Missing Credit Card Payments May Be an Early Sign of Dementia, Study Says (cnn.com) 114
Patterns of missing credit card and loan payments could be an early indicator of dementia years before diagnosis, a new study says. From a report: The study, published Monday in the medical journal JAMA, looked at Medicare patients living alone across the United States and analyzed their credit data and payments over time. Researchers found that patients with Alzheimer's disease and related dementia were more likely to miss payments up to six years before getting diagnosed, the study said. And, those poor financial actions led them to subprime credit scores two and a half years before diagnosis, as opposed to the patients without dementia. "I think we were a little surprised that it was so common that we could really see it in the data," lead author Lauren Hersch Nicholas told CNN. "Doctors colloquially say that you should look for dementia in the checkbook, but I don't think we had any sense of for how many years in advance these effects could be happening." Nicholas is an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University. Researchers from Johns Hopkins and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors led the study. Alzheimer's dementia affects about 5.8 million Americans who are 65 and older, according to the Alzheimer's Association. The number of Americans with the disease is projected to hit 13.8 million by 2050, the non-profit said.
Alerts and Automatic Deductions (Score:2, Offtopic)
I've set up regular alerts on my phone to remind me of when my single credit card payment is due (both 24 hours prior and 2 hours prior) and my loans are automatically deducted each month. The only things I could possibly miss would be vehicle insurance and taxes. And I think I can shift my insurance payments to a monthly plan and automate that. Note that I do review the bills monthly and make sure nothing untoward is occurring.
[John]
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Sadly not everything will work that way. I do put most everything else on the card to rack up the points. Paying off the card regularly is my goal though. We had a couple of heavy hitters last year and it's taking a bit to get it down to paid off. It's close but not there yet.
[John]
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I just put almost everything on my credit card (including auto bill pay of other bills), rack up the reward $$$, and pay the balance off in full every Friday.
That’s very smart.
Except those “rewards” come from somewhere, and that somewhere is usually higher prices that merchants charge, since the costs get passed to them. And hey, we all pay those increases whether we use a credit card or not. “Rewards inflation” is brilliant, give yourself a hand.
Everybody thinks “rewa
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Except those “rewards” come from somewhere, and that somewhere is usually higher prices that merchants charge, since the costs get passed to them. And hey, we all pay those increases whether we use a credit card or not. “Rewards inflation” is brilliant, give yourself a hand.
Everybody thinks “rewards” are free shit.
There ain’t nothing in this world for free.
This, a thousand times. I'm constantly amazed at the suckers who don't immediately see through and turn their noses up at the shell game that 'rewards' and 'loyalty cards' represent. Not to mention the cost of implementing and administering these programs - who do they think pays those? It's as though otherwise sane adults believe in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy.
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and pay the balance off in full every Friday
Why every Friday? I only get my MasterCard bills
at the end of each month, and have never
paid a cent of interest.
Re:Alerts and Automatic Deductions (Score:5, Funny)
I've set up regular alerts on my phone to remind me of when my single credit card payment is due (both 24 hours prior and 2 hours prior) and my loans are automatically deducted each month. The only things I could possibly miss would be vehicle insurance and taxes. And I think I can shift my insurance payments to a monthly plan and automate that. Note that I do review the bills monthly and make sure nothing untoward is occurring.
[John]
I'll do the same thing now I know that missing a payment might cause dementia....
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I'll do the same thing now I know that missing a payment might cause dementia....
That's not the correct interpretation. You see, what's really... wait, what was I saying?
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I've set up regular alerts on my phone to remind me of when my single credit card payment is due (both 24 hours prior and 2 hours prior) and my loans are automatically deducted each month.
In my residential iT practice is a retiree-heavy area I can easily tell who the dementia patients are: the perpetually disorganized, the people whose passwords are scrawled in No. 2 pencil on a cramped index card, those who create online accounts because they are prompted to in one specific context and then remember nothing about them. Their phones are typically the old ones that plug into the wall, not the devices that have apps to remind them of payments.
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You could forget where you left your phone.
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I just pay mine off every payday, but I don't think that will prevent dementia.
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And when your dementia sets in and you forget to review these bills which you've set up on automatic payments?
Re: Alerts and Automatic Deductions (Score:2)
they aren't mind readers. and maybe you are still paying for some subscriptions that you erronously thought you canceled. This gets exponetially more complicated when you have a joint account.
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"My bank sends me a notification every time any account is touched by a deposit or withdrawal, usually within seconds of the occurrence, though multiple channels."
it greatly reduces the necessity for "continuous useless monitoring"
Wait... what?
So instead of checking your statement monthly, you monitor it like an OCD squirrel: every single transaction, in real time, on multiple channels.
Not obvious from the article as to /when/... (Score:4, Interesting)
... the missed payments occur. If they're happening at the end of the year during the Medicare open enrollment period, it could be that the bills get lost in the shuffle as seniors scramble to determine whether their current Medicare plans have morphed into a nightmarish mess and they're occupied 24/7 trying to find a decent replacement.
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... the missed payments occur. If they're happening at the end of the year during the Medicare open enrollment period, it could be that the bills get lost in the shuffle as seniors scramble to determine whether their current Medicare plans have morphed into a nightmarish mess and they're occupied 24/7 trying to find a decent replacement.
Where are you trying to go with this?
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Let me guess what the PP is getting at: ACA as currently implemented is a shit-show that benefits nobody but greedy insurance companies. Restricted open enrollment periods are just one aspect of how they have gamed the system to con people into plans that they don't need.
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Ok, so not related to the story.
What? (Score:3)
I guess US credit-cards don't get paid automatically each month, so that people have to pay more?
All my payments get done automatically, I have no desire to play accountant a few hours every month.
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I guess US credit-cards don't get paid automatically each month, so that people have to pay more?
All my payments get done automatically, I have no desire to play accountant a few hours every month.
You have to set up automatic payments. Without automatic enrolling you get credit card late payment fees, with automatic enrollment you'd get overdraft fees. Either way the bank wins.
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While I understand the economics of late payment fees and overdraft fees. I do have a moral objection to them. Because it is the bank charging people for not having money.
It is almost like if you are in an accident and need a blood transfusion, but they found out that you didn't donate blood before. So they will need to take a Pint of blood for the blood bank from you until they give you the transfusion.
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While I understand the economics of late payment fees and overdraft fees. I do have a moral objection to them.
If you really understood the economics of late payment fees and overdraft fees, you would not have a moral objection to them.
In the case of both, in what world do you have the right to demand an interest fee loan from a someone else, without prior notice, without consent, and even without (apparently) a payback schedule of any kind.
If you had that right, it would surely be considered an immoral one by the average person. Its pretty close to the purest form of theft.
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Yes I do understand the Economics, why they do this. Because a bank cannot really operate in a case where they give out free money. However, this doesn't exclude a moral objection. A thing can be technically the right thing to do, however be immoral and wrong.
Banks could in theory have other sorts of penalties and limitations towards bad behaviors, vs Charging Poor people more money, which makes them poorer.
The Ethics of the system creates a failure class of people, where they are not allowed to break o
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"It is almost like if you are in an accident and need a blood transfusion, but they found out that you didn't donate blood before. So they will need to take a Pint of blood for the blood bank from you until they give you the transfusion."
No, you have it wrong, they'll give you the pint and have you pay them 2 pints back.
Re: What? (Score:2)
Yeah and I expect you to work for that money *too*, dear bank.
Not sit on your fat ass and make up charges because you can and I can't. That's called robbery.
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It is a loan with conditions, in a convenient way to be used, to a point where there are products/services that are difficult to buy without it.
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You can buy anything you want with it, but if you don't actually have the money to pay the bill afterwards, you're just taking out a high interest loan.
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I don't have my Credit Card on auto-pay. For the sake that it is indeed a credit card. 99.9% of the time I pay my card off in full. For that 0.1% I need to put in an amount that will not bounce my checking account. (say from an emergency expense) I also, tend to time paying my card, around right around payday. So I know that my account will be able to handle the deduction.
Normally a credit card, isn't the same amount every month. So you need to make sure your budget can handle it, and be timed for per
Re:What? (Score:4, Interesting)
I manually pay the balance every week or two, of course. But if something were to happen that caused me to miss this, the minimum would post automatically and late fees are avoided.
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That's why my credit card is paid automatically every month from my savings account. No need to transfer money.
You can automate them (Score:3)
My apartments mandated direct debit instead of letting me write checks, and since there's really only 2 companies that own all the apartments where I live and I can't afford a house (hooray for unenforced anti-trust violations!) I didn't have any options. So
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Another thing you can do is set it up to do an automatic payment of a set amount of money each month, then double check it on the 5th. If your are not paying enough, you increase it.
Re: You can automate them (Score:2)
What the ... Why isn't something you buy deducted from your account right there and then? And I mean by the second!
Alternatively: Why are you trying to buy stuff with no money? You can wait until you have money. Or, if you can't, learn to plan ahead. And hey, if neither of that was possible, then Mr. Moneybags will have to wait a bit for the money until you get some. he can still charge you exactly what your credit card company would, if he himself really is harmed by not having that money. (There's also in
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Which is smart. That is the thing these problems ARE solvable with the application of little thought.
Most banks dont charge anything and have either non-minimum or minimums as low as a $100 for a basic passbook savings account. These days you can create and fund such an additional account from your main account using their mobile app in just few moments.
The fact is people put them selves at risk and invite catastrophe into their lives mostly because they are lazy, and wont take the time to understand the
Re: You can automate them (Score:2)
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and there's not a little piece of paper floating around with your name, address, signature, bank routing/account number on it.
If you cared about the privacy of the routing and account numbers, you wouldnt be using any digital method, but you are arguing for using debit, so stop trying to convince yourself that you are doing the right thing...
...because quite frankly, carrying around a plastic card that can reach directly into any of your bank accounts without any real I.D. verification, is not a very bright idea. Your checking/savings accounts can be drained long before you notice that the card is missing, and trust me I promis
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Sorry we deducted $399,000,000 from your checking account. That will get cleared up a in a week or so...
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My apartments mandated direct debit instead of letting me write checks... So I set up a separate bank account just for paying rent that has only enough money to do so.
Why on earth would you prefer writing a check over direct debit? ...And why on earth would you set up a separate bank account just for paying rent?
What part of not trusting a big housing corporation to NOT clear out your account via direct debit is hard to understand? If you're truly not trolling, then think back to that 'whoosh' you heard - unless it was too far above your head to register on your eardrums...
Not sure what your inability to afford a house has to do with anything.
That should be obvious too - being unable to afford a house in this case means being forced to hand over bank account access to a landlord. So he's protecting himself from being overcharged to the best of his ability. It's nice if you're not in t
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I guess US credit-cards don't get paid automatically each month, so that people have to pay more?
All credit cards have an automatic payment option. To activate it, you have to go online, enable it, and enter bank transfer information. Alzheimer patients typically had no experience doing this even before dementia.
What kind of world is it going to be when today's social media skywalkers and "influencers" grow old enough to get dementia? We're already getting a taste of this with the First Tweeter.
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What kind of world is it going to be when today's social media skywalkers and "influencers" grow old enough to get dementia?
Thanks for putting that in the future tense. I guess we will find out come January 20.
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The only folks that need an accountant monthly are those with complicated finances; lots of income/expenditures. For the other 99% of us, it's pretty easy to either setup auto pay with the individual creditor or remember to pay one of the few bills we have every month.
Personally I hate auto-pay as I'm OCD about my bills and want to know what's coming out when, to the dime/day. Autopay generally circumvents that unless you mix a calendar into your budgeting system.
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This. I actually pay most of my bills by check because I know I'm too lazy to look at them online. That piece of paper on the counter will make me check to see if the water bill is normal so I don't have a hidden leak, whether Comcast has changed our Internet plan and is over-charging us again, and the like. If it were all just online I'd spend all my time on SlashDot rather than looking at where our money goes.
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Wow, much simpler finances than our situation, and it sounds like your vendors are more reliable/less sleazy than what we have to put up with. Our electric and gas rates are "adjusted" about half a dozen times a year, are billed monthly, and usage varies depending on the weather, Comcast has repeatedly overcharged us for Internet service, and ATT changed our cellular plan without notifying us at least twice and Sprint had done the same thing as well. Our water bill varies dramatically over the year (we ha
It could also be a sign of recent unemployment (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:It could also be a sign of recent unemployment (Score:4, Informative)
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Except that you aren't going to know any of that until you try to investigate why they are suddenly missing credit card payments in the first place.
Basically, my objection is that even while dementia *could* be the cause, so what? You wouldn't know the real cause unless you investigated it anyways, and particularly because dementia doesn't even seem like it is even a significantly probable cause, let alone a likely cause of missed payments in the first place, it seems pointless to even bring it up in t
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How is a relative going to notice missing payments exactly? Unless the relative is already responsible for the person's financial affairs, in which case they would be the ones making payments.
