I’m Afraid I’ll Spend My Way Into The Poor House What Can I Do?

My Husband and I Are Worth $3.7 Million, But I’m Afraid I’ll Spend My Way Into The Poor House If He Dies. What Can I Do?

Published: Aug. 31, 2020  By Quentin Fottrell

Dear Moneyist, I am a 65-year-old woman married to a great guy for decades. We have no children.

He earns all the money and handles all our finances. During my entire life I have not been a good money manager. I love to spend money and have a head-in-the-sand approach to money problems. Before our marriage, I bounced checks often.

My fear is that I will outlive my husband, and then have no one to check my spending impulses. We owe less than $200,000 on our home, which is valued at over $2.5 million. We have another $1.2 million in retirement funds. He has a $1 million life-insurance policy.

We intend to retire within three years, sell this home, and relocate within California to a smaller home costing around $450,000. So, should he predecease me, I will have possibly a huge sum of money at my disposal. At the moment, we have a family trust and living wills.  Is there something we could set up to make sure I don’t spend myself into the poor house?   Spendthrift in California

Dear Spendthrift, Your husband could set up a trust for you that gives you a monthly income, with provisions for emergencies, and you can talk to a financial planner about all of those options. That continues the model you have both set up for yourselves now: He manages the money, you go along with his decisions, and he oversees how you spend and manage your money.

You can only learn how to manage a household budget, prioritize bills, refrain from making impulsive purchases and put something aside for a rainy day if you actually do it. The best time to start is now, not when your husband passes away, assuming he predeceases you. This column is about money, but it’s also about relationships, and chief among those is the relationship we have with ourselves.

Starting today, you can learn about income and expenditure, and/or having an account for an emergency fund in case you get sick or require a new car or a roof on your home. Your husband can help you, of course, but I suggest taking a money-management class in an effort to build your confidence and become more independent. You don’t want a trust to replace your husband.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/my-husband-and-i-are-worth-37-million-but-im-afraid-ill-spend-my-way-into-the-poor-house-if-he-dies-before-me-before-we-married-i-bounced-checks-what-can-i-do-2020-08-20?mod=article_inline

Beating Anxiety and Stress without Spending Money

Beating Anxiety and Stress without Spending Money

Trent Hamm  Jun 1, 2020  Founder of The Simple Dollar

Like a lot of people in the modern world, there is often a constant undercurrent of stress and anxiety in my life. I have a wife and three children still living at home, each of whom I try my best to be there for in a meaningful and focused way. I have a complex career. I have two parents that I love dearly that are older and in declining health. I have a lot of different community responsibilities and obligations.

All of that adds up to a lot of different things on my plate, and when you add to that the worries of the modern world, it can definitely add up to periods where I feel anxious and stressed out.

Of course, the modern world offers up a bunch of solutions to stress and anxiety, but you often end up paying for them. There are services you can pay for that will take some of the tasks off of your plate, from restaurants and take out services to laundry, maid and delivery services. There are endless entertainment options — that you have to pay for, of course — that will take you away from it all for a while. There are expensive hobbies with endless things to buy that can definitely pull your attention toward something more pleasant for a while.

Yet, in the end, those expensive services and products often exacerbate the problem, adding more financial stress to the equation than the other stresses that they take away. If I eat take out food all the time to save some time, it ends up devouring my money. If I throw my money into things designed to distract me for a while, I eventually come back to the same worry and stress and anxiety I had before, except with even more financial stress on my plate.

What’s the solution to all of this?

For me, it was figuring out a set of strategies that helped me manage stress and anxiety so that it wasn’t detrimental to my life. I believe a little bit of stress is positive, as it can nudge you toward doing things well, but too much stress and anxiety is a detriment. I wanted to find things in life that actually dialed down the stress and anxiety to a useful level.

These are the things that have actually worked for me in that regard. These may or may not work for you; I’m merely offering them up as things to try. As I noted above, none of these things cost money — there may be a negligible cost to a few of them, but they’re not oriented around spending, so they don’t contribute to financial stress.

