A Blank Piece of Paper

I was watching some TED Talks and found one from Jason B. Rosenthal.  Then I looked at one of the videos of his late wife, Amy.  The messages are fantastic.

Finance Basics Day 7: Additional Benefits For Widows

Some of the benefits are federal, some are state or county.  Some also depend on whether the deceased spouse was divorced previously and how the divorce decree was handled as far as the Social Security Benefit.

Social Security Survivor Benefit:

Here is more information regarding the Social Security Survivor Benefits

The one other benefit I know of offhand is within Maricopa County in Arizona.  Widows who were homeowners with their deceased spouse at the time of death can get their 1st year of property taxes exempted for primary residences in Maricopa County.

Click here for the pdf document from the Maricopa County Assessors office regarding the survivor exemption of property tax.

An article from Kiplinger:  When Widows Are Forgotten

From Wealthcare For Women:   7 Financial Tips For Your First Year As A Widow

Finance Basics Day 6: Using The Calendar In Addition To The Budget

A few years ago I participated in my Ward’s Family Finances class.  It was advertised within the Stake so members from other Wards were participating as well.

One of the participants came to class and told the rest of us that the budgeting wasn’t working, that she was still getting hit with NSF fees with the bills.  It turned out that all of the bills for the entire month were getting paid with the first paycheck, leaving no money until the second paycheck of the month hit their account.

I went home that night and used Excel on my computer to print out calendar pages for that month and the next two months for everyone in class, including myself.

I then showed on the calendar how to fill it out with paychecks being marked on the dates they were expected to be automatically deposited into the checking account.  Then I had the participants write down each bill, according to it’s due dates, on the calendar.

I was able to show them how to plan to pay their bills according to the calendar and not just pay everything on the first of the month.

By the second month, this participant came back happy and announced that their budget was now working with by combining the budget with the calendar.

Here is the video Angie made of her filing system:

Finance Basics Day 5: Sinking Funds or Gazelle Intense?

Sinking funds are great, however it will take longer to pay off debt.  For me, I was “gazelle instense” (a Dave Ramsey term) because I was getting repeated promptings from the Lord to get out of debt ASAP.  Sinking funds waited until I was debt free.  That didn’t mean I didn’t plan for the bills that don’t come monthly (like vehicle registration), I just knew that was something that was going to need to be added to the budget for the month it came up.  It was a calendar item, not a sinking fund.

Finance Basics: Avalanche or Snowball?

Which do you prefer, Avalanche or Snowball?

While I paid off my debt, I actually didn’t use either.  My first priority was to pay off any debts where someone could garnish my wages.  I had an unpaid tax with the IRS. That got paid off first.

Second to get paid off was the car loan. Not because it had the highest interest rate (it actually had the lowest) and not because the balance was the smallest (it actually had the largest balance of my debts).  The reason for paying it off next?  Because my car was the means of not only getting me to work, but also enabling me to handle caregiving for my Mother.  Caregiving is a lot more difficult if you don’t have a vehicle to drive the person being cared for around for appointments.

Once those two were done, I used the Avalanche and tackled the debt with the highest interest rate.

Finance Basics: How To Budget with Resources

This is an area that I struggle with, even to this day.  Mostly because when I was paying off debt, I used what is known as the “scorched earth” approach, meaning I had the emergency savings and what wasn’t used for basic necessities (you know, gas for the car, electricity, food) wen towards the debt.  I didn’t use this sheet, either, I used a basic spreadsheet with each column for a debt and each row for a month to track how much had been paid off and what my balances were.  That was it.  Scorched earth.

Now that we’ve covered ways to pay off debt, let’s actually put the numbers on a monthly budget to get started.

Finance Basics: Reducing The Bills & The Emergency Fund

Everyone’s situation is different, however everyone should have some ways of cutting back on the spending.  Not only to pay debt, but to start the first goal:  An Emergency Fund.  In the Dave Ramsey plan, it’s recommended $1,000.

Finance Basics: Day 1

Finances have been an area where there have been challenges off and on my entire adult life, however there is help.

For those of you who are trying to get a handle on finances, particularly after the passing of a spouse, the first thing I will tell you is to take some deep breaths.

One of the most difficult things about my husband’s passing was the realization that there were areas of our lives where we have no control over the situation.  God is in charge when someone dies.

One of the areas, however, where we do have some control over the situation, is how those of us still living in mortality LIVE.  How do you want to live the remaining time you have before you are reunited with your loved ones on the other side?  

Sadly, I hear from widows who had left the financial affairs of the family up to their husbands, were not involved in that part of their family life and have found themselves in a deep fog, shock, grief and now trying to figure out how to pay the bills with the money that is there, and what is expected to come in.

This is especially hard when the breadwinner is the person who has passed away, as that can present it’s own share of challenges.

Hopefully what I post here can shed some light on the subject.

First, you need a filing system.  My recommendation is to get two office filing boxes and a bunch of letter sized file folders.

One box will be used for all of the paperwork from the death, burial and any probate or trust account records as the wishes of the deceased are carried out.

The other box will be to go through the paperwork that comes in for the monthly bills.  Each file folder in the box should cover a month of bills.  Try to gather as much as you can from the current year that has passed already.  Print out monthly statements from the bank accounts and request all financial institutions to give you the previous 6 months of statements sent printed out on paper.  As the surviving spouse, this is your right to get these.

Then sit down, take some deep breaths, make sure you have plenty to snack and drink while you sort everything out and put everything within their corresponding boxes.

One of the resources can be found within your Stake with the Self Reliance classes that are quarterly, with one class handling finance.  If the time available for the start of the classes is too far off or not available in your stake, here are a few resources from Salt Lake and each provide free downloads:

Family Finances Workbook

One For The Money Booklet

The videos I will be using for this is from the YouTube Channel, “Our Life On A Budget”, which is based out of Canada and is one of the best series I’ve seen in using the Dave Ramsey method of getting out of debt and getting a handle on your money to allow for life to be a little easier.

Her first area is, Why Do You Want To Get Out of Debt?  This can also be interpreted as, Why Do You Want To Get Your Financial Affairs In Order?

And now to find out where you stand financially right now: