<prompt> Human: UPDATE: RIP inbox. Holy crap this got popular. Got more deets at the bottom here, along with one more question. Thanks guys!Hi everyone! Hope youre all well, financially and etc.!I need some advice in regards to my moms financial situation. She turns 50 this year, but she is VERY untrusting towards the market and only has money in a credit union account and cash in a safe. Shes very stubborn when it comes to her money, but Ive recently become very concerned when I found out something recently: she has 80k and cashed out about 20k from a mutual fund...after it lost 200 in the first 2 months of it being open. This leaves her with 100k cash: sorry for the confusion.Yup. Thats what Im dealing with.She is self employed, so she usually has to pays taxes every year. Im planning to have a sit-down with her sometime soon to go over how much she makes a year and try to come up with a game plan. Ill update soon once I find out her salary. It fluctuates every year, but last year I believe she reported 40k. The 80k figure is mostly cash she has, almost quite literally, stuffed into her mattress over the years.Luckily though, her house is almost payed off. I believe she owes about 75k now on the mortgage. So now my mom is talking about paying off the house to not to have pay a 3 interest. But again, shes stubborn.Im concerned now that if she pays off the house, she will have close to nothing saved to put into an IRA or something. So my biggest question is: what kind of financial tools can I use to help my mom stay financially stable? Or is there any way to get her a comfy retirement in a reasonable time frame? She cleans houses and businesses, and I hate the thought of her having to work the rest of her life. The goal I have in mind is trying to get her enough to retire in 15 years, but clearly not even a high-risk investment portfolio would build up enough for her to have a decent retirement. Any and all advice is more than welcome!Also, I know I might be lacking in information. This post is mostly impulsive because I LITERALLY found out more info on her financial situation 5 minutes ago. Im freaking out! But I will update as I go. Im gonna try and look at her stuff tonight or tomorrow.Thanks for you help in advance!EDIT: Sorry for the confusion on how much my mom has. And I apologize for the misleading title, I guess I meant my mom has no money in any retirement accounts. My mistake :UPDATE: Okay, I sat my mom down and looked at her stuff. She plans on filing this years taxes later this week, but I got a pretty good picture of her financial situation through the past 2 years of her taxes.She has been paying ALOT in taxes, but that has to do with her having to pay the full 15 due to her being self employed, which I had completely forgotten about. Looks like her gross income was just shy of 40k total for the past two years. I get W-2s from my employer, so Ive been kinda spoiled that I didnt have to keep track of my income AND I pay 7.5 and they cover the rest for those who arent familiar with how W-2s work, thats pretty much the rough idea. Its nice getting returns.We registered her on ssa.gov and turns out shell will probably be getting 500 a month after she retires she thinks around 70. That was a pleasant surprise!She now has a game plan for putting her cash into a savings account with 1.5 interest. Were gonna use discover since they seem very safe her words, not mine, and Ive never had a bad experience with them, so it seemed like a no-brainer. Shell hopefully have the majority in it by the end of the month.This brings me to another question: would the IRA have reason to audit her should she dump a bunch of cash into any asset, like an IRA or a 1.5 savings account? Is that something we should consider?She is already paying towards the principal of her mortgage, so it looks like shell have it payed off a few years early! And she had refinanced about 4 years ago to a 15 year amortized schedule. And that was for a balance of 86k at 2.99 interest, which blew my damn mind. That was when I found out my mom has nearly perfect credit. Last time I saw it was when i was 14 and it was barely 500! Now its over 800!She has been paying extra towards her principal, too. Looks like she may be finished paying the house about 4 years early, assuming she keeps paying the same amount. Oh, and according to some paperwork from last year, the house would be worth 300k if we can get the thing up to code. She doesnt want to sell it, but I think she understands it could be a last-ditch effort should, for some ungodly reason, everything else falls through. Which wont happen.But I mean, 2008 and all that...She refuses to invest in the market, and I dont blame her nor do I want to make her, but she is considering investing into a Roth IRA she likes the idea of not paying taxes when she needs the money and max it out as much as possible until retirement. No 401k. It doesnt seem to be really worth it. According to her, anyway. Well see after we speak to a financial planner.She doesnt have much debt. She got a new car a few months back with a principal of 12k and an interest rate of a little over 4, but she is actually considering paying it completely by years end. Otherwise, she has barely any credit card debt total of 2k which I learned was absorbed into the mortgage when she refinanced, so its like she has none at all. And she uses Cricket, which charges her like 40 a month. Shes in good shape debt-wise.We will be confirming all of this with a financial planner sometime this week after she finishes filing her taxes. Im actually excited now!So we have a game plan, we just need to talk to a pro and execute. I actually feel much better and Ive learned a lot through this experience. It fascinates me how different my moms behaviors have been over the years, but she will still, somehow, end up in a pretty decent spot when she retires. And thats all with her cleaning business she had even before I was born. I certainly feel much better.Thank you for your guys help! Feel free to comment on what we plan on doing. I love hearing from you guys.Assistant: Does your Mom pay into Social Security? If so, she may be in a better place than you think.My neighbor is in the same position... 15 years later. Her house is paid off, and lives off of Social Security.She hits food banks for extra food, but is otherwise fine, and loves her life. I would run the numbers on that 3 on her 75,000...how much in total would it be to pay it off if letting it run the rest of the mortgage? Would her bank let her pay off a chunk and recast it? We need many more details to help... Human: I believe she does, but she usually goes to a friend to file her taxes to try and lower the amount she pays in taxes every year. And that makes me think she might not be contributing to SS. I will know for sure by tonight hopefully.Yes, her credit union gave her the option of paying a one third of the amount and refinancing, but I think it would be for 15 more years at a higher interest rate. Thats why she chose not to go with it and instead consider paying off the mortgage.I know, Im so sorry for the lack of info, but I guess I really dont know what to look for when it comes to her situation. What else should I find out to update my post with?Edit: I cant spell, apparentlyAssistant: I believe she does, but she usually goes to a friend to file her taxes to try and lower the amount she pays in taxes every year. And that makes me think she might not be contributing to SS.Whether or not your mom contributed to SS really depends on two things. If she earned money from a job, and if she didnt lie on her taxes. If both of the answers are yes then your mom has contributed to SS. It is very difficult to not pay into SS if your mom was a W2 employee, even if she did lie on her taxes. Therefore, if she was a W2 employee she almost certainly paid in.Human: Thats why I have the doubt. She isnt a W2 employee. And shes always concerned about paying the least amount of taxes as possible.Assistant: She would need to pay self employment tax including SS as a self employed individual. That said, the amount she paid in is based on how much she made. So if she made 60k a year, but had a lot of business deductions that brought her down to 40k, shed have paid SS on the lower amountand the SS benefit is partially based on how much she put in over a period of time.Human: Ohhh I see. Okay, Ill hopefully get a better idea once I look at her paperwork. Thanks!  <response>: I should have addedyou can log in to the SS website and see how much shes paid in, as well as projected benefits. 