-ask-your-parents/ A personal finance blog dedicated to discussing such topics as budgeting, asset allocation, 401K, IRA, cash flow, insurance, financial planning, portfolio management, and other areas in personal finance. Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:32:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: JLP http://allfinancialmatters.com/2006/09/19/4-important-questions-to-ask-your-parents/comment-page-1/#comment-27016 JLP Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:05:16 +0000 http://allthingsfinancialblog.com/2006/09/19/4-important-questions-to-ask-your-parents/#comment-27016 Miguel, Thanks for sharing. That's an awesome way to bring up the topic. Miguel,

Thanks for sharing. That’s an awesome way to bring up the topic.

]]> By: Miguel http://allfinancialmatters.com/2006/09/19/4-important-questions-to-ask-your-parents/comment-page-1/#comment-27013 Miguel Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:40:58 +0000 http://allthingsfinancialblog.com/2006/09/19/4-important-questions-to-ask-your-parents/#comment-27013 Slightly off-topic, but under the heading of asking your parents sensitive money-related questions, my wife recently asked her parents on how much their retirement costs. We were asking for our own planning purposes. One of the difficult things we have been grappling with is the question of income need during retirement. So, we figured, her 70-something parents were a pretty good example of a golden retirement (health issues aside). They own their home outright, no debt, and also own outright a waterfront condo in a warm climate, where they spend the winter season. They eat out a fair amount, splurge on their grandkids all the time, drive two cars (owned outright) one of which is a luxury model. So, we figured, what's not to like about their retirement! If we can understand their number, then we can understand our number (with some fin'l engineering of course). To our surprise (more like shock), once they understood why we were asking, they were willing to detail their expenses, income sources, and investment balances. The one thing we probably won't have is much pension income, though I'm guessing SS will still be around in 20 years. Anyhow, the number was less than I thought it was and helped to put me at ease. The key seems to be getting out of debt (including mortgage) before retiring and being in a position to pay cash for big ticket items (like cars). And I know we can eventually save enough to provide the inflation-adjusted equivalent of their pensions (and SS if we had to). Thanks to mom & dad our planning will be a bit more effective. Slightly off-topic, but under the heading of asking your parents sensitive money-related questions, my wife recently asked her parents on how much their retirement costs. We were asking for our own planning purposes. One of the difficult things we have been grappling with is the question of income need during retirement.

So, we figured, her 70-something parents were a pretty good example of a golden retirement (health issues aside). They own their home outright, no debt, and also own outright a waterfront condo in a warm climate, where they spend the winter season. They eat out a fair amount, splurge on their grandkids all the time, drive two cars (owned outright) one of which is a luxury model. So, we figured, what’s not to like about their retirement! If we can understand their number, then we can understand our number (with some fin’l engineering of course).

To our surprise (more like shock), once they understood why we were asking, they were willing to detail their expenses, income sources, and investment balances. The one thing we probably won’t have is much pension income, though I’m guessing SS will still be around in 20 years.

Anyhow, the number was less than I thought it was and helped to put me at ease. The key seems to be getting out of debt (including mortgage) before retiring and being in a position to pay cash for big ticket items (like cars). And I know we can eventually save enough to provide the inflation-adjusted equivalent of their pensions (and SS if we had to). Thanks to mom & dad our planning will be a bit more effective.

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