Here are things in my life that I find actually reduce stress and anxiety without financial cost. Treat these like a menu. Use the ones that make sense to you and skip the ones that don’t, because the truth is that some of these things will click with you and some won’t. We’re all wired a little differently. The important thing to note is that there are lots of low-cost options for beating stress and anxiety and that these things work for at least one person out there.

12 Frugal Ways To Deal With Stress And Anxiety

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.thesimpledollar.com/financial-wellness/beating-anxiety-and-stress-without-spending-money/

My Partner and I Are Not Married Am I Entitled To Any Thing If We Split?

My Partner and I Are Not Married Am I Entitled To Any Thing If We Split?

Published: Sept. 10, 2020  By Quentin Fottrell

Dear Moneyist,  My partner and I have been together five years. We are not married. In that time he has been the primary, and often the sole, breadwinner.

When we met, he had several million dollars in investment accounts as well as a substantial salary ($400,000 to $800,000 a year, depending on bonuses). In that time, he paid off previous debt that I had incurred. We have lived a good life with lots of travel and many other luxuries.

At one point, he was offered a job in Europe and I left my new job in the U.S. to join him, a decision that left me unable to earn an income and continuing to depend on him for his money.

We share a couple of joint bank accounts, but the vast majority of his money is in accounts in his name only. I have never thought that money should be under both of our names, as it was money he had earned before we even met.

In the time we’ve been together, he has made $2 million to $3 million in income, and he has sold real estate that was owned before we met totaling $1 million. If we separated in the U.S., would I be entitled to anything from him? John

Dear John,

The short answer is no. Common-law marriage is typically elective and difficult to prove.

Now for the long answer: Common-law marriage was an old English law, and today only exists in a handful of U.S. states as an elective option. That is, you legally declare yourselves common-law spouses. You are not considered married in the eyes of the court or the government just because you lived together for five, 10 or even 20 years.

You willingly acknowledge that he was the main breadwinner, he paid off debt and, when he got a job overseas, you made the decision to give up your job in the U.S. and follow him, and allowed him to pay for your living expenses. These choices afforded you a certain lifestyle, and you did not have the career, or the savings, you would have had otherwise.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/my-partner-has-earned-millions-of-dollars-during-our-relationship-were-not-married-but-am-i-entitled-to-anything-if-we-split-2020-09-08?mod=personal-finance

Do I Need to Declare Bankruptcy?

Do I Need to Declare Bankruptcy?

By Charlotte Cowles

The Cut’s financial advice columnist Charlotte Cowles answers readers’ personal questions about personal finance. Email your money conundrums to mytwocents@nymag.com

Three years ago, I had a good job and a credit score of 750. Then I had to stop working for almost two years because of a death in my family. During that time, I put a lot of expenses on my credit cards, and I got so far behind on bills that my credit score has fallen to 450. I am now employed again (I hold a leadership position in education administration), although I’m making less than at my last job, about $85,000. I’ve also resumed saving, investing, and paying my bills on time. The problem is, I still owe about $17,000 spread across four credit cards.

Should I try and pay them off, or file for bankruptcy and try to settle? Or is it better to just pay the monthly minimums until I get my credit score up? My current household expenses are about $4,000 a month, including $2,350 on a mortgage, so I don’t have a lot of extra money. I also have student loans, which are currently in deferment.

I’m working toward getting my real-estate license so that I can have multiple streams of income, and I want to avoid bankruptcy if I can. I also want to improve my credit score as quickly as possible. What should I do?

I hope you don’t have to file for bankruptcy, but I’m glad you’re open to it. Obviously, it’s not a thrilling prospect, but just because it’s a last resort doesn’t mean you should wait until the last minute to explore it. To me, it’s similar to divorce: The longer you put it off, the more collateral damage there is. And it’s also a chance to walk away from an unfixable problem and start fresh.

