I love credit cards so much! v3.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[miztressuz]

I called Amex retention and decided to keep my Bonvoy Biz after all. They offered a $40 credit. That's not great but it brings the fee down to $55 assuming the csr was correct about my fee still being $95 and not the $125 that I was thinking it would be. Maybe I misunderstood the language of the fee increase and I actually have one more year with the lower fee.

Does depend on when you got the card, but by 3/28 of this year everyone will be on the $125 fee for the Biz.
If you got it in 2019 with the first year waived, the second year (2020) would be $95 and then 3rd year (2021) would be $125. I think that's the current exception.

Well DH was working on the trim for the mudroom last night and had "an incident" with the chop saw. BIL took him to the urgent care (so I didn't have to sit out in the car with an 8yo and a 6mo for possibly hours) and 7 stitches, a shattered fingertip bone, and lots of good pain killers later he's DEFINITELY not working for at least another week. We decided to hold onto our tax refund as a financial security blanket (he's self-employed so I'm 99% sure he's not eligible for unemployment benefits since he's still technically considered essential workforce) while we wait for everything to shake out. He's kind of nervous about how quickly we are maxing out his CIP MSR and paying for it (I'm not, and I'm the one that juggles all the money and pays all the bills.)

I was approved for my CIP application this morning. Woohoo!


edit: I just looked at the carnival site and idk what they were looking at because i am seeing a lot of rooms still.
Now, I have a chase travel portal question. BIL and his family have booked a carnival cruise in 2022 that we are planning on going on also (thus my presence in this wonderful subforum.) I guess SIL looked on the carnival website and allegedly there are "only 2 rooms left on the whole boat" that are close enough together for us the our kids to reasonably do.....I guess because of people re-booking all the cancelled cruises? So NOW DH is pushing to book asap instead of waiting until we can pay for at least half (if not most) of it in late summer/early fall. I DON'T WANT TO. Does chase "hold" a block of rooms like a TA and would have more availability than the carnival website? I haven't looked personally yet since we have been kind of busy.

Chase travel cruise desk doesn't hold blocks like other TAs might. Basically what you can see on the cruise line website is what you can get through Chase. They also don't do any special offers or pricing themselves. While they are a full TA, they're basically in business to administer CC rewards program so they don't do incentives themselves - at least that what the agents told me and it matches what I've read online. That said, they can do anything you can get directly from the cruise line like past guest pricing or promotions. But their inventory should be the same as the cruise line site.

 

[hlhlaw07]

Both come with living wills for both of us. The only difference is choosing between a last will or a living trust. Honestly it all kind of goes over my head

A living trust will avoid probate and will be more complicated for you now (as you will have to transfer all of your assets into the trust) but easy for whoever you appoint as the trustee after you are gone. There is no probate with a living trust. A living trust is for assets, not to make your wishes known as to who should care for your children if something happens to you. As an attorney, I would not recommend attempting to do a living trust on your own because if you mess it up, your estate will end up in probate and you will have wasted your time.

A last will and testament allows you to make your wishes known as to who you want your property to transfer to upon your death. The transfer is not automatic just because you put it in a will. The estate will still have to be probated. You can make your wishes known as to who you want to care for any minor children, but note the family court does not have to follow your wishes (absent strange circumstances, they usually do) and will ultimately use “the best interest of the child“ standard to determine who the child will be permanently placed with.

If you do not have a complicated estate then a one size fits all will that legal zoom will likely produce shouldn’t be an issue using. In fact, I would venture to guess that a great deal of attorneys use a similar program. In the military, our legal assistance attorneys use a program that I would venture to guess is probably similar to legal zoom. Each state has minimum requirements for a will and those programs are usually tracking what those are. As long as you don’t have a complicated estate, the risk is pretty low that you would be wasting your money on a last will and testament through a mass produced program.

The living will and POAs are documents that are effective while you are still alive. (Once you die, the Will takes over and the executor is the one making the decisions). They come into play if you should become incapacitated and can no longer sign documents or communicate your desires. The living will generally makes your wishes known whether you would want to be prolonged on life support once the doctors determine you are in a persistent vegetative state (the exact wording of the standard used may vary by state). The health care POA is you appointing a person to make any healthcare decisions in the event you are incapable of making them, to include “pulling the plug,” so to speak. The health care POA is usually what we call a durable POA, and that means it survives your incapacitation. Not every POA is durable, so you would want to make sure it has durable language in there if that is what you are looking for, which for healthcare issues is essential.

***edited to add: The whole idea of preparing these types of documents is to give you peace of mind. If you want true peace of mind that everything will go according to your plan, I would pay a professional. Because while I can say if you don’t have a complicated estate the risk is lower, you are not an estate planning professional and you may not recognize certain issues to be able to properly classify whether you in fact have a complicated or uncomplicated estate.

