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One of the most common beliefs that women hold is that on some level, “men are supposed to be in charge of making or managing the money in the relationship.”
Women throughout history, and still in many places today, have been deprived of property rights or the opportunity to control their finances.
Shifting women’s beliefs about money will require filling in social and cultural gaps with education, access to resources, the instilment of a growth mindset and reinforcement that everyone is capable of learning.

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“I’m not a math person.” “I’m not a numbers person.” “I’m bad with money.”
Sound familiar?

No, we’re not recording you at home. As a wealth advisor, I hear statements like this all the time from women, regardless of their age.
In fact, one of the most common — often unconsciously inherited — beliefs that women share with me is that on some level, “men are supposed to be in charge of making or managing the money in the relationship.”
This can create a dynamic for many women in which they don’t feel that they need to understand money, sparking confusion and an overwhelming feeling when they go to learn about it.
Is it really possible that there is such a stark difference in aptitude between men and women when it comes to numbers? Seems hard to believe — and research shows it’s not true.
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One influential study led by psychologist Janet Hyde involved reviewing data from more than 100 other studies on math performance in children and adults. Findings showed that there is no difference in innate math ability between girls and boys in elementary, middle or high school. Interestingly, another study found that in lower-income elementary school districts, girls tend to outperform boys in math.
So why do so many women grow up believing that they’re bad at math and, later, bad with money?
For starters, women throughout history, and still in many places today, have been deprived of property rights or the opportunity to control their finances. How can women develop skills and the confidence needed to manage their money effectively, if it isn’t even considered to be theirs?
Think about this familiar example: In England up until way too recently, women were considered property themselves, belonging to their husbands (we see you, Jane Austen).
Even after women fought for and won the right to vote in the U.S. in the early 20th century, women could not easily get loans or credit cards without a male co-signer until 1974 and the passage of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Today, we still have a gender pay gap, which can negatively affect women’s confidence with money.

Other factors influencing aptitude perception include gender stereotypes and teacher bias. Research has shown that teachers and employers tend to have lower expectations of girls and women in math and science, which can lead to lower performance and a lack of interest in these fields.
And then there is perfectionism: the immense pressure many women feel to perform at a high level across various aspects of life, including family, career and personal finance. This can affect women’s confidence in making financial decisions.
Ironically, women demonstrate every day that, as a whole, we are superb at resource management.
Women often manage the allocation of so many other resources aside from money that people consider valuable, including time, talent and relationships. Yet, at the same time, we’ve been taught that it is “not polite to talk about money.”
But it’s imperative that we do.
In the coming decades, trillions of dollars are expected to change hands in the U.S. as older generations pass on their assets to younger ones. This is called “The Great Wealth Transfer.” 

Women are expected to receive a significant portion as a result of several factors, including the increasing number of women who are earning high salaries, expanding roles in financial decision-making and the fact that women are generally outliving men.
According to some estimates, the transfer of wealth to women could reach as much as $30 trillion over the next few decades. It’s important to note that this wealth transfer is expected to take place in predominantly white families, which speaks to the important racial factors that intersect with gender factors to influence wealth distribution and education.
Shifting women’s beliefs about money will require filling in social and cultural gaps with education, access to resources, the instilment of a growth mindset and reinforcement that everyone is capable of learning.
Promising strides have been taken in recent years. Initiatives such as Girls Who Code and Women in STEM aim to promote greater diversity and inclusivity in math- and science-related fields.
When we create spaces for women to talk about money, understand our “money roots” and our inherited money stories, it facilitates breakthroughs that can improve our relationship to money for our lives and for generations to come. Having conscious conversations around money helps us clarify values, deepen knowledge and prepare to direct this money in the world in ways that will make a difference for us and the people we care about.
As a result of this work, we have already seen so many women create new possibilities, not just for how we relate in their partnerships or family units, but also in the way we frame the very idea of “wealth.”
— By Anne B. Johnston, a certified financial planner and founder and managing director of boutique wealth advisory Created. More

Your Money

Certain financial shocks may hurt women’s financial preparedness before and during retirement.
Experts say that points to the need for preemptive planning that addresses tough questions.
Half of women said they are behind on retirement savings, versus just 35% of men, according to a 2022 Goldman Sachs report.