That said, you may very well be able to get rid of your debt on your own. Plenty of people manage to pay off credit-card debt far worse than yours, although it’s never easy, especially once interest rates pile up. Alternatively, you sound like a great candidate for a debt-relief plan, where you sidestep bankruptcy by working with a credit counselor to iron out a special payment schedule with your creditors.

But it all depends on how far behind you are on these bills already — in financial parlance, how delinquent this debt has become. If your creditors have already sued you to collect payment, then you need to speak to a lawyer. More on that in a minute.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.thecut.com/article/do-i-need-to-declare-bankruptcy.html

What’s the Plan?

What’s the Plan?

Robin Powell  |  September 10, 2020

IF YOU ASKED everyday Americans to define a financial plan, chances are they’ll talk about investment strategy. And for many people who call themselves financial advisors, that’s what a financial plan amounts to.

But a real plan is so much more than that.

To be sure, investment strategy will form part of a financial plan. But a strategy that isn’t moored to each individual’s goals, risk tolerance, financial situation, family circumstances and values isn’t really a strategy at all. It is more likely just a product that’s being sold off the shelf.

A real financial plan—as drawn up and constantly reviewed by a good financial planner—is really a living and breathing creation that begins with each person’s goals and aspirations, and then works back from there. The goals determine the strategy, not vice versa.

Another identifying feature of a bona fide plan is there isn’t just one goal or one strategy. Most people will have a long-term goal, such as generating sufficient income in retirement. But they will also have medium-term goals, like funding the children’s education, paying off the mortgage or helping with the care of elderly parents. On top of that, they’ll have short-term goals, like next year’s vacation. Each goal will come with its own strategy.

Then there’s the fact that your life rarely moves in straight lines and smooth roads. Recent events provide a stark reminder that the unexpected and unplanned can force us to rethink even the most locked-in goals. This means that managing risk will be a pivotal element of any plan worth its salt: Cash needs in a crisis will be part of the mix, as will life and disability insurance. What will happen to your estate after you’re gone has to be considered as well.

Furthermore, a good plan will take account of the day-to-day as well as the long term. A planner will assess your current financial situation, including regular incomings and outgoings, and how best to manage your assets and liabilities—what you own and what you owe.

The investment part of the strategy—the part that most people believe constitutes a financial plan—isn’t as straightforward as you might think, either. Markets are unpredictable, as we’ve seen recently. A planner needs to balance the need for strategies that maximize your chances of reaching your goals with those that you can actually live with.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://humbledollar.com/2020/09/whats-the-plan/

Is $10 Million Enough To Never Worry About Money Again?

Is $10 Million Enough To Never Worry About Money Again?

Written by J.D. ROTH| Published: 02 December 2016 – Updated: 20 February 2020

When people send me email, they usually have very specific questions about their very specific circumstances. “What should I do about my ailing parents?” “Should I fund my kids' college first or put money aside for retirement?” “How should I save for a down payment?”

Recently, though, a Money Boss reader named Mark sent me a simple hypothetical question. Here's the entirety of his email:  “If you had $10,000,000 (in cash) at the age of 60, would you say that you would never have to worry about money again?”

At first glance, there's not much to this question. All it requires is a basic “yes” or “no” answer. But I think there's a lot of depth beneath the surface here.

You see, I find that folks tend to fall into one of two camps: people who worry about money and people who don't. I'm generalizing, I know, and really there's more of a continuum than two binary opposites, but roughly speaking this tends to be true. Some people worry about money no matter how much they have. Others never worry, even if they have nothing.

You can see this division on early retirement blogs and forums. There are folks who have maybe $100,000 saved and feel completely at ease. Others have millions in the bank but worry that won't be enough for the future.

Plus, there are different degrees of worry.

In another recent email conversation, MB reader Travis wrote:

I look at retirement this way: It's a balancing act between not working too long on one hand but not running out of money on the other hand. It's easy to never run out of money — work until you drop dead!! It's also easy to “retire” early if you accept a really high probability of running out of cash. Let's say you have a family of five, and you think $2 million will probably be enough to retire on, but feel really confident that $3 million will definitely be enough. You can work extra years to earn that extra million or risk it and try for $2 million.

