Financial Issues – Death of Family Members

Preparing yourself for the inevitable end stage of life and financial planning.

If you are the Power of Attorney durable and medical it is very important to know these tips, and information before you feel drowned in debt. Unfortunately, there are many elderly that do not have life insurance, and if they do the last visit to the hospital or one bill will eat the money up before you are able to use it for final expenses. I am one of those people.

Let me explain, my mother died without insurance. Unexpected, sudden, and confusing as I tried to navigate her bills. I was both my mother and father’s POA, a law in our state which left me in a loop was since he was unable to understand his funds were not to be used to pay her bills. To my astonishment after going through her purse; she had eleven credit accounts every single one maxed out. I had no clue she had been “robbing Peter to pay Paul”, old school saying. She was very adept at hiding this from me. She was physically disabled and clearly not mentally. As I began to add up the bills and the number climbed past 24,000 dollars in credit, the last hospital visit bill arrived and it was well over 20,000. I became distraught, there was no way I could pay for any of these!

I was contacted by a dear family member that worked in finances and sent me some legal information, which helped immensely and today I will share that with you.

1. If you are not on the bill regardless of POA you send them a letter she/he has passed with a copy of death certificate. The end, you are not responsible.
2. There are a couple of exceptions when it is not a credit card although a credit account such as Carol Wright, Dr. Lenard, and various other small companies they do have stipulations.
3. The ones that have stipulations can be negotiated with their legal department and small payments made monthly at a fraction of the entire bill. Rule of thumb is half to one fourth.
4. Once you receive POA there are certain things you should be aware of. If there is a car in question take the registration to the title office and have a transfer on death written on the front of the title or you will be in a long battle of trying to get the auto in a name other than the transfer on death name. The same with a home or any large items that show ownership in need of transfer.
5. Probate is a long process that should be avoided as it can take years to accomplish.
6. Protect your own assets.

My journey is not yet complete for less than three years later my father passed and similar issues appeared.  I am still working with an attorney with the car. You may wonder why I am sharing? To save some mental anguish for anyone going through this same process.

 

Checking Budgets

A new year is upon us, and I have not kept up my budget blog trying to keep up with my budgets. We all go through many life changes. I happened to be having a full on life change that kept me busy leaving me in a position where much like a budget you need to allocate your time to whichever project you are working on.

With that said, I am back although still going through some major changes I am able to handle them all. Do they affect the budget? Why thank you for asking, yes they do. As in life, we will adjust accordingly. Firstly, I was told to start writing as I speak…umm yeah not so sure you will appreciate this but here it goes.

People come and go from your life, friends, family, and associates either through leaving as in walking out or they die. Then comes the odd situation of health issues such as ALZ, that person has not physically left however you hardly recognize them.  All of these at some point require a budget change. I know you are confused so I will break it down in my situation.

• I ended a relationship since I was last posting – budget change
• Part of my health care system for my father is leaving – budget change
• Friends moved – budget change (no longer need the entertainment budget)
• Father became iller – budget change (diapers, pads, wipes, peri-care)
• I am moving in with him – budget change
• New person in my life- questionable budget change

You must be ready for any scenarios you can think of when it comes to your budget from retail to gas prices. Accidents, car rentals, new additions to the family and old ones moving on. I have it under control however I realized I had not touched on this subject in any of my posts. Are you ready for any change? Do you have wiggle room? Did you give up on your budgets my friends? I hope not because they are relevant regardless if I am posting or not.

Budgeting –Time to check in

Hello there my few although very loyal followers. I am checking in to see how those budgets are looking this month. A few questions to ask yourself will be below.

• Are you staying on budget
• Have your needs changed
• Do you need to review and adjust your budget
• Lost or gained a job (income)
• Are you using all available tools to find sales and save
• Are you being honest and loyal to your budget

I have tried to post this several time, evidently I was not suppose to have done that or it would have posted three days ago.  The Midwest was warned by the media to adjust for a spike in gas prices, and it did not happen. Matter of fact it fell by a dollar. Something is going on with cows and chickens because those are the prices that are through the roof. Groceries are on the rise, but no mention to prepare for that. We can always take public transportation, but when it comes to food you are pretty much stuck with what the grocer sells.

I am still trying to figure it out, economics 101, if gas prices rise then everything rises due to transportation costs. But if gas prices drop, but food costs rise what is going on? It does not compute. Do we have shortage of chickens, is there something killing them or making them not produce? Why are the dairy products so high, is there another mad cow outbreak and we don’t know about it? Seriously don’t even get me started on meat prices. I am about to become a vegan here.  So, my budget changed I needed to allow more for groceries and take away from other categories.

I search for sales, there is not shortage in trees, paper has been on sale for weeks even before school started. Heck, I would allow them to come cut down a few unwanted trees at my house instead of stripping out the forest.

Each of us have different needs, unexpected happenstance, roof leaks, pipes burst, water tank goes out, the well quit, someone backs into your car. Those are unexpected things that happen every day. That is why it is so important to budget. However, if you are as unlucky as I am all those things do not happen one week after another in a few months time. My budget has been stretched to its limits.

Now get out your budget books, and go through them. If you are on track, leave it alone. If you are lacking then you need to adjust. It may be only temporary but it needs done.

Until next time!