<prompt> Human: Ive recently had a few conversations with my parents 51 and 56 yo about their savings and retirement situation and I was hoping to get some advice from those more knowledgeable than myself. Basically, they have a total of 11000 built up that just sits in a savings account with no other savings or investments.1 With their current income situation they would be capable of putting away 200-300 per month initially.2 What would be the most effective thing they can do with this money at this point in their lives? My Mom was looking into a whole life insurance policy that would be 163mo and would pay out 100,000 in the case of their death.3 I was not in favor of the insurance policy and advised that they should think about taking that money and instead saving it in a 401k or RothIRA since, in about 25 years, the investment would be more valuable than the insurance policy. My Dad is self-employed, no 401k, but my Mom has a 401k at her job that she hasnt been contributing to. I told her to look into the details of the employer match policy, but if I had to guess it would be something relatively modest. Being that Im 25, I have no knowledge about the best way to deal with a short-term retirement savings plan and I wasnt sure if the principles here were any different than a long-term plan i.e. save as much as you can and make sound investments. My first thought was that it would be best to contribute the 401k up to the employer match cap, then put the rest in a RothIRA. Does that sound like the best plan or is there a better option out there? Any advice is appreciated, really just looking to become aware of all potential options at this point.1They have a small amount of debt I think a car loan at 4 and some other smallish loan at a similar rate that will be paid off within 2-3 years. They have owned a home for 20 years but somehow have managed to pay almost nothing towards it home equity loans and endless refinancing I guess???, so with the current real estate market in their area they would lose money if they sold it.2 My advice here and probably your first thought would be cut spending drastically and save aggressively. My father has terrible spending practices hence their current situation and refuses to live more modestly at this point in his life. People have tried to talk to him about it but he refuses to listen or change. If they ever build up any significant savings it will be in spite of him, not because of him. But I digress.3 Mother is in relatively good health, father was diagnosed with melanoma last year but after surgery and some treatment is in fine health.tl;dr: Parents 51 and 56 yo have no retirement savings. What is the best way to maximize the money they are able to save at this point in their lives?EDIT: formattingAssistant: Perhaps this would be best as the subject of a separate thread, but would it be legal for my siblings and I to contribute to my parents Roth IRA max 12,000 at their age to maximize interest earned, then withdraw the money at its original value when they retire. We would essentially be giving our parents the interest on our savings. It seems like a reasonable thing to do when I think about it but when I write it out that way it sounds like it might be illegal. I guess we could give the money as a gift which my parents then invest and give as a gift back to us upon retirement...Is this fully legal, a gray area, or straight up breaking the law?  <response>: My gfs siblings, out of concern for their parents retirement have done something a bit like this. Basically they created a save the parents fund and each of them contributes 10 of their net income into the account. If it turns out the parents need assistance the kids would have an investment account they could draw from to help their parents. If their parents dont need it they would be able to split it up based upon the amount each of them contributed.The most important parts of this plan are 1. it is a very close-knit family and the siblings have great communication and are very open with each other. 2. The parents dont know anything about this and so they arent planning on it being there.I raise this to you as a possibility because of what I see as the biggest problem youll face: your fathers attitude about this. Without changing his mindset, a severe and drastic decline in their lifestyle is inevitable. From your description, he seems likely amass as much debt as possible albeit, slowly until he hits a wall with it and no one will lend to him. All your planning will be wasted if he has control over what you plan for him. Hes probably not going to respect your opinion much on anything he wants to do - due to the Powdered Butt Syndrome basically, he isnt going to respect the opinion of someone whos butt he powderedI think your best bet is to work with your siblings in the manner that would be optimal for your and their situations in order to best set each other up to be able to help your parents. Youre all going to have to get used to the idea of saying no to your parents and helping them understand why.That said, I think what youre doing with encouraging them to change and save is great too and you should continue that. Im just trying to give practical advice. 