That extra million is effectively insurance, and the “premium” you're paying for the insurance is years of your life spent at work to earn money you may not ultimately need. I think a lot of people “over-insure” in the sense that they work too long. The nice thing is, jobs aren't going anywhere. If you quit your job at $2 million, and find in ten years you need more money, you can always go back to work. Of course, the converse isn't true…if you work too much, you can never get the time you wasted in the cubicle back.

As I always say, this financial stuff would be so much easier if we just knew the exact date we were going to die. With that single piece of knowledge, we could make much better decisions with our money. Instead, there's a constant balancing act between today and tomorrow. And people tend to worry about their financial futures even when they have plenty of money.

According to my six stages of financial freedom, the only point at which money is never an issue is after you've achieved abundance — when you have “enough and then some”. At this stage, your passive income from all sources grants you the freedom to do anything you want for the rest of your life. But few people ever reach this stage. More than 99.9% of the human population has less money…and more worries.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.getrichslowly.org/is-10-million-enough/

9 Lessons to Take From Millionaires Who Are Really Good With Money

9 Lessons to Take From Millionaires Who Are Really Good With Money

By The Penny Hoarder Staff  July 21, 2020

Life would be a whole lot easier if someone would just Venmo us $1 million, but unfortunately the chance of that happening is, well, probably zero. (Venmo doesn’t allow transactions that large anyway.)

But even though our chances of becoming a millionaire are slim, we can still manage our money like one. No, we’re not going to tell you how to buy hundreds of shares of Apple stock. Or how to pick out the perfect yacht.

These are simple money moves any normal, non-millionaire person can make today. Each tip can get you closer to achieving your big goals.

Take a look:

1. They Grow Their Money 11x Faster — Without Risking Any of it

Putting your money under a mattress or in a safe will get you nothing. And a typical savings account won’t do you much better. (Ahem, .09% is nothing these days.)

Act like the rich and use a debit card called Aspiration to earn up to 5% cash back and up to 11 times the average interest on the money in your account. Plus, you’ll never pay a monthly account-maintenance fee.

Enter your email address here, and link your bank account to see how much extra cash you can get with your free Aspiration account. And don’t worry. Your money is FDIC insured and under a military-grade encryption. That’s nerd talk for “this is totally safe.”

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://partners.thepennyhoarder.com/9-lessons-to-take-from-millionaires-who-are-really-good-with-money-2/

Save Like A Pessimist, Invest Like An Optimist

Save Like A Pessimist, Invest Like An Optimist

Sep 2, 2020 by Morgan Housel

In 1984 Jane Pauley interviewed 28-year-old Bill Gates. “Some people call you a genius,” Pauley said. “I know that might embarrass you but …” Gates deadpans. No emotion. No response.

“OK, I guess that doesn’t embarrass you,” Pauley says with an awkward laugh.  Again, zero reaction from Gates.

Of course he was a genius. And he knew it.

Gates dropped out of college at 19 because he thought a computer should be on every desk in every home. You only do that when you have relentless confidence in your abilities. Paul Allen once wrote about the first time he met Bill:

You could tell three things about Bill Gates pretty quickly. He was really smart. He was really competitive; he wanted to show you how smart he was. And he was really, really persistent.

But there was another side of Bill Gates. It was almost paranoia, virtually the opposite of his unshakable confidence.

From the day he started Microsoft he insisted on always having enough cash in the bank to keep the company alive for 12 months with no revenue coming in. In 1995 he was asked by Charlie Rose why he kept so much cash on hand. Things change so fast in technology that next year’s business wasn’t guaranteed, he said, “Including Microsoft’s.” In 2007 he reflected:

I was always worried because people who worked for me were older than me and had kids, and I always thought, ‘What if we don’t get paid, will I be able to meet the payroll?’”

