Unsure how to handle parents' money now that assets are gone. Any suggestions?

Does the account at Edward Jones have a lot of fees? If not, the plan you have sounds pretty good to me. I would also have a small amount put aside every month so you have funds for expenses like clothing, haircuts, over the counter medications...stuff you can't put on autopay. I really like your idea to top up the Walmart card weekly instead of hand the entire month's budget to them at once.  I think that will work better.  
I use a budget app called YNAB. It costs about $5 a month but I find it very helpful.

You really have a problem for someone your age. Are your parents also young, about ages 50 or so? Do you go to school or college? If so, maybe you could ask someone who teaches Accounting or Financial Management if you could ask them some questions about your situation.

Unfortunately, my experience with Edward Jones is that EJ has a rather complex fee schedule for withdrawing money (and I am limited as to how much money I can take out of my Mutual Fund in a 12 months time span) and so you most likely will have a fee for every time they do some activity as an income manager. Is that where your parents SS is being direct deposited? Do your parents have an account with a bank also? Or will the autopay billing service be coming from EJ?
You might want to check with a local bank and see if their fees are less than those of EJ for the same services.
Putting all of your parents bills on autopay and then giving your parents a weekly allowance using the Walmart debit card shows that you have the ability to manage money.

Also, coming to this website forum took a lot of guts and not many people your age would have the courage that you have to ask for help. Please come to this forum and ask questions whenever you need to. You can also "VENT" your feelings to us. We may not always say what you want to hear, but what we say, we say with love and caring for you and your parents. God Bless!

I don't know how much monthly income you're talking about, but going with an Edward Jones account sounds like overkill. If they have relatively simple income and expenses, then your idea sounds perfect. Put as much as you can on autopay, or charged to a credit card, and sign up for online banking. I find that their tools are just as useful as a managed account for setting up a personal budget, and you can set up notifications for yourself whenever a transaction occurs that's over a certain dollar amount.

maybe you could sit down with your parents and make a list on paper of the monthly expenses. That way your mother can see theres NOT a lot left over for eating out etc.

managing money to me is not so hard.

its the SPENDING that messes people up. when you are on low income, there isn't room for impulse spending.

make sure you and your parents know they only have a certain amount each month for non-necessary items

make sure the home health worker knows they have a strict budget

just edit to add. not sure if they are living in their own home? or renting? if in their own home they also need to budget in money for repairs.

AJ, you're wise to address this issue now. And you've described the situation well.

Since your parents are compliant, and since the income as I understand it is limited to SS checks, I'd make this as simple as possible. Go with your parents to their bank (and I can suggest a good major bank if it helps) and set up either a joint checking account for both of them, or one for each. Explain to the banker that you need to be a co-signer, with rights of survivorship. That enables you to access their account(s) if either of them pass or are unavailable, such as hospitalization, and you need funds. You could then continue to manage their accounts until they're drained, which apparently would happen quickly if SS is d/c/ed after death and is their sole source of income.

The ideal arrangement would be to keep a small amount in a savings account, not b/c of the interest, but b/c the bank might have an overdraft program that would automatically apply the funds from the savings account.to address the overdraft. If I remember correctly, there's then no overdraft fee. I thought of this b/c you wrote that your mother spends freely.

I wouldn't even consider Edward Jones or that level of company for payment of bills. If there were thousands of dollars in assets, that might be appropriate. But in this case, "keep it simple" is the best philosophy.

Since you're apparently new at this, it might help to create a spreadsheet, or list, of all the bills. I include the creditor, date bill was received, date it's due, amount due, and when I paid it. I did this b/c I knew all my bills by heart, but sometimes I forget which ones my father had, so the spreadsheet (or just a list) helps me monitor to keep a "handle" on the situation."

The receipt date helps if a bill isn't received, which has happened.

If you pay online, you can just a chart or something simple like a basic spreadsheet just to keep track of the payments and ensure that everything's ok.

Do your parents use credit cards? If not, and if you do want one (especially for emergencies), get one with a good cash back reward program. I accumulated my father's points and just redeemed them for about a $700 credit off his last bill.

Are there other financial issues on which you'd like suggestions?

