<prompt> Human: My mom is 60 in 14 months and she has no plans for retirement. She only has 11,000 in savings. After I 22 opened up my Roth IRA the other day, she started freaking out because she doesnt know what shes going to do in ten years. Shes afraid she will never be able to stop working. Is a Roth IRA a good choice for her if she maxes it out annually or is it too late for that? What about property? I told her Im willing to give her my savings nearly 20k and increasing if she looks into opening a second mortgage for a home and rents out the townhouse shes currently living in. What can she do with 11,000 besides having it sit in low interest bank account? Anything is better than nothing I feel like.Thanks in advance everybody.Assistant: Unfortunately it is very likely thatshe will never be able to stop workingLike much of her cohort.Absolutely save as much as she can now. Roth vstraditional IRA is not something that matters much and the correct decision is entirely based on her income each calendar year. But 5,500 higher because she can do make up contributions isnt going to be anywhere close to funding a proper retirement.if she looks into opening a second mortgage for a home and rents out the townhouse shes currently living in.Going into more debt will not solve this problem. Nor will your 20k.How much is hew current home worth and how much does she owe on it?Human: We both know that she isnt going to ever have a full retirement. Im one of her five kids and its likely she will be living off one of us in the future, which I dont think is as big an issue as she makes it out to be.In the meanwhile, we want to see if theres anything we can do with the small amount of money she has now to make it grow more than the 1 interest it collects at the moment. Her current home has to be worth between 500k and 600k, though I can confirm that when I see her. I can also ask her how much she owes on it. She is looking to sell this current place in the not-so-distant future though to save money on HOA fees and mortgage payments. I thought it might not be a bad idea to keep this current townhome right off the beach and put a down payment on a second property while renting out this current place. Then again, I dont know if thats a great idea because Im a newbie when it comes to finance.  <response>: I thought it might not be a bad idea to keep this current townhome right off the beach and put a down payment on a second property while renting out this current place.Your mother is not in a position to be investing in real estate.we want to see if theres anything we can do with the small amount of money she has now to make it grow more than the 1 interest it collects at the moment.Of course. Invest it in broad market index funds. Put as much of it as possible per yer into what ever tax sheltered vehicles she can, put the rest in a regular taxable brokerage account.You should be looking at both the retirement and investing sections in the side bar.And by the way:Her current home has to be worth between 500k and 600kSo if she owed 10,000 on it you and she have a minor issue. If she owes 475k on it you have a big problem. If shes been cash out refinancing it and owes more than its worth andor hasnt been keeping up with maintenance so it wont sell for what she owes shes got a huge problem. Figuring out those numbers is 100 the correct place to start on all of this.And, FYI, someone who is this far behind on retirement doesnt get to be a homeowner. People who are staring down the barrel of poverty in retirement should be renting in a low cost of living area in order to maximize what cash they have and the amount they can save while they are still able to work. If you and your siblings are willing to fund her retirement gaps sounds like you are then its up to you to have this conversation with hersupport her in living well above her means until the point where you need to start paying the bills. 