Growing up in an South Asian (Indian) family it's very common for us to fall in the steps of our parents in IT, computer science, and medicine.

It sounds cumbersome but if that's what it takes.The first fine we received was because a tenant had ripped out her living room carpet (her child urinated on it), dumped it on the sidewalk (without an type of communication to us) and required we change it which we had agreed to prior not including the rip it yourself part.

My inheritance from my parents somewhere in those three decades would give a decent bump but not too much.I could take most of that 1K and make a good dent in my loans, especially with no interest being accrued in response to COVID.

(my sister will get my assets and custody of my child if something happens to my husband and myself).

Do your parents have a cell phone?

In my parents' sink in their house I used the cheap generic liquid drain dissolver product they sell at WalMart (it seriously costs under $1.00 for the entire bottle) - after it sits one boils water and dumps it down the drain per the instructions and it works well. 

So giving a gift card or otherwise finding out the interest of the person you are trying to interact with shows you took personal time to understand them and make a high energy effort to connect.That favorite restaurant could have been where they had a first date, learned they were having a child, kids graduation from high school, whatever.

The home is in a good area close to a very good school that parents are fighting to get their kids in.

My parents 30 year fixed mortgage is currently at about 5% and they have been turned down for refinance due to their fixed/low retirement income.

Personally, I don't have an excessively large portfolio but I get postcards, texts, unmarked letters, and interrupted with phone calls daily on my phones, my husbands phone, and now my CHILD's phone!