Boomers delay their own retirement to take care of aging parents

Especially in these tough financial times, older adults are delaying their own retirements and using their savings to support aging parents as Sue Martin, of Claymont, Delaware has had to do:

It hasn’t been easy. Martin, who’s divorced, had planned to retire next year from her job as a legal assistant at a pharmaceutical company. But while she has a retirement fund of her own, her mother does not.

So now, Martin plans to work, indefinitely, to help cover the portion of the mortgage and living expenses that her mother’s Social Security and small allotment of food stamps don’t.

It can create a cycle, Boomers spend their savings to take care of their parents, often leaving themselves without anything and their own children have to step in someday and use their resources.

My dad has savings and a retirement plan, but what if he lives long enough to go through them? We have 3 kids, one is still young and I suppose he will be in college when my dad is very, very old. How can we do both? What if one of us gets sick?

My mother-in-law is 83 and has no retirement plan that I know of, I think she currently lives on Social Security. Will we have to support her, too?

I think part of the reason my uncle died last year is that he was upset about being broke and kind of gave up. He was 86 and essentially had no money due to some bad investments and when he got sick he didn’t try to get better so his daughters wouldn’t have to support him.

I know people have managed for years, we will too. It just makes me a little nervous, especially as an only child and someone who’s not in a position to save a whole lot of money for my own retirement at the moment.