I was fortunate enough to travel to our great nation’s capital this week to meet with other individuals who market consumer products and services to either baby boomers or their parents. Our goal of this meeting was to talk about the industry of “care giving” and ways we can connect with this audience better. I went into the meeting thinking that I was going to get all of this great information on how to market to a caregiver, but what I walked away with was MUCH MORE.

Here is how the realization hit me…as I sat in this room and listened to my colleagues talk about their products or services, I soon figured out that I am actually one of the MANY thousands of caregivers in the world today. This realization hit me hard because a caregiver can actually be someone who is simply “helping out on occasion” (which is what I do today with my parents) or a person that is there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for their aging parent. There is a very wide spectrum of care giving. So once I figured out that at just 34 years of age, I too am a caregiver to my parents who are just in their late 50’s, and I went one step further to think: what do I need to know as I go through the next 30 years as a caregiver to my parents. The first key: CONVERSATION.

Over and over again, everything came down to opening the lines of communication up with your family members – from both sides. Parents need to have the candid conversations with their children. Children need to talk more to their parents. I’m fortunate enough to be at the early end of the spectrum of care giving and I can have that conversation with my parents NOW instead of waiting until their health is compromised or we are in an emergency situation. Many of our clients at One Reverse Mortgage aren’t that lucky. They come to us at the age of 65, 70 or even 80 years old and have NEVER had the candid conversation with their children about their financial well being. If I leave you with one thought from this post, it’s to go grab a cup of coffee and have a good talk TODAY with your loved one. It won’t be easy, but once you do, you’ll be better off for it.