Eyes and more

It was a busy day yesterday. We got to Costco at 10am. No wait at the membership desk, so we got our cards quickly, along with a bag of "goodies", mostly samples of Costco snacks. One of the items was a k-cup of Kirkland brand coffee, so that is what I am trying out this morning in my coffee cup. Tastes good. The lady at the membership desk also said, if I don't earn at least $60 in cash back on the executive membership, to come and talk to them and they would credit it anyway.

We then checked in a little early for our eye exams, but she said they were running a little late with the appointment the dr was doing at the time and there was a lady before us waiting. So, we went out to the optical area and started looking at glasses. Then she said she could at least start on our pre-exam tests. Then wait some more. I got a couple pair of glasses picked out I was trying to decide between and then we got something picked out for dh. We also decided to get prescription sunglasses, as well. No more clip ons, LOL. They were having a special of get $50 off the second pair. With the 2 pair I was trying to decide between, I got one for regular wear and one to be sunglasses. The pricey part of both our glasses is that we need progressive lenses. But my vision insurance covered $150 for each of us, on the frames and lenses. I had to pay for the exams, and then submit to my vision insurance. I think I will get most of that reimbursed, except from what I read on my benefits there is a $10 copay on the exam.

We liked the doctor and he seemed to do a good job explaining everything and the pictures of our eyes. Both healthy eyes, though he said I am showing the start of cataracts. Nothing that is affecting my sight or needing to be done now, but of course, most likely I will need the cataract surgery in the future, so good to know. Thinking ahead to retirement and being on medicare, I got home and looked up to see if medicare covers cataract surgery, and it does. If it didn't I would be trying to see if it would be something I could've gotten done before I retire at 67. He also suggested a new eye drop for me to use, with my corneal abrasion issue. He said use them morning and night, so I am going to get that ordered to try out.

When we got done it was 11:40 and Costco was packed so we decided to skip looking around and doing any shopping. We'll try again when we pick up our glasses. That will be a middle of the day on a Monday (hopefully they are in by the 15th) so I'm hoping it will not be a zoo. We then went to a regular grocery store so I could grab a small cart of things to see if we can last with our food supplies for another 2 weeks, when our next trip into the city is scheduled. We were both starving by then, so went thru Taco Time drive thru and headed back home. Dh wanted to go into our town lumber store and get some more of the lumber for the next section of the loft ceiling. I think we finally got home around 2:30pm.

Dh spent the rest of the afternoon measuring and sawing up his boards. Later this morning (after he is up and tells me which he needs done first) I'll start staining them all. This corner section is a little larger, as that corner juts out about 2 feet farther then the rest of the loft. 

It turned out to a nice sunny day yesterday, over 50 degrees. Our lawn is already starting to green back up. I also saw some iris leaves starting to poke up out of the ground.

I know today will go by fast, with all the staining work I have to do. I hear dh up and about, so I guess my morning quiet time is over ;)

 

Friday is here

Dh got the light installed and was done my mid morning. It all turned out nice and hopefully that has motivated him to get started on the next section sometime in the near future.

Later yesterday afternoon he decided with the bit of boards he had left he would get started on the other corner. Then this morning he would go back to the lumber store and get the rest of the supplies to do this next corner. Now that he knows a "section" takes a day, I think he seems motivated that that is easy to get done and make some progress. If nothing else, the ceiling and lighting gets done and 9 boxes of lights get out of the way. This morning he got up and said he doesn't feel like going to the lumber store/working on it today. Mostly because it's wet/rainy out and he doesn't want to get the lumber wet in the back of the truck.

My state tax refund showed up in my account this morning. I had a chuckle to myself about my mom's federal tax return/refund. Because if she had OWED money, after dying, I (or someone) sure would have been required to get her return filed on time AND paid it on time.

I also got the email for my $40 Costco Shop card. I printed that out and put it in my purse, with the email for signing up for membership.

I'm glad it's Friday. This afternoon I have a company quarterly meeting to "attend" via Teams. It's supposed to last 2 hours....ugh, LOL. We have quite a few that attend via Teams, who don't work in the office. The meeting is held in one of the office meeting rooms and those that attend virtually are at first on the screen on the wall (until they start showing slides). Some show their camera/live, other's just their name. I usually just do my name. I find it annoying to just see people (or myself!) sitting there watching for 2 hours, LOL. But, one of the exec. mgr's recently sent out some email about if you are in a teams meeting you need to have your camera on. Fine. Whatever. ;)

 

Project progress

Dh ended up almost getting that first section of the tongue and groove ceiling finished up yesterday. He just has to install the recessed shop light now. This space will have one light, so hey - one box of the lights will be gone (these are 4' LED shop lights). The whole project took him all day and then some, but he was just too tired and didn't want to mess with the light until he got some rest.

We see DAN relisted his house again, now on his 3rd realtor, same price. We can't figure out how they were able to have his last listing (of just over 6 months) removed from Zillow's listing history. Interesting. But, realtor.com stills shows all the listing history and pricing, as accurate.

As I've mentioned dh isn't a hoarder to this extreme in the house, at all. He will hold on to a few things, but overall it's not an issue. Occasionally I will try to throw out something (that isn't even his/something he uses) and he will instantly go into hoarder mode. Or if I'm getting rid of things, he has to go through them to "make sure" and almost always will have some reason I should keep something. I stopped playing along with that a long time ago and I just get rid of things without him even realizing it. It can be something as stupid as a cheap florist vase or an old cheese shredder. He does have one (large) bin of some old clothes up on his closet shelf. He got it down the other day to look for something. He used to wear Levi 501 jeans. Hasn't worn that type in years, let alone they don't fit anymore, yet he has to keep this 4 or 5 pair for some reason. I think the other half of the bin is summer clothes. When we finished up our closets, we added nice dressers and his is larger, due to having more room to put it in his side. I'm going to take a look to see if he ever even filled his drawers up. It's very likely he did not and the clothing in this big bin could to into a few drawers and get rid of the big ugly bin (those black ones with the yellow lid) out of his closet.

He filled up our garbage can with taking apart the old dryer, but the garbage truck comes this morning and then we will have room again, where I can finish filling up my bag of stuff I keep finding to get rid of.  He does still have to cut up the dryer drum, so the pieces will fit into the can........but not before he was trying to figure out some other use for it! 

I submitted my tax returns on Monday and wow - I just looked at my state "where's my refund?" and it was processed the next day. So, it should be in my bank account soon. Nice. It's all going right to what I owe the IRS, but at least the funds will be here before my payment to the IRS is due on 4/15. Still nothing new on my mom's tax return. I mailed that form for that almost 2 weeks ago.

Progress and plan

Yesterday's progress by dh: he got a fire started in the fire pit - burned a small pallet, and a bucket full of small scraps of wood. Then he got to chatting with Mr. Neighbor for an hour and didn't end up doing any more after that. I was really hoping he'd made a dent in the huge scrap of wood piles (he has 2 big stacks in the garage).

While it's great when dh makes tiny bits of progress to actually throw something out, the more he tries, the more overwhelmed he quickly gets with it all and then he's done, again. He gets too overwhelmed and depressed to keep going. So, maybe he'll get a little motivated again, but honestly, it usually takes another year. I did comment to him last night that this seems to be his cycle, so he is maybe at least made aware of it.

And while he's super organized and neat, it's getting to the point now, that most of the stuff has been stored away in bins for years now and while he knows he has this or that part/item, when he goes to look for it, it's not in the bin or tool box drawer he thought it was in. Then he spends an hour trying to open and move bins to look. Then he's frustrated and worn out. Like, he knows he has some caster type wheels he saved off of something years ago. He wants them now to use on something, but can't find them. He knows he has the item, but he's worn out looking for it for the past 2 days. We finally just ordered some on Amazon. It's just not a mindset that works in my brain, so I really don't get it. Why keep doing something that makes you frustrated and unhappy? 

Stuff I've watched or read on hoarding says often the person experienced some traumatic event. I really don't know what it could be. Years ago we did some couples counseling and the counselor even said she thought he must have experienced something traumatic in his childhood. Again, if there is, he doesn't know what it was or has repressed it. My guess is it's some deep seated fear about something or most likely related to needing to be in control of it all. I know he has OCD tendencies, which can also cause hoarding. His organization skills are top notch though, LOL.

Monday I got my tax returns filed. I'm getting a refund from state, but owe fed, so I was able to file both at the same time, while setting up the fed payment to pay on 4/15. The state is pretty quick about processing refunds, so they should likely happen around the same time. Nice to get that off my to do list and I used FreeTaxUSA for the first time. Like a $100 savings over Turbotax. I just had to pay $15 to file the state return. Still no update on my mom's return. 

DH's plan today is he's up and going to go into the town lumber store and get some tongue and groove and boards, to get started on the "ceiling" underneath the loft he built last spring. He's just getting enough for now to do one corner area. He's trying to tackle the project in smaller chunks and then also if he doesn't buy all the materials now, he doesn't have to make room to store that until he's done. I guess this means I get to start staining boards again, LOL.

