No updates yet. DH is still considering whether to take new job. It would be a 30k pay cut, but he would get a bonus of almost that amount at the end of the year. So we would have to restructure our finances. Taxes came back owing almost 6500. Anyone else owe that much?
He has a job interview tomorrow with a dream job. But the problem is that I think his dream job would pay less and be less professional, more jerks than the offer he has on the table now. And would require us to move back home to MI. Which isn't terrible, but I also don't want to move, and you'll would never guess it but winters here are way better than in MI. My sister had 9 snow and cold days! We had 3. It would be nice to be near grandparents and dump kids on them, but closer to family drama as well. And we would lose the friends we made here. And you know selling a house, moving, buying a new house, and I wouldn't have my job anymore. That whole discussion like the job he interviewed for in Portland. He never heard back from them, and it was below his level. It wasn't a match really, I don't know why they brought him out, but I think that one is a no for now anyway.
Nothing too new on me taking over a new department. We haven't announced it since I am on vacation next week. So I am just sort of preparing myself and reading materials at this point. I report for Grand Jury April 8, so I will let you know on that.
DDOT: DH was away overnight for work. Tried texting him several times before giving up and going to bed, assuming he was at an impromptu dinner. Turns out he got hammered with a bunch of former coworkers and passed out in his rental car. Plus side, he did not miss his flight home. I already told him that he’s stupid and I have no sympathy for him.
TWERK: Confirmed that I did not get the work from home job. Unconfirmed - my friend and I think we know who did, and all I can say is that, based on my experiences working with her, this will not end well for her or for the company that hired her.
Another one: DD1 has been amazing this week. Truly a joy to be around like 90% of the time. I don’t know what happened, but I like it!!
Post by librarychica on Mar 21, 2019 9:40:21 GMT -5
Twerk: I continue to fight with the administrators of the dependent care flex account. After I did what they told me, they cancelled the partial amount they’d already approved rather than approve the whole amount. Sigh.
@mae011, I’m glad she’s having a better time of it!
Post by covergirl82 on Mar 21, 2019 9:52:56 GMT -5
waverly, West MI resident here... we had 14 snow/bad weather days here!
DH has an "all-day" (10-5) interview on April 8 for a director of finance job. So hopefully it goes well.
This is more of a random, but I'm WFH today and it's like an Animal Planet show going on outside. We have a large pond on one side of our house. Well, we have a couple of Canada geese who live on the pond and return each year. They just returned yesterday for the spring and summer. All I've heard all morning is honking. There are about 6 geese out there, having a turf war, I think. I think some new geese are trying to steal the pond from the regulars.
I had one polyp removed during my colonoscopy on Tuesday, but no answers on why I feel so crappy. I called an endocrinologist to give me a thyroid workup, but they won't take me until PCP does a workup. So I called my PCP and left a message saying I was still feeling crappy and not getting any better. That was 2 days ago. I'm getting really frustrated.
Post by traveltheworld on Mar 21, 2019 10:00:57 GMT -5
k3am, thinking of you and sending good thoughts. Update us when you find out!
mae0111, yay - so good to hear about your DD1. Maybe now you'll get better sleep?
DDOT: Today is my last day before going on our 2 week vacation and I just met with our security team, who informed me that I'm not allowed to take my work laptop to the jurisdiction where I'm traveling. And they are going to need me to check in every 24 hours to ensure that I'm alive and well. I'm not even traveling to anywhere remotely dangerous! This will be the first time in my work history that I would be on vacation without my work laptop. I should be happy, but all I feel is anxiety.
Another DOOT: went to DS's "celebration of learning" event last night at his school. Previous to that I was leaning towards having him enroll in the gifted school next year, but then when I went to the event, I found that he actually is learning a lot and his progress doesn't seem that much faster than other kids in his class, so now I'm conflicted again.
waverly - re: taxes, we grossly overpaid. It was our first full year with me not really working and DH working for himself, so we paid quarterly based on conservative tax law. At the very last minute (end of January), our CPA discovered that DH’s company qualified as a certain type of company, resulting in a 35% tax savings.
So, bummer that we overpaid by a stupid amount when we could have had the $$ working for us, but yay that we got it back? It sounds like everyone is owing and that the professionals did not have a lot of clarity. The shutdown didn’t help I’m sure. I’m sorry you guys owe. Hopefully you can adjust. We are going to continue to overpay in case the tax law that helped us is repealed.
