As our parents’ resources and incomes dwindle, it becomes more challenging for them to seek out investment opportunities that would increase their retirement savings and protect them from inflation.
Your time and your parents’ money are the two things that mean the most to them. Offering financial gifts or implementing strategies that can lessen their economic load, maximize profits, and ensure the protection of their assets is the best way to show them you care and put their minds at ease.
Here are the top four best financial gifts you can give your parents.
1. Health Insurance
SingStat reports that the current average lifespan in Singapore is 83.5 years. For women, the average life expectancy is 85.9 years and for men, it’s 81.1. This is why having access to affordable healthcare is crucial in modern society. Our parents are becoming older, which increases their vulnerability to illness. Therefore, having access to health insurance is a necessity for them. It will assist keep the family savings intact in the event of a medical emergency while also easing the financial strain on the family budget.
Recently, numerous factors, such as the medical inflation rate, investments in medical technology, rise of aging population, and etc., have contributed to the current upward trend in healthcare costs experienced by the vast majority of countries, and city-states throughout the world.
According to Smartwealth (2022), the medical inflation rate in Singapore from 2018-2019 was 10% annually (ten times the Singapore economy’s predicted 2018 inflation rate of 1%), and healthcare costs climbed by 54% between 2001 and 2021. These tendencies, along with the global COVID-19 pandemic’s influence on healthcare costs in 2021, have likely persisted until 2022.
With health insurance, your parents will be able to focus on other priorities with peace of mind. Since health insurance is so expensive, giving it to your parents as a present can be a great way to help them out.
2. A Comfortable Retirement
If you want your parents to have a happy retirement, it’s up to you to choose wisely from the many investment plans available in the market. According to research conducted in 2019, a single 65-year-old person needs a monthly income of at least $1,379. As for couples who are 65 or older, they will need at least $2,351 each month for expenses such as a car, central air conditioning, not including medical and long-term care costs. Without a solid investment strategy, it may be impossible to come up with such a large sum of money. If you want your parents to be able to make the most of their retirement savings and not have to rely on you entirely, it’s a good idea to help them build a nest egg.
Today, we can choose from a number of viable options, many of which offer above-average returns. For those over the age of 60, the government provides the Senior Citizen Saving Scheme (SCSS) as a way to invest in their financial future. Some other safe choices include pension plans and the Equity Linked Scheme (ELSS).
3. Adequate Insurance Plans
Your parents may be thinking about shifting their focus from expanding their retirement nest fund to growing their life insurance or health insurance nest egg by freeing up premiums they are paying.
Actions like these might be justifiable in certain circumstances, but they shouldn’t be taken lightly. Your parents likely bought these plans with a specific end goal in mind, and if those goals are still relevant, there’s no reason for them to cancel their coverage now.
On the other hand, after discussing their plan, you can decide together if they have adequate coverage. They can keep the same coverage throughout retirement if the premiums are lowered to a manageable amount.
4. CareShield Life Supplement
With the increasing costs of daily living expenses, plus medication, therapy, and nursing home, it would be hard to get by when our parents need long-term care. According to a recent study, each senior in Singapore will need an average of $51,000 per year to cover health-care costs by 2030. CareShield Life’s payout may be inadequate for our parents’ future long-term care needs and at some point, they’ll be needing more than that.
The last thing we want is for them to struggle physically or financially. For all they’ve done for us, we should at least hope they enjoy the finest possible quality of life right up until the end.
One of the best ways to fulfill this is by securing their long-term care protection through Careshield Supplement. There are three private insurers that offer these: Singlife with Aviva, NTUC Income, and Great Careshield Life.
Never forget about your parents
We must never lose sight of our obligations to our parents no matter how focused we get on our own ambitions. If you want to show your parents how much you care, you might think about getting them one of the gifts listed above. The glow of appreciation on their faces is the highest form of gratitude anyone can show you.