Decluttering

I continue to do my "mini" decluttering of cupbboards and drawers. A kitchen cupboard was relieved of a few unneeded items. A couple more small items out of the upstairs closet.

DH made a little progress, which for him is considered huge progress. He even just sold a car part for $250. The main progress he made yesterday was finally parting with an old extra clothes dryer that has been taking up space in his shop. When we moved into the house in town (almost 8 years ago now) the previous owners left a dryer. It worked. DH stored it in the garage. Sometime while living there our dryer died and dh replaced it with the extra dryer. Then he never got rid of the one that doesn't work......why? because he might be able to fix it if the other dryer stops working. So, we have a washer and dryer in the shop bathroom and one in the house. We discussed it yesterday and I said if the dryer in the shop stops working, we'll get a new one (or more likely move the one from the house out there and put a new on in the house), there's no reason to keep this, taking up space. He finally decided he would get rid of it, by taking it apart, cutting up pieces, if necessary, and putting in the the garbage. Done.

After A LOT of talking about his hoard yesterday, that's as far as he got. He has several reasons he keeps everything - sentimental, guilt, he might need it someday, and just plain hoarding. I can certainly reason logic with him and he totally gets it, but he just can't get himself to end up parting with things. As is typical of a horder, he will always rationalize why he needs to keep it. He did finally try to contact a few racers he knows to see if they or anyone they know might be interested in some of the stuff he has. The problem with it all now is, it's all becoming obsolete. Rules and regulations have changed in the last dozen years and most of what he has isn't even "legal" to race with. And then he's got in his mind what it was all worth back then and doesn't want to "give" it to someone for pennies on the dollar. Or he says it's just too much work to try to get rid of it....I said what do you think is going to happen to it all when I or dd have to work to get rid of it all? It probably won't even go for pennies on the dollar - she or I will have to likely pay to have someone take it away....

Trying to reason with him is pointless and I finally just nicely told him so. I said I know he logically knows all this and he knows he logically knows all this, but unless he's actually willing to start actually getting rid of stuff (and large stuff), it's pointless to keep talking about it. I told him his way of dealing with it all, is to just keep re-organizing it, to make himself think he has more room. I asked him what he envisions a shop he would love looks like - of course it's one that has a couple of cars, work benches and tool boxes, lots of space to move around in. I asked him what do you want more - what you envision or just holding on to all this stuff that will never be used, finished, whatever? 

And the sad part is, it's not just his 1700 square foot shop - it's also our large 3 car garage. It's the same way. Inside our house is totally the opposite. I'm not a minimalist, but lean more towards that, than stuff and clutter, that's for sure. I asked him last night - if the inside was filled with "stuff" everywhere, would he feel relaxed and comfortable living in his home? He said no. I said your shop and the garage is the same way. I go out there and feel anxious and almost claustrophobic. I said it's the reason you don't enjoy trying to do anything out there. You have to move stuff just to get to stuff.

On a joking note - he said that dryer has been his hiding spot out in the shop for my Christmas presents and stocking stuffers. He apparently even still had receipts in the dryer! he said now where am I going to hide your presents that you couldn't find them? I said buddy....you could literally put them just about anywhere out there and I wouldn't notice them, because walking out there and opening the door to all that stuff, to me, is like walking into a Where's Waldo picture. The only good thing about it all, is that it's very organized.

Baking and snow

I kept pretty busy yesterday, while watching it snow most of the day. It never did stick on the pavement or concrete. I made up the recipe for vanilla ice cream, to chill all day in the fridge. I had some over ripe bananas, so I made a loaf of banana bread, too. I put it in the oven and forgot to set the timer! But, I had a general idea of how long it had been in, so I just watched for it to get done looking and tested with a toothpick. Sometimes I end up throwing out old bananas and realized I could mash them up for a cups worth (what my recipe calls for) and freeze it, for when I have time to make it. I will do that next time I'm about to throw out bananas.

I got my Costco membership ordered online. I have to take in a printed out email with us, when we go next Saturday for our eye exams, to the membership desk so we can get our cards. I printed it out and put it in my purse, so I don't forget it. The offer was still good for a $40 Costco card with an executive membership. It sounds like I will get emailed that within 2 weeks.

When I got my account created with Costco online I had to verify myself. Well, that was a bit creepy. It asked some multiple choice verification questions. One was a street house and street number and asked what city it is in...I didn't recognize any of the addresses, but one of the cities was where I lived.......when I was 12. Then I remembered that was the house/street address. What in the hell? I don't even remember my address from when I was 12, but this verification system knows where I lived when I was 12, under my maiden name?! It's not like I ever had a checking or credit card at that age.

Dinner was the leftovers reheated and some soft ice cream in cones for dessert. The soft ice cream maker machine doesn't really seem to work for me to have the soft ice cream drop out into the cone. It's too thick (even though I didn't churn it as long this time). It really needs something that would help push the ice cream out, I think. But it tastes really good, good texture, and I just spooned it into our cones and then froze the rest. 

Mr "hunter cat" caught a bird yesterday (or he already found it dead, which is more likely considering he is a terrible hunter), which is extremely rare for him. He almost got inside with it, as dh was opening the door to let him in. Then he was not happy that dh wouldn't let him bring it inside, LOL. It was a pretty big one, too, which makes it even more likely he didn't kill it. The only things I have ever seen him catch (and not very often) is field mice, but he doesn't try to bring them in the house. Inside he's very good about catching flies, LOL. 

Time to get my shoes on (and a winter hat with my jacket) and trek out to the mailbox to get the form returned to SS. And then get my work day/week started.

Back up to speed

The last thing I tried (per the tech support), to get my internet speed back, was to unplug all our google wi-fi system pucks. My computer is hard wired via an Ethernet cable directly into the modem/router, so when I unplugged the google system my computer was back at full speed. I hoped it was just a reset needed and not something wrong with the google system. I then plugged the 4 pucks back in, got wi-fi back, and at first the test speed was good (that's what it did everytime I unplugged the router/modem) but went back to low, but at least had 5mbps (ya we live rural haha). Then about an hour later it finally was back to normal speed. So, likely it was something on the provider end and I wasted an hour try to do stuff on my end. It's been fine since.

Then I went into the bonus room tv to see how to get dh's music playlist on Youtube Premium to play. He coudn't find it the night before, plus I think the remote needed new batteries. I got the new batteries in and was looking thru the menus on his youtube account. I was thinking maybe the app on this smart tv needs updating and he walks into the room, wanting to play pool, and somehow found his playlist, so I guess that's fixed LOL.

My dd just messaged me. She was up at 3:15 (good grief!) this morning to leave her hotel in Orlando and is flying back home. She had just boarded her connecting flight and knew I'd be up now, to say hello, before her plane taxied out.

New news: DAN's house he has been trying to sell since October of 2021 has been taken off the market. It could mean several things, either way, but will be interesting to see what is next with this saga.

For dinner last night I made a chicken and stovetop dressing dish. I haven't made it in quite awhile, but it was a good change and always tastes good. There is enough for leftovers and dh said he'll have it for dinner again tonight. It's rare he eats leftovers, so I'm happy I don't have to make dinner tonight ;)  I was thinking about making some more soft ice cream yesterday but never did (and then of course last night he asked if we had any ice cream), so I will get some made today.

I also de-scaled my Keurig yesterday. The light had come on a couple days before, but I couldn't remember how to do it, so had to look it up. Oh, that's right - not spending $8 for a bottle of Keurig descaler and used the vinegar and water method I had found on youtube before. So, for less than .50 cents I descaled my Keurig. It takes a few more flushes of clean water through it, to get out the vinegar smell/taste residue, but that is easy and I just did it was I was waiting for dinner to bake.

And the mail from Social Security was not my mom's last check, It was a letter saying I needed to fill the form out again because I missed filling in a box. I don't know why I hadn't taken a copy of the first form I sent in, but I'm 99.9% sure I did fill in that box, but whatever. I did what the instructions in the letter said and filled it out again and also signed and dated on the letter they sent, per the instructions. And this time I took a copy of it all. So, I guess I'll be waiting at least another 6 weeks again.

My uncle called last night and said he has an appt on the 27th with a financial advisor for advice on what to do with his inherited IRA. I said that is a great idea. Then in true uncle fashion, he asks how we're doing and says Ok, talk to you later!. LOL My phone says the call was 40 seconds long. LOL.

Slow Saturday

Boy, my internet is being slow this morning. It's taking 2-3 seconds just to open pages. Maybe a reset will help. I'll do that when I go downstairs to get breakfast. Sitting here, glancing out the window every so often, for the expected snow. It's cold enough to snow, now.

I see from my mail informed delivery that my mom's last social security check is in the mail. Now I can check that off my list.