Do you think it would be wise to put all their bills on a credit card (in their name of course) and pay it off each month in one lump sum instead of having bills come out on the most random days of the month? That way immediately I can see what their "leftover" money is. According to my budget sheet for them, they should have about 700 after bills each month to spend on groceries, restaurants, and hopefully to put in savings, so I know I'd be able to make that credit card payment every month. But I also realize how quickly it could get out of hand. I did that for a while with my personal bills, and I got paid the last day of every month, so I paid my credit card off the 1st of every month then I could budget a much smaller amount of money more efficiently. Thoughts??

AJ, that's what I do, but usually twice a month as half of the bills come in the first week or so and the rest come a week or so later. As I wrote, paying bills with a credit card can offer a good deduction from the total bills, if you get the right kind of card. And you've got a list that you can use to prepare taxes. That's especially helpful for medical charges, and generally they're all on the charge card statement except for the few medical expenses that can't be charged.

I know that some of my Mom's elderly friends use a credit card to pay their bills because that way they have a list of everything that has been paid in one place. Do what ever works best for you.

AJ, another thought since you wrote that you're "working" (my choice of words) on managing money...

I'd been preparing my parents' taxes for years, and sometimes had some complicated issues from investments, so I made a checklist of everything that had occurred and possibly occurred that was tax related. I use it as a checklist now instead of using the prior year's tax returns as a guide.

It was especially helpful when there was a complicated share split on one investment, and I knew it was something I wouldn't remember after wading through it.

I also listed every possible medical expense category, especially helpful since there might be an out of pocket expense for something like compression stockings one year, then some salve or something similar another year. They weren't repetitive items so I might otherwise have missed them.

aj--I've been putting everything, including recurring bills, on a credit card and paying it in full each month. This has worked well for me for over 35 years. My card gives airline points so that's an incentive (and I'll even charge $2 of groceries on it!) but in your situation getting cash back is probably a better choice. Credit cards are wonderful if used property, but they can be detrimental if abused.

It looks as if you are asking all the right questions, and as a result you will become money-savvy throughout your life, even after your parents are gone.

Yes, I would pay all the bills with a credit card all at the same time every month. So much easier to keep track. You could even call the credit card companies and try to get the payment due dates all around the same time

Regarding taxes, for 2018 they will have a very easy time. Only two drained IRAs are left to report, some 1099Cs, and home health expenses.

My only concern is finding a card with a high enough credit limit - at least 3,000. But after the bankruptcy (from old debt and Medical debt) I'm doing for them, I heard credit scores actually go up a bit. So we'll see!

I have a similar problem with my mom my dad and Dad allowed her his whole life to spend whatever. So she has no concept of money and budgeting. We had to eventually jut give her a set amount or she would spend one or $2,000 a week at Walmart. Please protect their money and give them a limited amount or it could get ugly fast especially when you are just on SSI. Which is what my parents are on as well.

Aj, try to find a no annual fee credit card. Also, get a due date that coincides with social security payments or you will find that you are carrying a balance that accrues interest, the bank uses statements end dates so even if you paid in full on say the 15th but the stmt end date is the 25th, any charges from the 15th thru the 25th would be unpaid balance that would start accruing interest.

You are on the path to becoming a very money savvy woman, which will benefit you for your entire life. Keep up the good work!

PS: if you can not qualify for a credit card at this time, call their debtors and ask them to help you make sure they get paid every month, please change your due date to coincide with ss pmt. Then you can set up auto pay and you have paid all bills and know what's left for the month. No matter how you handle all of the bills, getting mom a rechargeable Walmart card to add to weekly is genius and should be done to stop unnecessary excessive spending. I would also tell the health aid that she needs to work with you to curb moms spending, make her a solution and she will appreciate helping.

AJ, I just wanted to jump on to give you props for everything you are doing. I - many years older than you - don't even understand the in's and out's of everything being discussed here - and here you are at age 21 taking this all on. You are amazing and your parents are so lucky to have you. As you continue to move forward, please also assess your own involvement and make sure to set some boundaries for yourself to ensure you have a rewarding life of your own. The aging process is a long one, and if you are already managing their affairs at age 50 or 60, it will get much more complex down the road. Just know that you are one terrific daughter!

