Mon, March 9, 2009 As expected, we're scheduled to get a large (to us) sum of money back for our tax refunds. I had a figure in my head that I was hoping for and thankfully it ended up being about $1100 higher than that figure. This should give us a nice boost in our emergency and savings funds.
Update to: "Tax Time!"
Thu, March 5, 2009 We're heading up to New Jersey this weekend to get our taxes done. Our tax guy is a friend of the family that we have used for a few years now, which is why we bother heading to another state to file our returns. I'm hoping with our baby being born last year, we'll get plenty back.
I know ideally you don't want any money back, because that means you didn't give the government a 0% loan. But I knew funds would be tight this year and I wanted to use this forced savings plan as a safety net. Anyway, I'll likely adjust after I figure out how much we're getting back.
Sun, March 1, 2009 I'm finding myself treading a line between financial responsibility and upsetting my family. Sorry in advance, this post will be a bit long.
Every year, my parents plan a cruise and invite my wife and I to join them. And every year, I have to tell them "Sorry, the money's just not there this year." While this is true every year for us, it might even be an understatement this year.
Since the birth of our baby late last year, my wife and I have had to cut way back on our monthly expenses - at the same time, still trying to save for the future and pay down debt. I know I'm not the only one out there going through this, but that bit of knowledge doesn't make it any easier.
Anyway, back to the cruise. Normally, I'd have no problems giving them my standard money excuse and going on my merry way. Unfortunately, this year is different for two reasons.
Still, if the money's not there, it's not there. I had a discussion with them letting them know I'd have to back out. I was a bit shocked at what happened next. My parents actually got upset with me and quickly got off the phone. Here I am, trying to be a responsible parent and this was the result?
My mom called me a few days later and apologized for being short with me. But she went on to say how important it was to my dad that we were there this year. I told them I'd just drive down and spend a week or two at their house (ahh, the joys of being able to work from home if I need to). This was met with more resistance and the conversation ended abruptly.
Again, my mom called and asked if the money was the only reason I wasn't going on the cruise. "Of course it was" I told her. It was then that she offered to pay for all of us to go. I said absolutely not. I just wouldn't feel comfortable accepting so much money. I've been working since I was 13y/o and paying for everything I need with very few exceptions since then.
Fast-forward a week.. and my wife and I are out walking our dog when the cruise came back up in conversation. My wife helped me realize their point-of-view. They don't care about the money. They're doing well enough that it's not a big deal to them. The most important thing to them is that everyone is together for at least one family vacation. Here I was, being selfish for letting my own financial ideals get in the way of my parents' happiness (especially when my dad is battling cancer).
So I decided to compromise a bit. Barring any unforeseen events, I, along with my wife and daughter, WILL be going on the cruise. I still can't let them pay though. Even if I am being selfish, I just can't do it. Instead, I'm going to stop saving for anything (except for retirement) for the next few months and instead funnel all of that money towards a vacation fund. If it looks like it's going to be short, I'll sell whatever I can afford to get rid of to make up the difference (which is probably something I should do anyway).
Note - I should note that although it probably doesn't come off that way above, my parents and I have a VERY good relationship. We call each other and video-chat over the computer a few times a week. And we meet up a few times every year (they're a few states away).
Sat, February 28, 2009 Now that I'm a parent, one of my major goals this year is to establish an emergency fund. There are many different philosophies on the best size, but the general rule of thumb is to set aside 3 months expenses and keep it liquid.
Unfortunately, that figure is just too high for me to be comfortable with. That figure would be up near $20,000! And given that my wife and I are in pretty stable fields and have decent job security, I would rather focus on paying down debt before I reach that high of a figure.
Instead, what I'd like to do is reach about half of that over the course of the year. My current emergency fund level is sitting at a paltry $2000, so I have a long way to go. And given how tight funds are right now, this $10,000 figure is probably unrealistic. Regardless, I'm going to shoot for it. If I come up a bit short, I'll finish up in 2010.
Tue, February 3, 2009 
photo credit: Altamar
Late last year, my wife gave birth to our beautiful baby girl. Thankfully, everything went very smoothly, and we have both transitioned into the state-of-mind of a parent quite quickly. However, things weren’t as uncomplicated as it seemed at the time (sorry for the double negative!). Because we had done the necessary legwork upfront (prior to conceiving) in picking the best health insurance and long-term disability coverage, we knew early on exactly what would be covered and what our financial responsibility would be (nothing if everything went smoothly, as it did).
Fast-forward a bit to post-pregnancy. We began to get statements and notifications from everyone we dealt with during the entire pregnancy / birthing process. Again, because of how prepared we were, we weren’t concerned. We would get regular letters from the insurance company giving us up-to-date status on which claims had been processed and we’d get regular bills saying “If your insurance has already processed this claim, please disregard.” And after a quick verification with the insurance statements to verify it had, in fact, been processed, we would disregard.
Fast-forward to last night. While opening the mail, my wife came across something that made both our hearts start racing. A collection letter. It seems that the neonatal company had turned over roughly $900 to collections for non-payment. After pouring through all of the paperwork we had received just months ago, we verified that the two charges turned over to collections were paid by our insurance company! We called the collections company.. voice-mail. We called the neonatal company.. closed. Finally, with a call to the insurance company, we were able to reach a human – only to have her say that everything has been processed. Not giving up, my wife asked the customer representative to go through each and every claim to verify status, which took about 15 minutes.
It turns out the insurance company issued a stop-payment on one of the claims, because they realized they had processed it in my wife’s name instead of our daughter’s. The insurance company was then supposed to re-process the claim in our daughter’s name, but did not. And because it was already marked as “Processed”, all notification we received appeared just fine.
On the bright-side, now that the insurance company realizes their mistake, they appear to be taking quick action to resolve the matter. They’re pushing the claim through the system and the neonatal company will receive payment either today or tomorrow.
I wish I could say that’ll be it. Unfortunately, I’m anticipating some more action that will have to take place on our part:
- Will need to call the insurance company tomorrow and verify the status of the claim.
- Will need to call the neonatal company to verify payment and ask if they’ve contacted the collections company.
- Will need to call the collections company and verify our case has been resolved.
- Will need to pull our credit reports to determine what adverse affects this had on my wife’s credit – and, if any, repeat calls to collections and the neonatal companies to have this resolved.
Lesson learned: We now know that we need to follow up on any insurance statements to verify payment and any bills that we’re not paying directly to verify status.