I just checked my internet speed - supposed to be at like 21 mbps and it's at 1mpbs! Time to try the reset. I'll be back.............well, that did not help at all. Wonder what the issue is. This will make for a very grumbly dh when he gets up and sits down at his computer this morning.

Retirement talk:

In addition to our social security, we will also have retirement savings to draw from. I got an HSA account 3 years ago and started maxing it out with contributions 2 years ago and plan to keep doing that until I retire. All but $2000, that I have to keep in the main account, is invested and earning. When dh goes on medicare at age 65, I will only be able to max it out for me, as my understanding is if you are on medicare you can't contribute to an HSA.

I did a bit more research into Medicare Plan G costs. This was from the medicare.gov site, where I could put in age and zip code and it would give plans and costs for each plan. I just put in 65 as the age. The cost can vary quite a bit, (from $100-$392) depending on the insurance company chosen. For a regular plan G, through BlueCross (who I am familiar with using) it is $125, so close to the $100 per person I put in my budget. For a high-deductible Plan G, with a $2800 deductible, the cost is $75. With my HSA account funded and available, if needed, I would likely go with the high deductible plan.

For the Medicare Part D I am seeing the cost range (again, depending on company used) from .50 a month to $104.00 per month. At first this was a bit confusing for me. I was first in the Medicare gap plans page (for the above paragraph) and then looked at "Plan D" - well that isn't the same thing as "Part D". I went back to the main page and then was able to find the "Part D" plans and costs for my zip code.

I will also have my 401k from work and whatever is left in my inherited IRA after paying off the mortgage. I am anticipating to have extra from that. Even though I will have to withdraw it all by 10 years, so that I am taxed on it, I certainly don't have to spend what is left after the mortgage payoff. I can reinvest it and am hoping that will be what I can do, provided we can live off of social security income.

I know the % changes, but the consensus seems to be if you withdraw around 4% a year from your retirement fund, it's supposed to last. Once I would have to start taking that, at 75, it will likely be about half our SS income.

Friday Finances

The beginning of the week was going normal/slow, but I woke up this morning and sat down to my computer and was surprised to see it said Friday. I thought it was Thursday!  At work we have this Friday email summarizing our big orders for the week. It was a long one (it's a lot of graphics/pictures of the projects) with info below each. I'm scrolling through reading, and realize there is a hidden message, LOL. The first 4 to respond get a $25 gift certificate. I replied pretty quickly, so maybe I'll be one of the winners. Usually I just scroll through these Friday emails just glancing at the job name and total $. They were pretty sneaky with the hidden message ;)

Thanks to comments yesterday I learned some things and have some new things to research and/or look into a little bit more in depth :) 

Dh also turns 60 this year. I have done lots of research the past couple of years and thinking on when would be best to have him start taking social security. I still have a couple more years to keep thinking and researching, but as of now my plan is to have him start taking his at 62. Since he doesn't work and has no income, this would be a nice little bit of extra income for us each month (especially since I won't have any side job income by then). 

I did the "break even" analysis on him taking it at different ages and for it to make a difference whether he takes it at 62 or his full retirement age of 67, the break even age is 82. I'm also taking into consideration his overall health - which, facing reality, is not the best for longevity. If he starts taking it at 62, when I retire at 67 and start taking it, he can then switch to spousal benefits, which from my understanding is half of my monthly payment, less an adjustment for him taking his early, but still a bit more than he would just taking his own SS benefit.

I know there are lots of different opinions on when it's best to take SS, but in doing the math, I see no reason for dh to wait and take it later. If he does live past 82, then the amount between then and his death won't be a huge difference in overall social security income earned all the years. 

My plan, when he can start taking this in mid 2026, is to put that monthly income towards our mortgage, as well, while I'm paying down the mortgage by the time I retire. Again, the main plan with all this is figuring out how I can be retired by age 67, at the latest.

Guns and money

I don't think I mentioned - on Monday, dh did go up to have that other gunsmith (is that what they are called?) look at his childhood rifle. There was another guy there (who apparently is a frequent customer of this guy). Turns out he is a cabinetmaker. DH was explaining to the gunsmith that he had it "restored" but....the guy said whoever did this, did a good job. Dh said his heart kind of sunk. Then dh tried to explain again. He wanted the rifle to look like it did originally and it is much lighter now AND nothing got cleaned in regards to all the gun parts. The cabinet maker guy said the stock was sanded and finished nice and the grain shows through really nice (which it does, it's just not what color it was before (albeit all scratched and dinged and dirty). He said he would keep the stain color, showing the nice grain. The cabinet maker (who of course knows wood and staining) said really all's it needs is a clear finish added to it to give it some shine. Then the gunsmith looked closer and agreed that the parts do need cleaning and the gun re-sighted. So, between the 3 of them the plan is the cabinet maker is taking the wood stock of the gun and finishing that up, while the gunsmith cleans up the parts and then he will put it all back together. Hopefully, this will end up closer to what dh wants and hopefully not in 3 months, like it took the first guy. They sounded more like 3 weeks time. We'll see.....

Retirement talk:

I think, once I retire, we should pretty comfortably be able to live off of our combined social security. Here's my budget I worked up, based on current monthly expenses and expected additional monthly expenses in retirement (like medicare and supplement premiums). I'm using today's dollars for my future budget. As inflation goes up, so will SS.

Our combined monthly social security income will be $4212, with me taking at age 67.

Below is the monthly budget I worked up:

Property taxes                    542
Homeowners insurance     225
Medicare/Part B                340
Medicare/Part G               200
Food/misc supplies           600
Gas - auto                           80
Cell phone                          92
Landline/internet              119
Meds                                    6
Yard maintenance            100
Garbage service                 60
Electricity                        200
Propane                            150
Car insurance                   150
Car tabs/registration          40
Pet                                      15
Subscriptions                     80
House maintenance            40
              Total                   3,039

Annual income from SS= $50,544

Annual expenses           = $36,468

 

That gives us a little over $14,000 a year/$1,173/mo to cover whatever else may come up. I didn't budget gifts (Christmas and birthday), but the extra monthly income can go towards stuff like that, eating out every so often, etc. Basically misc/fun stuff.  It seems to be a very nice cushion to cover extras we may want to buy each month. Extra medical expenses like co-pays, etc, can come out of my HSA account, when needed.

I just did up this budget recently, so I haven't put a ton of thought into it. It's likely I'm missing/forgetting about something, but I certainly have time (7 years) to figure that out. LOL.

 

Some notes about some expenses: 

Telephone/internet (we are rural, so the only other option would be satellite internet) is through the telephone company and they only offer internet along with home phone service, so we have to pay for a landline, even though we could get by without one. They just raised the rate $5 a month last month.

Pet - the cat. I budget his food and litter in food/misc, but the $15/mo is to budget for his annual vet visit and vaccines.

Homeowner's insurance - ours is high due to where we live: in a high fire zone and the nearest fire dept help (and volunteer at that) 10 miles away. I do try to shop around for better rates every couple of years. They are supposed to add another small fire station 5 miles from us, so that may help our fire rating when it happens.

I will also have retirement savings to draw from, if needed. Medical expenses can first come out of my HSA. I will need to start withdrawing from my 401k at age 73 (per current IRS rules), so that will be additional income, if we need it.

Planning with inheritance

I have to say it's been nice this past week or so without the calls and texts from my uncle asking about the inheritance. I'm glad that is done with. Now I can focus on myself and what I'm going to do regarding my inheritance. It's a very nice sum and I'm very blessed to receive it at this time of my life.

It's an inherited IRA, which means 1) I have to pay taxes on the distributions and 2) I have 10 years to take it all out, per IRS rules. My main use of it will be to pay off my mortgage on my house. Taking it all out as a lump sum distribution would be the least advantageous to me. It would put me in the 35% tax bracket. No thank you. 

I have created a spreadsheet and crunched the numbers every which way I can think of, for the best outcome of growing the investments, taking the required distributions and minimizing my taxes. Of course the % of growth I might earn over the years is unknown. "They" say that invested in stocks (which this IRA is) has been an average growth of 10% a year. In my spreadsheet I put in 7%, to be a little bit conservative.  Then I worked out a formula to take out the distributions over 10 years, including the growth of the IRA

I also added calculations for each year on my wages, tax deductions and estimated taxes, by tax bracket. Everything is linked, so as the investment numbers change, all the results update. Before all this I already had an amortization spreadsheet for my mortgage (as I had paid extra at times), so I'm linking these distributions to the amortization schedule to reflect an annual lump sum payment to my mortgage, each year I take the distribution. So, I can play around with all the numbers and see how it comes out. 

Right now I have it worked out that I would pay off my mortgage in Jan of 2030, 1 year before I would retire at 67. That would give me a year of working income, with no mortgage payment, which I can use to increase my retirement savings, as well, during that year. 

From this point forward I will just have to see what the actual earnings on the investments end up being as each year progresses, so of course my numbers will have to change. By retiring in 7 years, at age 67 (my full social security retirement age) my best plan, tax wise, is to take more of distributions during the 3 years (left out of the 10 years to distribute) after retirement, when my income is lower and my tax bracket would be lower for the distributions.

