I brought up finances to Hubby while we were driving to doctor appt. yesterday.
He didn't think we had anything except the mortgage to save for.... sigh... Yes I know that's his mild dementia so I just added that I thought we talked about it while he was working on putting garden beds together. Then it came back. He guessed he didn't realize how many things we needed to be saving for.... which is why I do the finances or he would going out getting loans.
We want the out of pocket for Medicare to be in the money market in full by Oct 1st when Hubby goes on Medicare. I can tell you unless things changed a lot, Hubby has NEVER met his out of pocket of $3200 from employer (who covers the insurance until he is 65). I can also say according to all our doctors our insurance is weird because the CO PAYS count in the OUT OF POCKET. That will be the hardest change for us. I on the other hand usually have $3200 spent by March.... that hasn't happened in past year. Crohn's is calmed down and I didn't have any surgeries.
Friends that worked at same place said they had out of pocket (including Doc offices) of $14,000 between the two of them. She is on biologic IV every 6 weeks. I am not a candidate because I only have 1 good vein in one arm but that goes on part A as she has it done at hospital. But basically they have the same doctors and same health as us. There are some things we noted to ourselves that they could have saved money on that they won't ever do. Everything has to be brand name as I watched their sons and their wives roll their eyes. Plus they didn't get Medigap when they should have.
SO ...
#1 . We need to save more for the Medicare out of pocket. We decided to double what we have now should be okay for his Oct. We will definitely get Medigap. Except for my biologic, all meds are generic.
# 2. We need to save back up maintenance fund by $2500.
#3 The garden shed needs resided and a new roof. Metal shop said they could get white metal for siding and any shade of gray metal roof to make it look more like the house. Hubby is measuring this weekend to get the estimate costs. E said either he or his oldest 2 boys could help. We pay them $10/ hr. It's mostly going to be the roof. I would like to change it as it's over a loft and I don't use the loft so that would drop it down. Hubby said if he could rent the lift like he did to install the wood chimney he could do it with just 1 helper to lift the sheets of metal up to him. We will see as that will mostly be a fall job depending on the costs of the metal.
#4. We need to save $6000 for the rest of the garden beds and soil. Less if we can find it on sale as I based it on full price.
#5. We need to increase emergency fund.
#6. We WANT to pay off mortgage as quick as possible.
#7 We WANT to replace red truck (one I drive) BUT I haven't found anything I would spend THAT kind of money on let along have a down payment for. The dealership we bought the red truck from told me that $5000 down would cover anything he has and he does a buy here pay here and he doesn't sell anything he wouldn't have his mother (mid 70s) in to drive.
Mother would have made 7 savings accounts and divided what she had left at the end of the month by 7. She was a spender. She had 12 savings for her funeral. All of them had $100 . SIGH
Daddy would have started with emergency fund, then out of pocket fund and moved on from there. Daddy was a saver.
I will have to think about this for a couple days
Blessed be
Prayers for peace and strength
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