I've been helping my parents — both in their 90s — with their finances. I've had to cancel subscriptions they didn't even know they had.

Ellen Jones had to cancel subscriptions her 93-year-old dad didn't know he was paying for. Courtesy of Ellen Jones Ellen Jones, 60, from Kelso, Tennessee, has been helping her aging parents sort their finances. She spent hours on the phone canceling a credit card and subscriptions her dad hadn't used in years. If she could go back, she would have asked her parents to write down their financial information. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ellen Jones. It has been edited...