I will say the group of stocks in this inherited IRA are good and solid. There are 5 of the "Magnificent Seven" companies. Six of them are also on the Dow30. I'm excited to watch the growth of the Nvidia shares this year. According to everything I read, I think just that stock is going to end up making my earnings for the year more than estimated.

Tuesday this and that

I'm still trying to decide on a  new blog title I like. I want to keep the "One" in it, in some aspect. Maybe an inspiration will come to me, haha. If you have a suggestion, let me know.

Amos was on a terror last night. He hasn't done anything with his "mousie stick" in awhile, but last night it came clacking down the stairs and I could hear him dragging it around. He holds the toy mouse in his mouth and the stick drags along behind. Then at around 6am this morning the mousie stick sounded like it was getting a tour of the whole house, LOL. It ended up in dh's closet, with the mouse laying inside a shoe, LOL. Now he's asleep on the floor behind me. 

I'm wondering how long I need to give Social Security to (re)process my mom's last payment, before I call and check on it? I hate loose ends and not having things tied up and done. Now I can't remember how long it's been since I mailed the form sent to me. It said I had 5 days to send it back and I mailed it back the next day. Seems like it was first of Feb. I knew I mentioned it in my blog, so I looked back and found it was received on 2/5 and I mailed it back in on 2/6. It just feels like it's been longer, I guess.

I haven't done any more decluttering. I have our garbage can filled up enough this week, but I'll work on it some more later this week. 

Sunny and 63 again today. We might actually get a spring this year LOL. Usually it's like we pretty much slide from winter to summer weather really fast with just a few weeks of spring like weather. Maybe I'll feel different by Friday, but for whatever reason this week seems to be going by slow.

Well, the day is almost over and I'm struggling to get this post done, so I guess that's it for today.

New title

I was playing around with updating/changing the name of my blog, but changing the blogger url to match somewhat the blog title, then I guess I lose everyone who has onefamilyoneincome.blogspot saved as a favorite link. So, I'm still working on it trying to figure it out. If you went to my blog this afternoon and saw it was "closed", that's why. When I started the blog it was about me, dh and the 2 kids. Now it's just about me and dh and now entering the decade leading into retirement. I wanted an update. 

If I end up changing it, I'll give plenty of warning :)

More decluttering

As I expected, dh took all the extra plastic containers and lids I didn't want, LOL. I'm sure most of that had nothing to do with him actually needing them for something specific. I at least did get all the lids that match none of it thrown out. I also have another kitchen garbage bag almost filled with stuff out of my upstairs closet. I threw out the cable wires and misc adapters that I don't know what any of them go to. I did keep the pc power cords and various monitor cables. I have several brand new, from something I ordered wrong. Or maybe they came with my monitors but they didn't work with my set up. Actually, I think it was a set of each. One came with my monitors and one work sent me, but they were wrong. But they are still wrapped nicely in plastic packages, so I'll keep them, just in case they could be used for some other set up we end up with. Some of the papers in one bin is stuff I pulled out of my mom's filing cabinet before I moved her to m/c and donated the filing cabinet. I'm sure I can toss/shred most of it, but I just haven't made time to sit and go through it. I think I am close to getting these 2 bins condensed down to one, though.

I just got paid $14.15 in "Honey" rewards to my paypal account from the purchase of the 2 big chairs for the bonus room. I had forgotten about those cashback rewards. It's getting added to my "Cruise" savings fund in paypal.

Looks to be another beautiful, warm, sunny day ahead. I was very happy and relieved to find an email this morning from my blogger/email friend that she is recovering. I breathed a huge sigh of relief and thanks.

I don't know if dh still plans to take his rifle to that other guy for a look at it. He just got up, but I'm sure he probably will go do that. I thought his friend (the one we are going on the cruise with) had his shoulder surgery last week, but it's today. So, they were on the phone quite late last night. Friend probably wasn't going to sleep much anyway, due to worrying. We had another friend have this type of shoulder surgery several years ago and even with him being very good about his PT and even doing more on his own, it still took him several months to get his shoulder back to normal. He was also a very active guy, where the friend who is having surgery today, is not and not in very good shape, so I'm guessing his recovery will be longer.

My misc all day note jotting while working is working out well with the steno notepad. My desk is tidier and my notes are way easier to look back on, if necessary. 

DH was doing some stuff out in the garage right around dinner time yesterday, so by the time he came back in the house at 6pm I just asked him do you want a cheeseburger for dinner or just have the leftover sliders. He chose the sliders so those got all eaten and I didn't have to make anything. I had had one for lunch, but he had a normal sandwich, so we still had several sliders left for dinner. I also used up the remaining watermelon, so none of that went to waste. Often I don't finish it and end up giving the scraps to the chickens. I'm still getting about 1 egg a day from them.

I have a feeling this week is going to just fly by, as the past weeks have been.

Keys and clutter

It sure felt like spring yesterday. It got up to 64 and looks to hang around for 2-3 more days. Then we are back into the 40's haha. 

The ham and cheese sliders we had for dinner were good and some leftovers for lunch today. We also had some watermelon with it. I will sometimes buy the watermelon already cut up. I don't know if it's just me or what, but the last couple of years this precut watermelon seems to really have no taste. It's been so long since I bought a whole watermelon I think I forgot the taste of a good watermelon. This summer I'm going to just buy a whole watermelon and cut it up (so it fits and stores in the fridge) and see if it has some flavor to it.

Last night I remembered I forgot to watch this weeks episode of Resident Alien, so I watched that. The writers of the show seem to be pingponging back and forth between really funny episodes and one's that are just kind of "eh". 

I was cleaning out my desk drawer - somehow I have ended up with quite the collection of mystery keys, LOL. Almost 30 keys. I know some of them are my moms - in moving her (2x) I took what keys I found, just in case. Plus over the years I got keys to who knows what. I think some are old mailbox keys. I know one is my old key to get into the office at work (we've since moved offices, LOL). A couple look like house keys, probably duplicates made. I also know I used to have keys to both my parents and my inlaws houses, so a couple are likely that. I don't know why it feels like I shouldn't throw them out....just in case they are for something we need...Oh and I'm pretty sure 2 of them, on a little red string are from my diary when I was 12 😂. One is a key to a Chyrsler...we've never had a Chrysler, I don't think. Maybe it's an old key from my mom's keys, but I don't recall them ever owning that make of car.  My stepdad had a company car years and years ago, maybe it from that. I do know one of the rings with 2 keys I took from my mom. Up until she moved into m/c she had this metal file cabinet that locked and also a small box safe and the keys were for that. I had taken the keys with me, so that she couldn't accidentally lock it up and then hide the keys never to be found again. I think some are to old locking filing cabinets. So, I need to throw away a bunch of keys today.

I just want to keep going through stuff and getting rid of the "junk". There are still drawers to go through. I did throw out an old pair of sandals last week, so that's 2 shoes tossed recently. By no means do I have a cluttered house, at all, but there certainly are lots of things no longer used/needed, etc that can just go. 

While I was just in the kitchen, making dh's egg sandwich, I decided to empty out the big pullout drawer of all the tupperware type containers and lids. I recently bought some nice glass ones with locking lids, so I need to get rid of a bunch of the plastic ones. A lot of them are containers from lunch meat. They were nice to keep for leftovers. I'd decide to keep an empty one, put the container and lid in the drawer, at the same time. Use a container with a lid, at the same time. Wash them when done and put back. So, how I have a whole bunch of containers with no lids is beyond me. Where did they go? I also have a whole bunch of lids that match nothing, as well. Just one of those mysteries of life, I guess. I'm going to get rid of most of it, since I have the glass containers now. Before I throw them in the garbage I'll ask dh if he wants any of them - he might want to store bits and pieces of stuff and could use some of them.

Yesterday I mailed the IRS form 1310, along with a copy of her tax return (that I filed electronically back in January), so I am hoping this fixes the issue and her refund gets issued. It's no small dollar amount, so I'd like to get it resolved. I also keep hoping that her last social security payment will show up in the mail one of these days. They sent me a form to fill out to claim her last payment quite awhile ago. It's my understanding that the payment she received in January (2 days after her death) is for December, so she is owed this. They direct deposited this January payment and then like a week or two later retracted the payment out of her checking. (Geez...what if I would have spent it? or didn't realize it came out and overdrew her account? They could have at least sent a notice it was being retracted). Then they sent me a form to fill out saying they owe her the final month... Ok....so pay it, LOL. 

I also just did an unclaimed money/property search for my mom and it shows something owed to her from Walgreens for under $25, LOL. I put in a claim, as heir/no probate, so we'll see what may come of it. I also did a search on US Treasury - like savings bonds and such. Interesting that my SS# came up. Boy, that's a hard one to figure out. I've bought savings bonds a few times in the past - we had given them out as prizes to the race kids. I don't recall the details of purchasing them, but I likely had to put my name and ss# as the purchaser? I'm pretty sure we cashed in all the bonds my kids had won, but I'm guessing this could be some bonds I purchased on behalf of other kids that they never cashed? I'll have to look into that a bit more and see what I can find out. 

