As you get older, the way you choose to address your finances may change. When you reach your senior years, you may begin thinking more seriously about your financial wellness and how your finances will be handled after you pass away. You most likely have strong opinions on how you want your finances and assets handled in your absence, such as specific people you want to give inheritance to, and more. Creating a comprehensive Estate Plan is a large part of ensuring that you have financial wellness, as it allows you to keep control of your financial assets no matter what circumstances you may face in life. Preparing for the future and having a plan in place can alleviate a lot of stress, confusion, and unnecessary legal fees should you be diagnosed with a serious illness and unable to handle your finances, or if you should die.
Trust and Will, a leader in online Estate Planning services, understands the importance of obtaining financial wellness, especially for those who are reaching their retirement years, and for seniors in general. If you have reached that stage in life, you will want to make sure that you can continue to provide for yourself in your later years, and perhaps leave your children and loved ones an inheritance after your death. That is why we have put together a list of tips for seniors to ensure they are able to have financial wellness in their twilight years. Continue reading below to learn more!
Designate a Power of Attorney
An important step in developing financial wellness is ensuring you have a designated Power of Attorney. A Power of Attorney is someone nominated to handle your affairs in the event that you cannot, including your business, bank accounts, legal concerns, and more. Your Power of Attorney is chosen by you, whether that be a close friend, spouse, or a hired legal representative. Powers of Attorney are important because they will become the appointed individual that will be held responsible for managing the above-mentioned assets in situations where you cannot handle them yourself, such as when you suffer from dementia, Alzheimer’s, find yourself in a coma, or otherwise incapacitated.
As you get older, your risk of falling victim to one of these ailments increases, making it increasingly important to have someone designated to this responsibility. If you do not designate a Power of Attorney yourself, you will not be able to have control over what happens to your affairs when you are not able to manage them personally. By selecting someone in advance, you can ensure they have specific written instructions on how to handle your affairs so that you have more control over what happens to your finances while you are still alive, but unable to communicate or make sound decisions for yourself.
Having long-term financial wellness includes the periods of time in which you can no longer make big decisions for yourself. Taking the pre-emptive step of designating a Power of Attorney will help you achieve financial wellness no matter the situation.
Create/Update Your Will
If you have not yet created a Will, it is vital that you begin creating one now. It’s not a complicated process and you can even create your Will online. A Will is a document that allows you to designate who you want to receive your assets after you pass, including items such as cars, jewelry, houses, bank accounts, 401k accounts, and more. If you do not create a Will, there will be no written documentation of how you want your affairs handled, decreasing your chances at financial wellness and the chances your finances end up where you wanted them in your absence.
As a senior citizen, it is possible that you have already created a Will in the past. However, as the years pass, it is likely that you may have acquired additional assets, or that there may be additional people that you want to leave items to in your Will, such as new grandchildren in the family. It will be important to sit down and review your Will to ensure that it is up to date and accurate. If you need to make changes, you will want to do this sooner rather than later as you can never know what the future may hold.
Budget Well and Keep Beneficiaries Updated
As you grow older, you begin to have access to retirement accounts, 401k accounts, and more. These accounts will all help you continue to pay for expenses now that you have retired. Budgeting the allotted money you can take out will be important to your financial success, as there are limits as well as taxes to account for. Planning in advance and ensuring you know which bills you will have to pay, and how much money you will need to set aside for these payments, will be important to growing your financial wellness. When planned carefully, you will gain peace of mind from knowing you are living comfortably within your budget.
Often, people plan to not spend all the money within their 401k account in the hopes that they will be able to leave the additional money to their loved ones, often their children. However, being able to leave this leftover money to loved ones will be dependent on you keeping your listed beneficiaries up to date on all accounts. This will allow your chosen beneficiaries to inherit the accounts once you pass. Part of your financial wellness is ensuring that your leftover finances do not go to waste or end up in the wrong spot and choosing beneficiaries is a big part of this.
Ensuring that you will have financial wellness throughout the remaining years of your life is incredibly important, and with Estate Planning being such a large part of this, Trust and Will wants to help. Trust and Will has made Estate Planning easier than ever before with our online Estate Planning services. Through our website, you can complete your Trust-Based Estate Plan, Will, and Nomination of Guardian documents all from the comfort of your own home. Get started today to set yourself on the path for success and financial wellness!
Not sure where to start? We offer a free online quiz to point you in the right direction of where to begin.
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