Optimism and pessimism can coexist. If you look hard enough you’ll see them next to each other in virtually every successful company and successful career. They seem like opposites, but they work together to keep everything in balance.  What Gates seems to get is that you can only be an optimist in the long run if you’re pessimistic enough to survive the short run.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/save-like-a-pessimist-invest-like-an-optimist/

Action Creates Motivation

Action Creates Motivation

by J.D. Roth  04 August 2020

“If you want to be rich, there's only one thing you need to know: Wealth is built by spending less than you earn. The greater the gap between your earning and spending, the faster your wealth increases. But this knowledge isn't enough to make most people wealthy. Again, knowledge without action is essentially meaningless.”

Human beings are interesting creatures. I'm fascinated by them. That's probably the reason I was a psychology major in college. It's certainly the reason that I believe (strongly) that everybody is talented, original, and has something important to say. (That bit of philosophy is something I picked up from Brenda Ueland's marvelous book, If You Want to Write.)

People are awesome — even if we're each flawed in our own way.

One thing I've noticed over the past few years is the dichotomy between knowing something and doing something. It's one thing to understand a concept or fact intellectually; it's a completely different thing to experience a fact or concept, or to put it into practice.

I came to this realization during our 15-month RV trip across the United States. At the start of the trip, I had an intellectual understanding of the country's size and scope. I knew the facts and figures. But I didn't have an experiential understanding of what these facts and figures meant. It wasn't until Kim and I had driven 35,000 miles — about 1.5 times the circumference of the Earth! — exploring the U.S. that I really, truly grasped how huge (and varied) this place is.

So too, we — all of us — struggle to put into practice many ideas that we know would improve our lives.

Take my ongoing struggle with anxiety and depression. Too much of the time, I believe I can “think” my way out of it. I can't. That's not how it works. I realize this intellectually, but that doesn't stop me from trying again and again and again. Intellectually, I know that I need to eat right, exercise, and engage in social activity. But knowing this doesn't actually make it happen. Knowledge is not the same as action.

The same is true with physical fitness. Like all of you, I know what's required to be physically fit. I have to eat right and exercise. That's how it works. But again, knowing what creates a healthy body isn't enough to achieve a healthy body. Fitness requires action, not just knowledge.

Financial fitness is the same. If you want to be rich, there's only one thing you need to know: Wealth is built by spending less than you earn. The greater the gap between your earning and spending, the faster your wealth increases. But this knowledge isn't enough to make most people wealthy. Again, knowledge without action is essentially meaningless.

Dreams remain dreams without doing.

The key to making lasting, positive change in our lives is learning how to put knowledge into action. But how? How does one find the motivation to exercise or to get out of debt? The answer is kind of counter-intuitive.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.getrichslowly.org/action-creates-motivation/

What You Should Know About Bequeathing to Charity in Your Will

What You Should Know About Bequeathing to Charity in Your Will

By Jessica Sillers — Apr 21, 2020

Writing your will is an opportunity to think about how you’d like people to remember you when you’re gone. For lots of families, that means choosing guardians and providing for children in the will. Another way to keep your legacy alive? Donating to charity.

Whether you call it a bequest, an endowment, a legacy, or simply a gift, money or assets you leave to charity can be a meaningful part of your final plans. No matter how large or small your estate is, there’s a way to leave a legacy to a cause you care about.

What Is Bequeathing to Charity?

Donating to charity doesn’t always mean writing a check. There are a number of different ways to give back through your estate planning.

We at Fabric aren't lawyers. So, before deciding how to incorporate charitable giving as part of your estate plan, we encourage you to speak with a qualified legal professional about your specific needs and goals. (Do you need a lawyer to write your will?)

Cash Donation Through Your Will

Any reputable charity can put a cash donation to good use. These are a few ways you can divide your money between your loved ones and favorite organization:

General gift: Name a specific amount of money or a percentage of your estate that should go to your preferred charity.

Residual gift: Designate how much of your estate should go to each of your other beneficiaries, and then send anything that’s left over to charity.

