Girls Just Wanna Have Funds » Family http://www.girlsjustwannahavefunds.com Breaking Financial Ceilings One Stiletto At A Time! Mon, 17 Nov 2008 04:21:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 en Looking To The Past In Order To UnderStand The Present: Family Finance History http://www.girlsjustwannahavefunds.com/2008/07/looking-to-the-past-in-order-to-understand-the-present-family-finance-history/ http://www.girlsjustwannahavefunds.com/2008/07/looking-to-the-past-in-order-to-understand-the-present-family-finance-history/#comments Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:00:48 +0000 Ginger http://www.girlsjustwannahavefunds.com/2008/07/looking-to-the-past-in-order-to-understand-the-present-family-finance-history/  

This month the PF Bloggers are writing about Family Finance History in our monthly writing project.

Looking back I would say that my immediate family has been pretty responsible with money.  My mom was and is an avid saver and actually bought her home with 20% down a few years ago in NYC.  Yah, the responsible one :-)  My dad was definitely the frugal one in the bunch and never failed to sit me down in the dairy aisle explaining to me why Kraft sliced cheese wasn’t worth the extra money.  I’ll never forget the day he sat me down in the aisle comparing ingredients and showing me that its all the same except for the packaging.  Neat right?  One of my favorite memories.

My uncle, I’m not too sure about.  He does own a 2 million dollar home but has waded in and out of credit card debt and likes expensive toys.  I reckon he must be able to afford it since he is currently debt free with the exception of his mortgage.  I have a date to pick his brain about his latest strategy needless to say.  :-)

Now, I do have family from the country who just think money grows on trees.  They don’t really want to work for it, get and education to learn how to use it or take lessons from others on how to spend it.  I and other members of my family who live here in the States just get multiple phone calls asking for money at least once a month.  I’ve cut off a few cousins and told them not to call me anymore after burning through a wad of cash on my last visit.

That mentality is what drives me today.  I don’t want to be broke and dependent on anyone for money to survive or put food on the table.  I am not sure what enables one set of kids to think differently about money when they were all raised under the same roof but my mom has a totally different approach to money and how it operates in her life than do her siblings.  Much like my brother and I.  Anyone who knows me in real life knows that I am motivated by money and Im thinking constantly on ho to make more of it because I want to live a life with the only limits being those I impost upon myself.  My brother on the other hand is complacent with his relationship with money.  Mostly because he has yet to implement the tools given to him by our parents and lil ole me!

My current relationship with money as a young twenty something is shaped mainly because of how my mother made sure to save at least 40% of her take home pay.  My dad being uber frugal and knowing where his money went.  I’ve seen my  mom save for big ticket items and be miserly and dare I say cheap on smaller items.  I’ve always admired her respect for money and never making it her master and while I have a ways to go with that, it’s taught me serious lessons about money.  but my less then fortunate family drives my money mentality as well, I can’t imagine being dependent on others simply because I refuse to learn for  myself.  In looking at my past and family histoory with money I can clearly see how its shaped who I am financially today.

What’s your family history with money?  Have you learned any important lessons?


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]]> http://www.girlsjustwannahavefunds.com/2008/07/looking-to-the-past-in-order-to-understand-the-present-family-finance-history/feed/ Thoughts On Managing a Parent’s Illness and Possible Continuing Care Options http://www.girlsjustwannahavefunds.com/2008/04/thoughts-on-managing-a-parent%e2%80%99s-illness-and-possible-continuing-care-options/ http://www.girlsjustwannahavefunds.com/2008/04/thoughts-on-managing-a-parent%e2%80%99s-illness-and-possible-continuing-care-options/#comments Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:46:37 +0000 Ginger http://www.girlsjustwannahavefunds.com/2008/04/thoughts-on-managing-a-parent%e2%80%99s-illness-and-possible-continuing-care-options/
Creative Commons License photo credit: tempophage

Over the last few days I’ve been forced to think about possible continuing care options given my father in law’s recent stroke and seizure over the weekend. We were not prepared to deal with a major illness in that it required care after leaving the hospital. As adult children the thought of long term care is a daunting one at least it was for me.

Retiring Early and Losing Independence Due to Major Illness or Disability
My father in law (FIL) was forced out of his job due to his illness so he had no choice but to take the severance and wait for Social Security to kick in which it did this year. This no doubt led to his subsequent depression and isolation from friends and family as having a job at his age contributed to his sense of livelihood and independence.

I have often wondered why would any one want to work after the legal age of retirement but I fully understand the reasoning now. While visiting with him yesterday I had a chance to see and understand how deeply committed he is to remaining independent in certain aspects of his life. I think we could/should have paid more attention to his health once he retired but he always assured us that he was fine and life would go on. He continued to look for work and of course let his health slip by not following the appropriate diet recommendation for his diabetes and hypertension.

Senior Adult Individual Health Insurance
Is there even such a thing? After several talks with my spouse’s group plan administrator we figured that adding my FIL would not be an option. I will go through his Employee Assistance Program to see what options they may have to assist us in this transition. We also came across these programs while researching our options to supplement his Medicaid coverage from About.com:

Maryland Health Insurance Plan (MHIP)
MHIP offers coverage to individuals who are unable to purchase an individual health insurance policy because they have pre-existing health conditions. It also covers “HIPAA-eligible” individuals as described above. The MHIP website has information on their eligibility requirements, current premium rates, and a fact sheet which details the benefits available under their program here.

Maryland Health Insurance Plan
10455 Mill Run Circle
Mail Stop RR-291
Owings Mills, MD 21117-9185
Phone: 443-738-0667 OR 1-888-444-9016

Maryland Senior Health Insurance Assistance Program(SHIP)
SHIP provides free one-on-one counseling for Medicare beneficiaries with questions about any aspect of Medicare, including the new Part D prescription drug benefit, or Medigap coverage.

Medicaid
Medicaid is a government program designed to help the poor and indigent obtain health care services. Pregnant women and children under age 19 who meet certain income requirements may be eligible for Medicaid coverage, along with aged, blind, and disabled individuals. For more information about Maryland’s Medicaid program, including eligibility requirements, contact Maryland Medicaid at the number listed below.

Maryland Medicaid
Phone:1.800.492.5231 or (410) 767-5800

Ive already been in contact with the SHIP program and awaiting word from the administrator on how we may move forward.

Finding Important Documents In An Emergency

Get a lockbox. If your parents don’t have one, buy one for them. The time will come when you’ll need all important documents and this keeps everything in one place. This is especially important as we scrambled to find their important documents as neither kept them in a lock box. This included insurance, medical (allergies, current medications, medical histories), final wishes documents etc. You’d be surprised how much you don’t know when in a quasi-emergency situation when one or all of these documents are needed and you don’t know where to find them.

We don’t live in the same state as our parents so we had no idea where to find anything outside of talking to family members who pieced together information as we passed it on to the doctors and dealt with the insurance company. For the love and sanity of your children please put all important documents in an accessible lockbox, preferably fireproof.

This is an ongoing process so I will be writing about what we finally decide to do with regards to his care depending on the results of a few tests and what happens after he is released from the hospital today.

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