One area Dee and I had a strong difference of opinion was in the use of credit and carrying debt. I think we all know that I am a anti Credit and Debt Zealot Dee was not she believed in maintaining that perfect 850 credit score and credit history. While I believe in maintaining a perfect 300 credit score and no credit history. Which is why we kept our individual finances totally separate and non marital beyond being listed as the beneficiary on each other financial accts but in no way being connected to each others Debts or Credit or lack of. The one exception to the His Financials and Her Financials was the OUR Joint Checking Account that we both contributed to equally to pay the shared Monthly/yearly expenses. So when she passed away and I became the Executor, PA and Sole Beneficiary of her estate, I essentially inherited her outstanding debts and obligations. Or Rather her estate did but to my way of thinking I did since I am responsible for the Estate even if not personally responsible for paying those obligations. At about week 2 after her passing I began a witch hunt to find and list all of her outstanding debts and assets. I really expected to find more than I did. I found $40,000ish in unpaid medical debt over the last year that was from Co-Pays and Medications/Treatments/Test that insurance didn't Cover, She insisted on financing half of the New Tractor in 2022 and there was still $30,500 owed on it, She financed her new truck and left a balance of $20,000 due and had 3 credit cards with a $7500 balance between them outstanding. Which again to my way of thinking put me in $98,000 of debt. Almost all of the medical debt was under one Hospital and their network of hospitals and labs they own. They accounted for $38,000 of the medical debt I called their billing/collections last Thursday to pay the balance and was informed that there was no need to because the balances on all outstanding accounts for her were at ZERO and that the money owed had been waived. And that a document stating that had been mailed out on Tuesday. I received that Document today and yep they basically just waived and wrote the balance due off. Kind of annoyed me because they were legitimate debts that were owed but their choice not mine. I may not like or use debt but I do believe firmly in paying it if you owe it. That left a little over $2,000 from facilities outside of the main medical debts. They were happy to get paid Thursday and I am happy that they will no long be sending me nastygrams demanding payment Between HER bank Accts and Her Life Insurance Check finally arriving there was enough in the new checking account I opened just for consolidating her financial assets in as they come in. I am pleased to say that as of 11:50AM this morning every outstanding debt and obligation that Dee owed is no paid in full! Kubota Credit Corporation was hands down the absolute worst nightmare to pay to the point that I will never spend another penny on Kubota Anything going forward! Great Tractors but a terrible Corporation now days and absolutely worthless customer service. GM Financial for her truck was the absolute BEST to work with, their customer service was top shelf all the way. Kubota Credit Corp should start attending the GM Financial Customer service trainings to learn how to NOT piss their 30+ year loyal customers off to the point that the Loyalty is gone. The important thing though is EVERYTHING is paid and there is once again ZERO debt in my life in anyway....... LOL I am the guy that won't write a check unless I absolutely have to because I consider it to be a debt and credit from the time it is written until the time it clears the bank Cash, Cashiers Checks,ACI Payments, Debit Cards and if I need a Credit Card I get a prepaid one. If I need a loan I keep $25,000 in a Perpetual CD Acct at the bank that I can borrow from and pay myself back with interest So the money coming in from her estate into the checking account just for it. I have NOT touched that money other than to pay debts and did not touch it until I was 1000% certain all of her debts had been paid. Seen to many horror stories where someone spent the inheritance before the debts were paid and then those debts DO become your personal debts. LOL I don't want to be that guy Now all that remains is to collect the Money that the State Owes the Estate and get my survivor benefits for her pension and health insurance reinstated. I met with my lawyer on Friday and he is very confident that the State is going to become much more amicable in the next week and everything they owe and are obligated to provide done and cleared in the the next 3-4 weeks. He said basically between Me, Him, the Accountant and the Union that we are being such a pain in their ass they are starting to really want me to just go away at this point. A key thing in all of this has been keeping her estate out of Probate. Every bank and financial institution has a form where you can list beneficiaries or a sole beneficiary to the account (s) If any acct is worth more than $100,000 and that form in concert with a WILL does not exist the estate goes automatically into probate and then you have legal fees and court cost that are not exactly cheap. Naming a Sole beneficiary on every acct and having a well written will in place avoids ALL of that probate mess. It also effectively shoots down anyone that might want to