How you can provide your parents with the best in their old age

Singaporeans have one of the highest life expectancies¹ in the world. This means people may spend more time in retirement. As such, achieving a high-quality and fulfilling time during this phase of life is increasingly important for many.

You play hard when you are young, knowing your parents will support your education aspirations and life ambitions. When you enter the working world, you start to learn the importance of working hard and appreciating the sacrifices your parents made. At this stage, your parents will gradually start transitioning into retirement.

How then can you support your parents in their retirement, just as they have supported you during your growing up years?

Spend quality time with them

One of the biggest imbalances in life is that people start getting busy with their own lives just as their parents enter retirement and (finally) find themselves having more free time. With the roles now reversed, children spend their entire days in the office while parents have much more spare time on hand.

This is a challenging problem with a simple solution. You must dedicate time to be with your parents. This can be in the form of a weekday dinner at the foodcourt, or a home cooked weekend meal. If you have children, bring them along! Grandpa and Grandma will never object to an opportunity to spend more time with their grandchildren.

Once a year, you can even choose to travel with your parents to spend more quality time together. If budget permits, fly with them to a country that they have yet to visit. Otherwise, neighbouring Malaysia with its rustic charm or an Indonesian beach holiday to Batam or Bintan will do just fine. You could even consider a family-friendly cruise trip.

The point here is to be able to spend quality time with one another, regardless of where you travel.

Start spending on their health

As people age, their health tends to deteriorate. Maintaining good health is a key cornerstone to a quality retirement.

Most children mistakenly believe that they only need to spend on their parents’ healthcare after they have fallen ill or start racking up medical expenses. But this is not true, and in fact, should not be the way.

Even while your parents are still healthy, you can buy relevant health insurance policies that would be useful for them in the future. One such policy would be AIA Healthshield Gold Max, which is a basic and essential plan to consider for your parents would be a a Medisave-approved medical expenses reimbursement plan that covers the costs of inpatient stays in private hospitals or Class A/B1 wards in public hospitals.

You may also want to get your parents policies specifically designed for older folks such as the AIA Prime Critical Cover. The policy provides payout in the event that policyholders are diagnosed with a critical illness, allowing policyholders to seek early treatment and giving them the best chance to fight their illnesses.

So even while your parents are still enjoying good health today, you can prepare for potential healthcare costs in the future by ensuring that they have the right insurance policies in place to safeguard their health.

Support their retirement plans

As with all stages in life, money is always going to be a concern, more so for your parents who are no longer expecting an income from their jobs.

In Singapore, CPF LIFE provides retirees with a stable, guaranteed income each month based on how much individuals have in their retirement accounts.

One way of providing for your parents during their retirement would be to top up their CPF Retirement Accounts. With more money in their retirement accounts, your parents would be able to enjoy a higher monthly payouts. If they are not in need of cash immediately, this may be an even better idea since the money in their Retirement Accounts will be able to earn interest of up to 5%². In addition, when you make voluntary contributions, you will also be entitled to claim for tax relief.

Aside from just helping them out financially, you should also take the time to discuss financial affairs with your parents. Often, they may not want to share or trouble their children with their financial struggles. By speaking to them regularly about these matters, your parents will feel more comfortable sharing with you any concerns that they may have.

Click here to find out how we can help your parents plan for their retirement.

References

[1] Ministry of Health (MOH) Singapore: Life Expectancy in Singapore
[2] Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board: Interest Rates

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How you can provide your parents with the best in their old age

Spend quality time with them

Start spending on their health

Support their retirement plans

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