Caring for Your Aging Parents Podcast
Practical, judgment-free guidance on the money side of caring for your parents, from a CPA who is navigating it with her own.
A Weekly Podcast for Family Caregivers
Something happens. Your mom falls, your dad gets a diagnosis, or a bill goes unpaid for the first time. Suddenly you need to know what your parent has, how anyone pays for care, and whether anyone has the legal authority to help.
Or nothing has happened yet, but you can see it coming in the next 5 to 10 years, and you want to get ahead of it. Either way, every question about caring for a parent seems to turn into a money question, and your parent changes the subject when you ask.
Learn it one episode at a time. I’m Janet Berry-Johnson, a CPA and Certified Financial Education Instructor, and I host Caring for Your Aging Parents. Every week, I break down the financial questions families face when a parent needs help, in plain language and without a lecture.
That’s what this show is for.
Here’s what we talk about:
Paying for care
What in-home care, assisted living, and nursing homes cost, and how families cover those costs without wiping out a parent’s savings or their own.
Medicare and Medicaid
What Medicare covers, what it leaves out, how Medicaid works, and when you need an elder law attorney.
Taking over bills and accounts
How to find out what your parent has, get legal authority in place, and step in to help without taking over.
Talking with your parents
How to start money conversations with a parent who changes the subject, with word-for-word lines you can borrow.
Talking with your siblings
How to settle who pays for what and who decides, before disagreements turn into fights.
Protecting your own future
How to help your parent without draining your own retirement.
Start here
New to the show? These four episodes are a good way in.
5 Things to Learn From Your Parents Before a Crisis Hits
Episode 46 · 23 minutes
I share how I finally had the money conversation with my own parents. Then I walk through the five things to learn before a crisis forces your hand, with word-for-word lines to open the conversation.
Where Care Meets Money: What to Do When Mom Can’t Live Alone Anymore
Episode 44 · 23 minutes
A step-by-step walk through what to do when a parent can no longer live safely alone. I cover building a financial snapshot, what different types of care cost, why Medicare doesn’t pay for long-term custodial care, and why a power of attorney needs to be in place before a crisis.
Money Questions From Family Caregivers, and Lynn’s Goodbye
Episode 45 · 33 minutes
I answer listener questions on where to start financially after a parent’s fall, the most expensive mistake families make when paying for care, what to do when siblings disagree, and how to handle parents who shut down money conversations.
Meet Your New Host! A New Chapter for Caring for Your Aging Parents
Episode 43 · 13 minutes
My introduction as host: how a career in tax led me to help families with their parents’ finances, and what stays the same and what changes on the show.
Listen wherever you get your podcasts
Follow the show so new episodes land in your feed every week.
What to expect
- New episodes every week, except holidays
- Most episodes are solo. I occasionally bring on a guest who knows a topic better than I do.
- Most episodes run 15 to 30 minutes, which fits a commute or a walk
I’m a CPA, but I’m not your CPA. The show offers general information, not tax, legal, or financial advice, and I point you to an elder law attorney when a decision calls for one.
Ready for more than a podcast?
The podcast gives you the ideas. Stepping In: The Financial Roadmap for Aging Parents gives you the structure: a live 10-week program where you work through the conversations, the paperwork, and the pushback with me and a small group.
Have a question or a topic for the show?
Send me your question or the topic you’d like me to cover.