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Many women already feel they are behind when it comes to being financially prepared for retirement.
There’s another risk they have to watch for: disruptive curveballs life throws at them that may put them off track, according to recent research from financial services firm Edward Jones and aging research provider Age Wave. A majority of female retirees, 81%, have experienced at least one such unexpected financial event, versus 69% of men.

The most common curveball for both sexes is having a spouse or partner pass away, with 77%. Women are almost twice as likely to be widowed, according to the research.

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Retired women are also more likely to face other shocks, including the death of another family member or close friend, suffering a financial setback or becoming a caregiver.
Caregiving tends to be a significant setback for women. A majority of women said becoming a caregiver was a life-destroying event both from a financial and life standpoint, according to Lena Haas, head of wealth management advice and solutions at Edward Jones.
“Women are less prepared to begin with for retirement,” Haas said, adding they “are hit with curveballs more frequently and they’re less equipped to make adjustments.”

Women are more likely to be caregivers for family

Moreover, a majority of unpaid family caregivers are women. Family caregivers provided an estimated 36 billion hours in unpaid care in 2021, according to AARP, amounting to work worth $600 billion.

The caregiving dilemma does not only affect retired women.
“It’s hitting us during working years, too,” said Heather Ettinger, chairwoman of Fairport Wealth in Cleveland, Ohio.

As baby boomers age, with about 10,000 turning 65 every day, that often puts pressure on their children to take on caretaking roles, Ettinger noted. Women are more likely to take on those responsibilities when they may not have enough saved for their own retirement, she said.
Half of women said they are behind on retirement savings, versus just 35% of men, according to a 2022 Goldman Sachs report.
Caregiving can affect women’s ability to save if it takes them out of the workforce. Less work hours may also reduce the amount of Social Security benefits they qualify for in retirement.

How to mitigate the effect of financial curveballs

Women also contend with unique challenges when it comes to retirement planning, such as lower pay, longer life expectancies and more time out of the workforce compared to men.
Professional financial help can mitigate the effects of the potential surprises women face.
Sitting down with a financial advisor can help identify important questions that should be asked, Haas said.
Examples of such questions include: Do you and your family members have life insurance or long-term care insurance? If you become a caregiver, will you still be able to work? Do you have an emergency fund?

Moreover, women may be able to find information on what is available to them from their employer’s benefits department, Ettinger suggested.
“So many families don’t want to talk about money,” Ettinger said.
Addressing that will require both women and their families and the financial professionals with whom they work to address tough questions, including who will provide care and how when a loved one gets sick.
“A big retirement curveball is we’re not getting there early enough to help people prepare,” Ettinger said. More

Life Changes

While many investors focus on stock market volatility, there could be other 401(k) risks, especially when there’s a company bankruptcy.
Risks may include investing in high concentrations of employer stock or guaranteed interest accounts, experts say.

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After several interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve, many have braced for stock market volatility in their 401(k) plans. But experts say some plans could face another risk: employer bankruptcy.
Generally, your 401(k) is safe from creditors in the case of bankruptcy, based on protection from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA.

“A 401(k) plan is really one of the safest vehicles that you can save money in because of the ERISA protection from bankruptcy and creditors,” said certified financial planner Dan Galli, owner at Daniel J. Galli & Associates in Norwell, Massachusetts. But some investors may feel “a little too secure,” and it’s important to know the risks, he said.

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Single stock risk can be ‘incredibly dangerous’

When an employer files for bankruptcy, large concentrations of that company’s stock in a 401(k) can be “incredibly dangerous,” according to Galli.
“Often, clients have 40%, 50%, 60% or even 100% of their account invested in stock of the company,” he said, noting that aggressive investors shouldn’t allocate more than 20% into company stock and conservative investors should stay below 10%.
“There’s a strong likelihood that stock is going to take a deep dive,” said CFP Ashton Lawrence, director at Mariner Wealth Advisors in Greenville, South Carolina. “That’s why most advisors are proponents of diversification.”

The risks of guaranteed interest accounts

Galli said there’s also a hidden risk with “guaranteed interest accounts,” a common 401(k) asset that provides interest for a set amount of time. While it’s an attractive option for conservative investors, the underlying assets can decline in value.

