Sunday, October 22, 2006
Ok, now we're getting somewhere.....
I guess the pension administrator got tired of my grumpy voice mail messages because she FINALLY sent me the rest of the disability application paperwork! I got it Thursday. I had to fill out a two page application, a direct deposit form, and something called a W-P4, which is a tax form similar to the W-4 people have to fill out at their jobs to figure out how much withholding they need from their pay. Because i have a pension but also a spouse who has income subject to withholding, I had to fill out a worksheet to calculate the proper amount of withholding. But because my pension and Dan's income is so low, I probably won't have to pay much tax at all. I guess there are advantages to being broke, heh heh.
One thing that annoyed me was that the default pension was a 50 percent joint survivorship arrangement (I can't remember exactly what they call it). This actually is pretty cool if you and your spouse are both elderly because it ensures that your spouse gets 50 percent of your pension payment after you die. But since I'm only 42 and Dan is 35, it makes more sense for me to get the full pension amount now since I will probably live at least 25 more years and Dan will have plenty of time to save up money for his own retirement. The problem is that you are only given seven days to change the default. That would mean I'd have to send Dan a form, he'd have to take time off work to sign it in front of a notary public, and he'd have to get it sent back all within the space of a week. Not likely. It rather sucks living 600 miles apart. So I just checked off the default. Getting some of my pension is better than getting none.
In addition to the forms, I had to provide a copy of my birth certificate, Dan's birth certificate, our marriage certificate, and my SSDI award letter. I managed to squeeze it all into an envelope and mail it off yesterday. Now all I have to do is wait for the administrator to process it. I was told this would take a couple of weeks, but judging from her incredibly slow response so far, I'll be extremely lucky to receive my first payment before I move. I'm really hoping I can start getting benefits before I have to file a change of address, which of course will muck up the works some more.
I got a certified mail packet from my former employer this week. It contained all the documents they had regarding my long term disability insurance company's contract, policy stuff, etc. This had been requested by my lawyer since the LTD company is refusing to provide the documents themselves. They included a letter in which they indicated that they intend to be fully cooperative, which doesn't surprise me since they can be fined for using the services of a LTD company that breaks the law, and being a newspaper agency, they definitely don't want this being made public. So between the documents from the agency and the copies of test results I provided, the lawyer has enough to begin building a case even without the LTD company's cooperation, although the LTD company is gonna find themselves in legal hot water anyway if they don't cough up my case file by the end of November. It's all pretty ridiculous that this insurance company is putting so much money and energy into limiting and eventually denying my benefits since they don't owe me a significant amount each month. I'd say it was hardly worth the effort. I think the reason they're being such assholes about this is that I'm so young, and they're really freaked out about maybe having to pay me this pittance for 25 years. I added it up, though, and I was shocked at what a small amount it is, even over 25 years.
Guess what? Dan and I are APPROVED for a new home loan! Well, pre-approved, actually. They did their calculations based on the most expensive house we would probably buy, and we were still ok. Sometimes I get nervous for nothing. But one thing I didn't know about is this stuff called PMI. It didn't really come up when we bought this house in 1998, or at least it was never explained to me then. I discovered that unless we put 20 percent down on our next house, we have to pay private mortgage insurance, which is not tax deductible like the mortgage interest is. I would love to put down 20 percent, but since our savings is gone and we had to drop the sale price of our current house, I don't think we're quite going to be able to manage it. So the mortgage company offered us something called an "80-10-10" arrangement to get around the PMI. Basically, we pay our 10 percent down in cash, we get a 30 year fixed loan on 80 percent of the home's value, and then a 15 year loan (at a slightly higher interest rate) for the remaining 10 percent. The reason the second loan is only 15 years is because that's how long we would have to pay PMI. The advantage of getting a loan for the remaining 10 percent instead of paying PMI is that the interest on the loan will be tax deductible and it would over time cost us less. Fortunately, the interest rates have gone down a bit recently, so we're getting our 80 percent loan for a lower rate than we got when we bought our current house in 1998. Even with two loans, we will still end up with a mortgage that is only two-thirds what we're paying now. Not too shabby. The best part is that when our current house sells, we won't have to waste any time purchasing a home in Sioux Falls. Dan just shows them the conditional approval letter and makes an offer, and if it's accepted, we can get the ball rolling right away. At the rate the homes are selling in Sioux Falls, we'll have to act fast to get anything good.
