There can be various reasons why a person experiences financial difficulties. For parents with limited money management skills and knowledge, or those who experienced unforeseen incidents, searching for financial support can be relatively harder, especially in their old age.
During these difficult times, elders turn to their families for support. As someone who has witnessed their struggles and wants to ease their difficulty as their child, there are many things that you can do without compromising your own finances. However, if you’re unsure of how you can help, here are five ways that you can consider.
Prepare Health Support
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One of the primary worries of financially struggling people is their health care. As important as it is, health care can be costly and vary depending on the illness. For people with old age, their immune system weakens as the years pass.
That’s why they are more susceptible to getting diseases. If you plan to ease your parents’ worries financially, you can aid them by removing one of the primary reasons that have caused it: health support. Fortunately, there are various ways that you can do so.
Home Care Packages
First on the list are the home care packages that cover a wide range of services for your parents. Depending on your parents’ needs, service providers present nursing care, meal preparation, long-term health care, and the like. With this, you can help your parents with their concerns about money and health care.
Fortunately, in countries like the United States and Australia, several home care companies focus on caring for older people. In the U.S., there is a wide range of home health care packages that are not only offered to older people but also to people who have an illness or injury. It’s also relatively less costly and more convenient, just as effective as staying in a hospital.
Some of these companies also extend their service to people with special needs. Similarly, in many metropolitan cities in Australia, there are already several Sydney, Perth, Queensland, and melbourne disability services companies that provide home care packages where you can customize your package to tailor to your parents’ needs. If your parents need special attention, you can easily discuss these services.
Thus, through a home care package, you’ll not have to worry about paying too much for the proper care your parents would receive. Also, you have the choice and flexibility about what type of care you would want for your parents.
Health Insurance
Another way you can help your parents from the costly concerns related to health is by providing them with health insurance. This type of insurance aids you from unexpected medical expenses in the future, and depending on your coverage, it can also cover your parents’ illnesses if they have one. Aside from that, they can also receive free checkups, discounts for their prescriptions, vaccines, and other preventive care.
If you have the chance, consider meeting a few insurance providers to consider your choices and compare their plans. There are available plans that can provide you with a significant discount for the prescriptions or their affiliated hospitals to save great amounts of money. However, you must also be careful with transacting with anyone because there have been rising insurance scams in recent years. Also, ensure that they’re a legitimate company.
Prepay Their Bills
If you plan on helping your parents financially without compromising your own, you can consider prepaying one or more of their regular bills, like insurance or utility bills. Prepaying their bills during hard times can ease their short-term financial burden as they prepare and work out their current situation.
There are many creditors that allow the obligor to pay their bills in advance to create credit. In line with this, it’s best to discuss this with your parents not to hurt their feelings or so that they become aware of what you’re planning to do.
Present Them with a Cash Gift
Another way you can help your parents is by outright giving them a cash gift. Although this is a thoughtful gesture, you must also consider your financial situation and not put yourself in financial peril.
You can do some inventory and consider if you want to present them the maximum amount you can afford in one go and let them know about it or offer it to them as smaller gifts until they overcome their situation. Remember that the cash must come from your pockets and not be repaid or a loan.
Cosigning Loan with Your Parents
Concerning what was mentioned above, if you plan to apply for a loan for your parents, consider cosigning it with them instead. However, before making a final plan, you must consider the responsibilities.
Cosigning for someone means you’re taking the responsibility of paying for the loans if they cannot pay as agreed to in the contract. In your case, who’s planning to help your parents, this is a rather helpful option for you and them.
Still, you must carefully ponder it since this can appear on your credit report as if the loan is yours, which means it also affects your credit scores depending on your credit history.
Final Thoughts
Above all, the most important step you shouldn’t skip is sitting down with your parents and discussing how you can help in case they need something. Financial difficulty is one of the most challenging struggles one can experience. However, if you’re also struggling, remember that there are still other creative and effective ways to help, like staying by their side and the like. With the gift of family, you can overcome this problem together.