 

[smmco]

I am shocked. I can see through 4/30 but this really caught me off guard.

Did they say why? Seems extreme.

 

[havaneselover]

Did they say why? Seems extreme.

Not that I know of. And yes it does.

 

[ten6mom]

You are not alone. I feel the same I lost my job (for now) 2 weeks ago. I have slowly moved from anger to depression. I hope to reach acceptance soon.

 

[GlamMistress]

You are not alone. I feel the same I lost my job (for now) 2 weeks ago. I have slowly moved from anger to depression. I hope to reach acceptance soon.

I quit my job Friday. Didn't wake up planning to do so. But I was done.

I have moved past depression and am now just at straight exhaustion. Had to give a month's notice. I am going to write a book before looking for another job. My life's dream.

Everything sure has been a roller coaster the past few weeks. Some of us knew it was going to be pretty bad.

 

[smmco]

I quit my job Friday. Didn't wake up planning to do so. But I was done.

I have moved past depression and am not just at straight exhaustion. Had to give a month's notice. I am going to write a book before looking for another job. My life's dream.

Everything sure has been a roller coaster the past few weeks. Some of us new it was going to be pretty bad.

Congratulations I think? I would love to quit my job. I’ve been miserably for a year. I interviewed for a few jobs I think I would have really liked, but they didn’t offer enough vacation time. Seems kind of funny now since most of my vacations this year may not happen. When this all over in a few months I’ll have to get off my lazy butt and start looking again.

 

[smmco]

Not that I know of. And yes it does.

I hope you get answers.

 

[wiscbugs]

I hope you get answers.

If you understand pandemics, its far from extreme. Its going to be months if we want to successfully eradicate the virus.

 

[GlamMistress]

Congratulations I think? I would love to quit my job. I’ve been miserably for a year. I interviewed for a few jobs I think I would have really liked, but they didn’t offer enough vacation time. Seems kind of funny now since most of my vacations this year may not happen. When this all over in a few months I’ll have to get off my lazy butt and start looking again.

Thanks. Congrats really is the right answer I suppose. I should have quit a year ago. I got promoted in December - but the title was 2 years overdue. A decade of carrying an entire department on my back. It wears you down. I'm really looking forward to my down time, I won't lie.

 

[havaneselover]

In good news, Italy is showing signs of improvement. They still have a long road ahead of them, but hopefully the number of daily deaths have peaked.

 

[KPK02090]

I finally focused on our credit cards. We've never downgraded or canceled a card. I've been looking online for advice on what to do but I want to verify here first:
CIP - wait for one year and then downgrade to a CIU, annual fee (2nd year) will be refunded. I can do this with a private message.

You can also just cancel the CIP after a year and then apply for a CIU to get that sign-up bonus as well.

 

[PrincessMom98]

What happens if you get a refund after you close a card?
I used my Barclay card to pay for part of my trip and then erased it. But then I had to cancel the trip. I expect a refund of the $1100 to show up soon on the card.
I'm booking a new trip for August and want to put the amount of the refund towards that trip, but I was planning on cancelling the card in June when the AF is due. IF I end up having to cancel the trip again (hopefully not, but we are talking hurricane season) what would happen with the refund?

Is this the Arrival+? Have you considered PCing instead of canceling? I was able to call in and PC mine to the no fee Arrival about a month ago. This way I got to keep my points.

 

[PrincessMom98]

I had it set to 3 adults and 2 children so no values were showing up for my weekend. Now I know why the 5th sleeper rooms were showing up top for POR and CBR lol

Can an air mattress fit in Pop, Little Mermaid or an All Star resort? If so, this would definitely make sense for us. I might be willing to go Coronado or POFQ if I can get an air mattress in there.

I brought a twin air bed to ASMu 2 years ago. I put it in-between the beds and inflated in place. That way it just filled the space available. It was just me and two of my teens but no one wanted to share a bed. It was tight but it worked for us for a long weekend. We were only in the room to sleep and shower.

 

[ten6mom]

Just read the email from my 7th grader's band teacher to the parents and kids and it made me cry. Hers was about how proud she is of them and how sad she is that they're not going to be able to do their end of year concerts.

Apparently my son was supposed to have a triangle solo

 

[disfanforlife]

Thanks. Congrats really is the right answer I suppose. I should have quit a year ago. I got promoted in December - but the title was 2 years overdue. A decade of carrying an entire department on my back. It wears you down. I'm really looking forward to my down time, I won't lie.

Congratulations! Sorry you didn’t do it sooner, but good for you for making the decision now. It’s hard to walk away from something you have been doing for a long time.

