Dec. 30, 2006 ~ Money
More on the subject of money.
It is easier for me to give it away than it is to spend it on myself, provided I feel it will go to a worthy cause and will be spent wisely. If it were to be revealed that a favorite charity spent an inappropriate amount on administrative costs, I would be unlikely to continue to support that charity. If it turned out that a friend in need was spending donated money on steak and caviar, I would most likely not be one of those donors. Most everyone, I suspect, feels the same way.
_______________________________________
Having pondered this subject recently, things are starting to make more sense. While not so obvious on the surface, I have been greatly affected by my parents' spending habits. My father bought a new car every year, and at one time we had 5 cars and 2 boats, this for a family of 4, at a time when most families had one or at most, two cars. We were not wealthy, but my mother once told me she and my dad had more money than they knew what to do with, literally. Once the bills were paid, they had no idea or plan for what to do with the excess, so they simply spent it all until it ran out.
When my dad died, and not unexpectedly (since he had cirrhosis of the liver), my mother made the unwelcome discovery that unbeknownst to her, he had cashed in his life insurance policy to buy his last speedboat. Boat number two. She was shocked and overwhelmed, not knowing how she would pay for his funeral or final medical bills. There was nothing in savings, nothing at all. I was in college, pregnant with my first child, and struggling to make ends meet at the time. Luckily, her employer provided a small life insurance policy on the spouses of all employees, something she had forgotten about. It was just barely enough.
The lack of planning also included failure to make a will. There are many reasons people neglect to do this, but chief among them is probably a reluctance to face our own mortality. Still. We all knew it was coming. Dad had been in and out of the hospital a half dozen times in his final years. The doctors were brutally honest with my mother about his prognosis. In spite of all this, there was no will. And though it was a small estate, the process was slow and very stressful on my mom, taking over two years before everything was finalized.
So I guess I did learn a lot from my parents after all, on the subject of money. I learned that I never wanted to be in their situation. Ever.
I'm also funny about having insurance, partly because of the situation with my father's life insurance, and partly because of a medical emergency involving one of my sons. My husband had just changed jobs, and there was a waiting period before his new medical insurance went into effect. Our infant son suffered a stroke, bleeding in his brain, and was rushed to the hospital. Because I worked at said hospital, and was on duty and in uniform at the time, they admitted him without question, which probably saved his life or at the very least, preserved his brain function. It was only after he was stabilized that I was informed that our insurance did not go into effect until the next day - actually only a matter of a couple of hours, but that made no difference. That hospitalization was not covered by insurance.
It never occurred to me not to pay the bills. I was a nursing student and an employee of the hospital. I was still paying for Son's birth; the new charges were just added to the bill. My son did recover and is now a perfectly healthy, normal adult, which is the most important thing. But for several years, I struggled. School was impossible financially. I almost lost my truck. I could barely pay the hospital bills and put food on the table. Is there a point to this long, rambling story? Yes, actually.
Since that time, I have always, always been careful to have insurance. I realize that there are times when people simply can't afford insurance of any kind, and have no choice but to do without. I understand. We have been extremely lucky, in that Husband has worked for essentially the same employer for over 27 years, and we've always been covered by his group insurance. Believe me, I know that we are blessed. But these two events - my dad's death and my son's illenss - altered my way of thinking about things.
So I guess my attitude about "things" and money did not come out of nowhere, after all.
All rights reserved
_______________________________