Family Matters: The Money Squeeze (2024)

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Part 1: One Roof, Three Generations, Many Decisions

April 17, 2012 • To cope with the hard times, millions of families have pulled together — stacking two, three, even four generations on top of one another. An NPR series explores the lives of three multigenerational households struggling with issues of money, duty and love.

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Part 2: Preparing For A Future That Includes Aging Parents

April 24, 2012 • Nearly 10 million adult children are caring for aging parents today, according to a study by the MetLife Mature Market Institute. But, while aging is inevitable, planning for the costs associated with dependency in the latter phase of life doesn't come easily to most Americans.

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Part 3: Discovering The True Cost Of At-Home Caregiving

May 1, 2012 • Few people want to turn over a loved one to institutional care. No matter how good the nursing home, it may seem cold and impersonal — and very expensive. But making the choice to provide care yourself is fraught with financial risks and personal sacrifices.

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Part 4: Long-Term-Care Insurance: Who Needs It?

May 8, 2012 • As the nation's roughly 78 million baby boomers move into old age, the need for long-term care will soar. But when it comes to long-term-care insurance, relatively few sign up. The policies can be expensive and some big insurance companies have stopped offering them.

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Part 5: Caring For Grandparent Matures A Young Man

May 15, 2012 • Nicholas McDonald grew up tempted by drugs and under pressure to hit the streets. Lacking male role models, he says he always saw his mom as "the apple of my eye." She tried to protect him growing up. Now, the 24-year-old is doing his best to return the favor, helping provide for his multigenerational family.

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Part 6: Time To Move Grandma: What To Do With Her Home?

May 22, 2012 • Depressed home prices make the decision to move an aging relative even more difficult than normal. So what should be done with the house? Try selling in a depressed market? Or rent it until prices perk up? One family weighs a tough choice as it struggles to pay for a grandmother's care.

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Part 7: Family Matters: Pitching In To Take Care Of Grandma

May 29, 2012 • Sharing the duties of caring for the family's 87-year-old matriarch has brought the Martin family closer together. Everyone in the multigenerational household, including the teenage kids, lends a hand. But the situation is also forcing the Harrisburg, Pa., family to think about the future in new ways.

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Baby Boom Money Squeeze Is Set To Get Tighter

June 5, 2012 • As this immense generation keeps aging, most will end up with dementia or other disabilities that require costly care. For individuals, families and taxpayers, this demographic shift will drain dollars and attention, and force extremely difficult decisions about living arrangements, as well as end-of-life care.

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Listening To Parents Key To Financial Responsibility

May 29, 2012 • Mothers and fathers can make a difference in whether their kids become spenders or savers, studies have found. Young people whose families had included them in conversations about money and budgets were much more likely to make more responsible financial decisions in the future.

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Paying For College: More Tough Decisions

May 15, 2012 • From your late 40s through early 60s, you're supposed to squirrel away cash to cope with health care costs in your old age. But for millions of Americans, middle age also is the time when children are seeking help with higher-education bills, and elderly parents may be needing assistance with daily care.

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Family Matters: Meet The Families

April 17, 2012 • Meet the families in Morning Edition's series about three multigenerational households struggling with issues of money, duty and love.

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'Bittersweet Season' Details Caring For Aging Mom

April 25, 2012 • As part of Morning Edition's Family Matters financial literacy series, Renee Montagne talks to Jane Gross, author of A Bittersweet Season, about caring for her aging mother, and what she wishes she had known before she started.

AnnaBelle Bowers, NPR Series Interviewee, Dies At 87

March 5, 2013 • In our personal finance series last spring, we met three families who were taking care of school-age or college-aged kids, and caring for an aging relative. It was three generations under one roof. Steve Inskeep reports that one of the people we met in that series, 87-year-old AnnaBelle Bowers, or Snootzie as she was called, died over the weekend.

Waiting To Buy Long-Term-Care Insurance Adds Up

May 9, 2012 • Kimberly Lankford, personal finance writer for Kiplinger.com and Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, talks to David Greene about the shifting market for long-term-care insurance, and if it is still worth buying.

'Sandwich Generation' Must Make Tough Choices

May 8, 2012 • Record numbers of families consist of adult children, parents and grandparents under one roof. NPR correspondent David Greene and senior business editor Marilyn Geewax talk about the NPR series "Family Matters: The Money Squeeze," which focuses on the pressures faced by the "sandwich generation."

Workers Turned Caregivers Lose More Than Wages

May 1, 2012 • The average caregiver is 49 years old. Cheryl Matheis, senior vice president for policy at AARP, tells Steve Inskeep when a worker has to leave their job to care for a relative, they lose on average $325,000 in lifetime income — from lost wages, Social Security and pensions.

Can You Pay For Yourself, Your Kids, Your Parents?

April 24, 2012 • More adults are helping pay for aging parents, at an average of $3,500 a month, according to MetLife. That's why experts say it's vital to plan for a future that includes parents. For NPR's series, "Family Matters: The Money Squeeze," host Michel Martin speaks with NPR's Marilyn Geewax, journalist Joan Lunden, and Houston Mayor Annise Parker.