If you go the cc route for paying bills, please don’t give your parents access to the cc’s!

I'm missing something. You said your mom qualified for Medicaid and you are pursuing this for your dad as well. I thought if someone was on Medicaid that they could only keep a small amount of money each month. Are your parents still living at home. Are they capable of paying their own bills? If they are only in their 60s, you may be looking at being a caregiver for 20+ years. Good luck.

AJ, you clearly know more about money than I did when I was 21! Your parents are very lucky to have you. My parents used the 'put everything on one credit card' strategy, which was very successful when my father was alive (the man was a penny-pincher from a penny-pinching family). We had to explain the concept of 'budget' to my mother after he passed. She employs the one-card strategy for bills and large expenses, but she spends _cash only_ when she goes out so she can see how much she has left. If your mother likes to shop/go out, perhaps this would be a good strategy to keep her from going over the top.

isthisreallyreal--I pay my credit in full a couple days before the due date, and I'm never charged interest for anything between that date and the next end date. I simply pay the amount listed on the previous statement, and any purchases made after that appear on the next statement, which isn't due for some 3 weeks or so. For example, my payments are due on the 3rd but the statement end is on the 6th, so when I get the new statement on, let's say, July 6th, it will show that I paid my last statement before July 3 (for purchases between May 6 and June 6), and the charges on the new bill (received about July 6) will cover the charges between June 6 and July 6, with no interest if paid by August 3. However, if one has not paid in full, or has had missed or late payments, then I believe some cards will accrue interest as you indicated. If aj6044 can build her credit, then she could probably avoid any interest charges by paying in full each month. I just want to be certain I didn't misunderstand something in your comment; please let me know if I missed something.

If you pay in full when social security check comes in , say in the middle of the billing cycle, then you charge money that carries a balance on the statement you will accrue interest. You are paying on the statement cycle date which means you do not have a balance at the beginning of your statement cycle. That is why you have no interest.

I am sorry if that is confusing, I tried to keep it simple. My concern is that if aj is not mindful of when the billing cycle is, she can get bit thinking she has paid in full, but there was a balance on the statement from one month to the next, creating unexpected interest. Credit card companies have multiple tactics to increase their income, as consumers we need to be aware and educated how the billing cycles work to protect ourselves.

Does this help Jacob? If not let me know. Thx

Thanks, Isthisreallyreal. I guess I was thinking of "balance" as including the purchases that will appear on the next statement. One of my credit cards (I have two) gives the total (i.e., including purchases made since the last statement) as an option for payment, which I never pay until they appear on the next statement. (I don't see the point of giving the bank an "advance"!) In over 35 years I've had interest on a credit card only once.

I get SS, but it arrives in one of my bank accounts late in the month. (I guess the 3rd used to be the "traditional" date for SS; I had nothing to do to with selecting the due date on this account). I think of SS as gravy on top of other sources of income although SS is handy because it's completely liquid.

You are correct that credit card companies can be shrewd as to how they work the system for maximum income. I understand that if one has interest and makes only small payments, the company will credit the payment toward the interest but not the principal because they want to maximize the principal to justify charging the most interest each month. In any case, I think (and hope!) aj will become a very astute manager of money.

A couple decades ago I wanted to charge the purchase of a used car to my credit card, but the dealer didn't want to allow it (I guess they didn't want to lose money to the credit card company), so I had to pay by check. I wanted to get the airline points!

Thanks again, Bob Jacobson

Bob, I bought my husband a 20' bass boat on a credit card for the same reason. I think the salesman was shocked. We still laugh about it.

I'm glad I clarified what I was saying, it is to easy to misunderstand cc debt and have it snowball, especially when there is such limited funds and a bankruptcy that can cause HIGH interest rates.

Hope all have a lovely evening.

Thanks, Isthisreally real; I hope you have a lovely evening, too (now a day later!). It would be fun to give the impression (without actually saying it) that one will finance a purchase so the salesman is more willing to quote a lower price, expecting to make up the difference in finance charges--and then say you'll pay in full by credit card!

Aj,
You are young.
You are the one to do this.
Apply yourself on your parents behalf, and before you know it, you will become better at handling money!