Parking $300k for 80yo mother in assisted living

[Anonymous]

Hi all - moderately straightforward question here...?

Last year due to the onset of mild dementia, (later diagnosed as early Alzheimer's) we moved my mother out of her condo into an assisted living facility. At this time her monthly disability check covers the facility, but when her memory deteriorates to the point where she needs full-time "Memory Care" then it'll go from $4k/mo to $11k/mo... which is *ouch.*

Just sold her condo and she'll clear about $300k on that.

She's used a Wealth Manager for years to basically charge her an annual fee and mail her statements (nice guy but why pay for this?) He wants to open an American Funds account for her and park the money there.

I'm thinking we open her a Vanguard account, manage ourselves, and put ~$200k into VTSAX and the balance into something that will pay regular dividends, but I'm interested in DCUM ideas.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Definitely not American Funds. Don't they charge a load? Ugh.

[Anonymous]

Do you have POA to move the money? I'm assuming yes.

If you put a % in VTI instead of VTSAX, you can access the money at any time during the day vs VTSAX which only trade at the end of the day.

For dividends there is SDY, but it is only paying 2.33% currently. However, it has a much higher total growth rate than putting it in something like T-bills or SGOV.

I think you definitely want something safe for that 100K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi all - moderately straightforward question here...?

Last year due to the onset of mild dementia, (later diagnosed as early Alzheimer's) we moved my mother out of her condo into an assisted living facility. At this time her monthly disability check covers the facility, but when her memory deteriorates to the point where she needs full-time "Memory Care" then it'll go from $4k/mo to $11k/mo... which is *ouch.*

Just sold her condo and she'll clear about $300k on that.

She's used a Wealth Manager for years to basically charge her an annual fee and mail her statements (nice guy but why pay for this?) He wants to open an American Funds account for her and park the money there.

I'm thinking we open her a Vanguard account, manage ourselves, and put ~$200k into VTSAX and the balance into something that will pay regular dividends, but I'm interested in DCUM ideas.

Thanks!

If that is all you "have left" to manage, then yes stop paying the financial guy and park the money in vanguard funds.

[Anonymous]

I'm fairly aggressive when it comes to risk, but I would NEVER put the bulk of that money in VSTAX unless you can outright pay for her care. If we have a massive correction at the end of this year, it may not bounce back in time.

[Anonymous]

When I saw this thread title, I thought it was about a parking space at the assisted living center costing 300k. I was thinking, wow, I know PE is heavily involved in the industry but that sounds wild.

[Anonymous]

Vanguard or Fidelity gives free financial help. Move it to them. I'd keep it liquid as you need it to pay for care. You spend it down and she goes into a medicaid bed nursing home. Let her live comfortably while she can remember it.

[Anonymous]

Short term Treasuries. Keep rolling them over. Can do fee free in Vanguard.

[Anonymous]

Her financial planner may not be right, be he'd be fired if he did your plan.

[Anonymous]

You should not be gambling money in the stock market that you mom will likely need soon. She in fact has alzheimers, this is not hypothetical. She is going to need at least $7K a month really soon. Thats $84K a year. I would not put more than $100K in the stock market. The rest I would keep in treasuries or money market.

[Anonymous]

OP here - thanks for the various comments. Again - for now her disability check ($7500) easily covers the $4k monthly for the AL facility.

Actually now that you guys mention it, I should do some maths to figure out how long $300k can last with a $4k/month burn at different interest rates...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks for the various comments. Again - for now her disability check ($7500) easily covers the $4k monthly for the AL facility.

Actually now that you guys mention it, I should do some maths to figure out how long $300k can last with a $4k/month burn at different interest rates...

Why would the disability check stop. Take some of that and save it.

[Anonymous]

Oh. Hm. 6-9 years depending on returns. Hm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would the disability check stop. Take some of that and save it.

Disability check shouldn't stop. But if/when she moves into Memory Care, it will no longer cover 100% of the fees, so it'll start draining her investments at that point.

[Anonymous]

Dammit. I did that inside the quote block. :facepalm: