Life has been pretty busy at the PiN household for the past few weeks. My thoughts have been a little too scattered to compose a lengthy and coherent post, but as I have been trying to decide what to write about, I have noticed that money touches just about everything we do.
Instead of a unified essay, I thought today’s post might just touch on six of the financial stories that have come up in the past week.
Finally Debt-free
I received a check for $4.53 from my car loan servicer. This arrived about 3 weeks after I sent in my last check.
When I paid the bills and balanced the checkbook at the end of the month, I noted I no longer had to include the car payment. I decided it was time to eliminate the loan servicer from our bank’s billing section.
Hooray!
The Mystery Paycheck
Thank goodness we didn’t have a car payment this month, because our paycheck is much smaller.
I discussed a cut in hours–which, regrettably, comes with a cut in pay–a few months ago. As the wheels of administration grind very slowly, the information did not reach the payroll department in time for my last pay check. So this pay period, not only is my check smaller because of my reduction in hours, it also has some extra money removed, to make up for the over payment in the last check.
Between this, reaching the yearly ceiling for social security taxes, and (hopefully) my annual bonus, I have no idea what my normal paycheck will look like until next year.
I have to sign up for benefits soon–something tells me my monthly insurance costs won’t be going down– and decide how much to save in our FSA and how much to give to charity through a paycheck deduction.
Hopefully it will all work out OK in 2022.
A trip to the bank
My father in law went to the bank with Mr. PiN and his sister. Despite the banker’s best efforts, the father in law wanted an announcement of his account balance. It was a goodly sum.
While it may or may not be a good idea to let grown children know your bank balance, it was a relief to Mr. PiN and me to hear he has enough to live on for probably 7 to 10 years.
We were getting a little worried he was at risk for running out of money and needing a lot of financial support. We are very happy to hear he is unlikely to outlive his savings.
Living high on the hog, month to month
Despite our relief vis a vis Mr. PiN’s dad, we are getting a little more worried about his sister.
She struggled financially for much of her adult career, until the tides turned about 2 decades ago.
Ever since I have known her, she has been a high-earner, pulling in at least twice as much as I did. And spending to match.
I thought she was enjoying showing off her success, and as a partial recipient of her largesse (she paid part of the kid’s college tuition, and we enjoyed staying at her second home), I didn’t begrudge her that.
However, her business has dried up in the past few months, and during her stay, she was more and more anxious about costs. I am all for being careful with money and reining in spending when income drops; but I hope that once I am past normal retirement age, I don’t have to sweat working to afford my lifestyle.
Tellingly, we were discussing my step-son (her nephew), speculating on his job and his finances. I relayed my hope (worry) that he was putting money away for retirement; she looked totally surprised that he should do such a thing.
Maybe she forgot that he is no longer a high school student, but nearly 30? Or maybe she never did that herself?
After several years reading in the personal finance community, I forget that many people are not so careful with their money.
Saving money for free
One way we were able to help out financially during the recent family crisis was with housing and car rental costs.
I had written 2 weeks ago that my sister in law was being charged $2500 a week for a car rental. Though we don’t have a spare car of our own to offer, we did remind her that Mr. PiN’s dad, who isn’t driving, still had a car at his house. We got permission, and she drove that beater for almost 2 weeks until she left to go home. I figure that saved her $3000-$4000 during her stay.
That doesn’t even count the hotel nights we saved her. Once she realized she would be staying more than a few days, she moved into our spare bedroom. It was a little messy and crowded, but she rearranged it and made it a lot nicer, actually.
Her stay with us lasted 15 days (not that we counted…) and most certainly saved her a few thousand dollars. Not to mention breakfast and dinner on the house. Overall, we were out very little financially: a little more food, and maybe a bigger water bill. It was nice to be able to help out with so little effort on our part.
Luckily, work is picking up for my sister-in-law, who loves what she does, as well as the income it provides.
An Almost Free Birthday Present
Lastly , we were able to give to another family member; again, without much impact on our wallet.
My sister turned 50 this year, and wanted to take a special trip to celebrate. COVID has restricted her choices, but she and her husband and son are going somewhere very nice in a few weeks.
I wanted to get her something special for her big birthday (after all, she gave me a great present when I hit 50), and we decided I would pay for one night at a nice hotel.
Yesterday, I reserved a cottage for her and her family using my yearly travel credit with Chase Sapphire Reserve; I had already used some of this credit, so the stay won’t be totally free to me. But it’s nice to know I can give a special birthday present without a big credit card bill next month.
How was your money week? Any wins you would like to share?