My remark of "so what" wasn't to suggest that nothing is wrong when someone misses payments, but that missing payments is not itself likely a sign of dementia when it seems to me like there are other *FAR* more likely causes.
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Maybe they talk to their family?
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A monthly bill is not very memorable, but a late payment might beat the threshold to form a memory at such an early stage.
Any sort of study like this would account for that (Score:2)
Re: Any sort of study like this would account for (Score:2)
Yeah, but then they didn't.
Wanna bet?
Or wanna actually check, and not make the common false assumption that experts would think of tue most obviois examples. Because it's ofthen those, that are the most likely to be missed. :) :)
Anyone in any skilled job knows those moments where he went "... I'm an idiot. *facepalm*".
So better check.
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I honestly don't see at as being anywhere nearly as likely as either a person adjusting to a sudden loss of reliable income, or else simple irresponsibility.
It can also be a purely calculated move. The idea that "you cant take it with you" when you die is referencing money, but it applies equally to debt.
...which is why taxing the estates of the dead is such a bad idea. If my kids wont be getting the house because none of them are in a position to be able to pay the taxes on it when I die, then a second mortgage it is, maybe a personal loan too. Take out that second mortgage, convert it into cash, hide it where your family will find it, and begin "forgetting
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or to pick a slightly more timely example. Lets say you are one of the 40% of people that more or less lives paycheck to paycheck.
Enhanced unemployment is gone, rent deferrals are ending and you are looking at another job ending stay-at-home order in your region. Imagine you have $3k in cash and $5K line of credit. CC debts can be discharged in bankruptcy, eventually. If it looked like whatever unemployment benefits I was eligible were about to run out i would in this situation, use the cash to get current
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That's more or less what I was thinking.
When I was in my twenties, my job options were such that I really had no choice but to live paycheque to paycheque. When I found myself suddenly laid off, I had to choose between either paying all of my bills each month or having a place to live. My CC balance wasn't that high, objectively speaking, but it was enough that I couldn't meet the payments without cutting into the budget for necessities like food and rent.
I cancelled all of the services I could do
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Take out that second mortgage, convert it into cash, hide it where your family will find it, and begin "forgetting" to pay off these loans.
There are much better, cheaper, less risky ways of transferring your wealth to your children than taking out a second mortgage, converting it to cash, and hiding it somewhere. People who "forget" to pay their mortgage get foreclosed on, and people who hide hundreds of thousands of dollars in their freezer may find themselves facing unpleasant scrutiny from government types who aren't known for their generosity of understanding.
"May" (Score:1)
The most powerful word in the English language.
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Obviously. That's when the flowers are in full bloom.
No credit card (Score:1)
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All my credit cards payments are automated. Never paid a single cent in interest. Got a lot in cashback / perks, so credit cards are saving me a lot of money.
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Stating the obvious, obviously.
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Try getting by today what with all the businesses that are refusing to take (icky, virus-laden) cash.
Clever Idea (Score:3)
I really like the idea the researchers took, trying to find a proxy for declining cognition in the patient's historical data. I'm curious what other data sources there might be.
The researchers certainly suggested that these people were getting in significant financial trouble. But I'm curious about the initial missed payments. Do people start missing payments due to financial trouble, or are they forgetting to make payments, and that's a future source of financial trouble.
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With such high interest rates and penalties... (Score:2)
... you must be demented to miss a payment.
Financial Canary in the Coal Mine (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't know about this specific issue, but it is a sad fact that financial mismanagement can be a canary in the coal mine for dementia sufferers. A friend of mine's father was from a pretty wealthy family. At one point, he was certainly worth many millions and mostly just managed the family fortune as an occupation. Nobody really had access or knowledge about the accounts except for him, so there was no oversight of his trades. After a very questionable car accident where he seemed lost and confused in his own neighborhood, the family had him evaluated for dementia. After a positive diagnosis, they looked into transferring management of the financial accounts to my friend. It ended up requiring over a year and a court order for them to get access to all the accounts. Well, it turns out that over the prior 3 years, the father had pretty much squandered the family fortune on a serious of highly questionable investments. One of the first things that can go in dementia sufferers is judgment.