Disappointment

Well, upon closer inspection dh is not very happy with how his childhood rifle got "restored". I don't know if it's just dh or this happens to other people, but he rarely gets what he pays or what he asked for or was told would be done. Now that he's looking at it closer- it was worth the $100 the guy wanted to charge, not the $200 dh paid him. DH assumed all the parts were cleaned up..the scope, the magazine, etc. He had told dh he has a parts washer to clean parts and it would also be re-sighted with his laser tool, which was very doubtful. It really just appears he took off the parts, sanded it down, restained it and put the parts back on. Didn't clean any of it, at all. Plus, it's not really the color and shine, it originally was. He stained it a lighter color and didn't put any clear coat on it. Dh had wanted it cleaned up and restored (ie everything cleaned and making sure it shoots and shoots straight) and the stock redone because it was all scratched up.

Our neighbor had told dh of another guy about an hour away who does a good job restoring guns, but dh decided to try this guy, since he was nearby. Guess he should have listened to Mr. Neighbor. I've told dh now to just take it to that other guy and have him start over with it. Dh has a picture of what the stain and sheen was on the stain, so he can show him.

I don't know if dh just doesn't make himself clear enough in what he wants done (I wasn't there when he dropped it off) but dh told me what the guy said he would do to restore it, so that is what dh expected. So, this was $200 wasted. DH has no desire to take it back to the guy and complain - obviously if this is the quality of his work, dh doesn't want him working on it anymore. This type of thing happens to dh all the time. It must be him that is the problem in communicating or expecting more than he ends up with.

Did I tell you about the $200 he got scammed out of a couple months ago? And then just last week he was very close to wanting to order something online that was a great deal at $1000......Because of the dollar amount, he of course had me look at it (and to see if I'd ok the purchase) and I said no...check into it more - too many red flags and if the deal is too good to be true, it most likely is. So, he checked into it more the next morning and sure enough it was a scam. He ended up talking to the guy who really owned the business (this scammer was using his business name and another similar business's website copy, but put the prices really low). The next day this business owner texted dh and said he had someone actually show up at his place of business to pick up what he ordered.....only he had ordered it from the scammer! So, I'm glad I made him look into it more. Now, this gun restoring guy isn't a scammer, but he sure is lazy and didn't do what he said he would. I'm just tired of being out money, for little or no results.

We left the house at 8am this morning to get groceries and other stuff. Why is Walmart always out of gallons of drinking water? They haven't had any in stock for months. I usually buy a couple jugs for my coffee maker water. We got there right at 8:50 when I got the notification my order was ready to pick up. Then we stopped in the other grocery store for the frozen hamburger patties...and I picked up a few gallons of drinking water (they had plenty). Then we stopped at Lowes for a closet rod and the yard grub killer for this coming yard season. Then we stopped at the feed store for the bags of fertilizer we use on the lawn in spring, summer and fall. This time we just purchased the whole years worth at once and be done with it and not have to stop in there again in summer and fall. The only other stuff we will need this year for the yard is the casoron weed killer. This is all in my $1000 annual yard maintenance budget. The casoron stuff is so expensive, but it works great on all the gravel and non grass areas.

We were home by 10:30, which was really nice. It's a really sunny nice day and the temp is climbing up to 61. It always feels good to have a stocked kitchen again. Then I made us lunch and got a load of laundry going. Tonight's dinner will be ham and swiss cheese sliders. I haven't made those in awhile.

I'm going to skip making a dessert this weekend. I need to cut down on the sweets and calories!

A catch up day

I got busy doing bank reconciliations for work and that drains my brain, so I didn't end up creating a blog post yesterday. DH got the new screws he ordered for the pool table light in the mail, so he got that put back together. Hopefully that is the last of dealing with the light.

Three months ago dh took his childhood rifle to a guy to get restored. The guy is pretty slow, LOL, and it was finally done and ready yesterday, so he went and picked that up. Somehow dh's younger brother ended up with dh's rifle (as well as his own). Dh's dad bought each of them a hunting rifle when they were like 11/12. Dh's had a dark stock and brothers had a light wood stock. When dh asked his brother if by chance he had his rifle he said ya, but I sold it...then dh said the dark one? and brother said no, the light one. Well, then it was figured out/remembered by brother that the dark one was dh's. In one of brother's rare acts of goodness, he gave dh the rifle back. I highly doubt he sold either one, and just said that to dh. Of course it was in pretty bad condition. A guy in town took it all apart and sanded and re stained it, etc. It looks nice and then he tells dh "$100". DH was like NO WAY! Dh was expecting it to cost like at least $500. They finally settled on $200.

I just got a grocery order placed for pick up tomorrow morning. Even though dh doesn't like getting up early, he did like getting into the city early last time and the less traffic, so I scheduled it between 9 and 10am. If we get there by 9 we should be back home by 10, which will be nice. It was 3 weeks since our last trip. We made it almost...I did pick up some milk at our town store last week and yesterday I ran out of dh's ham for his lunch meat. But, that's my fault, for some reason I didn't add a package to my last grocery order. Today's sandwich will just have to be all turkey, LOL. Or he can switch it up and have a tuna sandwich.

Along with my grocery list I have been trying to make out a loose menu for the 3 weeks. That was helpful this last 3 weeks. If I couldn't decide what's for dinner, looking at the list helped me pick out something. 

A new reader to my blog, Jeannie, commented (thank you!) on what is likely the issue with my mom's tax return and I'm sure she's right. I need to file a form 1310 with her tax return. I was thinking I would need to do this with her last tax return (filed next year), but I have a feeling this is what is holding it up, so I am going to mail it in with a copy of her return and see if that does the trick. Though I have no idea how the IRS would know she passed - according to other info I keep reading, the Social Security office does not notify the IRS. Anyway, I'll give this a try and see if it helps it along. Her state tax return was processed and refunded with no issues. I just need to figure out which address to mail this to - the instructions are a bit confusing.

Also thanks to MegB for checking in on me this morning, since I didn't get a post done and I'm late getting this morning's done :)  Work is cramping my style, LOL.

It's blue skies out and to be 53 today and high 50's this weekend and 61 on Monday. Yes!

Wednesday wonderings

I took a bunch of the chocolate muffins I made and individually wrapped them in press n seal and put them in the freezer. This way I can take out one or two at a time and not feel like I need to eat them all in less than a week.

I'm using Facebook less and less and it seems (at least to me and my small friends list) that other's are also using it less. I feel like there isn't much new to see of what friends post. My feed seems to mostly be filled with ads and suggested posts. Dh's best friend recently posted a meme. He just had shoulder surgery and dr's orders to sit and rest. Something about the meme was he wants to be active and dh replied something like "listen up Mister, Dr's orders are to sit in your chair. So, unless you want me to come down there and punch you in your arm, you'd better stay put". Facebook removed his comment and put him on restriction. How about just let friend report it if he found it offensive? OMG. It was a joke/teasing. Yet a guy on dh's friends list constantly posts memes that are basically pornography and apparently that is all fine and dandy. 

I did not sleep well last night due to really bad heartburn. I was about to finally just get up and take something, but it let up and I fell asleep. I'm sure I'll be dragging mid day. I have a feeling it's from the chocolate muffins. I seem to get heartburn if I eat too much chocolate. I had one yesterday...oh, and then I had a cup of hot chocolate around 8pm last night. Obviously that was not a good idea.

What does one do with an old diamond wedding ring? Pretty much since my mom started having memory issues, I have had her wedding ring. After my step dad passed and she started dating her boyfriend, she stopped wearing her ring. It has a nice sized diamond on the band, though I have no idea what the size is. Seems large to me, but I'm easily impressed, LOL. This was several years before the memory issues started and I have not moved away yet. She showed me where she hid it and 2 other rings. In a little empty Breath Right Strips box, put in her medicine cabinet! Then when she sold her house and dd was helping her pack up, I told her "find that box of rings!!" Otherwise it's going to disappear to never be seen again. My mom had already packed her bathroom stuff up, but dd found the little box in with the bathroom stuff (by then my mom didn't remember she had put the rings there). But, there was only the wedding ring in the box. I know one of the other rings was her birthstone, but I don't remember what the 3rd one was. Well, thankfully the diamond wedding ring was there at least.

Fast forward and it is in my safe. But what do I do with it? Sell it? Neither dd or I will wear it, of course. I'm not very sentimental about stuff and no strong feelings about this ring. If I just keep it in my safe, it would eventually just get passed to DD and then she'd have to figure out what to do with it, LOL. How does one go about selling a wedding ring? Maybe I'll give it to dd to try to sell where she lives (bigger marketplace) and split the money with her. I don't wear necklaces, so don't want it made into something else.