Now, if I could just light a fire under someone's butt to buy our current house.....
One thing that annoyed me was that the default pension was a 50 percent joint survivorship arrangement (I can't remember exactly what they call it). This actually is pretty cool if you and your spouse are both elderly because it ensures that your spouse gets 50 percent of your pension payment after you die. But since I'm only 42 and Dan is 35, it makes more sense for me to get the full pension amount now since I will probably live at least 25 more years and Dan will have plenty of time to save up money for his own retirement. The problem is that you are only given seven days to change the default. That would mean I'd have to send Dan a form, he'd have to take time off work to sign it in front of a notary public, and he'd have to get it sent back all within the space of a week. Not likely. It rather sucks living 600 miles apart. So I just checked off the default. Getting some of my pension is better than getting none.
In addition to the forms, I had to provide a copy of my birth certificate, Dan's birth certificate, our marriage certificate, and my SSDI award letter. I managed to squeeze it all into an envelope and mail it off yesterday. Now all I have to do is wait for the administrator to process it. I was told this would take a couple of weeks, but judging from her incredibly slow response so far, I'll be extremely lucky to receive my first payment before I move. I'm really hoping I can start getting benefits before I have to file a change of address, which of course will muck up the works some more.
I got a certified mail packet from my former employer this week. It contained all the documents they had regarding my long term disability insurance company's contract, policy stuff, etc. This had been requested by my lawyer since the LTD company is refusing to provide the documents themselves. They included a letter in which they indicated that they intend to be fully cooperative, which doesn't surprise me since they can be fined for using the services of a LTD company that breaks the law, and being a newspaper agency, they definitely don't want this being made public. So between the documents from the agency and the copies of test results I provided, the lawyer has enough to begin building a case even without the LTD company's cooperation, although the LTD company is gonna find themselves in legal hot water anyway if they don't cough up my case file by the end of November. It's all pretty ridiculous that this insurance company is putting so much money and energy into limiting and eventually denying my benefits since they don't owe me a significant amount each month. I'd say it was hardly worth the effort. I think the reason they're being such assholes about this is that I'm so young, and they're really freaked out about maybe having to pay me this pittance for 25 years. I added it up, though, and I was shocked at what a small amount it is, even over 25 years.
Guess what? Dan and I are APPROVED for a new home loan! Well, pre-approved, actually. They did their calculations based on the most expensive house we would probably buy, and we were still ok. Sometimes I get nervous for nothing. But one thing I didn't know about is this stuff called PMI. It didn't really come up when we bought this house in 1998, or at least it was never explained to me then. I discovered that unless we put 20 percent down on our next house, we have to pay private mortgage insurance, which is not tax deductible like the mortgage interest is. I would love to put down 20 percent, but since our savings is gone and we had to drop the sale price of our current house, I don't think we're quite going to be able to manage it. So the mortgage company offered us something called an "80-10-10" arrangement to get around the PMI. Basically, we pay our 10 percent down in cash, we get a 30 year fixed loan on 80 percent of the home's value, and then a 15 year loan (at a slightly higher interest rate) for the remaining 10 percent. The reason the second loan is only 15 years is because that's how long we would have to pay PMI. The advantage of getting a loan for the remaining 10 percent instead of paying PMI is that the interest on the loan will be tax deductible and it would over time cost us less. Fortunately, the interest rates have gone down a bit recently, so we're getting our 80 percent loan for a lower rate than we got when we bought our current house in 1998. Even with two loans, we will still end up with a mortgage that is only two-thirds what we're paying now. Not too shabby. The best part is that when our current house sells, we won't have to waste any time purchasing a home in Sioux Falls. Dan just shows them the conditional approval letter and makes an offer, and if it's accepted, we can get the ball rolling right away. At the rate the homes are selling in Sioux Falls, we'll have to act fast to get anything good.
Now, if I could just light a fire under someone's butt to buy our current house.....
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