@GeorgiaGirl1230 SIL mentioned above's mom also filed for bankruptcy so at least you learned from it. When we were younger, big trips would take us a while to pay off. Now we have various accounts for saving for different things (rainy day/emergency, trips/car downpayment, etc.). DH has them through ING and if you have $10k in an account it earns a lot more. Obviouisly 401(k)s (or the equivalent) and rainy day accounts should be funded first, but DH has money go into certain accounts before he even sees it in his paycheck. I participate in my company's employee stock purchase program as my form of forced saving that I don't really see, then we sell some of the stock every once in a while and reallocate it to various funds. Also, we should talk about 529s later (I feel like someone mentioned this but maybe it was in MBF). We did one through the state of Nevada even though we live in California since CA doesn't offer any benefits. Some states offer tax benefits so my brother and SIL set up my nephew's in their state of VA. Depending where we move next, we will potentially open a new one in whatever state we move to if they offer tax benefits. Plus we'll have one for this baby, likely in Nevada as well, although they are transferable between siblings. And this has me thinking about wills and trusts which is also very important to get set up before or very, very soon after baby comes.
I am certainly worried about finances with this LO on the way. Between DH and I l, we have students loans (around 80k), a mortgage, and a car payment. Our debt seems significant although I feel like student loan and house debt is better debt to have the credit card and such. DH read a Dave Ramsey book and has tried really hard to follow his thinking on paying back loans. He has been able to pay off 1 of his 5 student loans already, which is awesome! Despite this, we both have pretty good credit scores. I’m just not sure how to pay back my student loans in a timely manner. Being a teacher doesn’t allow for easy pay back! 😂
@kvh22 I would love a thread on 529’s! I know dh and I just need to get a financial advisor, but we are dragging our feet to do that. My parents currently have a 529 they fund for ds as gifts, but I can’t decide if we should add our savings contributions for him to that one or open our own. Probably open our own so it’s not ‘all our eggs in one basket’ but I’d love feedback/more info!
@aels12 I had one college fund and a savings account. My college fund did really well. I went to an expensive (for my area) private college and my college fund lasted 2.5 years of it! Most of my money went into the college fund. The savings was more of small contributions here and there that helped me buy a car as a teenager.
@mrskoz428 have you ever looked into loan forgiveness programs associated with teaching at lower income schools for a certain period of time? I can get 100% of the balance of my law school loans forgiven after I work for a non profit for 10 years while making payments. I'm at 8 years and counting! I feel like the programs for teachers don't require such a long time commitment.
@aels12 I just started one with some basic info from a government website but hopefully others can comment with some input. DH did most of the research for ours but we discussed thoroughly so if people actually take interest in the thread, I'll provide more of my own insight but wanted to start with the facts and outline what it is.
@sleepy33 yes, I have. I have to work 5 years at a low income school, which I do. However, because I’m just a “regular” elementary teacher and not working in special ed or secondary STEM subjects, I’m only eligibile for 5k if forgiveness, which is better than nothing!
@aels12 I found this article (updated yearly it seems) helpful for picking DD's 529 plan. https://clark.com/education/clarks-529-plan-guide/ We do scholarshare in California. CA doesn't have any state tax benefits for 529 plans, but this program has some of the lowest expenses which will help our money grow faster.
@GeorgiaGirl1230 I’m in a similar boat. We live within our means but do not use credit cards, and I think we are missing out. I’ll admit my mom is a huge DR fan, so that has influenced me. We’ve been able to buy a home without credit. My loans are paid off but my husband’s studnent loans are not yet. But I think we need a card for point for hotels and flights— bc I’m always paying full price for those!
@kvh22 I have a 529 set up for ds, but you are so right in that a will is very important. We need to do that ASAP but im intimidated.
@alexva2017 don't be intimidated by wills! There are lots of easy to use and cheap programs like LegalZoom, if you don't want to bother with an attorney. For most younger couples who don't have a ton of assets or complications, it's very straightforward.
