Motley Fool Money
Before the Crisis: How You and Your Relatives Can Prepare for Financial Caregiving
06 Dec 2025
If an illness or death befell your parents, spouse, kids, or any other close relative, would you be able to access their financial information and handle their affairs? If something happened to you, would your spouse and family know what to do and where to find everything? If the answer is no – as it is for most people – then Beth Pinsker has a roadmap for you. Beth is a Certified Financial Planner, a columnist for MarketWatch, and the author of My Mother's Money: A Guide to Financial Caregiving. Host Robert Brokamp and Beth discuss the documents you need and where to put them. Also in this episode:-Somber news on the employment front-Bonds are having one of their best years of the past two decades-As rates on cash decline, money market funds still offer compelling yields – and, in some cases, tax benefits-Use tax-loss harvesting to reduce your tax bill and rebalance your portfolio Host: Robert BrokampGuest: Beth PinskerEngineer: Bart Shannon Disclosure: Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. The Motley Fool and its affiliates (collectively, “TMF”) do not endorse, recommend, or verify the accuracy or completeness of the statements made within advertisements. TMF is not involved in the offer, sale, or solicitation of any securities advertised herein and makes no representations regarding the suitability, or risks associated with any investment opportunity presented. Investors should conduct their own due diligence and consult with legal, tax, and financial advisors before making any investment decisions. TMF assumes no responsibility for any losses or damages arising from this advertisement. We’re committed to transparency: All personal opinions in advertisements from Fools are their own. The product advertised in this episode was loaned to TMF and was returned after a test period or the product advertised in this episode was purchased by TMF. Advertiser has paid for the sponsorship of this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
how to make sure you can manage your parents' or other relatives' finances if necessary, and how someone could do the same for you. That and more on this Saturday personal finance edition of Motley Fool Money.
I'm Robert Brokamp, and this week I speak with certified financial planner and author Beth Pinsker about the challenges of being a financial caregiver and how being prepared beforehand makes a world of difference. But first, let's look at some money-related headlines, starting with some somber news from the employment front.
On November 20th, the Department of Labor released the delayed employment report for September, showing that the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4%, the highest level since 2021. According to Bloomberg's Matthew Boesler, the jobs report showed that except for health care and leisure, U.S.
private sector employment has declined in each of the last five months, something that's never happened in the past 35 years outside of a recession. Then this week, payroll processing firm ADP announced that private companies laid off 32,000 workers in November, the hardest hit being small businesses with 50 or fewer employees.
Year-over-year pay increases for those who remained on the jobs also slightly declined to 4.4% from 4.5% in October. And then on Thursday, consulting firm Challenger Gray and Christmas reported that employers announced plans to lay off more than 70,000 employees in November. That was on top of the 150,000 cuts announced in October, which was the highest total for that month in 22 years.
The total number of announced layoffs for 2025 is 1.17 million, which is 54% higher than the same 11-month period last year and the highest level since 2020, the year of the pandemic. This softness in the labor market is the biggest reason the Federal Reserve has cut rates twice this year and is very likely to do so again this week.
Which brings us to our second item from the news, and that is the performance of bonds in 2025. As rates go down, bond prices go up, resulting in a more than 7% total return from bonds so far this year, as measured by the performance of the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF. Bonds are on pace to have their third best year of the past two decades.
Of course, you have other options for your non-stock money, which brings us to the number of the week, and that is $8 trillion. That's the total amount held in money market funds, which is the highest level ever, according to Crane data.
As the Fed lowers rates, the amount you earn on your cash also decreases, but money market funds are still offering higher yields than what you can get from the bank. According to the Crane 100 Money Fund Index, which tracks the 100 largest funds, the average yield is 3.8% compared to a paltry 0.6% for the average savings account, according to Bankrate.
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