Contingent gift: You can choose to donate to charity as a backup plan, such as if your beneficiary passes away before you. The condition doesn’t need to be based on death, either. You could theoretically say that if your cousin goes to rehab and stays out of jail, he gets $10,000, but otherwise the money will go to an anti-addiction organization you support.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://meetfabric.com/blog/what-you-should-know-about-bequeathing-to-charity-in-your-will

Digital Nomads Will Want To Know About These Two Countries

Digital Nomads Will Want To Know About These Two Countries

Notes From The Field By Simon Black  September 2, 2020  Sheridan, Wyoming

British Petroleum announced this week that ALL 6,500 employees in its London office will be working from home within the next two years.  BP is even going to shut down the office entirely and sell the building. They’re not the only ones.

Right now, in fact, only 13% of London office workers are back at the office. And as we’ve been saying, many likely won’t return.  When you never have to go to the office anymore, why stay in expensive London? Or New York, or San Francisco for that matter?

A lot of people are already moving.

I’ve been driving across the northern United States for the past few days-- Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. ‘Rural’ doesn’t even begin to capture the scene here. It’s gorgeous.

And it’s been remarkable to see how many people are moving to these areas from big cities (especially from California).

Even more, as we’ve been suggesting, a lot of folks will pick up and go farther afield, leaving their home countries altogether.

That’s one of the silver linings of COVID: the work-from-home revolution allows a lot of people to go anywhere, for any reason-- perhaps to dodge the chaos, for better weather, a different lifestyle, tax savings, or all of the above.

Two places to consider are Spain and Portugal; both have very straightforward options for people who might want to live there (even just temporarily) to obtain legal residency.

In short, you’ll need to demonstrate that you have sufficient cash, liquid assets and/or monthly income so that you won’t become a burden to local welfare programs.

Portugal’s “D7” visa requirements, for example, are based on the current minimum wage.

So if you have an income or cash savings of at least €7,620 (the annual minimum wage in Portugal, roughly USD $9,000), you can receive a temporary residency permit that’s valid for 1 year.

If you bring your spouse, you’d need an additional 50% of that amount, plus 30% for each child.

So a family of four would need about $18,000.

(This is the bare minimum, and of course it’s always best to show more if possible when you submit your application.)

And to be clear, this is YOUR money. It’s not like you have to pay it to the government as a fee or anything. You keep it in your bank account, and spend it as you see fit. The Portuguese government just needs to know that you have (or earn) enough to support yourself.

Spain has a type of visa that is very similar to Portugal’s D7. It’s called “residencia no lucrativa” or “non-lucrative residency.”

Spain is more demanding when it comes to showing savings or income, but their requirements are not outrageous.

This required amount increases slightly each year, depending on the Spanish minimum wage.

As of 2020, they want to see that the primary applicant has €25,560, and an additional €6,390 for each additional family member.

So, a family of four would need to show a minimum €44,730 of savings to qualify for residency in Spain (or almost $50,000).

Spain and Portugal are just two drops in an ocean of options. Both are really nice (in fact, our own Sovereign Woman is currently in Portugal meeting with lawyers and real estate agents.)

Digital Nomads in particular may be drawn to Spain and Portugal-- especially Lisbon and Barcelona. Those cities have vibrant entrepreneur communities, high quality local workers, excellent nonstop flight networks, great weather, and cheap living costs.

There are undoubtedly millions of people around the world who are thinking about their next steps right now.

Everyone’s life has changed. And a lot of people are starting to realize that they have much more control over their own lives-- including the freedom to choose where to live-- for the first time ever.

This ought to be a deliberate decision. There are countless places around the world to choose from. And you can decide for yourself what’s important… what matters to you… and start crafting exactly the life you want to live.

To your freedom and prosperity,  Simon Black, Founder, SovereignMan.com

https://www.sovereignman.com/international-diversification-strategies/digital-nomads-will-want-to-know-about-these-two-countries-28747/