@mrskoz428 have you ever looked into loan forgiveness programs associated with teaching at lower income schools for a certain period of time? I can get 100% of the balance of my law school loans forgiven after I work for a non profit for 10 years while making payments. I'm at 8 years and counting! I feel like the programs for teachers don't require such a long time commitment.
I had about 50k in grad school loans and have worked for a nonprofit for 13 years, so I looked into the program you mentioned. Unfortunately, they were going to force me to refinance my loans based on my income to qualify for the program and in the end I would have paid the loans off before I would qualify. Also, don't quote me on this because I never actually looked into it, but I heard that they demolished the public service loan forgiveness program in the 2017 tax reform bill. Though it may have just been that the standard deduction was now so high that most people couldn't write off their SL interest on their taxes, b/c I never read anything specifically on this- just heard secondhand from a friend.
Also, I hate to break it to you all- but that tax bill totally screwed basically everyone who is not super rich. A lot of people are going to have some sad news that they aren't getting as much money back as in past years or that they have to pay in. I am so dreading hear from, our tax guy this year.. :-(
Oh and on the will discussion @alexva2017- my FIL is an estate planning attorney, so he did ours for free. But I think that the issue of estate planning is more emotionally difficult than it actually difficult to figure out. Mainly, picking a guardian for your children. We would pick DH's sister in a heartbeat as she lives nearby and is well-known to DD, BUT she is now married to a douche who we would barely want DD to see much less grow up raised by. I have 3 brothers and 2 are married with kids. One sister in law is a complete and total lunatic asshole, who also falls into the category of someone I would not want my kids to grow up with. The other is fine. We aren't super close, but I don't think she would permanently scar my kids. That brother, on the other hand, is a total helicopter parent who is constantly nagging on his kid to do things a different way. It's infuriating to watch his parenting style. Unfortunately, he is the brother I would TRUST the most to be a response with our kids' inheritance and ensure that they go to college, etc etc. We still look at each other after every visit and wonder if we made the right decision, but we just hope and pray it would never ever come to that.
@chloe97 IDK, I consolidated all of my federal loans under SM years ago, and have been submitting the proof of qualifying payments ever since with no problems. Have not heard that it was impacted in 17. That being said, my income prior to this job has been low enough to qualify for their income sensitive repayment options, if that tells you anything, so IDK if I just fall into a 'poor enough' category to qualify for it or what lol
Same here @chloe97. The only reason our wills aren’t done is we can’t decide who would take our kids god forbid. Everybody has pros and cons. We did get life insurance squared away though. Need to do POA (medical and financial) and living wills too.
Big TW
Its a morbid conversation but we discussed what DH would do if something happened during delivery and he had to choose between saving me or the baby. I would never want him to have to decide that on his own in that type of situation. There is no right or wrong answer and you hope it never happens but if he had to decide that quickly by himself he would always feel like he made the wrong choice. End TW
@chloe97 I would definitely want my parents to be the guardians. My brothers aren’t mature enough (or married or have kids) and my in-laws live 3000 miles away and don’t know ds as well; they also want to travel a lot while my parents have no plans on moving or travel beyond a few weeks here or there. So I really just need to do it...I think i was scared off by the lawyer part, so online will work.
@chucksmom15 ugh life insurance too. Need to do it. I feel like I’m typically a responsible person but then sometimes I feel like such a kid! Must get it together.
The guardian question is going to be a tough one for us. We are both only children and the only family we have that we are close enough to are our parents, all of whom are getting up there in age and aren’t exactly is great health so much as I m sure they would want to do a good job raising our child realistically I’m just not sure how well or how long they would be able to manage. And I’d feel a little weird asking friends because I feel like that is a lot to put on someone who isn’t family.
