A little windfall

[Carmella]

We do not talk to my husband's sister, nothing is terribly wrong, but we just don't have much contact with her for almost 15 yrs since his father passed away.

Apparently, she filed a claim regarding their father's exposure to asbestos. Several years ago before bankruptcy my husband received a small check it was under $100. We didn't think much about it.

A few days ago he received a check for $700. I called our attorney who said it was fine for us to keep it since it's "only" $700 (to me it's not "only" it's a HUGE amount) and we are paying 100% back.

We are making payments on last year's taxes and this will go straight into those payments!

I am happy we could keep the money and in a way I'd love to have it for an "emergency" fund, but I think it's most prudent to pay on the taxes at this point in time.

I am also counting down until October when our mortgage is paid off because then we will have about $700 more in our monthly budget (the mortgage is just over $900, but we need to set $200/month aside for property taxes). We have the HELOC which is around $10,000 and we plan to put more than the minimum on that to get it paid off before our BK is completed.

It hasn't been easy lately and not even "comfortable" as it was a few months back since my second job has used me less. It seems to be picking up so I am hopeful it evens out over the next 8-9 months because once the mortgage payment is gone I can deal with less hours on my second job. I had (prior to loosing hours) thought about quitting the second job once the mortgage was paid. At this time I feel like I might just keep this second job at least until BK is done (about 3 yrs) just for that little extra income.

[sophieanne]

I'm sorry for the reason but happy it is a unexpected help for you. Hope you're doing well

[Barbisi]

Carmella ,that is wonderful news! But like sophieanne remarked, it does come from a sad source.
Hopefully this little windfall will shorten the length of time (and the interest ) you have to pay on last year's tax bill - my husband originally thought we would owe $2500 ,but he was able to whittle the bill down to $1150 ( which luckily we had been able to save up!) So no penalties and lengthy repayment terms! Hopefully we won't owe anything next year, since he should only have one job and no severance pay with different amounts withheld.
Our mortgage is set to increase (again!) because of a severe escrow shortage. You are fortunate that your mortgage will end this year! I think you are also blessed that you are able to live where you love the weather and surroundings.
In two years' time, we will hopefully be allowed to sell out and relocate to a brighter, better place for our career aspirations (what's left of them ,that is LOL) and more importantly our health! In retrospect, I wish we had never moved here in the first place, but all we can do now is wait out this BK13 and look forward to getting out of here for good!
I hope you continue to earn extra income from that second job and will be able to pay off that HELOC sooner than later. Are you still looking at getting a second car?

[Carmella]

We haven't talked to my husband's sister except maybe 1 or 2 times since their father passed away, it is a dysfunctional family situation. I am not even sure his dad was sick due to asbestos as he had taken experimental drugs for severe rheumatoid arthritis (back when joint replacements were brand new and he was one of the first to receive one) that could have contributed to his lung cancer which he came down with at 80 some years old. He was exposed to asbestos on jobs.

I am not looking forward to getting the taxes done this year. Nothing has really changed and I did not adjust the withholding so I think we will owe again.
The car situation. Now this is our choice and some may not agree. Our young adult daughter lives with us and we are allowing her to put as much money into her student loan payment as possible. And part of this is letting her use one of our cars since one car is in my name and the other is in both mine and husband's name. This is why we are sharing the car after one of our 3 cars died. Her loan was about $24,000 and should be paid off by late spring/early summer at which time she plans to save up a few months and then put money down on her own car and then near year end/early next year she plans to move out of our house.

At this point we decided just to "ride it out" by sharing the car and he takes an occasional Uber if our schedules conflict. We are trying to be positive that we work close enough together that it is workable even though not desirable and not always easy.

I think I need to calculate how much we need to pay on the HELOC per month to get it paid off before our BK is finished because we can use more cash for things like the income tax which we will probably owe each year. I really wanted to dump $700 a month into the HELOC and get it paid off in about a year, but that might not be the best approach when we have other expenses and no significant savings.

Our cash flow should be better when our daughter is out of the house, too. And if she ends up staying here a little longer once the student loan is paid we will start having her pay for groceries which doesn't sound like much, but it does add up and I am still carrying a few online subscriptions for her (job related) that she will have to take over.

It's a struggle still helping her out financially when she has a good entry level job, but our priority/value is to help her get that student loan paid off instead of making minimum payments for 20 yrs! She's not thrilled living with us and wants to be out on her own, but she wanted to take advantage of paying off her loan and figured it's worth it in the end.

I feel like if we can make it through this year it will be the toughest part. And if we really could not keep "helping" our daughter we would cut back. I had already cut back with some of the non essential groceries and occasional treats (like a manicure, etc) for her when my second job cut my hours. She is appreciative of the help we give her and she's done little nice things for us like treating us to dinner or to a movie. If she was unappreciative or a slacker we wouldn't be so generous or struggle through this. I know people who do not agree, but it's our choice. She is doing great on her job works really long hours (though it's salary) and might get a promotion later this year.

Aside from all this I giggle at Barbisi comment about loving the weather on this sloppy cold winter night Can't complain it's been a really mild winter and I do like the change of seasons!