The Right Way to Talk to Your Aging Parents About Their Money

Talking with aging parents about their money and future wishes can be a touchy subject. It’s not always easy to know how much or how little we should be involved in their financial lives. Plus, parents can be reluctant to open up about their finances, and kids might not know exactly what to do or say to get prepared for the future.

I interviewed Cameron Huddleston, author of Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk: How to Have Essential Conversations with Your Parents About Their Finances, to talk about this often-difficult topic.

Cameron is an award-winning journalist with more than 17 years of experience writing about personal finance. U.S. News & World Report named her one of the top personal finance experts to follow on Twitter.

Her work has appeared in Kiplinger's Personal Finance, Business Insider, Chicago Tribune, Fortune, MSN, USA Today, Yahoo and many more print and online publications. She’s been featured on MSNBC, CNN, “Fox & Friends,” ABC News Radio, Wall Street Journal Radio, NPR and other personal finance radio shows nationwide. She’s been interviewed and quoted as an expert in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, BBC.com, MarketWatch and more.

On the Money Girl podcast, Cameron and I chat about conversation starters and strategies to communicate with your parents about their finances the best ways possible. We cover:

• Why having money talks sooner rather than later is so important.
• Strategies to start conversations that aren’t awkward or upsetting.
• Key legal documents your parents should have to protect their final wishes.
• The challenges that a parent’s memory issues can bring to estate planning.
• What to do if your parents aren’t prepared for retirement or are struggling financially.
• How to use long-term care insurance to manage a parent’s future care expenses.
• Ideas for aging parents to manage debt and cut expenses to free up more cash.

[Listen to the interview using the embedded audio player or on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, and Spotify]

Use these tips from Cameron Huddleston to communicate more effectively about money with your parents:

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