You will build a plan that sets how much you give parents now and how you would handle larger costs later.
You now have a note on each parent's situation from lesson 5.1, a list of schemes to check from lesson 5.2, and a draft message to your siblings from lesson 5.3. Each is useful alone. Together they still do not answer the question your partner will eventually ask: how much are we giving, to whom, and what happens when something big comes up?
This exercise puts it all on one page per set of parents, so both of you can see the whole commitment and agree it. Allow half an hour, and do it together, because each of you will be supporting the other's parents too, even if indirectly.
For each set of parents, write the regular allowance you give now and the allowance you plan to give over the next year. Then check two things.
First, check it against your split from module 3. If allowances are personal, as lesson 3.2 described, each partner pays their own from their personal money, so make sure it fits in what that partner has left after shared costs. If allowances are shared, they come from the shared account, so make sure the shared contributions cover them.
Second, check it against your budget from lesson 4.4. The allowance is an essential line. If one of you stopped working, could the household still pay it? If not, agree now what would happen, for example a smaller amount for a while, discussed with your siblings.
For each parent, list the larger costs that are reasonably likely in the next ten years. Use what you know about their health and age: regular specialist treatment, a hospital stay, help at home, a helper, day care. You do not need precise figures. Where you have no idea, write "get quote" and the type of provider to ask.
Beside each cost, write the schemes from lesson 5.2 that could reduce it, such as MediShield Life and any Integrated Shield Plan for hospital bills, CHAS for clinic visits, CareShield Life or ElderShield for severe disability, and the support listed by the Agency for Integrated Care for care at home. Mark each one as confirmed, if you have checked the parent's eligibility on the official website, or to check.
One-off costs need money that is not your emergency fund and not the allowance. Set up a care fund: a separate account or pot, paid into each month, used only for parents' one-off costs.
Decide whether it is a dated goal or open-ended. A dated goal has a target and a date, such as an amount you want ready before a parent's planned operation next year. An open-ended fund has a monthly amount and a target balance; once it reaches the target, you stop paying in until you use it. Decide too whether it is shared or personal. Many couples keep one shared care fund for both sets of parents, so neither partner feels their family is on a separate budget.
For each set of parents, write down what each sibling gives each month, in money or time, and the rule for one-off costs. If your siblings have not agreed yet, write what you proposed and the date you sent it, and update the plan when they reply.
All the figures here are examples.
For Hui Min's parents in Ang Mo Kio: Hui Min gives S$500 a month from her personal account, and plans to keep it at that level next year. Her father's CPF balance is unknown, so a CPF top-up under the Retirement Sum Topping-Up scheme, and whether he could qualify for the Matched Retirement Savings Scheme, are both marked "to check". Likely larger costs are knee surgery and, later, help at home. Her parents' MediShield Life is confirmed. Her brother lives with them, covers the household bills and does most of the care. One-off costs above S$300 are split equally after insurance and subsidies.
For Daniel's parents in Tampines: Daniel gives S$400 a month from his personal account. He has proposed to his siblings that his sister gives S$300 plus her time, his brother S$500, and Daniel stays at S$400. One-off costs after insurance are split in the same proportion as the allowances. A S$3,000 bill after insurance would cost his sister S$750, his brother S$1,250 and Daniel S$1,000. His mother's Integrated Shield Plan is confirmed, but its ward class is still to check.
They set up a shared care fund for both sets of parents, a pot inside their shared account paid S$200 a month, as an open-ended fund with a target of S$10,000. With S$200 a month going in, it would take fifty months to fill if nothing is spent.
That is what done looks like: one page per set of parents with the monthly amount and how it fits your split and budget, the likely larger costs with the schemes that could reduce them, a care fund with its monthly amount and target, and each sibling's contribution written down.
Bring your notes from lessons 5.1 to 5.3, sit down with your partner, and start with the monthly amounts.
Complete the parent support plan for both sets of parents and agree it with your partner.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).