Stepping In When Your Parents Can No Longer Manage
It's a decision most adults dread: having to take over the financial and day-to-day living decisions for parents who can no longer manage on their own. When caring for your parents, you may need to plan on three levels: managing finances, making health care decisions, and making sure their daily household needs are met. Finding qualified experts who can advise you in these areas may make it easier to manage the situation.
Managing Finances
If your parents currently are able to communicate, try to initiate a conversation about how they would like their money to be managed. Rather than telling them what to do, be clear that you would like to help and to make sure that their wishes are met. Access to bank and brokerage statements, insurance policies, and other financial documents may help you to safeguard your parents' assets.
If your parents work with a financial advisor, try to arrange a joint meeting where all parties can review the situation. If you pay your parents' bills and manage their checkbook, arranging for direct deposit of Social Security or pension benefits, as well as electronic delivery of recurring bills, could expedite the process.
Arranging for Health Care
If your parents are mentally competent, ask them about consulting a lawyer who can draft a health care proxy, a legal document designating you (or another person) to make decisions about medical care when they are no longer able to do so. If your parents have opinions about end-of-life care, their wishes can be incorporated into a living will, another legal document.
Even without these documents, the medical establishment is likely to look to you or other siblings to make decisions about health care, which could include arranging for long-term care or making end-of-life decisions. As part of this process, determine the type of medical insurance that your parents have and what it covers.
If your parents are able to remain in their home, you may need to consider helping them to manage medication, to conduct daily tasks such as bathing or meal preparation, and to make arrangements for assistance with household chores. A visiting nurse and home care agency may provide assistance in these areas.
Overseeing Daily Living Activities
You may want to consider consulting a Professional Geriatric Care Manager, a professional who may help arrange for home care, provide crisis intervention, and help you identify solutions to potential problems. You can learn more at www.caremanager.org.
Managing a parent's affairs can be complicated, but arranging for support from qualified people may help you care for parents in a way that meets their needs and does not create too much stress on you.
© 2010 Standard & Poor's Financial Communications. All rights reserved.
© Kelly C Ruggles, Spokane, WA., President Of American Reliance Group, Inc., is a registered investment advisor.
| Sweet Chicken Bacon Wraps
1 1/2 lbs Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts 3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1 lb package bacon 2 Tbs Chili Powder
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Cut chicken into 1 inch cubes. Cut each bacon strip into thirds. Wrap bacon around chicken cube and secure with wooden toothpick on the diagonal where bacon seams overlap. Stir brown sugar and chili powder. Dredge wrapped chicken in mixture. Coat broiler pan with cooking spray. Place chicken on rack in broiler pan. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, or until bacon is crisp.
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The Cold Wars
Each of us gets as many as 200 colds in a lifetime, adding up to some five years of sickness and as much as a year in bed. Colds annually send Americans to the doctor 100 million times, account for over 1.5 million ER visits, and keep kids home from school more than 20 million days.
Here, at the height of the sick season, are four truths about the common cold.
1. Your mother was right: Wash your hands - and don't touch your face! To avoid getting sick, wash your hands often, especially after contact with anyone who's ill or after events that involve hand-shaking. And, try not to touch your face. Studies suggest that many of us touch our faces hundreds of times a day and - eww- pick our noses as often as five times an hour.
2. Don't touch that doorknob, either! The best way to not get cold is easy: Be touchy about what you touch. In a study done in 2007, it was found that cold viruses brought into hotel rooms by guests found their way onto door handles, pens, light switches, faucets, remote controls, and telephones - and stayed there for
up to 18 hours.
3. Simple remedies are still the best. Treat the individual symptoms hat bother you most. Dr. Birgit Winter, an otolaryngologist and part of a cold-research team at the University of Virginia, is one of the top experts on the subject. Her step-by-step plan: At the first sign of symptoms, take ibuprofen to ease sore throat, headache, and malaise. If a stuffy nose is a problem, add an OTC nasal spray. Old-style antihistamines, such as Benadryl or Chlor-Trimeton, can also alleviate congestion and sneezes but may make you drowsy. Whatever you do, Winter cautions, do not take antibiotics. They kill bacteria, not viruses.
4. We're our own worst enemies. For years, scientists thought cold symptoms resulted from damage done by the cold viruses themselves. As it turns out, all that sneezing, coughing and congestion is actually caused by our own bodies. In response to an intruding virus, our immune systems pump out chemicals that cause our noses to run, heads to throb, and throats to swell. One cold differs from another because of the way the host body responds. That explains why you may come down with a killer cold while your spouse has barely a sniffle, even though you both have the same virus.
© Kelly Ruggles News Letter
Kelly C. Ruggles, Spokane, WA., does not intend to provide personalized investment advice through this publication and does not represent the strategies or services discussed are suitable for any investor. Investors should consult with their financial advisors prior to making any investment decisions
From the desk of Kelly Ruggles
A Well-Traveled Cat
In 1978, I was attending Humboldt University in northern California. Humboldt is located in Arcata, and it just so happened that my sister, Marian, lived in the same town. That year, her husband Butch was transferred to a new job in East Texas. I guess my sister must have trusted me, because she let me rent her house when they moved. Marian's son, Neil, was 18 at the time and didn't want to move to Texas. Instead he rented a place some fifteen miles from my sister's house. But this story is really about my nephew's cat, Samantha, who moved with him to his new place.
Samantha's Journey Home
Some weeks after my nephew had moved, guess who showed up at the house? Yes, Samantha, the cat. I couldn't believe it! Samantha looked worse for wear. She was skinny, dirty, and disheveled. But, still there she was. I called my nephew and of course he came right over to get Samantha to take her home.
A couple weeks later I received a call from my nephew, he was wandering if I'd seen his cat. You see, she had run away two days previous, and he could not find her for a second time. Sure enough, Samantha showed up at our doorstep the next day. This time she was in pretty good shape and it had only taken her three days to travel the fifteen miles back home.
How that cat had found her way twice remains a mystery to me. You read stories of animals finding their way home, sometime over hundreds of miles. But it is different when you experience it first hand. The fifteen miles was enough, but the journey entailed many perils. That darn cat had to cross interstate Highway 5 and navigate her way through a city of 35,000.
Well, I called my nephew and told him Samantha had showed up at our house again. We talked for awhile, and I told him I knew he loved Samantha, but I thought she belonged to the house. Or maybe I should say the house belonged to her. I told him he could come and visit any time. So that's how I ended up with a cat for a year.
Samantha mostly lived in the garage, and hunted in the cow field behind our back yard. We put food and water out for her, but I don't really think she needed us much. That next year my sister decided to sell her home and I had to move. I told the new buyers, the house came with the cat. I sometimes wonder if Samantha is still hunting the old cow field to this day.
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Kelly C. Ruggles