We're starting to hear birds chirping outside again. Winter is just about over, though this morning out my window, I see a little bit of fresh snow up on the mountaintop across from us

While the lamp shade paper I had dh put inside the pool table light is awesome, it doesn't want to stay stuck very well (he used some double sided sticky tape he had), so he went about cutting some thin pieces of wood trim we had leftover and is going to screw them to the inside of the bottom of the light. He couldn't find any screws that would work, so he ordered some on Amazon that should be here in a day or two. I stained the strips of wood a dark brown, so they should match the brown metal of the light, though they won't be visible too much, anyway.

Silly cat and husband

Amos says "look mom! It's warm out now and I can roll around on the ground". Actually it was me seeing him out there and asking him if he wanted to come inside and this was his way to tell me no, he did not. LOL.

I just got payroll finished and I see it's time for a short lunch break, so I'll see if I can get this blog post done. I don't know much new. Other than it sounds like my uncle is just going to leave his inheritance in the inherited IRA account for now (per a call he made to me today about it). He says he doesn't need the money for anything right now. So, I had assumed the many many inquiries (starting like a week after my mom died) asking me when and how much, were just because he was wanting the money for something asap. If that's not the case, then I can only assume he was asking me all the time because he had forgotten he already had asked me about it. At least if he leaves his money there, it's safe for the time being. 

I'm still super tired today. Usually I hit my tired spot around 3pm but it's only noon, LOL. 

Yesterday I cut a bunch of length off my hair. This morning I was in the bathroom working on getting a bit of layering back in and dh walks in. "what are you doing?" I said cutting my hair. "You cut your own hair?" I said yes, have you seen me go to a hairdresser in the last 7 years?!  "well...no....but I guess I just figured your hair wasn't growing anymore". OMG. Men! LOL.

Muffins, relaxing and praying

Yesterday was a very low-key day. On purpose. I was super tired, but I guess I did lose an hours sleep on Saturday night. This morning I woke up at 7:10, but that was pretty much only because Amos was tapping my arm ;) He apparently knows what time it is. As long as I'm up by 8am (my work start time) I'm good, but I like to get up by 7, to have some time for coffee and time to myself to email or start a blog post.

It's been raining since last night. The extended weather report shows next weekend at almost 60 degrees. That will be nice.

I did get some downstairs cleaning done yesterday. I used the mop broom on all the hard flooring and vacuumed the carpet areas. In the later afternoon I made the chocolate/peanut butter/banana muffins dd had made recently. They are good. A little "heavy", if that makes sense, but good flavor. I doubt dh will even try them, so since it made a dozen, I think I'll try freezing half. Right after those got out of the oven, it was time to put the salmon in for dinner, so the oven was already heated to the right temperature.

I started reading the latest Jack Reacher book (e-book borrowed from the library) but I haven't gotten too far into it yet. I also haven't resumed watching Bosch, after getting started on the latest season, last week.  

Mostly, I've been worried about an email friend (former blogger) who had to go into the hospital on Friday. I'm praying she is ok and getting better.

Spring ahead

I've been waking up earlier than my usual 7am anyway, so it was pretty easy to get up this morning at 7:20 (really 6:20). DH really slept in yesterday, and I was trying to not make much noise and let him get caught up on some sleep, but I had things needed to get done, so finally at 10:40 I went and got myself in the shower, so I could get my chores going. If I put it off any longer, otherwise by early afternoon I'd lose my energy. He got up then, so after my shower I got the sheets off the bed and into the wash. I took the mop upstairs and mopped the bathroom. I had already dusted upstairs earlier. Then I vacuumed all the upstairs. Later I dusted downstairs. Remade the bed...and took a nap! I will say my back was not as bad after all that vacuuming. 

Dh showed me the lighting he installed inside the safe. Looks nice and gives off good light. He also went outside and took down all the snow stakes around the driveway. He was asking me if he should do it or not, yet. I said do you want it to snow? of course he does, LOL. I said then take them down - then it will snow, LOL.

My desk and office is all cleaned up and tidy, but I do have a stack of papers that need to be shredded, so I'm going to work on that today, as well as do some cleaning downstairs. We haven't played pool in like 3 or so days - because dh has been too tired from staying up too late. I'm not sure what time he went to bed last night. Sometimes I don't even wake up enough to realize he's come to bed. Sometimes I do, but not enough to open my eyes and see what time it is.

DH participates in this message board (car guys from all over) and one of the guys he got friends with online, only lives a couple hours from us, so last June he and his wife had come over to meet us and since then have come over a couple of times and stayed the weekend and we went and did sight seeing stuff. But the past few months it sounds like they have been having marriage problems (2nd marriage for both of them) and yesterday morning he texted dh his wife was in the process of moving out. DH ended up talking on the phone with him a bit, but honestly too much drama for me. Dh really doesn't even want to deal with it, either. I'm 60 years old, I'm at the point in life where I just want peace and quiet and I don't need other peoples drama in my life. Of course I feel bad for them, but it sounds like they are just making it worse/harder for themselves in the process. I know we all have problems to deal with at times, and I don't mind lending an ear, but I'm not going to make it a big part/focus of my life.  Plus, it's not like we have a long friendship history with this guy and his wife - we barely know them, really.  I hope things settle down for him, soon, and he can get back on track, as he does seem like a very nice guy.

Dh has a saying: You are only the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. And at our age we've realized we want to surround ourselves with good solid (and boring! haha) people....or just stick to ourselves, LOL. That sounds just as good, haha. DH has participated in this message board forum for years and about 3 or 4 weeks ago decided to take a break from it and he hasn't gone back to make posts. He said he just realized that so many of the participants are just either idiots, assholes, drunks, and/or all of that. He realized that while it's "only" online, it is who he has been surrounding himself with for quite awhile and with the exception of a few, most of them aren't who he would spend a minute with in real life, most likely. This message board has basically been dh's "hobby" for a long time, so he is still reading some of the posts, but he's not participating and said he's realized he's not missing it as much as he thought he would.

Well, for some reason, as today is progressing, I'm feeling like we set the clocks back  and hour instead of forward.

Things settling down

Now it sounds like my uncle is just going to leave his inheritance in the inherited IRA account, at least for awhile. He says he doesn't need the money and he called me last night to ask if I was leaving mine with this investment company and I told him yes, that they had been my parents advisor for over 30 years and I felt comfortable having them manage it. I did also try to see what I could get out of him as far as is there someone who has my number to call me, in case you were in the hospital or something and couldn't call me? He didn't specifically address that question - he seemed to think I was asking about his will/trust and said yes, everything is taken care of: my house, truck, hot rod, savings account, it's all set up and the daughter of a good friend will handle it. Due to how his house property record is showing, I'm 99% certain he set up a trust and then from what he just said about all his possessions, I think this is the case. I then mentioned dh and I were going to get a trust set up soon and he said mine cost about $2700 to do, but it's worth it. I then tried to word it a different way - I said if you end up in the hospital or something and I couldn't get ahold of you, I wouldn't know who to call to check on you....does your friend have my number? and he said yes. So, that's about all I can do and hope for the best.

For dinner last night I just made nacho's. DH likes it and I hadn't make it in awhile. We had picked up the chips while at the store the other day. Tonight I will just make him a hamburger. Not sure what I will have. Sometimes I have one, sometimes I just have a sandwich or cereal.

Dh had ordered some stuff to add some lighting to inside his new gun safe. It was coming UPS. Well, UPS can come anywhere between 1pm and 9pm. But most times he's here later afternoon. Well, of course yesterday's delivery was 8:50pm. DH was pretty mad, but what ya gonna do? But, once he gets in a mood he just has to go on and on about it. I listened to him complaining for 4 hours last night and even after the stuff came, he was still complaining about it. I then went to bed, just so I could stop listening to him. The problem is he's been staying up WAY late talking on the phone to his friend who normally couldn't talk late because he works, but he is out on leave for awhile, due to some surgery he had. Well, I'm noticing a distinct change in dh's mood when he gets 2-3 hours less sleep several nights a week. I've about had it with that nonsense and will be telling him to either stop with the 3am bedtime or stop with the moods. Take his pick. Friend was supposed to go back to work Monday, but his recovery is taking longer, so he's delaying it another week. Hopefully once he returns to work, dh's bedtime schedule will get back to normal. I think dh must have gotten the lighting installed in the safe as I see everything he had to empty out of it is put away and the bookcase door is shut back up.  

Just going to be doing my normal cleaning here and there, today.  Nothing exciting, that's for sure. I have a feeling, due to the warm day it's going to be, dh will wash the car. 

I guess I will give my mom's federal tax refund a few more weeks and then try to call, which I'm sure that's going to be a fun nightmare that will get me nowhere. I keep checking "where's my refund" and it just keeps showing "Action Required" and then below that it just says your return is still being processed, any changes to the status of your refund will be provided when available". Frustrating. Plus, I'm still waiting on her last Social Security payment. They sent me a form to fill out, which I mailed right back in. No idea how long that takes to process.

