Hello to all,
I found this forum three years ago after being diagnosed with PD and at the time thought, "What a godsend!" I had so many questions and received many wonderful, helpful answers. Some of them came from RFK, cs, MK2, GregD, rosebub,wendy and several other people whose names did not print out clearly.
Last night I re-read all those answers and quickly realized that this forum is the perfect place to go with my next question.
My life has changed a bit...I am still active, but definitely pick and choose what I do, rather than try to do it all. My meds have gotten more complicated. But on the plus side, I sold my albatross (sort of) house, and have downsized to a house I love. I am now 5 minutes from my daughter, my son has gotten married and now all I want is some grandchildren.
My question is financial and I'm sure there are some very smart people out there who came give me some advice. My "new" house cost more than I realized from the sale of the old house. But with the profit left over and some prior savings, I could almost pay off the entire new mortgage. On the other hand, I can afford the new mortgage with my pension and social security without feeling deprived.
I hate debt and felt so free when I paid off the mortgage on the old house (after living there for 29 years). I wanted to travel and not have to be so thrifty. 33 years on a teacher's salary really limits your llifestye and suddenly I felt rich! No mortgage payment, so lots of extra $$ every month!
Then the PD diagnosis comes along and screws it all up. I still had plans to refinance the new mortgage so my monthly payment would be less but then I started thinking. If I can afford the new payment (which seems so high to me compared to my old house...kind of painful to shell that out every month), why not just keep that big profit somewhere and use IT to travel with, etc. ? The interest alone would be pretty good and the mortgage interest is tax deductible. Why would I want to pay down or pay in full the new mortgage when I won't be living here in 20-30 years because of the PD? My children don't need the inheritance and I'm beginning to think I deserve to benefit from all this. I'm 61, by the way, and am told I have lots of "good" years left.
Sorry this is so long. I have been thinking about this for months and realized this forum, better than any financial planner, would understand how it feels to have PD and could really empathise with my situation.
Oh, and one more thing. If you advise me to keep the loot, what should I do with it? It's under $100,000. ING? I don't want to fool with the stock market. Bonds? CD's?
Sorry this is so long but I have thinking about it for weeks and am excited to finally realize where I hopefully can get some good advice.
Thank you!
Kassie