I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…

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As this morning’s post said, my dad passed away last night.  Honestly, I’m still a big ball of raw emotion mixed with shock.

But that’s why I’m writing this post.  My dad was the one that handled everything financial in my family.  Not just for my mom, but for my two younger brothers too (they are grown ups and should do it themselves, but that is a topic for a different post).  I have a handle on teaching my brothers how to fend for themselves, but there are so many things to think about when someone dies in regards to the spouse.   I need to help my mom go on living and am asking you, my readers, colleagues, friends, to help me think of all the financial things we need to do (and really, anything else maybe too).

I am leaving tomorrow morning (flying, thank you emergency fund)  for my mom’s house (it hurts so much to not type “parents”) and will be there until Sunday.  All I have thought of so far is:

•  Get a list of bills they need to pay each month
• Figure out what my dad paid via online billpay and get his passwords.  My mom says that my dad made a list but she doesn’t know where it is.  If I can’t find it, start calling people to get passwords changed.
• Start calling everything to let them know my dad died… like the bank and stuff, I guess.
• Talk to Social Security about the lump sum survivor benefit thing for my mom, which is like $255.
• Talk to Social Security about my mom’s survivorship benefits.  Don’t know what we are doing via that but want to know options (she is 59 so she couldn’t take them yet but want info, they can start as early as 60).
• Figure out my dad’s life insurance.  he has it, no clue how much or what.
• Talk to my dad’s work about what benefits etc he might have through there, and how much pay he’s owed

My dad had a filing cabinet he kept all his important papers in, so I think I can locate most everything of a financial nature.  My mom and brother are taking care of the funeral arrangements before I get there, but I will help with that all I can.

There is probably a lot more I haven’t thought of.  Anyone with experience in this, if you have an idea of things I should do, please leave a comment and let me know.  Eventually I’ll turn it into a post to help other people who are shocked into reality, like me.  He wasn’t even sick.

Thank you so much for all of your comments and outpouring of support.  It really means so much to me.  I am grateful for all the people who have come to be part of my life through this journey out of debt and into a better financial future.

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Now, this isn’t a question for those who choose not to own a car.  Since the car is non-essential, the state of its air conditioning is irrelevant. I wouldn’t classify the failure of a car’s air conditioning as an emergency, but when mine decided its time was up, I ended up classifying it higher on my priority list than I would have predicted I would.  I’m not out of debt yet, but my car’s air conditioning was fixed this past weekend.

A month or so ago, my car’s air conditioning seemed to not get quite as cold as it used to.  Over the course of the next two weeks, it rapidly deteriorated, and eventually just completely stopped working at all.  My spouse drives my car in the evening when I am at work to take the kids to their activities (since the car seats are installed in my car) and he began to complain about my lack of air conditioning.  Which I told him wasn’t that bad.  My first car, which is the only car I had before this one, didn’t have air conditioning at all and I survived with it for 12 years, after all.

But then my kids started getting really sweaty and sticky riding in the back seat, and the littlest one (who is 21 months) started looking really pink every time we rode in the car.  I tried rolling down the windows more, and that worked a little, but then I caught my son’s hand in a window rolling it up.  I didn’t completely close it on his hand, but I did pinch it a little, and he being 4 and with a speech delay, he doesn’t always follow directions very well.  My brain could see this happening again, and so I changed my mind.

My spouse took the car in this weekend, and $181 later, the air conditioning is fixed.  It had a major leak caused by a nut completely corroding away.  The major leak could have been guessed at, since it deteriorated so rapidly.   So that’s $181 less towards debt elimination this month.  But I am okay with that.  And the kids don’t get so sticky.

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