dispute or contest things. The 'I am the Spouse it automatically comes to me." belief is true if the Estate is worth less than $99,999.99 in cash/liquid assets. That does exclude real estate, retirement funds, life insurance policies etc. There are also probate mandates if debts vs assets are at some threshold but I had no reason to learn about that side of it as the lawyer said we were not even close to that applying. So after paying the last $50,000 in debts off today I am now the proud owner of a 10 Months old Ram 1500 with 4500 miles on it and own the half of the tractor that I didn't before (I put the $30,000 down payment on it and Dee Financed $35,000 of it.) Kubota right out the gate started threatening to repo the tractor so my lawyer put lien on it based on the $30,000 I had put down on it calling it a loan secured by my interest in the tractor. So they couldn't just repo it, I guess it also had protections from repo as being a asset in a estate. Anyway doesn't matter now it is paid in full and the lawyer is withdrawing my lien against it on Monday. Basically I could pay $30,000 and keep the tractor or Kubota could pay me $30,000 and repo the tractor. 6 of one and a half dozen of the other. But I do love smart lawyers that know how to play the games and play them well..... when they are on my side And back on track I was left with $46,900 from the cash assets collect so far. And I went on a wild spending spree buying paint and flooring to replace the flooring the dogs ate Since I am giving the new house to my daughter and staying in the Cabin, I decided to revamp the Cabin like me and Dee were going to do and decided not to do after we started planning the new house. Sooo I got home with Primer, Paint, and new industrial vinyl floor planks and took all of the shelves down and piled it in the center of the cabin cleaned the walls good and started slinging primer on the walls. Yeah I need to get rid of that temp electric line I wired in back in 2020 when the Cabin became a work from home State field office LOL Dee needed a lot more outlets to run all of her office stuff and computers. I may keep them but pull the wire up and pull it down in the wall and make the outlets recessed. I is kind of handy having 3 additonal boxes on that side and anothr two on the opposite side. LOL right now letting the primer dry over night and looking in there...... it looks like all I accomplished today was making huge mess and piling everything that was organized on shelved in the middle of the living/dining room. The start of creating the giant mess I like 1/2" plywood walls and while I initially didn't care for the barn steel ceiling Dee wanted...... it has kind of grown on me since I screwed it up. And it was a practical use to the steel left over from building the machine shed. I strongly dislike cabinets and pantries. I do like large open wall shelves. Mice and vermin love cabinets and pantries...... they strongly dislike open wall shelves We don't get a mouse in the house very often but when we do they go straight for the few cabinets we have. Plus things are in plain sight on shelves and don't disappear and get lost for all time like they tend to do in cabinets. Paint first and then the flooring. The Grey was on clearance for 50% off VS the Oak or burnt pine. At half Price I really like the grey color flooring LOL. The washer and dryer used to be in the warehouse. I am no longer going to heat the warehouse over winter and washing machine water pumps it seems stay full of water and freeze and crack. I have no intention of waiting 12 weeks again for a replacement pump and then spending two hours wrestling the cracked on off and the new one on. So I moved both into the short hallway in the cabin. LOL I don't use 240 appliance cords on electric stoves or dryers..... I just wire the cable straight in to them and skip having to have a outlet all together. I had to get the pipe fittings to go up from the hot and cold water lines above the HW heater in the bathroom. have to go up into the loft over and then back down and do some zig zagging with the pipe to get there. I found that my Connector, 90, 45 and threaded to hose adapter bins were pretty much depleted and so I restocked all of my plumbing parts today. Poo and BB are displeased with everything going on in their Cabin today and are having a meeting and discussing how to off me and still get fed. I bought the cabin as a repo so it came as is...... For $5500 VS $12,000 back then I figured I could replace the tiny windows it came with. Except I never got around to replacing the tiny windows it came with. So today while at the box store I ordered 4 of these two of them 60x48 and two 36x48 Easy enough to cut the wall out for them head it, frame it and stick them in and seal them up. Big ones in the living/dining room and the smaller two in the bedroom. The passive airflow in the Cabin SUCKs these should correct that. Didn't spend A LOT $1400 for the paint, flooring and plumbing stuff and $1600 on the 4 windows. Pretty low cost actually for some major Cabin Upgrades. We are going to resume finishing the new house up in the spring. It is still unfinished enough that we can customize it for my Daughter and her husband. Like she would rather split the 16' x24' master bedroom in to 2 smaller bedrooms and have 3 bedrooms on the ground floor rather than two. The Grand Daughter has no interest