We recently decided that if we passed, my best friend of 18 years would take our boys. Prior to this discussion and revelation, there was no one we trusted would honor our wishes. Both sets of parents have their own sets of old fashioned issues. My mil is very uptight and all about rules, while my mom is the opposite. Neither thinks he's autistic, so I don't believe either would respect my wishes and get the help he needs. My mom, while more fun, has her own set of issues I would never want my sons to deal with. H doesn't like any of his siblings. I am an only child. So, this friend and I talked about a week ago and it makes sense. We talk daily. She doesn't live in the state, but she knows everything about me, how I parent, my values, what I want my boys to learn and how I want them to grow. She's said she'd be willing to move here so the boys wouldn't have to leave their childhood home.
@chloe97 yup—virtually everyone is screwed this year. I’m very much screwed because I live in a state with high taxes and the tax bill capped the amount of state/local taxes you can deduct, which will have a major impact. This primarily impacts people in blue states, which I’m sure is a complete coincidence! 😉
it is a tough conversation. My parents are getting old and live in South America, my FIL and MIL passed away years ago, DH has 2 siblings, much older and living in England and I have only 1 brother who lives in Phoenix And he is great but he has 2 little ones, health issues, and i am not comfortable with my SIL raising my child. We would want to have our child raised by someone closer to us in age and maintain family ties to Both sides of DH and I weren’t here so we agreed on a friend of mine who lives in NY and my DH’s nephew (1 yr older than DH). We haven’t asked them if they would be comfortable with our choice yet. Tough conversation to have!!
I’m really struggling with the guardianship thing, too. I don’t trust my one sister because she already has 4 kids, has been divorced twice, and makes some questionable life choices. My sister in NY is the guardian for all 4 of my other sister’s kids, so adding ours in seems rather unfair. I don’t like SIL on DHs side and wouldn’t want her raising our child. We don’t have many close friends and the friends we are close with have yet to settle down in life and figure out what the hell they want to do (we are the first and only in our friend group to get engaged, married, and have a child). I really don’t feel like we have any options, which scares me.
My parents are our only option. I don't trust anyone else to love him like their own. If not them, then someone else in my family. Hs parents are too old and wouldn't want to, honestly, and the rest of his family has only met DS once or twice.
Dh and I discussed this at length a few months ago. My sister did this with each additional child she had so everyone would know whats going on (so i was quick to jump on this). Her lawyer recommended to have 2 backs up and a different person responsible for the money. DH is an only child and the cousins he is close to wouldnt raise our kids the way we would want so we went down the line of my siblings. 1) second oldest sister 2) oldest sister 3) younger brother. I didnt trust my two older brothers so we picked the 3 i was close with. DH refused to talk about what to do if something bad happens during delivery so i wrote out a letter (gave sister a copy) and put in an envelope that is in the side pocket of our hospital bag. Its there if he needs it and he knows where it is. ( i also put my opinions of certain things i would like done with raising him as DH isnt touchy/feely and has never been around kids before) sort of like a how-to along with ideas.
I have really enjoyed the convo so far, sorry I haven’t been around to respond to anyone. I honestly forgot I had posted at all until this morning. I work at a local bank so I appreciate the talk about security surrounding debit vs. credit cards. If you use a debit card regularly and you haven’t gotten yourself a debit card with chip capabilities, now would be the time to ask your bank! I do love how quick action can be taken with credit cards too. I just haven’t found the rewards as beneficial to us. My husband likes to spend and isn’t the greatest at keeping track which makes debit cards a better option for us.
@GeorgiaGirl1230 - that was my intention with this post. I love discussing finances. I appreciate your thoughts! Dave Ramsey was a stage in our life-we are not tied to any philosophy at this point. I was curious if anyone had something we should be doing right now that I hadn’t thought of (financially).
I never meant to come off sounding like spam nor am I trying to sell something. I must have not read all the rules on posting discussions, my apologies.
@eatinwatermelonseeds - my username is Chloe Lavon for my first daughter, by no means am I associated with Avon. My in-laws used to sell something like that before having kids but that is not my thing. No thanks lol.