I guess it's time to move the clocks ahead one hour tonight. This should probably work out fine as I seem to be waking up at 6am anyway, instead of the 7am I normally woke up/get up. I'm sure the cat will be super annoying though.

A fast week

We sold the gun safe, so I'm glad that is done and out of the way. The guy just had a small pickup and dh was able to lean the back of the gun safe on his tailgate and then lift up and slide it in. He was a nice older guy. This is a rare occurrence - for dh to sell and get rid of something! LOL I did get a message back from the guy saying it was a pleasure doing business with us and that it was great to meet 2 very nice people.

Now my uncle has one (or more) of his friends telling him his inheritance is not taxable. Ok, I have told him this (even in writing) several times and the gal from the investment office has told him this (also more than once). I told him his friend is wrong. This is an IRA, a tax deferred account, that he inherited part of, and it will be taxed. He's says "but I don't pay any taxes, I haven't filed in years".  I said yes, because your income, just social security? (he said yes) is not taxable if you don't have any other income, and then you are below the income threshold need to file taxes. But, if you take this $43,800 distribution all at once, you may owe taxes. You need to talk to your accountant (he's said a couple of times before "my accountant") to advise you the best plan, if you want to minimize the taxes. Plus he lives in a state with an income tax.

Pretty sure there is no "VA disability" income, LOL. Also, if you haven't had to file a tax return in years....what in the world do you need an accountant for? My guess is one of his friends is a retired accountant, LOL. Not to mention accounting courses is what my uncle taught for many years.

I need to get some new tops. Many of mine seem to have stains on them or small holes in the front. I'm not sure what the stains are from and why they won't come out in the wash. I suppose it's been a year since I bought any. I can't remember.  

DD and I usually watch Resident Alien (the day after it airs, because it's on too late for both of us) at around the same time Thursday evenings, so then we are messaging back and forth laughing about funny lines. Last night was an especially funny episode. They redeemed themselves from last week's kind of (unusually) blah episode, LOL.

DH was feeling like some deli chicken and jo's from the store in town for dinner last night and I had forgotten to take chicken out of the freezer, so after I was done working we ran into town. We got baked chicken, jo's, some spicy bourbon popcorn chicken (good flavor but too spicy for me), jello parfait and rolls. I also picked up a couple gallons of milk, so now I will for sure be set with enough milk until we go do our regular grocery shopping again. I also got a few bananas, which I want to try to make those chocolate banana muffins that dd made. We ate our dinner at our new little pub table at the dining room window. 

I woke up this morning and was like really - it can't be Friday already. This week just sped by. It's sunny blue sky today (but cold) and tomorrow it's supposed to get in the low 50's. That will be nice. 

I still need to get signed up for the Costco membership before our eye exams at the end of this month. I see there is a deal I can either get a $20 Costco cash card, with a $60 Gold star membership, or get a $40 cash card with a $120 Executive membership. I'm leaning towards trying the Executive membership. The $40 Costco cash card brings the cost down to $80, plus I'll earn 2% back on all purchases. I still have some time to think about it.

Well, I best get started on my day of work. 

Good news and not so good news

Finally, the inherited IRA's got funded yesterday. I looked yesterday afternoon at my new online account and it was there. Of course, I immediately texted my uncle to let him know his IRA account should now be funded, so take a look online (he had told me a couple weeks ago he figured out how to access it online). There started a very strange conversation and I'm pretty sure Linda is right - he's starting to have memory issues and that is what was causing the repeated asking about this money. CRAP!!  I really don't know if there is anything I can do - he's over 500 miles away. He has no wife or kids, but does have a lot of good friends, as he's lived there for many many years. When he was updating his will a couple years or so ago and was telling me about that, I tried to ask make sure he had DPOA set up and he said his good friends daughter, which he totally trusts, will be the one to take care of everything. I know his house is set up in a trust (per county property records where he lives) so I am assuming that's what he meant when he said his "will".

I have a term life insurance policy I got back in 2015, with dh as the beneficiary. I just had a thought the other day that back then, I probably didn't think to list dd as the contingent beneficiary. I logged into the account and was able to do that. So, just in case something happened to both dh and I at the same time, she would be the beneficiary 100%. I have her as the contingent beneficiary on everything else. Now we just need to get our trust set up and everything estate wise will be accounted for.

We've had that old gun safe for sale and seem to have a guy interested. Then since he messaged last night, I've had 2 other inquiries about it. One asked if it was still available at 5am. I replied back at 7am it was, but nothing back. Then another guy just offered $400. I just replied No thank you. Then the first guy just replied that hes trying to figure out how to get help to load and I again, said my dh can load it for him, as long as he brings a blanket to use underneath it, it will slide it easily. So, I guess he's thinking about it, LOL. I hate selling stuff on Marketplace or Craigslist. Fortunately the big stuff we've sold, like a car, a trailer and a quad, went super quick, but little stuff is a pain to deal with these people. They are such a waste of time.

Ok, I think the gun safe is sold. The guy says he'll be here mid afternoon today. That will be nice to get that gone and get some cash back for it.

My goodness, dh seemed to wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Going to be a fun day, I guess.

Update and appointments made

I finally got a reply to my email asking about the status of the inherited IRA's. She said she recently updated one of my stepbrothers last week and she called the estate dept to find out what is taking so long. They are just apparently dragging their feet and she put an expedited request on the process and they told her we all should get funded sometime this week. She said if nothing has been done by Thursday, she will call the estate dept again. She apologized for the delay and said it has never taken this long before. Did a lot of customers die at once and they have too many to process than usual?

I, of course, then texted my uncle right away with this info. He is so weird, now acting like oh no big deal..."I'm just putting the money in my will to give to someone, I don't need it"...whatever that means, LOL. Then he again asked how much and I again (I think this is the 4th time) told him how much I'm estimating it to be (I'm estimating a bit low).

I also finally got dh and I scheduled for eye exams for new glasses. Both our vision is getting so bad, so new glasses will be a big help. My vision insurance accepts Costco Optical so I decided to use Costco again. Kill 2 birds with one stone, LOL. Get a Costco membership, which I kind of have been thinking about getting, anyway. We probably won't shop there a lot, but I know come next Christmas I can go there for those big nice wreaths. We are just going to have go figure out what is a good day/time to go there when we want to shop there and not be there with a huge crowd. That is why I have always hated Costco, before. Plus, their optical is open on Saturday's, so I have us scheduled at the end of this month. That was the first Saturday they had back to back appt times open. We've waited this long, we can go another 3 1/2 weeks. Now I need to get signed up for a Costco membership again. It's been so long since I've had a membership there, I don't remember what food/brands they sell, that I would want to buy in bulk. I'm guessing chicken breast would be good. Dh's Mountain Dew.  I'm kind of hoping maybe it's something we can go do every couple of months to stock up on some things. 

The Costco Optometry info says it takes 7-10 days to get the new glasses, so I scheduled my annual checkup with my dr, (near Costco) 15 days from our eye exam and am hoping we can pick up our glasses after my dr. appt.  It worked out to 15 days out, due to the availability of appointment times with my doctor. I'm also going to call and see if I can get my mammogram scheduled just before my dr appt, as well. It's in the same facility.

Better notes and club sandwiches

Yesterday was pretty productive, for a Monday. I have not received a reply back from the gal at the investment office, so I am still waiting to hear on that situation. It's likely she had to put in an inquiry with the estate dept at their corporate office and is waiting herself to hear back. 

So far, though it was only one day, LOL, my new note taking system of using the steno pad seemed to work well. I also appreciate Alice's suggestion to put a date down. My desk is still clean at least ;) 

The last 2 times we have played pool I have really improved all of a sudden. We usually play 5 games and I won 3 of them last night. I should have won 4. I was trying to hit the 8 ball in and it ended up going in the wrong pocket, so I lost. One time I hit 6 of my 7 balls in one turn. Dh was like what the hell?! LOL.

DH pulled out the washer and dryer and cleaned behind and underneath. I think he also pulled the back of the dryer off and vacuumed inside, but he said it wasn't bad at all. Then, while he had them pulled out, I mopped the floor there. Today he said he's going to try to figure out why our led light strip up above the kitchen cabinets is no longer working. It's tied into the same type of lights underneath that cabinets, that works fine. They are led, they should be lasting many years, not less than 5. And hard to believe that come June 1st we will have been in our house 5 years now.

While dh isn't admitting to feeling any better since I added the bigger grounding mat to our bed a week ago, I have definitely noticed he barely snores now. Sleeping on his side, he is off and on, but it's usually just a light snore (prior to grounding). But, often he will turn over onto his back and yikes - he sounds terrible and I always have to nudge him and tell him to roll back onto his side. I have realized when he's on his back and just a light snore now. Even on his side he breathes heavy. Last night I woke up and was not hearing his normal loud breathing. I freaked out for a second and then realized he was just breathing normal now, LOL.