The moral of the story is if you have significant assets and are getting up there in age (75+), it's a very good idea to have someone overseeing your investment activities who can second guess you, or at least have a portion in something that can't easily be touched (like an annuity). My friend's dad passed eventually, and now my friend has to financially support his mom because the money is pretty much gone. On top of it, the dad with dementia was managing a family trust for other heirs and his activities resulted in a lawsuit against the estate (which my friend has to deal with defending). Don't let that happen to you or your family. Build in guardrails to your estate management. If you have elderly family members, the time to ask to get involved is while they are still of sound mind.
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Prepare LONG before you're considered "old". (Score:5, Interesting)
^^This^^ but your seventies are probably too late since by then you're circling the drain.
People cling to what they know so it's wise to make smart choices in advance. If we live long enough we go mad. Tough shit. (I'm old so I'll play the old guy card here and any it offends will see for themselves given time.)
I suffer from chronic pain and of course sleep deprivation. There is little to be done about that but years of exhaustion gave me time to experiment cultivating persistent defaults. Most of my payments are autodrafted from an account with limited funds so if Something Bad (my fault or a malicious actor) happens the damage is compartmentalized. All those payments are just overhead (my mortage is long paid off as part of my financial strategy). I pay my utilities roughly a year in advance.
I monitor all my bills via paper trail as backup and toss the bills into binders. That's also part of my disaster prep strategy as backup is beautiful.
Do your estate planning in advance. Give copies to the those who need them.
Everyone should have a living will and advanced directives.
Little things matter. I don't carry loose keyring because they're expensive and tedious to replace. A paracord loop with a brass QD clip solves that problem (I'm a motorcyclist who doesn't need to lose house keys on the road) and makes for instant access. If you do something tens of thousands of times standardize that default with an eye to both present and future practicality.
Fit your house for your future. Stairs make falls inevitable and are a barrier to easy access of other storeys. YMMV but single storey housing is more convenient in every way. If you're stuck with multi-storey housing installing a lift before you need it can avoid that hassle of doing or having it done when you're old and bewildered. Ditto for all accessibility options, bathroom hand rails etc.
Hospital beds are comfy and while a hammock suits my bad back very well (I sleep in a stand with a cargo strap ridgeline for stable, easy ingress and egress) I'll buy a hospital bed in advance at the best deal I can get.
Medical equipment rentals are an expensive recurring ripoff! Be warned and be ready. I cared for my parents and those costs are absurd compared to equipment prices. [Medicare etc could likely save tens of millions by paying for Durable Medical Equipment instead of for rentals.] Lots of the stuff can be used while healthy. (I use a patient lift to handle motorcycle engines as they're so handy and fit through a standard doorway. I use medical oxygen cylinders for oxy-acetylene torch work to save my back. I already have welding oxygen cylinders so I can transfill the little ones with a whip like general aviation pilots have done for many years. Oxygen concentrators are a popular way to feed jeweler's torches but I've not scored one yet.)
Thanks to modern medical technology most of us can enjoy spending decades feeble, broken and useless but if we plan well we can make that suck less. I've seen what happens to those who refuse to admit mortality and it's not pretty.
BTW the custom of "death cleaning" is wise at any age and streamlines your life. If you own lots of stuff don't be a dick and do leave explicit printed instructions for the efficient disposal of your property. Your relatives don't want your "junk" so if you want them to have money from it sell off in advance. I buy vintage motorcycles, tools, etc from estate sales at MUCH lower prices than a clueful owner would sell them for but the clueful owner can't do that from the grave and their successors don't know how and haven't time nor inclination to learn. If you have friends who do understand and want your stuff put them in your will.
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That's a good point. I think the first step for someone of sound mind would be to just give a trusted family member read only access, so they can review activity but can't actually make any transfers themselves. If you outsource control to a professional, make sure they are associated with a reputable financial institution *and* are fiduciary advisors.
not sure how that will work (Score:1)
set up with back auto payment so. only way to miss cc is to have no money. knock on wood that has not happened yet .
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On a pension or public assistance with auto deposit. Pay all your bills with auto payment. There was a guy (in Germany, I believe) who finally missed some important payment. So people went looking for him. He had been dead in his apartment for months (imagine the smell).
Missing credit card payments is a sign of dementia (Score:2)
and running a credit card debt if you have the means to avoid it is a sign of financial ineptitude.
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The sad fact of the matter is that most people never learn fiscal competency to begin with. The only way I recognized my deficiency was by learning just how badly my mother screwed up her finances, then seeing the same proto-patterns in my own behavior.
