We Are Out a Bunch of Money
And it’s all your fault
Okay, maybe not a bunch of money. Less than a mortgage payment, really. Although we don’t have a mortgage any more, so there’s that. Maybe more like two months of property tax escrow. Actually less than two months, when I do the math.
We are out a non-trivial amount of money, and it’s all your fault.
You said you helped a friend with her business when she was in a jam. You’re putting in extra hours and trying to set aside enough cash to retire while you still have the hearing and eyesight to enjoy it, but your friend didn’t have the income to make rent and you helped her out.
So my wife thought we should look around to help out someone who was on the edge of failure, in case we could help a little bit.
We are out some money, and it’s all your fault.
Sure, we’ve sent some checks to charities, but throwing cash out of helicopters doesn’t have the emotional feedback of knowing somebody needed bucks right then and got helped. We contacted a friend who was in a position at a charity to know of individuals who are in extremis because of COVID-19 or unemployment or Life In General; anybody need a few bucks? We would be happy to donate. Anonymously, of course. Don’t tell us who or what, just let us know the amount. Which she did.
And it would be tax deductible! Well, maybe. Kind of hard to tell with the new tax laws, at least until we get to 2021.
We are out a certain amount of (possibly tax deductible) money, and it’s all your fault.
We dropped off the check, and our friend said that the recipient wanted us to know how it would be used. Really? Oh dear. What if it was something… I dunno, not sufficiently noble? We might feel silly. Or stupid. Or taken. But… yeah, okay, sure.
The recipient is an independent truck driver. He’s sick. He’s getting treatment, and he can’t risk any kind of infection — never mind COVID-19 — even a cold would be bad, so he can’t take jobs because he’d be out in public, so he has no income, and he’s independent so he has no insurance beyond the ACA exchanges.
And it’s leukemia and he’s scared.
And he has to pay his insurance at least two more months so he can get a bone marrow transplant and have any chance at a decent life expectancy.
And he’s scared.
And he’s okay for his insurance this month — now — but we’ll want to make sure he’s okay next month, too. Because, y’know, sunk costs and that kind of thing. Since society has decided that, as an independent contractor, he’s expendable. Of course, we’re retired and over 60 and not politicians or political donors, so our society has decided we’re expendable, too. So there’s that.
We are out an embarrassingly small amount of money to keep somebody alive that our society has decided is expendable, and it’s all your fault.
Just thought you should know.
Nice job, by the way.