Also, for myself, my heating pad has been a permanent fixture on my recliner for just a little over a year. I use it every evening because my back hurts. I have not used it since last Thursday and that was only for a short period when I first sat down. I have been using the little grounding band (like for foot, ankle, or wrist) around my ankle as I sit there and no or very little back pain. I also use it a bit during the day, while sitting at my desk.

Dinner last night was club sandwiches. I haven't made that in ages and I don't know why. They were so good (as always) and will definitely get added to the menu rotation. Plus they are quick and easy to make. I think the reason I haven't made them in a long time is I don't buy white bread too often and hadn't been buying bacon, either. I had just enough slices of white bread left in the freezer and also a portion of bacon slices I had thawed out. I really like the press n seal plastic wrap I bought. It seems to really keep stuff fresher. 

Organization and Inquiry

Not much went on yesterday. I had ordered dh some labels he could write or print out, to label what is in his ammo cans. I had just bought a generic package of labels on Amazon. Well, the template online for these was pretty bad. I sat with him to show him how to use it to type in his descriptions. He had wanted like 2 to 3 lines per label and he wanted the top line to be larger in font then the line(s) below. This template would not do this. Then when printed out, it was the worst resolution. So, I said let me look for a better template and I found one for the label size on Avery and it loads into Word. I was able to easily change font sizes on each line and it printed out nice an black and sharp. That extra work didn't take me much time at all. There were only 7 labels to do. Though all in all I probably spent an hour total on this project. 

I started watching season 2 of Bosch Legacy last night. Love that show and it's started off with a bang.

I did not end up emailing the lady at the investment office on Friday to ask about the inherited IRA's, but I am going to this morning. At least hoping she can give me some kind of estimated date that I can pass on to my uncle. But, honestly, the accounts have been set up now (done at the small independent office) for over a month. How long does it take to just sell off some of the stocks (like a day or two?) and then do the transfers into the inherited IRA accounts and close out her account? I mean when her investment guy opened his own office and I had her account stay with him, they had to transfer her portfolio to a different company and that only took like 2 weeks to process. The selling of a little of the stock is so that the small 5% beneficiaries (my uncle and 4 step siblings) can just have their accounts in all cash. At this point, I have a feeling it's one or more of the step siblings that is holding up the process. I know it's not my uncle! LOL.

Lots of appointments I need to get made, coming up. The cat is due for his annual exam. I am due for mine, as well as a mammogram. I want to get us both scheduled for eye exams and new glasses. I also will schedule an appointment with the estate attorney to do our trust. I feel like I am forgetting something, LOL.

It was nice to sit down at my desk this morning and have it be clean. I'm going to try something new with my note taking. I'm always jotting down things as I work. A PO# or an invoice #, etc. I just use scrap paper, the back of something I printed out but instead of throwing it away when I'm done, I fold them in half and use the back for my notes and scribbles. Well, I end up with a ton of these folded in half papers and sometimes I know there is a ph# or something on one of them and it's just a big mess. And I scribble the notes in all directions on the papers. I'm going to try something new. I have a bunch of steno notebooks, so I'm going to try just having one of those out and writing my notes on an actual line, haha. Then if I need to look back for something I jotted down, it will be easier to scan through. It's going to likely be hard to teach an old dog a new trick.

Pretty pictures

Woke up to another couple of inches of fresh snow. Maybe this will stick around a bit longer than a few hours, as it's supposed to stay around freezing temperature.

As expected, dd sent some great pictures of their snowshoe hike. 

I love this picture of her.

Yesterday I did some housecleaning, mostly cleaned the main bathroom. Dh was in his den working on putting something together and it had a tiny little spring that his fingers didn't hold on to and it bounced off and across the room. We spent a half hour looking for it (and his den is not even very big) and finlly found it had gone under his cabinet. He is constantly doing this out in his shop. Drops a nut or bolt and then can't find it.  

I got half of my desk decluttered. The other side is still a mess of papers I need to go through. I also have a garbage bag half full now, which most of it was from my 2 small wastebaskets that were full. My goal today is to go through the rest. DH also wants me to print out some labels for his ammo cans, so he knows what's in them, rather than having yellow sticky notes on them. I bought a pack of labels for the printer and need to find the template online and figure out how to use them.

I just realized last night that season 2 of Bosch Legacy is out, since last October. How did I miss that? I love this show, so I will definitely start watching that.  It looks like there are 10 episodes. 

Until I get my inheritance, we are on hold with what we want to use some of it for, on the house, garage and shop. But, that's ok - it's giving us time to compare products and shop around for the best pricing. 

My "cruise" savings account is up to $424. My plan is to use this for extra "fun" money on the trip, as well as I should have about $290 in onboard credits to use for extras. 

Ok, I took a quick break from writing this and got the other half of my desk cleaned up. Much better! A good way to start the day off. Plus, I now hear dh up and about, so I'll go downstairs to say good morning.

Snowy Saturday

I continue to "declutter" my finances and also closed out a Home Depot card I opened in 2021. I have no idea why I opened it! They don't offer any discount or cash back. The only thing I can think is maybe they were offering a special deal when I opened it and I took advantage of a discount on a purchase. This card was the easiest to close. I was able to do it online by sending a secure message and a minute later got a reply back that it's been closed.

We continue to very much enjoy our pool table. Playing almost daily. I was on fire last night, LOL. I won 3 of the 5 games and the other 2 were really close. I even got a ball in a pocket on a break, which I have never done before. My breaks are pretty weak and I am trying to figure out how to get stronger with them.

My dd and her dh are enjoying their new snow shoes. They went out on a hike last weekend. Then later had dinner with the couple they went to Scotland with and now they want to try it out, so they are all going on a hike in the mountains today. She will always message us some pretty pictures after they are done, or stop to take a break. They sure try to keep healthy by eating good foods and getting outdoors. Here is a picture of some wonderful food from her recent shopping trip. 

They are always cooking from scratch and eat very little premade meals. Then she sent me this picture of some chocolate muffins she made with bananas and peanut butter. These are a must try next time I have 3 ripe bananas, haha. The recipe she sent me looks quick and easy. And her plate is adorable :)

It just started snowing again. But by afternoon it will likely be all melted away. DH didn't even have to shovel yesterday. It warmed up and was gone almost as quick as it came.

DD just messaged me. It's 7am her time and she's already busy. She's waiting for her grocery pick up at Walmart and then back home to pack up their hiking stuff and food and water and then on their way to pick up their friends. I'm sure we'll get some great pictures later.

I need to get my desk/office area cleaned up. It's become a big mess of papers and whatnot again. That's my project this morning, after breakfast. Most of it will involve a garbage bag, haha.

Here's my view out my office window this morning

 Enjoy your Saturday!

 

 

March 1st snow day

Happy March 1st. Woke up to a bit of snow (and still snowing) this morning. It got colder during the night and the rain we were getting yesterday turned to snow. 

Since I got the bigger grounding/earthing mat to go under our fitted sheet, dh has now also been using it several nights. As I figured, even if it was helping him with his pain, he's very unlikely to admit it. But, one of the things I've read (and watched on videos) is that it makes snoring go away for a lot of people. Well, I realized when I went to bed last night, I don't think he's snored the past couple nights. He's not bad every night, and it's mostly if he lays on his back. Then he sounds like a freight train and also sounds like he has sleep apnea. I always tell him to roll over onto his side, you're snoring. I heard him get up to use the bathroom last night and of course he lays back down on his back. He always falls back asleep right away, so I was just waiting for the train to start....but it didn't. Very very little snoring. Crazy. 

He rarely takes a proper nap. He will fall asleep sitting up in his desk chair, all the time. Once in awhile he'll go lay down on the bed. Either way he doesn't really like taking naps because he says he always wakes up from them feeling sick. Tuesday he took a nap on the bed (though not right on the grounding mat, he was on top of the covers) and when I was done with work and came downstairs he said he took a 2 hour great nap. Hmmm... My boss, who has had terrible insomnia for years, is ordering one to try, it sounds like. I will be very interested to hear from her on it.

Almost the weekend, again. No plans to go anywhere. We have our fridge and pantry stocked up from our grocery trip last Saturday. I'm still getting an egg a day (except for one day) the past couple of weeks, so that is nice. It's even better than I was getting all summer last year, not sure why. Last summer and into when they stopped laying this winter, I was only getting like 4 in total for the week - for 3 chickens. 

Another week gone by without the inherited IRA's being finalized. My poor uncle must be having fits. But, that's his own fault for thinking it was going to happen right away. I did text him earlier this week and said if I haven't heard any updates by the end of this week, I will reach out to them to check on it, so I will do that today. In the meantime, my mom's IRA has gained back $47,000 of the $57,000 I took out as her distribution, the first week of January, just before she passed. The stock market is doing very well, at least. Or at least her portfolio is doing very well. There's lots of good stocks in there, that's for sure.

Looks like dh will at least be shoveling snow today.