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Finally something good

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Redhead Erin:
Well, after 6 months of work,

[size=400pt]MY MORTGAGE GOT RESTRUCTURED!!!!![/size][/color]

And.... Hub's dad left us a decent amount of money. And his house isn't even sold yet.

This means we can

*  Pay off our debt
*  pay off our car
*  live on just one paycheck if need be (No more stress if I have a bad night or a bad week or a bad season!)
*  Afford for me to go back to school (AND EVENTUALLY QUIT DANCING! )
*  Travel a little
*  pay off the house early
*  Save money

*NEVER HAVE TO WORRY AGAIN[/size][/color]

And the bestest part----i will never, ever EVER have to go see my mother or do something for her because I need money.

EVER.

Hopalong:
CONGRATS to you and your family, Erin! Wow, that is so wonderful.

Hope you'll tolerate one heartfelt piece of advice that can totally change/rearrange/illuminate the entire rest of your life...

You might consider taking $99 of this windfall and you and Hubs together, take this class:
http://www.daveramsey.com/fpu/home/ictid/classpage/:

Best $99 I ever spent in my entiiiiiiiiiiiire life.

xo
Hops

sKePTiKal:
Erin - that's GREAT!

But one piece of advice, from someone who's still working on her Dad's estate (we're going on 5 years now...).
Estate taxes will take a huge chunk. So will lawyers, CPAs, etc... in the form of fees.

Hops' advice is excellent. The absolute FIRST thing you need to do, is make a budget - how much do you need to live on (after dealing with all your debt)? How will you get this money - investments, trust payouts, ???? when? is it monthly, bi-annually, annually? Will you keep working? (That decision isn't just about money...)

You and hubs MUST begin the process of setting up your own will, powers of attorney (including health), address insurance issues, etc as soon as you feel like you have a really sense of how this change is REALLY going to impact you. This is to protect each other and the kiddos.

I think hubs & I needed about 2 years to finally get all the details straight in our minds. We had so many, many things to talk about and decide together. Like - how did we want our lifestyle to change? did we want it to change? We'd seen other folks go a bit nutz and pretend to be someone they weren't... after some financial windfall. We are still - all these years later - who we were before. We decided that just as fast as the money came to us - it could also go away. And we needed to be OK with each other - and possibly facing that - together. I still eat peanut butter bread... spaghetti... hotdogs... I only shop for clothes, when I need to... and seasonally, for things I might need/like. Yes, we moved to another area, bought a big house (for our kids to come visit & play), furnished it... those were things I'd always dreamed about. Hubs has his "toys", too. But for the most part - we live on a fixed income, that we've planned out to cover even those crazy impulse purchases from time to time. Seriously - I still walk through Kmart or Walmart - and decide the price is too high on something and not buy it. I CAN - I just don't want to enough to justify the purchase.

For MONTHS, maybe even the whole first year - and even now, sometimes still - I get a moment of cognitive dissonance about how our finances changed. A reality shift of warp-speed magnitude. We didn't make any major decisions - except to pay down debt - during the time we were waiting for that to settle... and to get real, confirmed numbers in their right bookkeeping columns.

That's the grounding advice I've got for you. Now that that's out of the way:

Party like a rock-star girl!! Enjoy this moment... really, really enjoy it.

You'll think of all kinds of things that will be different. Lots of things won't be... but you'll find all that out, later. After paying down all your debt, getting wise financial advice, and setting up your own legal docs... see where you are financially -- and then deliberately set out to treat yourself to one thing you've always wanted. That's a really, interesting process and you might be surprised what you ultimately end up with.

Redhead Erin:
Right now we are not doing anything major.  We bought a bunch of stuff we have needed for a while but have been putting off  (A run for the chickens, tires for the car).  And I have taken a sabbatical from one of my jobs, but I will likely go back in the fall. 

This week I am taking the week off because my son is getting ready to show his 4-H projects at the county fair and I am helping him.  All winter I did pretty much nothing but work and sleep, so all the stuff I should have helped him with got put off until the very last minute. 

My big lifestyle change was I moved to a new gym which is closer to me and committed to a year of personal training and diet counseling.  This is actually a career move (I tell myself).  Not only am I still dancing at age 43,  but my next career will be as a personal trainer.  I want to experience training as a client before I start applying for jobs. Oh yeah, I bought the personal trainer books so I can study for the certification exam. 

sKePTiKal:
Well, don't forget the enjoyment part too! You are allowed, you know.

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