Guardianship is also something my husband and I struggle with. I wouldn’t feel right about leaving our children with either of our parents (his are nearing retirement age and mine are so busy with dairy farming that having toddlers wouldn’t really work with their lifestyle). My siblings aren’t good options either, the two youngest just both graduated high school and my other brother is not a “kid-person”. Lol if that makes sense. My husband has two brothers, his older may be an option only because they have 2 boys around our daughters age. I’ve just never been a fan of my sister-in-law’s attitude and how materialistic they are (must have the best of the best of everything). His younger brother is too immature and just graduated from college. We are currently going with the plan to leave them with my best friend and her husband. It works out because she married my cousin so she’s not completely out of the family. We trust them and they have a little baby of their own right now.
@chloelavon sorry for the snap judgments, we get a little weary about new people and one-off posts in general. This did spark a great conversation, though, so thank you for that and I hope you take a chance to look through the pinned posts and participate in other threads as well.
@eatinwatermelonseeds - I totally understand. Trolls are everywhere in our digital world. Quite the bashing this post brought right away! 😂 lol
Besides LegalZoom, has anyone used any other easy Will creation service? I’ve seriously just been considering googling a will template and filling it in but not sure if it would cover all the bases.
Your TW was really interesting @chucksmom15 and something I'd never considered, but I asked my fiance and he said he's thought about it quite a lot and gave me a detailed run-down of his decision making process.
That's so beautiful about your best friend @eatinwatermelonseeds. We too are in the predicament that we don't really know who we'd leave our children to. MIL/SFIL live in Ireland; my SFIL is on disability and my MIL recently found out she's got an incurable degenerative eye condition so will be totally blind in a couple of years. All of my fiance's other siblings bar one are also in Ireland/UK/Wales so aren't really an option. The one that is in Australia I don't particularly like so he wouldn't be my first choice. I think my parents would be great but they are nearing retirement age and want to become "grey nomads" that travel around Australia in their caravan. My brother already has 2 children and whilst I think they're the most capable to raise our child (I also model my own parenting off the way they've raised by nieces) I think raising another child wouldn't be financially viable for them. My sister is young and not settled, though she's recently got herself a nice boyfriend and has made a conscious effort to become more adult like, so she could also be a good option in a few years time. I'd never considered your lawyer's advice @justharrison but it definitely makes sense!
I find all the talk about student loans in America so fascinating. In Australia student loans are from the government and your repayment is taken out an increase to your tax once you earn a certain amount, starting at 2% and going up by 0.5% every extra ~$5k you earn. So the more you earn the faster you pay it off, but also you don't really notice it coming out because you'll typically get a pay rise to bring you into that bracket and it'll just be slightly smaller than you anticipated. Also, the interest on the loans is only inflation, which is currently at 1.9% in Australia. When I started uni I got a 20% discount if I paid my school fees upfront (per subject per semester, so ~$4k every 6 months for a full time load in engineering) but they've abolished that, so there's literally no benefit in paying them off early now.
To answer the OP's original question, my partner and I decided he would work in the mines on a really terrible roster earning almost triple what he could earn if he were working locally until I am ~32.5 weeks pregnant. Whilst we're both struggling with the amount of time he's away, the company he is working for has an excellent policy that if a family emergency arises you'll be put on the next flight out, which is really comforting should I need him at short notice. We've also made the decision to move back in with my parents for as long as we possibly can (read: until we start to want to kill each other) so we can save on rent ($400pw). We've opened a high interest savings account but the interest earned there is less than the interest I'm currently paying on my credit card so we're going to pay that off first and then save in our savings account. The CC has no benefits for using it so it'll be our "rainy day" fund, but it means that once it's paid off we can apply for a CC that does have good benefits and use it as our spending card, paying off monthly. There's some great ones here with frequent flier points that my friends use and they travel internationally at least once a year.
@chloe97 You are right about the loan forgiveness and I can't justify paying the minimum on my grad school loans and then still being saddled with them, so we are attacking them right away. I pretty much put my entire salary toward savings and loans and we live off of my husband's income.
