On this episode of the How Money Works Podcast, we talk about some of the areas of your financial life where you might be flirting with disaster and how you can fix it.

Out-of-date legal documents

It’s not something people think about often, but having your legal documents up to date is crucial. “When is the last time you whipped out your will and read it? Well, never,” said Craig.

Maybe you created legal documents when your kids were young but now they’re older. Have you updated those records? Maybe you remarried and have not changed your
beneficiary information.

Too many people are walking around with no documents, or documents that are in desperate need of an update. Don’t let this be you.

Tax time bomb

Stimulus money received as a result of the pandemic is being spent. As a result, there’s a tax time bomb coming at some point.

“You cannot create all this debt and expect it not to be repaid,” said Craig.

What’s going to happen if the government raises the tax rate? If the overwhelming majority of your investments are in tax-deferred accounts, you could be building up a time
bomb for yourself.

No plan for long-term care expenses

Long-term care expenses is one of the hardest discussions to have with people, because they don’t want to discuss it and don’t want to think about being in that position.

The long-term care and home health industry is growing quickly, and studies have shown that, on average, people in their golden years spend $245,000 for health care. Can your nest egg survive that kind of financial hit?

Flirting With Financial Disaster

Make sure you aren’t flirting with disaster.  Listen to the full episode or use the timestamps below to jump to a specific segment.

TIMESTAMPS

1:01 – Out of date legal documents
7:35 – Tax time bomb
12:00 – No plan for long-term care expenses