Typically, these contracts are backed by insurance companies that invest in bonds, which generally fall in value as market interest rates rise. To liquidate the entire account, the bonds could be sold at a loss, Galli said. “And that loss always gets passed on to the account holder.”
When a 401(k) plan shuts down, employees may see “adjustments” to their guaranteed interest accounts, which reduce the assets’ value.

Consider rolling over old 401(k) accounts

Although 401(k) plans from previous employers may also be subject to these risks, there are several things to consider before rolling over old accounts to a new 401(k) plan or individual retirement account.
For example, you may weigh investment options and fees, convenience and creditor protection. “I wouldn’t say there’s one answer that fits all,” said Lawrence. “It really depends on each client’s situation.” More

Life Changes

The retirement security score for the U.S. has improved this year, according to new research from Natixis.
Yet, many Americans’ retirement confidence has been shaken due to high inflation, a survey finds.
The survey results come as the consumer price index posted its biggest monthly gain in 2023 so far.

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Almost half of Americans, 47%, say achieving retirement security will take a miracle, according to a new survey from Natixis Investment Managers.
That is up “quite a bit” from about 40% of respondents who said the same two years ago, according to Dave Goodsell, executive director of the Natixis Center for Investor Insight.

The results come as research from the firm shows the U.S. has improved its overall score for retirement security compared to last year, with 71% versus 69% in 2022.
Most of the 44 countries included in the firm’s ranking also received higher overall scores compared to last year.

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Yet, the U.S. fell two places to No. 20 in the ranking of developed countries.
The five top countries for retirement security include Norway at No.1, followed by Switzerland, Iceland, Ireland and Luxembourg.
The overall U.S. retirement score improved due to multiple factors, according to Goodsell, such as a 50-year low in unemployment; interest rates that may provide better income for retirees; reduced tax pressures; and post-pandemic wage growth, particularly for those with low incomes.

At the same time, the country also fell in the ranking compared to other countries due to high inflation, government debt and a lower life expectancy following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Natixis’ survey found one factor, inflation, has contributed the most to Americans’ pessimistic outlook for retirement.
“Inflation is definitely sitting on people’s minds in a way it hasn’t in a long time,” Goodsell said. “It’s their top investment concern, and it’s also their top financial fear, this idea of increasing everyday prices.”
Most survey respondents, 84%, say recent economic activity shows inflation is a big threat to their retirement security. That includes 87% of retirees.

48% expect tough choices in retirement

There is some optimism, with 52% of working Americans expecting to have the financial freedom to do what they want in retirement.
Yet, at the same time, 48% said they expect to face tough trade-offs in retirement.
The most common sacrifice cited, with 42%, was living frugally. Other trade-offs people said they expect to make is working in retirement or moving somewhere less expensive, each with 31%; relying on family or friends to make ends meet, 28%; or having to sell their home, 26%.
The survey results come as the consumer price index posted its biggest monthly gain in 2023 so far, while posting a 3.7% increase in August from a year ago.

Other recent surveys have shown inflation has shaken Americans’ retirement confidence.
Americans now believe they will need $1.27 million to retire, a target that has increased with inflation, according to Northwestern Mutual.
Moreover, 58% of retirement savers and retirees say their biggest worry is outliving their money, Cerulli Associates recently found.
High inflation has posed challenges for current retirees, even as they saw a record 8.7% boost for inflation to their Social Security benefits this year, according to Mary Johnson, Social Security and Medicare policy analyst at The Senior Citizens League.
“The vast majority still are seeing a gap between what their COLA [cost-of-living adjustment] has covered and the actual price increases,” Johnson said.

Ask yourself, ‘What do I need to retire?’

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For pre-retirees, it’s important to remember that inflation will subside, said Goodsell of Natixis.
“Realize this is a point in time with inflation,” he added. “It’s good to be aware of it. It’s not going to be this way forever.”
At the same time, it’s a reminder that prices may spike when you’re living on a fixed income, Goodsell said.
When planning for retirement, you need to ask yourself whether potential inflation shocks mean you should save more toward your later years, delay claiming Social Security retirement benefits, annuitize your money or work longer, he said.
“A lot of times we don’t as individuals really step back critically and say what do I need to retire?” Goodsell said. “What’s it going to be like?” More

A fairly recent change to 529 plans that allows limited withdrawals for student debt may be especially appealing with the payments soon scheduled to restart.
Student loan borrowers who also have a 529 account can use it to cover the principal and interest on their education loans, up to $10,000.