Post by sandandsea on Mar 21, 2019 11:04:16 GMT -5
We owe a ton. Way more than $7k. We had a lot of stock vest during the year that was under withheld. Thankfully we don’t live on the stock and it’s all still sitting there.
waverly - re: taxes, we grossly overpaid. It was our first full year with me not really working and DH working for himself, so we paid quarterly based on conservative tax law. At the very last minute (end of January), our CPA discovered that DH’s company qualified as a certain type of company, resulting in a 35% tax savings.
So, bummer that we overpaid by a stupid amount when we could have had the $$ working for us, but yay that we got it back? It sounds like everyone is owing and that the professionals did not have a lot of clarity. The shutdown didn’t help I’m sure. I’m sorry you guys owe. Hopefully you can adjust. We are going to continue to overpay in case the tax law that helped us is repealed.
This is better than the first year my H was self employed and we paid my entire take home in taxes because he screwed up the quarterlies. You never want your spouse to call from the accountant and ask if you’re sitting down.
We will owe this year, per usual. But idk how much yet. The accountant is still wrestling over what kind of business H owns under the new tax rules.
Post by supertrooper1 on Mar 21, 2019 11:08:44 GMT -5
Yesterday was DS's last of 12 counseling appointments. Usually the counselor would just have him in the room without us, but it was the closing session. DS decided he wasn't going to be serious and wouldn't answer any of the counselors questions yesterday, so we didn't get anything out of his last session. But DS has been less anxious over things, but I think this is going to be a life long problem for him.
Week three of my new job and things are slowly starting to click on how to do things.
You guys there’s something wrong with our property taxes. We’ve gotten two delinquent supplemental bills totaling $13k. We impound for taxes and there’s like $15k in it after the most recent payment.
I am hopeful but not optimistic that those funds were supposed to pay that bill.
And then we have our regular taxes to pay. March and April are not shaping up well.
DD’s sedated and in the MRI machine. She was all smiles while we were waiting. They questioned why we needed gas before the IV. Then they tried to gas her and got their answer.
I am mobile and can’t see the line x line to reply, but I love all the updates.
My update is - I am about to invoke the POA and move my mom to her apartment - I just need to know when her ten days of IV antibiotics are complete, and no one at the rehab center can tell me. They have scheduled (in person) meetings with me (and not told me, but have been rude that I was not present at meetings to which I was never invited) and doctors appointments that would require 3-6 hours of driving and I have just told them no. We have had phone meetings and they are entirely unproductive. The guy assigned to her can’t tell me anything, and says I have to ask the nurses. The nurses tell me he administrates her case. Meanwhile, they have her seeing (in their heads, it’s not happening) all new doctors that are an hour from her current location and an hour from her home. They have refused to disclose her surgeon’s name so I can schedule with him locally myself (they claim to have a different name than the surgeon with whom I spoke), and can’t explain why her surgical follow up is more than two weeks out when her medication ends within the next six days (which they again said medication is for ten days and I responded with a lot of salt “did she just start the meds TODAY? Let’s go with basic math again - subtract the number of days she has been medicated from ten. We don’t know when her meds started, but she was on the meds Monday, so we can subtract four days minimum and know there are maximum six days remaining.” Realistically, she has been on the meds eight days based on what the hospital told me.
I am about to LAUNCH - like, burn it to the ground level launch. I’m getting the in home nursing care set up against next week so I can manage her care locally - IV antibiotics will be done. As she’s there under her own management (I confirmed) she can voluntarily discharge herself (its more likely she will be discharged, but who knows what their plans are to milk more money from Medicare). I’ll bring the POA in case they want to play games, and DH may have a lawyer friend draft some letter that sounds like a cease and desist (I just told DH to do it - I don’t even care about the details).
Post by covergirl82 on Mar 21, 2019 13:05:02 GMT -5
2chatter, if you're willing to look into it, I would check to see if they have a patient relations department. The health system I work for has such a department, and I wonder if that would be a good place to contact to let them know what you're going to do if you don't get answers and resolution. If they don't have a patient relations department (or person), I would go right to the rehab center administrator. I would be very clear with them related to how you are being treated and that you are considering legal action.
