Disabled spouse - Page 3

[Koalamom]

Hugs mama! I wish we were close and I would be there in a heartbeat to help with moving/kids or whatever. Praying you find strength right now.

[A&A]

Originally Posted by ExOfficia 

I couldn't read and not respond either.

I know you will be far away from your house, but is there any way you could hire a property manager to take care of your house and generate some rental income until you're in a position to sell it?  We did this once when my ex's job took us overseas for a couple of years.  We didn't have to pay the property manager outright, he took a cut of the rent every month. 

This is a really good idea--try to rent out the house through a property manager. 

[A&A]

Originally Posted by seawitch 

The house is worth about 200K.   and it needs at least 10K of work to go into it before we can sell it.  We just don't have credit or money to do that. 

several muggings, all the cars in the garage had their windows broken (except ours and one other car), a bunch of vandalism, and weed smoked in the halls, and even our doormat was stolen from in front of our door (and this is controlled access) - and this one guy said "hey beautiful, I've been watching you" to me as I walked with the kids on the elevator as he followed me down the hall.  OK.  Excellent.  Never mind LEAVING the apartment and walking to the park - and two people got randomly shot on the public bus this past week, so forget just taking the bus somewhere safer. 

So sell it for 100K or 150K or 175K or whatever you can get for it.  There are buyers who would definitely do the 10K of work themselves if they got a really good deal on the house.  That's a LOT more money than you have now, even if you sell it for 100K.  (Houses are only actually worth what people will buy them for)

And I get that you don't want to talk about your CO issues here, but it seems that it would be hard-pressed to be worse there than what you're dealing with now.

Sometimes you have to think outside the box, as they say.  Hanging on to such a rich asset as your house, without renting it, selling it, or living there, doesn't make sense in your situation. 

[bobcat]

Sorry for everything you are going through. :( I also grew up upper-middle class, and also did everything right financially, yet am struggling financially due to things beyond my control, and it really really is hard, esp. when you aren't where you are because of over-spending, etc. It is kind of strange, because people grow up "expecting" that their (in this case, "our") standard of living will be similar to that of our parents (whatever that may be), because it's all we know, and so it can feel like a shock when it doesn't turn out like that. I learned eventually to embrace my new "socio-economic" level, and not be disappointed in it, but feel pride for at least what we do have. It is tough, because I never would have seen this coming.

That whole thing where you can get paid to be the caretaker for your husband....in some states it is called being a "PCA" or "personal care assistant." So that could be another thing to google. I know a woman whose son is getting paid to be her PCA in Connecticut.

I know with SSI, once you finally get approved for it, you get "back pay" for all the time that you waited (from when you first filed the paperwork to apply) and didn't get payments. I'm sure he'll get disability eventually. Keep fighting it by appealing the decision, if he gets rejected at first. Sometimes they just deny you a couple times to see how determined you are to get it. Those that persevere, win......and you'll still get all the back pay. So just stay on top of things, and eventually you'll get the money you deserve with that. Good luck.

Assets like a house will count against you for things like food stamps, and that's a bummer.

I would look into something like at home transcription (not medical, you need training for that...just general transcription). It's something I'm considering. I will email you the link for the woman who writes this blog about her experience with it.