The issue is not that it's been canceled (though the current Administration wants to dramatically change it)- it's that most people who have applied for it do not qualify for various reasons. @sleepy33 It sounds like you followed all the correct steps towards getting it done, but I think it's a lot harder to qualify for than most people realize.
For the will discussion, I would be reluctant to use a template for like legal zoom instead of at least consulting with a good estate attorney. There are two estate attorneys in my family and I've heard plenty of horror stories of how messy things got unnecessarily bc the lawyer who did someone's estate plan wasn't very good.
My sister in-law did ours, and it turned out that it would make the most sense for us to set up a family trust instead of just doing a basic will. We wouldn't have known that if we'd gone with an online template. She also did the power of attorney, medical directive, and the guardianship piece. So now we have piece of mind knowing that our affairs are competently in order if something were to happen to one or both of us.
But yes, it did take about two years between starting and finishing the process just because we put off making the guardianship and medical directive choices. It's hard!!!!
@nerdyteacherlady agreed! We also set up a trust and did the medical directive, guardianship, and power of attorney at the same time as the will. It's technically set up naming our daughter and any future children but leaving things up to the guardians, not an even split of assets (what of this child has special needs? Or the next one? Or something happens to our DD? There needs to be some flexibility).
Edited b/c it's early here and there/their is hard at 7am while keeping track of a toddler.
@nerdyteacherlady my FIL is an estate planning attorney, so one of the attorneys in his practice did our will (with the trust, guardianship, etc). I asked him how much our package would have been if we had been charged and he said $3000! So I totally understand why most people would prefer to do something like LegalZoom. It’s not thorough, but it protects against the very worst case scenario and hopefully no one will have to look at it for a very very long time!
ETa Im not advocating that people not do it- but just that I realize it’s not in most people’s budgets. I would say to instead put the money towards life insurance and make sure you have enough to care for your kids if something were to happen to you and/or your partner.
What a great discussion and I really enjoyed reading everyones thoughts. For me and my story which I promise has a question that I feel even silly asking is that I am a DR follower though I am not a hardcore fan. My husband and I in 3 years have paid off $33,000 of consumer debt following his plan. This included paying off both our cars, my husbands student loans and combining all my credit cards to a 0% interest credit card for 18 months which I paid off in its entirely. I saved a lot of money doing that way. What I was not able to do is pay off my own student loans. I work in a public school but I am not a teacher I am a School Counselor, which does not qualify under teacher loan forgiveness despite being evaluated as a teacher and on the teacher union payroll we do not get the same benefits. I do qualify for the the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, and am 5 years into this program. However I found out this year that only half of my student loans will qualify for this program. I can transfer the remaining loans over Direct loans but the clock will start over for me. So long story short about $80,000 of my loans will be forgiven in 5 y ears, but the remaining $40,000 will take me 10 more years, and all those payments that I have made in the past 5 years do not count. Its very frustrating. And if you are doing the math right yes I have over 100K in student loans. I grew up extremely poor and worked my ass off for undergraduate and graduate school. I have a Masters Degree in School Counseling and Clinical Mental Health Counseling. Unfortunately I had no help and for whatever reason I was passed up for many scholarships because of political ties (when your mom cleans houses and your dad works in a kitchen their ties to the community were limited and I got the shaft when it came for that kind of free money). I went to state school to save money and did not come out with lot of loans but my Graduate School took a lot of money, even still it was under 100K when I came out the compounded interest even though I was paying close to $500 a month I was not able to keep up with the interest which kept adding to the overall balance. According to an accountant I talked to who specialized in students loans that this is ok as long as we are going for PSLF. Still its daunting to see all that debt especially since I feel I have been doing every thing right and making better and better financial decisions. One of the things I am doing now thanks to some good advice is contributing to my 403b which will be deductible through my taxes and lower my Adjusted Gross Income which will allow me to stay on a Income based Repayment Plan and keep my payments as low as possible and get me through the next five years of payments. So that is what I am doing now.