Post by sandandsea on Mar 21, 2019 13:22:02 GMT -5
k3am that happened to us the first year after we moved. The escrow company claimed they aren’t responsible for remitting additional assessment payments and that they only cover the regular assessment. Which is total BS because every time a house sells there is an additional assessment. After that screw up we filed the paperwork to no longer escrow and so it ourselves. We trust no one.
2chatter, OMG, I can't even fathom what you have been dealing with.
DD turned in her "contract" last night. It basically stated that she planned on joining team gymnastics and would be at practices on time with a good attitude and try her very best each and every day.
DDOT: Spring break is next week. DD told me this morning at drop off that she will not be going back to school after spring break. There is no reason to go back to school as she already did her animal report. She isn't learning anything and would rather study on her own. No word on TAG other than the district psych is backlogged and now they are in IEP 504 renewal season so TAG testing is low priority. Plus I was reminded that if she gets into the program it will still be up to her teacher to give her extra or more challenging work. I'm at a loss. Her report card showed no grade improvement but they do 2,3,4 or below/at/above and she was 3s for everything. DH thinks I shouldn't even bother saying anything as her teacher doesn't want to deal with it and DD just needs to mark time until next year and we can try again with a new teacher. She will have 55 days of school starting post spring break.
MRI is tomorrow for DS. They sent the medication and we called the nurse, but they didn't send needles and a sharps container. The pharmacy said that they were not prescribed. I asked how did they think we were going to give an injectable medication without needles. I got some pen needles from one of the departments at work. I can make a sharps out of a Downey bottle like we tell the IV drug users. I am waiting to see if the nurse will go for that.
My pension may be down the drain. They are talking about kicking my type of agency out of the pension system to save money. We have a what they call inviolable contract, so that may not even be legal, but leave it to them to find a loophole. That will mean instead of retiring in 7 years with full pension and insurance, I would retire at 65 which is 22 more years, my pension is frozen at the current rate and we would have a regular 401K. This is pretty devastating. My pay is lower than the private sector, but the pension promise and future rewards made it worth it. I can't even wrap my head around how they can expect people to revamp their lives and savings in their 40s and 50s after 20-25 years of service.
rere, I advise pensions on their investments, and legally you can't change benefits that have already accrued. Who is telling you that it could be changed? Is this a government plan?
rere, I advise pensions on their investments, and legally you can't change benefits that have already accrued. Who is telling you that it could be changed? Is this a government plan?[/q8uote]
We are in a government plan. They are putting Health department as a quasi agency. So what they are doing is they are going to double the rate that Health departments have to contribute to the system or they can opt out which would freeze the pension benefits and force the agency to get it's own plan. Our supreme court says that out contracts are invoidable. But if the agency is forced to opt out by a board vote, would that even fall under a breach of contract.
rere, I don't work on the legal side of pension advising, but I'd be shocked if that were legal. For a reduction in benefits, the participants have to agree, not the Board.
rere, I don't work on the legal side of pension advising, but I'd be shocked if that were legal. For a reduction in benefits, the participants have to agree, not the Board.
Yeah, we don't agree. The majority of us have put at least 15 years in, so we all have a lot to lose.
Post by sandandsea on Mar 21, 2019 18:03:37 GMT -5
Any recommendations for Phone/watch for kids. Ds is 7 and has started carpooling from school to sports with other families. I was thinking of getting him a gps tracker or watch or very dumb phone so I could know that he’s on the way and where he should be. I fully trust the other parents or I wouldn’t let him carpool but also understand that people forget and make mistakes. And my 7yo isn’t exactly reliable and I don’t want to burden the other parents with “got him?” texts because that’s Uber annoying.
And since I’m bragging today.. we bought DD a bike at 3. She’s ridden at least a hundred miles on it... with training wheels and a balance bar (and me pushing) but refused to actually ride it.
I’d given up hope, but today she put the pedals back on it (by herself!) and took off like she’s been doing it forever without a lick of assistance.
sandandsea, DD's friend 7 has a gizmo watch. It lets her text and call 3 people. Mom can change who the 3 people she can call and text to also. Most of the time it has mom/dad/Grammy. It was nice when the girls and I got separated during the dance party. She could call mom and mom was able to call me. After that her mom said she would add the friends mom's number in and take out another # for whatever event she was going to.