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Thanks to a law passed four years ago, borrowers with outstanding federal student debt are able to tap into any remaining 529 college savings plan funds they have to pay down up to $10,000 of what they owe.
That may now be a particularly appealing option, given that federal student loan bills are set to resume in October.

The investment accounts, which are named after Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code, are offered through states to encourage people to save for college. Withdrawals put toward qualifying education expenses are tax-free.

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Under the student loan provision, which became law in 2019, those who have a 529 account can use it to cover the principal and interest on their education debt. In certain cases, the accounts can also be switched to family members with student debt, too.
“There are several situations in which this capability is worthwhile,” said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

529 plans can help with student debt

The reality is, of course, that most college students who graduate with student debt won’t actually have money remaining in their college savings plan, experts point out. (If they did, they wouldn’t have needed to borrow in the first place.)
However, it’s possible a college graduate with student debt has a sibling with remaining funds in their 529 plan, Kantrowitz said.

“Perhaps they went to a lower-cost college or won a scholarship,” he said. In such cases, they may be able to change the account’s beneficiary and use their sibling’s plan to pay off some or all of their debt.

The lifetime limit of the option is $10,000.
Meanwhile, if the beneficiary of a 529 plan is changed from the student to a parent, Kantrowitz said, the parent might be able to pay off their Parent Plus loans with the investment funds.
Before parents or college graduates withdraw from a 529 plan to pay down student debt, they should compare the interest rate they’re paying on their loans with the earnings they’re picking up in their investment account, experts say. They could be earning more in the market.

“But, there’s something to be said for simplifying one’s finances and the freedom that comes with having paid off debt,” Kantrowitz said.
The investment accounts can be used to pay for all federal student loans, and most private student loans also qualify, said Elaine Rubin, director of corporate communications at Edvisors.
Although borrowers won’t be dinged with federal taxes on their eligible 529 withdrawal, they may face state taxes, Rubin added. More

New government inflation data points to a 3.2% Social Security cost-of-living adjustment in 2024.
Here’s what Social Security beneficiaries need to know about that estimate.

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New government inflation data points to a 3.2% Social Security cost-of-living adjustment in 2024, according to a new estimate from The Senior Citizens League.
That would raise the average monthly retirement benefit by about $57.30, according to the nonpartisan senior group.

The Senior Citizens League’s calculations are based on a current average retiree benefit of $1,790. That is lower than the $1,837 average monthly retirement benefit cited by the Social Security Administration, due to the fact that it includes spousal and other dependent benefits, in addition to those of workers, according to Mary Johnson, Social Security and Medicare policy analyst at The Senior Citizens League.

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The projected 3.2% Social Security COLA for 2024 is much lower than the official 8.7% increase beneficiaries saw in 2023. But it is higher than the annual 2.6% average increase over the past 20 years, according to Johnson.
Before you factor in the impact the estimated 3.2% boost may have on your benefits in 2024, there are three things to keep in mind.

1. Official 2024 COLA should be revealed in October

The Senior Citizens League’s 3.2% COLA estimate is based on consumer price index data through August.
An official COLA for 2024 is expected to be announced by the Social Security Administration in October.

That official calculation will be based on inflation data for July, August and September from the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W.

The data from those three months will be added and averaged and then compared with the third quarter average from 2022. If there is an increase, that determines the size of the COLA.
“At this point, there’s always a chance of inflation doing something totally unexpected,” Johnson said, which may affect the official benefit adjustment for 2024.
There is a 61% chance the COLA for 2024 will be 3.2%, according to Johnson.
Meanwhile, there is a 9% chance of it going higher and a 30% chance it may be lower, she said.

2.  Medicare Part B premiums affect increases

Medicare Part B premiums are typically deducted directly from Social Security checks.
Consequently, the size of those premiums affects how much of the COLA beneficiaries may see.
Medicare Part B premium rates also change each year. The Medicare trustees have projected the average monthly premium may be $174.80 in 2024, up from $164.90 in 2023.