in a ground floor bedroom and and wants the 12x16 South loft room for her bedroom. So we are going to finish next spring and summer to however they decide they want it. I really am very content and happy in the Cabin. It really did need to be updated and improved but like Dee said there is no point in doing anything with the Cabin if we are going to move in to the new house. Well now there is a point to doing all that stuff we talked about doing in the cabin And Going down and working on the house is just more than I can take, it invokes a visions of a future that was stolen and memories of everything WE had done building the house to where it is now. Just a emotional roller coaster every time I walk through the house door. It should be a lot easier working in there with the Daughter and SIL. And I have to stay busy or things get quiet and then I start thinking and then that roller coaster takes off
You're doing exactly as you should be buddy. Those who have left us would never want us to stop our lives. Great job on being debt free again, great feeling isn't it! This should be the number 1 priority on any prepper list. I actually sat down with a state representative a few years ago and talked about making property tax exempt after 60 years of age, but it seems government greed can't be bargained with, so we all stay in debt to the tax man, which isn't fair by any measure. I really like the cabin. I have been weighing the thoughts of a "barndominium", steel building on a slab with living quarters tucked into the corner. Basically have a cabin inside with the looks of a commercial building outside. I think it was a Godsend that the daughter arrived back into your life at this particular time. I'm glad things are working in a positive way for you now.
Happy to hear things are starting to look up for you, smart lawyer you have,, never knew you could put a lien on something the way your lawyer did . When is the daughter and grandkids arrival expected ? That'll be good for you ,, and them ,, I believe.
Yep almost debt free myself except for about $1200 I charged for new Milwaukee cordless power tools. I've decided to replace all my corded tools except for the chop miter saw and router. Buying a couple every month. The credit card I took out in July has an introductory interest rate of 0% for 18 months, which runs 'till the end of this year. So I don't mind floating a small balance for awhile. Just don't want to let it get too big. When my wife passed away about 6 months ago we owed $7500 on a Visa card (house, property, 2019 Diesel truck, and her 2021 Bronco Sport were already paid for). I went to the bank to report her death and the manager there, when he discovered the outstanding balance, instructed me NOT to pay a dime on it. She was the principal borrower on the account and he said that by the time it wound its way through their estate department, I'd owe ZERO. The credit card was immediately cancelled, as were all her others, leaving me with none since mine were all linked to her accounts. I applied for and got 2, but only use only the one with no interest. I still owed $4000 to Wells Fargo for a $14,000 heat pump we had replaced in 2021 but that was in my name and she had expressed a desire to pay off the remaining balance a couple months before she passed away. I paid it off in mid-July and closed the acct. The hospital racked up nearly $100,000 in medical in the 24 hours she spent there before she passed away, but Medicare Advantage settled for about $16,000. Ridiculous! I ended up owing $250 for the ambulance, which I paid, and another $225 in copays according to the Medicare Advantage insurance statement, for which I have yet to receive a bill from the hospital. If/when they send one, I'll pay it. The biggest bills are taxes and insurance, which I pay yearly. Taxes on my house are nearly $2000 / year and it's nothing special. Terrible since Democrats took over the county a few years back. My improved remote property in a very Red county up north (same state) is less than $150 / year. Insurance on the House is another $1000. Vehicle insurance is $2500. I could drop insurance altogether since I don't owe anything, but Heaven help in the event of a loss. So like you KK, I've been clearing out, getting rid of stuff, mainly to Goodwill. I'm going through the house room by room. I worked on the living room almost immediately, hauling two old carpet beetle infested love seats to the dump, mopping the ceiling and scrubbing the walls down to the floor, then scrubbing the floor and treating for the beetles. Then I set to work on one of the bedrooms she used as an office for awhile but had kind of abandoned for several years. She had wanted to clear it out and had purchased new desk, but it remained unassembled in the shipping box. With the help of her sister I cleared everything out, gave the old desk to Goodwill, then did the same cleaning treatment as the living room. I assembled the new desk and set up a new computer on it that she had purchased but never used. Just about done in that room and need to decide which one I want to do next. Still have a bunch of her clothes in the master BR closet. Still have two more bedrooms to go through, one more bathroom, the dining room, and an addition to clear out, dust, clean and treat. Then there's the laundry room, my shop and a large shed. Like you, going to be busy for awhile.
