Older people have been hit from both sides by the Covid-19 pandemic and the recession:

🥚Nest eggs are wobbling
💰Retirees could run out of savings
🚑Workers face heightened health risks
📈Ages 55+ have very high unemployment trib.al/mMlQ5PJ
As your parents get older and you get more established, they may turn to you for financial support.

While you may feel a moral obligation to help your parents, you first need to run through a basic checklist trib.al/mMlQ5PJ
Step 1: Know your own financial situation.

For that, you need a personal budget. Any decision about your generosity hinges on whether you actually have the money trib.al/mMlQ5PJ
Giving money to your parents only makes sense if it affects your current lifestyle.

It’s not a good idea if it would reduce your future lifestyle. Reducing your retirement contributions will cost you much more than getting takeout less frequently trib.al/mMlQ5PJ
Borrowing isn’t a good answer.

If you borrow to pay your parents, you’ll put yourself at a financial disadvantage. It will reduce your credit score and give you less cushion for your own future money needs trib.al/mMlQ5PJ
Going into debt or dipping into your own emergency fund carry similar risks.

The rule of thumb is to have six months of living expenses. With today’s low interest rates, it would be cleaner for your parents to borrow the money themselves trib.al/mMlQ5PJ
Step 2: Consider the reason your parents need financial help right now.

One-off situations like essential car repairs or temporary assistance after a sudden job loss are fine. If your parents’ financial need is chronic, it’s a different story trib.al/mMlQ5PJ
If your parents have a…

🎲Gambling addiction (up to 10% of elderly)
🛍️Compulsive shopping habit (up to 5% of adults)

Then giving them money is a form of codependency and will hurt them. They need professional counseling trib.al/mMlQ5PJ
If, based on the above criteria, you decide that giving money to your parents isn't an option, you can still help them in other ways. You can...

⏰Give your time
🥫Drop off food
💊Pick up medicine
🛠️Do some repair work
💸Help them find other income
trib.al/mMlQ5PJ
So the answer to whether you should give your parents money truly depends on whether you have a budget and know what you can afford.

If you don’t budget yourself, then you can’t help your parents financially trib.al/mMlQ5PJ

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Bloomberg Opinion

Bloomberg Opinion Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @bopinion

1 Nov
It’s easy to feel as if there’s no light at the end of the Covid-19 tunnel:

📈ICUs are filling up
🔒Fresh lockdowns
💉Herd immunity a long way off

Yet we shouldn’t ignore the better news from Asia trib.al/X4AUjxs
The strategies pursued by South Korea, Vietnam & China are paying off. As of Nov. 1, the cumulative death rate per million is:

🇺🇸U.S.: 696
🇬🇧U.K.: 685
🇫🇷France: 563
vs.
🇰🇷South Korea: 9
🇨🇳China: 3
🇻🇳Vietnam: 0.36

[Chart shows data correct as of Oct. 30] trib.al/X4AUjxs Image
The perception of an Asian advantage often falls prey to essentialist thinking: that the East is doing things the West could never do, thanks to profound differences in values, politics and culture, writes @LionelRALaurent.

That’s not necessarily the case trib.al/X4AUjxs Image
Read 10 tweets
31 Oct
You’ve heard the scenarios:

Trump loses but refuses to leave.
Biden loses but refuses to concede.
Absentee ballots aren’t counted.
The angry left takes to the streets.
The angry right takes to the streets.
Lawyers take to the courts.
trib.al/IO736Nn
Into the pre-election turmoil comes a useful new analysis from the economists Michael Geruso and Dean Spears.

They warn of a significant chance that the presidential election could be swung by a few thousand disqualified ballots trib.al/IO736Nn Image
Their conclusion is stark:

"We find that it is much more likely under the Electoral College system than under a hypothetical National Popular Vote that the election outcome will be narrow enough to be reversible by judicial or administrative processes" trib.al/IO736Nn Image
Read 11 tweets
28 Oct
At the start of 2020, @blsuth took an informal poll asking which CEO deserved more attention.

The result was almost unanimous: Mike Lamach of Trane Technologies
trib.al/ioV9y3Q
📈The numbers show why: Since Lamach became CEO in 2010, the company’s market value has tripled to more than $30 billion.

During the pandemic, he was able to turn an air conditioning company into a juggernaut, all while keeping things sustainable twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…
As the weather gets colder, the safety of indoor air is on a lot of people's minds.

What can companies or individuals do to make sure that their heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems can be a tool in fighting the spread of infection? trib.al/ioV9y3Q
Read 13 tweets
27 Oct
So, those reports of Covid-19 patients getting reinfected. How worried should we be? trib.al/mRkCaDt
We live with other viruses that can reinfect us — including the common cold and influenza. In these cases:

🧠It’s not serious enough for the body to develop a “memory” to help fight it again
🦠The virus has changed so our system doesn’t recognize it trib.al/mRkCaDt
Covid-19 reinfection is of great concern because the virus is far more deadly relative to most colds and flu, especially in older and vulnerable people.

The good news is that a vaccine would help render the virus less of a threat. But there are unknowns trib.al/mRkCaDt
Read 12 tweets
26 Oct
When Brad Hart, the mayor of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, finished his 14-day Covid quarantine, he said: “I’m fine.”

“My energy level is back. That was really it. It was just congestion and being really, really tired” trib.al/ubmWFza
A month before, Hart had issued a mask order.

He would’ve done it sooner, but the governor told localities it was illegal. He eventually decided to act anyway.

📹 via @QuickTake trib.al/ubmWFza
What was the reaction? “I got people who thanked me,” he says.

“And I got people who said, ‘You’re a bum and you’re going to come and take my gun next.’ Are you kidding me? Just wear a mask. It’s not that hard" trib.al/ubmWFza Image
Read 12 tweets
25 Oct
In the latest wave of coronavirus infections, young people have been blamed for spreading the virus by partying too much and breaking social distancing rules.

But that's not entirely fair trib.al/4goZL4Z
New coronavirus cases are still highest among young people in some places, including the U.S. and U.K. trib.al/4goZL4Z
Generation Z are adrift by definition, living in ways that heighten their risk of infection:

🏢Many live in shared accommodation or densely-populated dorms
🍺More likely to work in public-facing roles such as waiters and bar staff trib.al/4goZL4Z
Read 12 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!