Financial Help dealing with ALS

[Tina]

As I having been sitting here for hours reading all I can, I have still not come across anything to advise on financial matters. How does one keep their home, vehicles, electric, heat? I know I can go bankrupt but we still wouldn't be able to afford the mortgage or the car loans for the next 5 months till ssd kicks in. I have reached out to my community but there is only so much help available, as 5 months is a long time. Any ideas on how to get thru?

 

[BarryG]

All that I can suggest is that you talk to your lenders (banks, mortgage company, car loan holders) and explain the situation to them. They may be able to help and maybe they won't but at any rate it is probably better that they know that you intend to pay them and when than for you to to just not pay. You may also be able to get some short term financing to cover you until the ssd money comes. Maybe I'm not being realistic given the economy but that's the only thing that I can think of. I really hope that you find a way.

Barry

 

[Tina]

I've tried. Some of them just don't want to hear it. I told them you either wait or take it all. But in reality I need to keep a roof over our heads as we still have children at home. I just think it stinks that if they (SSD) are gonna pay anyway, why not pay now. It almost seems like they wait in hopes that the person passes on. But thx for the response.

 

[sisgldnhr]

For us...my husband had sick pay from his workplace for the first 6 months. It was only 25% of his weekly pay and the (small) income from my work. We made it through it. Purely by the grace of God. It was a very stressful time.

Sis

 

[brooksea]

Tina,

It will be a drastic change in lifestyle, to say the least!

We struggled due to my husbands company not getting his disability paperwork through. We literally had no income for months and had to pull out retirement savings (down to almost nothing now). We talked to an attorney that deals with pALS and their legal troubles, all he could advise us was that we would have to give up our lifestyle, sell what we could and live on the cheap and that it wasn't worth trying to sue, as the same result in the end would happen anyway (we'd get our money from the disability company and nothing else).

I would like to say that although things have been tight, we still manage and have a pretty happy life. We have a son about to turn 9 and we still manage to "maintain."

Most mortgage companies are willing to negotiate and would rather not take the house. You could redo your loan to try to make the payments lower. Then you may have to get rid of a vehicle and just cut back.

I'm sorry. I know it is just so much to deal with, plus the diagnosed.

Good luck to you!