Certain factors, particularly a new Alzheimer’s drug, may affect costs and the size of the Part B premiums.
The Senior Citizens League estimates the Alzheimer’s treatment, Leqembi, may add $5 per month to the average monthly Medicare Part B premium next year.
Medicare Part B premium rates for the following year are typically announced in November.

3. Think twice before starting benefits this year

If you’re on the brink of claiming Social Security retirement benefits, you may be tempted to claim this year to get the record 8.7% boost for 2023.
But experts say that is a misguided strategy.
“You don’t have to start now to get the benefit of a cost-of-living adjustment,” Bruce Tannahill, a director of estate and business planning at MassMutual, recently told CNBC.com.

Nobody’s getting rich from the 8.7% COLA.

Mary Johnson
Social Security and Medicare policy analyst at The Senior Citizens League

“Social Security will adjust your projected benefits to reflect the cost-of-living adjustments that occur prior to the time that you retire,” he said.
Instead, it’s best to prioritize finding a claiming strategy that fits your circumstances and will maximize your monthly benefit income.
Even as the inflation rate has come down, current Social Security beneficiaries are still struggling with higher prices due to inflation, particularly when it comes to housing, food and medical costs, which make up about 80% of retiree spending, according to Johnson.
“Nobody’s out of the woods,” Johnson said. “Nobody’s getting rich from the 8.7% COLA.” More

The August 2023 consumer price index rose 3.7% on an annual basis, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday.
The increase was mostly attributable to a spike in gasoline prices in August. That increase should be temporary, economists said.
At a high level, inflationary pressures are due to an imbalance between supply and demand. They’ve been felt globally during the pandemic era.

Gasoline was priced from $4.29 a gallon at a fuel station in Virginia on Aug. 16, 2023.
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Inflation rose in August on the back of higher gasoline prices, according to the consumer price index.
But there’s good news for Americans: That increase is likely temporary, economists said. Aside from energy, there are signs that inflation continued its broad retreat in August, they said.

“This should just be a temporary interruption of the downward trend,” said Andrew Hunter, deputy chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics.
“Broadly, we’re already seeing pretty clear signs the situation is approaching normal again,” he added.

Inflation measures how quickly prices are rising across the U.S. economy.
In August, the CPI increased 3.7% from 12 months earlier, up from 3.2% in July, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday.
The rate has fallen from a pandemic-era peak of 9.1% in June 2022, the highest since 1981.

The CPI is a key barometer of inflation, measuring prices of anything from fruits and vegetables to haircuts and concert tickets.

How gas prices contributed to higher inflation

Gasoline prices jumped 10.6% in August, following a 0.2% increase in July, according to Wednesday’s CPI report. The BLS adjusts those numbers for seasonal trends.
Gasoline cost $3.84 a gallon, on average, as of Tuesday, according to AAA.
Gasoline was the largest contributor to inflation in August, accounting for more than half of the increase, according to the BLS.
The increase is largely attributable to dynamics in the market for crude oil, which is refined into gasoline, Hunter said. On Tuesday, oil prices hit their highest levels since November.

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Transportation costs — including gasoline — are the second-largest expense, after housing, for the average household, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s consumer expenditures survey.
While rising gasoline prices may be challenging for consumers from a budgetary perspective, it’s unlikely they’ll be sustained beyond another month or two, Hunter said.
While gasoline prices have risen in the short term, they’ve declined 3.3% from a year ago.

‘Core’ inflation showed a ‘bump in the road’

When assessing underlying inflation trends, economists generally like to look at one measure that strips out energy and food prices, which tend to be volatile from month to month. This pared-down measure — known as “core” CPI — fell to an annual rate of 4.3% in August from 4.7% in July.
On a monthly basis, core inflation rose slightly, to 0.3% in August from 0.2% in July. The economy would need consistent monthly core CPI readings of 0.2% to get the U.S. back to its pre-pandemic baseline, a time when inflation was low and stable, economists said.
The increase in monthly core CPI “is a little bump in the road,” said Kayla Bruun, senior economist at Morning Consult.
“It doesn’t mean it’s turning around and going in the other direction,” Bruun said. “Overall, most of the pieces are headed in the right direction.”

