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Council of Residential Specialists - CRS
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Boomers Children Not Talking About Future
Seniors Real Estate Specialist
A recent AARP survey found 67 percent of older-generation parents haven't
talked with their boomer-aged children about the parents' ability to live
independently. The group offers boomers the following tips to begin the
discussion:
- Talk to your parents about planning for the future
before a problem or crisis arises and continue talking about independent
living issues over time.
- Use such natural conversation starters as your parents
expressing their concerns, the experience of your or your parents' older
friends, events in your parents lives or newspaper reports, magazine
articles and the like.
- Focus on such major issues as housing, activities
of daily living, health care, transportation, money and insurance. Let
the discussion be guided by your parents' concerns and needs, not your
own opinions.
- Anticipate normal resistance to these conversations.
If a parent is reluctant to talk, try again later. If a parent's health
or safety is in immediate jeopardy, take stronger measures.
- Accept your parents' right to make their own life
choices even if you don't agree with those choices.
Source: AARP
2. Life Stages of Tomorrow's Seniors
Now approaching their late 40s and early 50s, today's baby boomers will
encounter a number of lifestyles as they age, including the following situations:
- Back-to-work. Boomers will have the option of making
later-in-life career changes and working part-time or at home.
- Care-giving. Adult boomers will be assisting their
elderly parents with long-term care decisions and, in many instances,
providing care to the older generation.
- Empty nesters. Baby boomer seniors are expected to
have ample free time and financial resources for recreational activities,
luxury shopping and extended travel.
- Single Living. Divorced or widowed seniors can adopt
an independent social lifestyle later in life. Most of the boomer-generation
senior singles will be women.
- Retirement. More than 40 million people in the United
States will be retired for two decades or longer.
Source: Guide to Retirement Living, Summer/Fall 1999
3. Fight Back: Home Repair Scams
Elderly low-income seniors long have been a favored target among home repair
scam artists, who sell unnecessary and overpriced "home improvements" and
even go so far as to attach liens to the homes of seniors who refuse to
pay for shoddy or incomplete work, according to the National Consumer Law
Center. Seniors can protect themselves from unscrupulous contractors by
following these tips:
- Never purchase home improvement services from a door-to-door
contractor or on the basis of a television commercial.
- Always get a second estimate for the same job from
another contractor before you sign a contract for work to be performed.
- Always get a written contract or estimate that describes
the job, the price, the hourly rate for any additional work and the
contractor's clean-up responsibilities.
- Get references and call them.
- Visit other job sites to review work previously preformed
by the contractor.
- Watch out for bait-and-switch tactics and shady financing
schemes.
Source: National Consumer Law Center
4. Early Payments Benefit Lender, Not Borrower
Sending your monthly mortgage payments to your lender a couple of weeks
early each month might sound like a smart-money way to pay less interest
over the life of your home loan. In fact, early monthly payments simply
give the lender free use of your money until the date when your payment
is due. Loan payment tracking systems typically record your payments on
the first day of the month, regardless of when you send your check or have
the payment withdrawn from your account. That means making monthly payments
early doesn't reduce the total interest you'll pay over the life of your
loan. By the same logic, borrowers who pay late, but within the grace period
(usually 15 days) get free use of the lender's money. This system is counterintuitive
because it penalizes early payers and rewards late payers, but that's the
way it works.
Source: "When Should Seniors Prepay Their Mortgages?" Jack M. Guttentag,
June 1, 1999.
The Senior Advantage Real Estate Council and/or SRES are
not responsible in any manner for direct or indirect damages, howsoever
caused, arising out of or from the use of this website, or the reliance
on the information it contains. Links to other websites or references to
products, services or publications other than those of SAREC or SRES do
not imply the endorsement or approval of such websites, products, services
or publications by the Senior Advantage Real Estate Council.
Copyright Tim Corliss, Senior Advantage Real Estate
Council 1997
All rights reserved.
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