My question is to everyone out there about credit cards especially those of you with the rewards. I have a card with rewards but the interest rate is enormous. I hate carrying any type of balance for fear of adding that 20% rate on it. If you pay in full each month, are you sure they don't tack on any type of interest charge (note I realize this may be a stupid question but I feel safe asking this here). Thanks for all your discussions .
@MalonT23 I can’t answer the credit card question bc i don’t have one, eek, but wanted to say that I’m a school social worker! Working closely with school counselors everyday ☺️
@malont23 You would have to read the Terms and conditions for the credit card but most only charge interest if you carry a balance. You do have to watch some of the rewards cards because some do charge in different ways and have annual fees.
@MalonT23 as long as you don’t carry a balance, there is no interest, but the interest rates tend to be high. Some have annual fees and some charge a percentage when credit card is used abroad and they will tend to have high fees for late payments, so all good things to review. I would also think about what type of expenses you would normally put on the card and what benefits make sense for you. Some cards with benefits charge annual fees but for example, we travel a lot internationally every year, so my husband has a card that charges $450 annually to have the card (which is quite high), but it reimburses us up to $400 spent in travel as soon as we buy flights or Uber rides, it gives us access to lounges at airports and it gives my husband global entry and 1mile for every dollar spent that he can use in any airline. It also gives us extended insurance on purchases and most importantly on travel. It works well for us as it ends up being free for what we get and use often. DH has that one and I have 2, one that gives me cash back which is a Visa which I solely use at Costco and one that gives me miles for every dollar with no fee which I use for everything else.
Re: Finances
I found this article (updated yearly it seems) helpful for picking DD's 529 plan.
https://clark.com/education/clarks-529-plan-guide/
We do scholarshare in California. CA doesn't have any state tax benefits for 529 plans, but this program has some of the lowest expenses which will help our money grow faster.
BFP: 8/20/2018 - EDD 5/4/2019
@kvh22 I have a 529 set up for ds, but you are so right in that a will is very important. We need to do that ASAP but im intimidated.
Also, I hate to break it to you all- but that tax bill totally screwed basically everyone who is not super rich. A lot of people are going to have some sad news that they aren't getting as much money back as in past years or that they have to pay in. I am so dreading hear from, our tax guy this year.. :-(
Big TW
Its a morbid conversation but we discussed what DH would do if something happened during delivery and he had to choose between saving me or the baby. I would never want him to have to decide that on his own in that type of situation. There is no right or wrong answer and you hope it never happens but if he had to decide that quickly by himself he would always feel like he made the wrong choice. End TW
@chucksmom15 ugh life insurance too. Need to do it. I feel like I’m typically a responsible person but then sometimes I feel like such a kid! Must get it together.
@GeorgiaGirl1230 - that was my intention with this post. I love discussing finances. I appreciate your thoughts! Dave Ramsey was a stage in our life-we are not tied to any philosophy at this point. I was curious if anyone had something we should be doing right now that I hadn’t thought of (financially).
I never meant to come off sounding like spam nor am I trying to sell something. I must have not read all the rules on posting discussions, my apologies.
@eatinwatermelonseeds - my username is Chloe Lavon for my first daughter, by no means am I associated with Avon. My in-laws used to sell something like that before having kids but that is not my thing. No thanks lol.
Guardianship is also something my husband and I struggle with. I wouldn’t feel right about leaving our children with either of our parents (his are nearing retirement age and mine are so busy with dairy farming that having toddlers wouldn’t really work with their lifestyle). My siblings aren’t good options either, the two youngest just both graduated high school and my other brother is not a “kid-person”. Lol if that makes sense. My husband has two brothers, his older may be an option only because they have 2 boys around our daughters age. I’ve just never been a fan of my sister-in-law’s attitude and how materialistic they are (must have the best of the best of everything). His younger brother is too immature and just graduated from college. We are currently going with the plan to leave them with my best friend and her husband. It works out because she married my cousin so she’s not completely out of the family. We trust them and they have a little baby of their own right now.
