Vanguard Wellington Fund

[jp1]

But back to sensibly planning for old age and diminishing capacity for managing finances: a worry for me is that DH’s capacity will slip but I will not be able wrestle away from him daily money management. I don’t know what the markers are for that diminished capacity. How will I know? I don’t know.

I read an article the other day about a study that found that a good indicator of early dementia is a decline in one's credit score. Apparently it's common for people in the early stages to start missing bill payments which then start to show up on their credit reports and in their FICO score.

[catherine]

I read an article the other day about a study that found that a good indicator of early dementia is a decline in one's credit score. Apparently it's common for people in the early stages to start missing bill payments which then start to show up on their credit reports and in their FICO score.

Could be, but I also think of my MIL who was sharp as a tack, but by the time she was in her 80s, she had taken advantage of her credit, and didn't need it anymore. She was always responsible, and never missed a payment, unless she was fighting with the credit card company, which happened quite a lot, and I know she really didn't care about her credit score at that point. It wasn't important to her. When we were going through that horrific time with her house during the recession, she told me to just stop making payments and let the bank take it. But I couldn't do that--I depended on a good credit rating to front business expenses.

[bae]

I read an article the other day about a study that found that a good indicator of early dementia is a decline in one's credit score. Apparently it's common for people in the early stages to start missing bill payments which then start to show up on their credit reports and in their FICO score.

In my recent experiences dealing with elderly relatives in the final years, they had issues in paying bills in a timely fashion for all sorts of non-dementia-related reasons:

- they no longer cared to waste their limited time dealing with paperwork
- they didn't really care about their credit rating anymore
- they didn't have the resources to pay the bills promptly because land-rich/cash-poor
- they were preoccupied dealing with medical issues, and bills weren't their top priority
- they hired household managers/bookkeepers who did a poor job
- fraud by caregivers

[rosarugosa]

Yes, I tell DH that he should pay more attention to our finances so that he can save us if I start to lose it. We also know of a few couples where one partner committed serious financial infidelity, so I think it's just generally a good practice for both parties to pay some degree of attention to the finances, even though DH trusts me and has good reason to do so.

[bae]

This is something all couples need to think about. A person who handles all the family finances can die suddenly in an accident when they're 25 and leave their spouse helpless and baffled because they don't know what needs to be done or how.

My ex-wife had carefully removed herself from involvement in the family finances for 20+ years, despite all sorts of encouragement to do so. This seems to have left her at the mercy of shyster financial advisers and managers over the past few years, to her considerable detriment.

Which is a shame, as a simple YMOYL approach would have produced more than enough income to live very comfortable off of, and continued to grow her fortune (or, as I look at it, my daughter's inheritance).

Bother.

[jp1]

Could be, but I also think of my MIL who was sharp as a tack, but by the time she was in her 80s, she had taken advantage of her credit, and didn't need it anymore. She was always responsible, and never missed a payment, unless she was fighting with the credit card company, which happened quite a lot, and I know she really didn't care about her credit score at that point. It wasn't important to her. When we were going through that horrific time with her house during the recession, she told me to just stop making payments and let the bank take it. But I couldn't do that--I depended on a good credit rating to front business expenses.

In my recent experiences dealing with elderly relatives in the final years, they had issues in paying bills in a timely fashion for all sorts of non-dementia-related reasons:

- they no longer cared to waste their limited time dealing with paperwork
- they didn't really care about their credit rating anymore
- they didn't have the resources to pay the bills promptly because land-rich/cash-poor
- they were preoccupied dealing with medical issues, and bills weren't their top priority
- they hired household managers/bookkeepers who did a poor job
- fraud by caregivers

Obviously there are plenty of other reasons why an older person's credit score might decline, but baring any of those, simply forgetting to pay one's bills after a lifetime of always being fastidious about it is a red flag. I suppose one could also look for other signs like not always remembering to put the trash cans out the night before pickup day if that's a thing where one lives.