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In my experience, it is more commonly on account of an unexpected loss in income, and needing to choose between eating or paying rent that month, or else making a bill payment.
It costs more in the long run, but the worst the credit card company can do for missing a payment is suspend your credit card until you are financially solvent again and can bring yourself up to date, ideally in only a couple of months or so. Your landlord can kick you out.
Living paycheque to paycheque is not ideal, of course, bu
Early signs eh? (Score:1)
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By the same token, Trump's decades-long history of not paying his debts should have been a red flag.
Crap. :( (Score:2)
I NEVER did that until very recently. Never. As in Not. One. Single. Time. I've always had poor short term memory, so I had redundant safeguards in place to prevent this.
And now I do. Not often, but way more than in the past. Meaning among other things I've managed to defeat those safeguards without realizing it.
As with many similar things, I don't really know whether it is brain damage from decades of almost no sleep, or something worse.
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Modify your safeguards while you still can and burn in SIMPLE defaults.
One handy trick is magnetic whiteboards where you WILL see them. Mine are on my fridge and facing the toilet in my bathroom.
I leave notes on cardboard written in Sharpie to show status on my various hobby projects so I extended that to notes elsewhere, always placed where I can't avoid them.
I cultivate "immediate response", doing whatever I can do on the spot so I don't need to put it off. This makes for speedier task completion too. Pr
Re: Crap. :( (Score:2)
Holy ... have I got news for you!
I had this same problem: Memory loss due to decades of horrible sleep. Had 20-30 points lower IQ too. All due to stress, lack of sunlight, chocolate, snoring and later, sleep apnea. Completely solved it. IQand memeory went back to normal, as far as I can tell aftr that long a time.
It's similar to Korsakov syndrome. And can interestingly be treated the same way, according to studies.
Usually megadoses of vitamin B12 over, say, 1-3 months.
Beware of the many scammers, claiming i
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This happened to my neighbor (Score:3)
We had a neighbor who lived a few houses down from us. People had noticed she was acting a bit "off" and saying things that seemed rather paranoid, e.g. strangers were parking outside her house, watching her, and stealing her mail.
Finally her family and friends intervened. As it turned out, she had failed to pay her property taxes and insurance for more than a year, and the city was about to foreclose on her property and auction it off. (She had also ignored all notices from her bank and the city tax assessor.) The "strangers" she saw were local house flippers who were scouting out her property to bid on it.
She was diagnosed with early onset dementia, and is now under her family's care. She had plenty of money to pay her bills; she simply couldn't organize her thoughts long enough to handle her finances. She even had uncashed checks sitting in piles of unopened mail.
Opt In (Score:2)
I would want an opt-in button for any sort of analysis of my financial records, be it for dementia or any other reason. The scary part of all of this is that some corporation could determine your fate just for being late a few times. By fate I mean your driving privileges might be revoked, even temporarily while you undergo tests. They could send in the police if they have determined you made firearms purchases as another example. All of this under the guise of protecting me when in point of fact, it's to p
So 20th century (Score:2)
Oh wait, that has happened...
Thanks for the reminder (Score:1)
This article reminded me to pay my bill.
Crazy. (Score:1)
Definitely agree: you'd have to be crazy to pay the interest rates they charge.
Need a consumer e-billing standard (Score:2)
I wish there were an electronic consumer billing standard to make it easier to review bills and get warnings. Some banks have such features in their online offerings, but you can't change vendors without changing banks.
A national billing standard would make it easier to buy third-party tools/services rather than hope your current bank does it well (they don't).
Yeah, totally not of poverty. (Score:2)
Some people seriously need an eight year old to accompany them at all times, and point out the box they are thinking in and the real world around it.
Really? (Score:2)
And no significant percentage of that is due to people not being able to afford a payment that month? Or not being methodical, and missing one once or more a year?
I forgot (Score:2)
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Sorry, can't help. I was too busy yelling at a cloud.
Change in pattern of behaviour (Score:2)
While not stated in the synopsis, or the article, what they are likely detecting is a change in the pattern of payments. While there are a number of other factors that come into play when looking at older people and financial challenges, for individuals who do not have a history of missed and/or late payments, in too many cases, at least part of the root cause is liklely the beginnings of dementia.
Like most things in life, there is likley not an aboslute relationship between the two. If nothing else, it's
Could Also Be (Score:2)
That reminds me (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)