 

[Haley R]

I appreciate everyone’s input on this topic! Dh is used to doing everything on his own so I think he thinks this should be no problem. I’m not on the same page as him.

A living trust will avoid probate and will be more complicated for you now (as you will have to transfer all of your assets into the trust) but easy for whoever you appoint as the trustee after you are gone. There is no probate with a living trust. A living trust is for assets, not to make your wishes known as to who should care for your children if something happens to you. As an attorney, I would not recommend attempting to do a living trust on your own because if you mess it up, your estate will end up in probate and you will have wasted your time.

A last will and testament allows you to make your wishes known as to who you want your property to transfer to upon your death. The transfer is not automatic just because you put it in a will. The estate will still have to be probated. You can make your wishes known as to who you want to care for any minor children, but note the family court does not have to follow your wishes (absent strange circumstances, they usually do) and will ultimately use “the best interest of the child“ standard to determine who the child will be permanently placed with.

If you do not have a complicated estate then a one size fits all will that legal zoom will likely produce shouldn’t be an issue using. In fact, I would venture to guess that a great deal of attorneys use a similar program. In the military, our legal assistance attorneys use a program that I would venture to guess is probably similar to legal zoom. Each state has minimum requirements for a will and those programs are usually tracking what those are. As long as you don’t have a complicated estate, the risk is pretty low that you would be wasting your money on a last will and testament through a mass produced program.

The living will and POAs are documents that are effective while you are still alive. (Once you die, the Will takes over and the executor is the one making the decisions). They come into play if you should become incapacitated and can no longer sign documents or communicate your desires. The living will generally makes your wishes known whether you would want to be prolonged on life support once the doctors determine you are in a persistent vegetative state (the exact wording of the standard used may vary by state). The health care POA is you appointing a person to make any healthcare decisions in the event you are incapable of making them, to include “pulling the plug,” so to speak. The health care POA is usually what we call a durable POA, and that means it survives your incapacitation. Not every POA is durable, so you would want to make sure it has durable language in there if that is what you are looking for, which for healthcare issues is essential.

***edited to add: The whole idea of preparing these types of documents is to give you peace of mind. If you want true peace of mind that everything will go according to your plan, I would pay a professional. Because while I can say if you don’t have a complicated estate the risk is lower, you are not an estate planning professional and you may not recognize certain issues to be able to properly classify whether you in fact have a complicated or uncomplicated estate.

The legalzoom package comes with 1 year of professional help to complete the documents. Dh thinks that would be similar to what an attorney would provide. What do you think?

 

[ten6mom]

Wow I actually have an offer on my Amex Hilton Biz that I might use!

Starbucks 5% back up to $5!

That's a $100 reload, right?

 

[Haley R]

Ahem *dusts off estate planning/probate legal assistant soapbox*

Really, none of us here can responsibly advise you without knowing more about your personal assets, future plans, local tax laws, etc., plus having a solid knowledge of what the estate/probate laws are in your area. I can tell you that DH and I have simple wills that do not set up any trusts because that would be introducing more complications than it's worth for our assets (savings + checking, house, retirement, personal effects/vehicles) and probate in Texas is not that scary or bad. But I don't know about probate in Florida. Maybe it makes sense to put your assets in a trust based on how you expect your financial outlook to change in the next 10-20 years. Also, my attorney uses a Declaration of Guardian to appoint guardians for minors - they aren't named in the Last Will. I don't know if that's a personal preference or something that has legal reasoning behind it. My point is, every state has its little quirks and the law changes all the time. What is standard for us in TX, VA, WA, CO, etc. may not be standard for you in FL.

If reaching out to an estate planning attorney in your area isn't in the cards financially (and if you want, PM me and I can give you a ballpark figure what my attorney charges for a couple's estate planning to compare to what you're paying through LegalZoom), then see what information you can find out from the Florida State Bar. You may also be able to get help from a legal aid clinic or legal advice hotline to get some of your questions answered. Wills seem simple enough but the problem is that you sometimes don't know if there's a big issue with them until after someone passes and then it's really expensive and time-consuming to untangle, which always makes me sad

**gets off soapbox, goes back to calendaring deadlines **

We aren’t worried about the financial side of getting an attorney. It’s more that we don’t know when we’ll actually be able to go out and meet with one. We would rather get things going and started if possible. The legalzoom packages come with 1 year of professional help so Dh thinks that should work similar to having an attorney. What do you think?

I believe the last will package is $279 that comes with living wills and POAs

 

[Albort]

Wow I actually have an offer on my Amex Hilton Biz that I might use!

Starbucks 5% back up to $5!

That's a $100 reload, right?

yes, but its not that great of a deal. ur better off using the TCB + raise or at least a 10% off via chase offers.