I am sorry for your loss. One thing you need to do is get multiple copies of his death certificate. This will help you as you negotiate everything.

Yeah, we didn't even bother fighting them about it. I honestly didn't know it was an option so we just let it go.

I'm sorry for your loss.

My wife passed on a Wednesday morning, the same day of her SSDI direct deposit. The deposit was reversed at 9:00 a.m. Friday morning, and I had to "apply" to receive her final benefit payment several weeks later.

One quick thing I thought of. If your dad would give you power of attorney, you can then speak to Optima and the IRS on your dad's behalf. POA doesn't have to be permanent. Your dad can give you POA for a short time to deal with all of this and then revoke it when it's over.

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It’s possible you haven’t logged in for so long the account was locked. Or they tried to mail you something and it was returned. I bet their customer service restores it for you pretty easily.

Edit: I didn’t catch that this has been going on for months, so I am likely wrong.

Thank you!!!

The hardest part is looking...but really, truly, it's better to know than to try and hide but live in terror of the mess lurking just out of sight.

Tackle a little at a time. Work on one thing, then take a break...and a deep breath. When you're ready and rested, look at another piece. Keep at it, and slowly you will figure it out.

Good luck.

Okay, I think I understand now what you are saying.

She had business losses on her farm business. So say she had $20K in revenue, but $25K in business losses that you could write off. You're wondering if writing off her losses is going to hurt you on the mortgage application and you're thinking it would be better to either (a) file your taxes separately (so she can separately deduct her losses), (b) not write off the losses at all and pay taxes as though you had no losses, or (c) somehow have the bank not consider her income/losses and only look at your income.

My first thought is to keep in mind that concealing your true income/losses from the bank in the mortgage process is fraud. If you show them her income, but camouflage her losses to make her business look more profitable than it is, that's bank fraud. (It's basically what New York is accusing Donald Trump of.) So I would certainly not do (b).

I don't think (c) is going to work because you're going to give them your 1040 whether you are applying together or not - they are going to see your combined income.

I don't think (a) would work because business loss only gets deducted against business income, so her losses shouldn't reduce your AGI. You're better off being able to pay the lower tax rates.

Thanks! So this is in Texas so tax is already paid.

Even so, I would have to disagree - An 2-3k (after fees) for my Mother would be huge for just a few weeks of keeping the car then flipping to Carmax.

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Thank you, unfortunately if I were to upgrade the truck it would have to be a 2500 or 250 because of payload capacity which is something I have been lacking. Its the only reason why I havent considered Toyota. And its also the only reason why it's 52k+. (It would also be the basic 4wd model diesel) so no bells or whistles.

Will ask about the warranty and recall thing

Ah that makes more sense, thank you! I’m excited for this stupid loan to be gone .. it’s going to be such a relief. I can’t imagine how much I’ll be able to improve my finances when I can allocate that $500 a month to something else.

Thank you for your help on all of this I appreciate it a lot!

That might be personal for OP, but I know someone who adopted a baby from China who had to bring cash with them to China to do so. It was nerve wracking for them. This was 15 years ago.

I'm building a couple of starter homes that I should be getting at least a 50k return on (each) this summer. And I only have a roth ira at the moment. im 30yrs old btw so I def need to look into more investment methods

That makes sense as well. I link all my accounts so the actions are easy but having 2 different apps and sites is not my favorite thing

You make a very good point. Really the main thing that’s bringing the cost of the vehicle way down is how many accidents it’s been in. 4-5 before my partner got the vehicle, with front end and rear end body damage, as well as definite (albeit not severe) frame damage.

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I had a lot of equity in my old home and borrowed it on a HELOC for a downpayment on this one. It made the transaction a little more complicated because I had to close on the HELOC loan before I could finance the new home.

The whole process took a little over 45 days from having an accepted offer on the new house to closing on the HELOC then the new mortgage. Once my old home sold, which was less than a month later, I closed the HELOC and paid off my first mortgage.

There are advantages beyond monetary for doing so. I use Schwab Bank for most of my banking, and it is linked to my Schwab Brokerage account. My e-fund sits in the brokerage account, invested in a money market fund. It doesn't pay quite as much as the better HYSAs, but if I need to make an emergency payment it's simple to transfer money between the two accounts.

That makes sense, but no mention of investments or retirement isnt' comforting.

wait for the call back in 3-5 days and contact them again. This seems like an issue vanguard is going to have to solve.

Just get the car diagnosed and go from there. Anything more is speculation as it's clear this isn't your area of expertise. Also remember that if it's not a warranty or recall item there isn't a lot of reason to go to the dealer for a car that's out of warranty in many cases. The LS engine has been around forever, lots of independent mechanics can work on it.

If reliability is your concern I would be looking at a Tundra if you could find one and need full size but that's a personal opinion.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

It will definitely be something of a hassle. It's me, my wife, and our baby. I'm planning to use a moving company.

Maybe I should look into a bridge loan. I could technically handle both mortgages for some time, but I don't have the cash for 20% down payment, which I want to do. I'm moving from a fairly high cost of living area to one that's a bit lower, about 2 hours away.

I know you want to help your father but you can't handle this for him. The best thing to do would be to hook him up with a tax professional and for him to do what they say needs done. It sounds like he's picked Optima, so now he needs to work with them and it's on him to understand his options and what they're doing on his behalf.