Talking Money with Aging Parents: Essential Conversations We Need to Have with Cameron Huddleston, Author, Award-Winning Journalist & Director of Education and Content at Carefull

Having a conversation about finances with our aging parents can be challenging, but it doesn't always have to be. However, it's important that we have these conversations, ensuring that they have financial security and peace of mind.

My guest today is Cameron Huddleston. She is an author, speaker, and award-winning journalist with more than 20 years of experience writing about personal finance. At the age of 35, Cameron stepped into the caregiving role for her mom who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. This inspired her to write the book "Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk: How to Have Essential Conversations with Your Parents About Their Finances". She realized how important it was to have money talks with our loved ones before an emergency or health issue arises. She helps families break the taboo of talking about money, and she brings all of her knowledge as the role of Director of Education and Content for Carefull, the financial safety service, to help protect aging adults' daily finances.

Today, we talk about why this conversation is so intimidating, how many people avoid having this conversation, and understanding why our parents and loved ones are reluctant to go there to talk about finances. We also discuss the cost if we wait and don't plan ahead, how we can get our siblings involved, how we can be set up for success and prepared for these important dialogues, what not to say, how we can initiate conversation in a positive way, plan for the future cost of long-term care, and how we want an agent in place and what documents are important to put in place. We also discuss what we can do if Mom or Dad can't pay for care or medical bills and what resources are available to us to help our parents age well. Lastly, we talk about how we can pay it forward and start talking to our kids. This is the greatest gift we can give our loved ones - to have all of our financial and legal documents in place. Thank you, Cameron, for the insightful conversation!

Learn more at cameronhuddleston.com & www.getcarefull.com

*This episode is brought to you by Gigi Betty co. A boutique gift shop raising awareness and funds for caregivers and care partners. Show now at www.gigibettyco.com. Use the special code WILLGATHER20 for 20% off your order- Just for our podcast listeners!

We are not medical professionals and are not providing any medical advice. If you have any medical questions, we recommend that you talk with a medical professional of your choice. willGather has taken care in selecting its speakers but the opinions of our speakers are theirs alone. Thank you for your continued interest in our podcasts.

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Nicole Will is our host and founder of willGather.