That's one thing the wife and I agree on is no debt that can't be paid off. We are basically debt free --house, cars, trucks paid off, no credit card debt. Only constant debt is is paying the GD tax man both state and federal. Kamp glad you got all of Dee's debts squared away
What I have learned about myself a long time ago is that when it comes making payments and paying bills in general...... I AM NOT A RESPONSIBLE ADULT. I mean it is time to pay the electric bill when the lineman is her getting ready to pull the meter......... right??? The only reason I am keeping the Electric/Water/Insurance etc paid on time now, is because of this wonderful thing call AUTO PAY. I don't even want to think about the property taxes. Every property owner in the County got a letter from the assessors office around 6 weeks ago informing us that our taxes would be increasing 155% across the board in 2024. That is the one debt that none of us can escape. Renters say well at I don't have to pay property taxes........ Yeah they do its calculated into the rent LOL one way or another unless you are homeless living on the street you are paying property taxes. As much as I complain about my property tax...... it is not horrible. It just annoys me that when I bought the first 40 acres the property tax with a old Mobile Home and a barn on it both pretty much falling apart... Was $68 in the 16 years since that has increased to $1290 Looks like a 155% increase will take that to $1999.50 I think.... to early in the day for mathing LOL. Median household income in this County is $32,800 and average age of 51 that translates to a lot of older lower income property owners that are going to get taxed off their property. Covid and Inflation put a lot of people that were doing OK and making it, on the edge and walking a financial Razor Blade I still have 14x32 building full of Dee's stuff to sort through. I decided to wait until spring and some warm weather before setting up the folding tables outside of the overhead door and starting the grind of going through it all. It like the STUFF just never ends LOL. It does get kind of hard getting rid of her treasures that just mean nothing to me other they were hers. But it makes no sense to keep 448 sqft of stuff in boxes and totes stacked almost to the ceiling. We got about half of that building gone through and then moved the rest of her stuff that was in a smaller building and a shipping container into the 14x32 warehouse so all of her stuff was in one place and easier to sort through when it warms up. LOTS of Clothes and Shoes....... I often wonder just how many shoes does one woman really need LOL. Surprised me about the lien as well but there was a document stating that I put the $30,000 down payment on it and held a interest in the tractor but not ownership in the the tractor and some other legal mumbo jumbo and that allowed for him to place a lien on the tractor to protect my interest in it. LOL so basically I paid the tractor half she owed and then did a repo on it myself to recover my $30,000 interest in the tractor. She works remotely in management for one of the big insurance companies and he is the senior IT Department Manager for the same Company and works remotely as well. So they can move anywhere in the world with reasonably high speed internet. But they are 4 years in to a 30 year Mortgage, the kids are in school, and it is a Big Move from the City they are in to here.... 250 Miles one way and 500 mile moving round trips. It will also be a MAJOR life adjustment for all of them as they have never lived out side of City with less than 100,000 population. So in the Spring and summer they are going to start coming for 2 and 4 week stays to work on the house with me and hopefully start adapting to a much different world than the one they have lived their whole lives in. LOL the Son in Law was born and raised in Philly and thought when he moved to a City of 150,000 that he had moved rural and out in the sticks. Don't know how he will do moving to a large County Township with 31 households in the entire township LOL. And the biggest towns in a 40-50 mile radius being 20,000-25,000 populations But STL is only a bit over 2 hours away and Evansville is a little over a hour and half. So if he just has to have him self some City they are not that far away. My Younger Daughter finally sent me a friend request on FB and we talked for a long while on there over the last week. LOL she lives in the Middle of Nowhere a 100 miles outside of Billings Montana and is in the middle of messy divorce and is moving back to IL when it is over. Her divorce should be final in March and she asked if it