The following article by Ron Leiber in the New York Times caught my eye this weekend.  With the almost daily difficult financial news it is important to consider how members of your family are holding up in the face of the current economic crisis.  Can you talk to your parents about their finances?  How are your own finances….are you struggling?  This article will give you some good ideas about how to connect so that you can figure out how to both approach and support each other.

But often, the grown children don’t know precisely how the devastation in the markets has affected their parents’ portfolio, and the older parents don’t know what their children’s monthly debt payments are.

None of this is fun to think about. And if you dare to open your mouth about it, relatives may take offense. Silence, however, is good for no one. You don’t want to be blindsided months or years from now by a family member in desperate straits, nor do you want to worry yourself sick when there’s no reason to.