Dad’s Bad Financial Habits
So keeping track of my dads financial transactions this month, I’ve already noticed a few trends that I’m going to have to try and remedy (which is hard because he’s very set in his ways).
- When he ordered a porcelain piece from Hawthorn Village, he was somehow signed up for automatic shipping of additional pieces. And he would forget to send them back and then had to pay for the ones they sent him that he didn’t want. He says he’s called and sent a letter to have it stopped, but I’ll keep an eye out just in case. If they do continue to send items, I’m going to stick my foot up someones ass.
- He goes to Baugher’s Country Restaurant several times a week (2 or 3) to talk with the old farmers. But if I had to I would pay for this myself because it’s one of his simple pleasures and I fully support him doing it. This costs about $8 each time.
- He’s still making payments on his hospital visit, but has no idea the amount he owes, and can’t seem to get answers out of anyone at the hospital or the bookkeeping firm of the hospital. So I’m going to start requesting itemized bills for this type of stuff, because you can’t rely on any company to be accurate or legit.
- He has a large bill he’s making payments on at the feed store we get feed for all of our animals. I’m going to start making payments on this (it’s about $400) and get it paid off, since I give him money now for feed for the animals.
- The biggest problem is he doesn’t keep track of his account. At the end of July he took $20 out of the ATM (I assume not checking the balance) and it caused an NSF fee of $35. The month before that I think he had 2 or 3 NSF fees. This is going to be the biggest hurdle, but keeping a weekly check on his account should hopefully help.
So really it’s not TOO terribly bad. He has a large loan he used to pay off a bunch of debts with, maybe about $6k, so as long as he doesn’t accrue any other major debt and we work on paying this one down, he might be in good shape.
My biggest task right now is figuring out what the exact amount of his accumulated debt is. His unique filing system consists of shoe boxes on the kitchen table, and that just can’t be a suitable way to take care of your financial business. I hope to get him a desk for his room and a new filing cabinet to keep his paperwork in at some point.
Once I have all that done, I’ll have to tackle the issue of his ridiculous health care payments. If only I were rich and he didn’t have to worry about health care. :/
I thought about setting up my father a $250 deposit into an ING savings account for his birthday next month. But I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it or just to keep extra money in -my- savings and get a larger interest payment because of the amount I already have in my savings.
I’m glad I finally smartened up about my finances and put myself in a comfortable position. I’m glad that watching my dad struggle with his finances and absolutely no retirement taught me the value of my 401k and Roth IRA as well as my emergency savings. I’m glad the debt my father has created showed me to work hard to pay off your debt and as such I have no credit card balances. And I’m glad I learned the value of making my car payment on time every time and to pay extra to get it paid off as soon as possible.
I feel like I’m starting all over again with my dad. This is going to be a long haul.
Entry viewed times. Posted in Dad, Finance
