This post was brought to you by Genworth as part of a campaign by the  Brandfluential team. All opinions, humor and thoughts in this post are my own.

I was reading an article a while back called “When and How to Coax Your Parents to Move Closer” and this is a question I ask myself all of the time.

My parents are pretty young so I have a while until I really need to look hard at this question but what do people do who may have parents that are in their 70’s, 80’s and even 90’s.  When is the right time to move your parents and even very close relatives near by so that you can help take care of and keep an eye on them?  Due to medical advances people are living longer which sometimes means nursing homes are out of the question due to the yearly cost.  I know a few people who have moved parents and close relatives closer to family so that they could save money on a nursing home but at the same time not sacrifice the safety of their elderly family member.

For those of you just starting to ask the question of when is the right time to move an elderly family member closer you may want to turn to a trusted professional like Genworth.  I am not sure how people are able to juggle family, work and an elderly relative but to me that is what family is for.  To me making this decision would be a no brainier.  I would want my parents, grandparents and close relatives as close to me as possible so that I am able to keep an eye on them and make sure they are healthy and safe.  I know sometimes the person you are trying to move isn’t always willing to move but I think if you sit them down and let them know exactly why you are moving them in the end they will come around because they will then understand that you have their best interest and well being in mind.

We recently went through a situation with Melinda’s pop pop.  He has been ill off and on and unable to live on his own.  Melinda’s father decided a nursing home wasn’t the best solution for him so a grandchild stepped up and moved in with him to take care of him and look after him.

Again, I know this situation and decision aren’t easy but we all need to remember that family comes first and we should do everything we are capable of to look after our elderly parents and relatives.

This post was brought to you by Genworth as part of a campaign by the  Brandfluential team. All opinions, humor and thoughts in this post are my own.

For Melinda and I the answer is NO which is sad. I was reading an article “Why stay at home parents need life insurance” and the article made me think about life insurance.  There really is no good reason as to why Melinda and I don’t have life insurance other then it’s one of those things that just gets overlooked. When you are in your 20’s, 30’s and even 40’s you really aren’t thinking about dying which means you really aren’t thinking about life insurance either.

Melinda and I just recently had a conversation about why we don’t have life insurance and on how we should have some sort of coverage on each other.  Melinda is a stay at home mom and her contribution to the family in extremely valuable and like the article I mentioned states not insuring the stay at home parent is a bad financial mistake due to the many different hats they wear throughout the day like cook, driver and the list goes on and on.

I plan on heading over to Genworth and taking a look at their life insurance section so I can try to get a better understanding of what kind of policy would best benefit Melinda and I as well as what amount of coverage we should have.  For some reason I always thought life insurance was expensive but I was reading that a term life policy with $1 million in coverage may cost less than $1,000 annually for people in their 20’s and 30’s who are in good health, and less than $2,000 annually for people in their 40s.  That averages to about $83 a month which breaks down to $2.77 a day.  I know for a fact I spend at least $3 a day on dumb stuff so there is no reason why it can’t be applied to life insurance.

Do you have life insurance?  If you are married are you and your spouse covered?

This post was brought to you by Genworth as part of a campaign by the  Brandfluential team. All opinions, humor and thoughts in this post are my own.

I don’t know why but I feel like retirement is so far away but in reality it’s right around the corner.  I have a daughter that is going to be a senior in high school next year which is proof that time flies and before I know it retirement will be here.  I can honestly say that I haven’t done much in the way of getting prepared for retirement.  I’m not sure what that is because I do want to be prepared when the time does come.

I was on the internet a few weeks back and read an article called “7 tips for people planning to retire in 2013” and it just got me thinking.  I remember when my grandfather was getting ready to retire and all of the work he went through to make sure that he had all of his ducks in a row.  He needed to change his investment strategy from an aggressive approach to a more savings/growth approach.  He also noted that he needed to take minimum distributions from his 401K every year.  Thinking back now getting ready for retirement is really complicated so if you need some assistance you may want to turn to Genworth.  Retirement takes a lot of work and planning especially since you are getting yourself set financially for life.

I still have a few years left to work but I need to get started on my retirement saving fro sure.

Are you ready for retirement?

This post was brought to you by Genworth as part of a campaign by the  Brandfluential team. All opinions, humor and thoughts in this post are my own.

I can say that when I was growing up I had no one in my life to turn to for financial advice, wish I knew about Genworth back then.  When you are 17 with your first job most kids turn to their parents for advice on how to open a bank account, balance a check book and just overall financial direction but for me that help was never there which really sucked.  I feel that is why to this day I am still not the greatest when it comes to money and why I am what you would call the spender in my marriage but thankfully Melinda is the saver.  Melinda even had me start the 52 week challenge where you put money away every week for an entire year and I must admit so far it’s going pretty well (24 weeks in I think).

Picture courtesy of Tax Credits via Flickr

Being that I never really had any sound financial advice when I was growing up I wanted that to be different for Sabreena.  Sabreena recently landed her first job about a month ago and like most teens had no idea what she needed to do to get started.  First I had her read an article on Yahoo title Women and Money : Why You Need to Take Control Now. Again, I am not the best saver but I do have a degree in finance and have worked in the banking industry my entire career so I figured I could at least  help her with the basics so that she could be a better saver than I was when I was her age.  I opened a checking a savings account for her so that she could have her paycheck direct deposited with no effort on her part.  The other day I helped her create a log in so that she could go online and look at her account to see her transactions and how much money she has in checking and savings (even though her savings isn’t to be touched) and I am also teaching her how to balance her checkbook.  Melinda jokes and says Sabreena will be married and I will still be balancing her checkbook and doing her finances for her and I disagree.  I want Sabreena to be an independent women who knows how to manage her money on her own with no help from any one (unless it’s from me of course, LOL).

Do you have teens that currently work?  Are you there for them to help them with financial advice when needed?