would be OK if she came and visited me then. LOL Her Older sister told me that translates to she is getting totally screwed over in the divorce and is coming back with almost nothing and when she comes and visits don't plan on her leaving anytime soon. She is a Vet tech and I guess a little better than halfway to being a vet. Older Daughter tells me that she is way to much like me.... Like she is a Female version of me, that like animals more than people and is all in to the rural living self sufficiently thing. She just married a guy in Montanta and moved there and it was great for a couple of years until he decided she made a better punching bag than wife. Anyway she is welcome to come and visit or to come and stay either way and she can finish her Vet Education up here and I know our local vet clinic would welcome a young new vet as they are totally swamped 6 days per week and can't get more vets to come work there. The main Vet there is a good friend and told me to send her to the clinic and she has a Vet Tech job waiting because they are short on vet techs as well.... In particular large animal vet techs and well she has worked on a cattle ranch under the Ranch Vet as his assistant vet tech for 5 years while working on becoming a vet herself. So here might be the perfect place for her to land.
I learned the hard way that debt that you might have under control and be able to keep up on...... Can become your worst nightmare when you hit a bump in the road, blow a tire and everything goes sideways. Took me 3 years to dig back out of that hole I got myself in to. I WILL NOT EVER get in that position again! I have a couple of friends that got trapped in that payday and title loan trap back in the early days of 2020 and Covid and they are still trapped in that vicious loop to this day and can't get out of it. Well they could but it would mean doing without everything for a couple of Months and losing the vehicles they keep redoing the title loans on every Month to pay the previous Months Title loan. Talk about predatory lending. But even those wonderful 5% cash back credit cards are great until you hit a rut and can't pay the balance every month and get farther and farther behind over time until you are afraid to answer you phone because it is most likely the collection agency hounding you for the money you owe. Yeah Screw That if you have ZERO debt things might get tight but you can't fall down that debt and collections hole. Kind of scary that Consumer Credit Debt it at record highs and Consumer Credit Debt Defaults are also at all time highs.
KK, I am completely debt free also and would not even consider buying something on credit. It's just the way I am. I pay cash for anything I want or need whether it be a truck or a chocolate bar and if I can pay for it then I do without. I'm not saying this is good for everyone but it suites me find also it is much less stress. I also have my normal recurring bills, like electric, internet, etc. on AUTO pay because if I didn't I know I would either forget or have to jump through my a$$ to pay them probably on the very last day. Yeah, we're very much alike...I'm just prettier. So, I guess if we don't hear from you in the near future Poo and BB's meeting went against you and you're in some dark hole somewhere?
I'm mostly debt free myself, other than the basics, power, phone , etc. The big debt I have now is the taxman. Kinda got behind on him ,, just fell into a rut for some reason. But ,, if some snot nosed new tax collecting agent shows up with a gun to collect,, I might not have to worry about that debt ,,, itd be a good chance for him to test his marksmanship,,, ,, just kidding taxman ,,, just show up with a sense of humor . Sounds like you'll be having plenty of company soon ,, good thing ya got a nice sized spread,, ya got enough room to walk off and get some alone time if ya need it .
Those two Dogs of the 6 absolutely hate the most minor of changes. If I don't park the truck where I normally do they are worked up about it for a hour.
Rarely do I talk about let alone show my fishing poles. But since I was putting everything back on the shelves figured a couple of pictures might give someone some ideas about storing their fishing poles. It is better stocked than it looks
The great thing about being debt free is not giving someone money (interest) to use their money. kamp-krap Nice work!
Not so sure about that storage, KK. If you really, really needed one of those "fishing poles" right now, there's a lot of glassware in front of them that's got to be moved first, or is going to make one heck of a mess when you just yard it all onto the floor to get behind it.
