Thank God for our simplicity and my wife's organization

I wrote a post along the same lines a week or so ago, but I thought I would update people on the progress to date.

Money does NOT make the world go around:
My wife's passing has been an emotional roller coaster, and I have commented on that quite a bit in my Journal....but I wanted to keep this BLOG at least somewhat related to personal finance....so I don't mean to make our situation sound like it is all about money....far from it....it is MOSTLY about family, and as my father ALWAYS told me: "Money does not make the world go around....but it sure greases the wheel."

Translation....doesn't doesn't buy happiness, but life is sure harder if you don't pay any attention to it at all.

Well, I want to report that I have not quite finished a month and I feel a bit more in control of the finances. I did have an initial problem with cash flow....not having enough money in the bank to feel safe about writing checks against any bills....but once I pulled a little from savings in as a buffer, I felt a lot better. (actually, there probably was enough, but not having an actual knowledge of what we really expected for bills, it made me unsettled to be as close as $200 from zero)


Bloated Mastercard Bill:
I fully expect about a $14,000 Mastercard bill coming in about January 15th....but that is mostly due to the funeral expenses of about $11,000. That is the largest credit card balance I have ever had....though there was one time we paid part of my daughters college semester on the card in order to grab some of the cash back we get from Mastercard. (but we always paid it off)


The Roll of Insurance:
This brings me to the topic of insurance. Get some....make sure it at least covers burial costs. it isn't all that expensive, and it helps your survivors. We have a fairly large policy on me, and only the policy my wife had at work on her.

The concept behind our doing that was that I am the big bread winner, and it is "mostly" my salary that ran the house. In fact, for a number of years my wife stayed home with the kids because we both agreed this was the best thing for them....so my salary was critical and had I died back then, she needed to replace that salary in order to live. (and not in a cardboard box)

So we really had little insurance on my wife...but enough to make a dent in things we owe in all this. But let me be clear, the big problems in life are not money problems.....they are generally emotional in nature and are often connected with health, love and people.

Oh, and our insurance only covers us for our daughters time in school. We bought term policies for just a couple of years longer than they would be in school. Term was cheaper, and we were trying to guarantee the viability of our payment for school....after that and we figured we could live on our own savings. (but our daughters education was very critical to us)


Current Cash Flow & Long Term Investment:
My short term cash flow is under control....I need to focus a bit more on my long term investment situation, since I think this will be changing given our new family configuration. Also, my youngest daughter wants to change schools, and keep going for her PhD....which I want to support in some manner. (for tuition)

We certainly are NOT millionaires, but Cheryl and I had goals to get our daughters into school and to pay for their education. So this is part of the plan. (I just need to make sure things are "tuned up" to maximize our opportunity to do just that)