Besides LegalZoom, has anyone used any other easy Will creation service? I’ve seriously just been considering googling a will template and filling it in but not sure if it would cover all the bases.
That's so beautiful about your best friend @eatinwatermelonseeds. We too are in the predicament that we don't really know who we'd leave our children to. MIL/SFIL live in Ireland; my SFIL is on disability and my MIL recently found out she's got an incurable degenerative eye condition so will be totally blind in a couple of years. All of my fiance's other siblings bar one are also in Ireland/UK/Wales so aren't really an option. The one that is in Australia I don't particularly like so he wouldn't be my first choice. I think my parents would be great but they are nearing retirement age and want to become "grey nomads" that travel around Australia in their caravan. My brother already has 2 children and whilst I think they're the most capable to raise our child (I also model my own parenting off the way they've raised by nieces) I think raising another child wouldn't be financially viable for them. My sister is young and not settled, though she's recently got herself a nice boyfriend and has made a conscious effort to become more adult like, so she could also be a good option in a few years time. I'd never considered your lawyer's advice @justharrison but it definitely makes sense!
I find all the talk about student loans in America so fascinating. In Australia student loans are from the government and your repayment is taken out an increase to your tax once you earn a certain amount, starting at 2% and going up by 0.5% every extra ~$5k you earn. So the more you earn the faster you pay it off, but also you don't really notice it coming out because you'll typically get a pay rise to bring you into that bracket and it'll just be slightly smaller than you anticipated. Also, the interest on the loans is only inflation, which is currently at 1.9% in Australia. When I started uni I got a 20% discount if I paid my school fees upfront (per subject per semester, so ~$4k every 6 months for a full time load in engineering) but they've abolished that, so there's literally no benefit in paying them off early now.
To answer the OP's original question, my partner and I decided he would work in the mines on a really terrible roster earning almost triple what he could earn if he were working locally until I am ~32.5 weeks pregnant. Whilst we're both struggling with the amount of time he's away, the company he is working for has an excellent policy that if a family emergency arises you'll be put on the next flight out, which is really comforting should I need him at short notice. We've also made the decision to move back in with my parents for as long as we possibly can (read: until we start to want to kill each other) so we can save on rent ($400pw). We've opened a high interest savings account but the interest earned there is less than the interest I'm currently paying on my credit card so we're going to pay that off first and then save in our savings account. The CC has no benefits for using it so it'll be our "rainy day" fund, but it means that once it's paid off we can apply for a CC that does have good benefits and use it as our spending card, paying off monthly. There's some great ones here with frequent flier points that my friends use and they travel internationally at least once a year.
The issue is not that it's been canceled (though the current Administration wants to dramatically change it)- it's that most people who have applied for it do not qualify for various reasons. @sleepy33 It sounds like you followed all the correct steps towards getting it done, but I think it's a lot harder to qualify for than most people realize.
My sister in-law did ours, and it turned out that it would make the most sense for us to set up a family trust instead of just doing a basic will. We wouldn't have known that if we'd gone with an online template. She also did the power of attorney, medical directive, and the guardianship piece. So now we have piece of mind knowing that our affairs are competently in order if something were to happen to one or both of us.
But yes, it did take about two years between starting and finishing the process just because we put off making the guardianship and medical directive choices. It's hard!!!!
Edited b/c it's early here and there/their is hard at 7am while keeping track of a toddler.
ETa
Im not advocating that people not do it- but just that I realize it’s not in most people’s budgets. I would say to instead put the money towards life insurance and make sure you have enough to care for your kids if something were to happen to you and/or your partner.
My question is to everyone out there about credit cards especially those of you with the rewards. I have a card with rewards but the interest rate is enormous. I hate carrying any type of balance for fear of adding that 20% rate on it. If you pay in full each month, are you sure they don't tack on any type of interest charge (note I realize this may be a stupid question but I feel safe asking this here). Thanks for all your discussions .