How best to watch your aging parent’s finances in Simplifi

Salomsl

Hi. I’m a new Simplifi user who used Quicken back in the 1990’s. Besides managing my money, I want to watch my Mom’s bank accounts. She’s in her early 80’s and has been carrying balances on credit cards as she did her whole life. I have not yet taken over her bills. There are also constant scams reaching out to her via landline, mobile phone, email and texts. I was able to bring in her checking account into my Simplifi since it’s at my credit union and I was added as a user so I can occasionally transfer in money. Her checking is the main spending account I’m concerned about. I’m also worried about her credit card accounts. My question: Is it best to just get her her-own Simplifi account and then get access to it? Instead of bringing in her accounts into my Simplifi and confusing it? I can’t be the only one needing to watch their parent’s financial accounts. Any suggestions before I get to far? Thank you.

RobWilk

I do know of at least one other user who created a separate account (another paid subscription) and then used the space sharing feature to switch between accounts. One advantage is things like net worth will only reflect each person's accounts. I also know of people who didn't do that and ran into issues with two sign ins at the same bank.

Sorry i don't yet have first hand knowledge.

ajbopp

I agree with @RobWilk A separate Simplifi account with space sharing seems like the best solution. I'd also generally throw out that it seems like a good solution for a minor child just getting their first bank account. A good way to help them learn to manage money, and being able to keep track of how they are doing.

tobyN

I just did this recently, and I did create a separate Simplifi account for my mother. Then, using space sharing, shared her space with me.

Now when I am logged in to my account, I can easily switch back and forth between my space and her space. Works very well and keeps things separate.

The downside, of course, is having to pay for a separate Simplifi subscription. When I was doing this with Quicken, I just kept two different QDF files, then I could open whichever one I needed. It seems like Simplifi could easily allow for creation of multiple spaces within a single account, but that would be one less subscription for them 😁.

Also, the fact that the "Spaces & Sharing" screen currently has an always disabled "Add Space" button gives me hope that maybe they will add support for multiple spaces within a single account. Fingers crossed.

At the suggestion of another user, I set one space to dark mode and one to light mode so that I can easily tell which space I am currently in. It would be nice if the Space name was shown somewhere at the top of the account list and/or dashboard, but currently that is not the case. You can see which space by going into the Profile menu, but I would just like to see the name at the top of the account list or something more in your face.

DannyB

Hi @Salomsl

Looks like you got some good feedback. I think the user @RobWilk is referring to is @Flopbot and now that I have tagged him may pop into this thread at some point to share his experience.

I'm in the position where I'm next! My sis kept her eye on our dad's accounts and he was always suspicious that she was siphoning off money. He always wanted myself or my brother to check up on her… we would assure him all is in order. I hope your mom is able to trust that you have her best interests in mind and I hope if/when the time comes for my kids to keep an eye on our bank accounts we'll have the grace to let it be so! Because of my career I had a few older folks who would confide in me about their finances and come to me to make sure they were doing things right and avoiding the scams. They didn't have any family to turn to unfortunately.

Salomsl

Thank you @RobWilk, @ajbopp, @tobynewlin and @DannyB. Per your excellent advice, I will go ahead and buy Mom her-own Simplifi account subscription. I'll then use space sharing to work on her account / space. Using one space in Dark Mode and the other space in Light Mode is a great tip - Toby! I love the quote in your signature line Danny. Adding a signature line is now another task I need to add to my "Figure out how to do list".

Flopbot

@Salomsl ,

You’ve already gotten some great feedback and I can’t really share anything else. I’m temporarily managing my moms finances after an accident and using Space Sharing to keep my two separate accounts separate. Like many things in Simplifi, it is super easy to use so flipping back and forth on mobile or the web is very convenient. In my moms case, she too looks after someone else’s finances so I just synced all their accounts under my mom’s paid account and then marked all the other person’s accounts as Ignore on Spending Plan. That way, only my moms stuff shows up in the Spending Plan.

Flopbot

One additional thing that tripped me up at first. You switch between views in mobile by Dashboard > Profile > Click on the data set’s name.