Housing was the largest contributor to the rise in core CPI in August, according to the BLS.
However, rent inflation is poised to keep falling, economists said. That’s because new monthly rent prices have “slowed very sharply” in the U.S. over the past year or so, but such trends generally feed through to the CPI data with a lag, Hunter said.
Other “notable” contributors to inflation over the past year include motor vehicle insurance, with prices up 19.1% from August 2022; recreation, up 3.5%; personal care, up 5.8%; and new vehicles, up 2.9%, the BLS said.
Conversely, easing price pressures for groceries — a “staple household expense” — has been a “bright spot” for consumers, said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.

Inflation is multipronged and global

Inflation during the pandemic era has been a “complicated phenomenon” stemming from “multiple sources and complex dynamic interactions,” according to a paper published in May that was co-authored by Ben Bernanke, former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, and Olivier Blanchard, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
At a high level, inflationary pressures — which have been felt globally — are due to an imbalance between supply and demand.
The pandemic snarled global supply chains and led prices to surge as the U.S. economy reopened. Basically, consumers unleashed pent-up demand while there was still a shortage of goods.

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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 exacerbated backlogs in the global supply chain and fueled higher prices for food, energy and other commodities.
Also, a hot labor market led employers to raise wages at the fastest pace in decades, feeding through to inflation, particularly in labor-intensive service industries.
Those trends have largely unwound, Hunter said. Wage growth is still “quite high” but coming down and the broad labor market is easing, he said.
“We’ve definitely come a long way in terms of getting back to normal,” he said. “We’re not all the way there yet.” More

Your Money

Women spend an average 51.6 minutes a day caring for household children, other household members and nonhousehold members, according to a recent study.
If that time caregiving were compensated, it would be worth about $2,335.93 annually for men and $4,565.68 for women.
“We talk about the wage gap all the time, but this ‘time gap’ is also a huge impact on people’s lives,” said Katherine Gallagher Robbins, senior fellow at the National Partnership for Women and Families.

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Women spend more time than men providing unpaid care for children, older adults and other family members — time than can have a significant effect on their finances.
Women spend an average 51.6 minutes a day caring for household children, other household members and nonhousehold members, according to a new analysis from the National Partnership for Women and Families. Men spend an average 26.4 minutes daily on such tasks.

“We talk about the wage gap all the time, but this ‘time gap’ is also a huge impact on people’s lives,” said Katherine Gallagher Robbins, senior fellow at the National Partnership for Women and Families.

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If that time caregiving were compensated, it would be worth about $2,335.93 annually for men and $4,565.68 for women. The group based its calculations on an hourly rate of $14.55 an hour, the midpoint between mean wages of child care workers and personal care aides.
On a broader level, unpaid caregiving is worth $305.01 billion a year for men and $626.57 billion for women, the National Partnership for Women and Families estimates.
In other words, the caregiving time gap costs women an extra $321.56 billion a year.

‘Caregiving has been a problem for a long time’

The National Partnership for Women and Families is not the only organization to flag the financial and time burdens of caregiving.

About 38 million people provided unpaid care to an adult family member or friend in 2021, according to the latest data from AARP. It estimates the economic value of unpaid care was $600 billion, based on a total of 36 billion hours of care at an average value of $16.59 an hour, AARP found.
“Caregiving has been a problem for a long time, as far as how much of it is unpaid, and also that the majority of it does fall on women,” said certified financial planner Carolyn McClanahan, founder of Life Planning Partners in Jacksonville, Florida.

To that point, 61% of caregivers are women, while 39% are men, according to a 2020 AARP study.
A lot of women are part of the “sandwich generation,” who are still taking care of young children when their aging parents start having needs, said McClanahan, who is also a member of the CNBC Financial Advisor Council.
This is observed among adults between ages 35 and 44, when the most intensive period of caregiving for both men and women occurs, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has found.

“That age band is the peak caregiving period for both men and women, though the gap is still very large between men and women,” said Gallagher Robbins.
Caregivers may have resources available to relieve some of the burden and provide care for those in need.
For instance, family caregivers may be able to be paid by Medicaid, depending on their state of residence. The amount of funds varies upon the elderly person’s needs and the average wage paid to home health aides in that state. More