Cutting the Cord to Government Dependence
If I'm going to do this van dwelling thing, I'm going to have to make more money. Making more money means that I will no longer qualify for the government benefits and subsidies I have now, which is pretty scary, honestly.
Government Benefits Are a Honey Trap
I understand now how people get trapped in poverty. When I first lost my job, one of the first things I did was apply for food stamps. I knew it would take awhile to get them, but little did I know that it would take three months and I would have to contact the governor's office to finally get them. On several occasions, I 've made too much to qualify, so I didn't receive them for a month or two, and it was always a hassle to requalify. I was trying to be very honest, since my income changes from month-to-month, reporting the changes every month. Finally, a worker told me not to do that, because it may delay my food stamps for the next month, so unless I was reporting that I no longer qualified, just hang with my 6 months qualification and report changes at the end of that six months. I suspect it was really because it created a lot of work for them, and at that time, so many people were going onto food stamps after the recession, they were struggling to keep up.
When I got Medicare, it came with a $140 premium for Part B plus a pretty large co-pay (over $1,000) and deductibles, none of which I could afford. I went through three months of applying for and being granted subsidies for these expenses, however, the rule was that I could not go over $1,010 total income for the month to qualify. I get less than $700 a month in SS widow's benefits, and I'm allowed to earn $1,410 (as of 2017) a month to receive that amount. Getting the subsidies meant I could only make a little over $300 a month, which would be plenty, except that I want to buy and outfit a van.
Cutting the Cord
To buy and outfit this van, I'm going to have to save about $1,000 a month for the next year. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending how you look at it, that means working my tail off and giving up my food stamps and medical subsidies. That means that to save that money, I'm going to have to earn $340 over and above that $1,000, plus whatever I have to pay in taxes. Not only will earning that much money put me over the $1,410 allowable income for the month through Social Security, it will cause me to lose $1 of SS for every $2 I go over. This turns out to be a complicated financial formula where I try to earn as much as I can while still being able to pay my bills.
Once I turn 66 in less than a year now, all this will be null and void, and I will be allowed to earn as much as I want without any consequence, but right now, it's a juggling act. I earn the money, then at the end of the year, I have to report it to SS and they will literally take away my SS payments for however many months it takes to repay my overages. I can work out a payment plan so I will still have some kind of payment, but I will have to work to supplement that while I'm on the road.
So you can see why some people just give up and learn to live poor. It's so hard to get the benefits, and having anything can cause you to lose them, and then you have to go through the same rigamarole to get them back.
Becoming Self-Sufficient Again
I'm working out a spreadsheet now (I do love my spreadsheets) to track all my expenses and earnings over the next year. My goal is to set up some sort of residual or passive income before I leave that will supplement my SS payments so that I have to work very little. Like I said above, once I turn 66, the widow's benefits revert to regular SS payments, which will not only be a little more than what I get now, but I'll be able to earn as much as I want.
Remaining in poverty has been in part an experiment to see how frugally I can live, but also, it's been due to the serious depression I fell into when I lost everything during the recession. All in all, you have to be ready mentally to break out of this trap that the government puts you into, and I'm finally there after 9 very long years of depression, stress and deprivation. I'm more than ready to become a self-sufficient person now, and hope that I can set up my new affiliate marketing business so that I can remain that way for a long time to come.
The Future
I don't know if van life will work out for me. My hope is that I am able to set up enough income so that I can do it without as much hassle as those who are thrown into it. If it doesn't suit me, I can always move back into a stick and bricks abode, but I'm hoping to be able to last for at least a couple of years on the road. We shall see what the future holds.
If you want to follow my journey to self-sufficiency and independence, please subscribe to this blog below.
Government Benefits Are a Honey Trap
I understand now how people get trapped in poverty. When I first lost my job, one of the first things I did was apply for food stamps. I knew it would take awhile to get them, but little did I know that it would take three months and I would have to contact the governor's office to finally get them. On several occasions, I 've made too much to qualify, so I didn't receive them for a month or two, and it was always a hassle to requalify. I was trying to be very honest, since my income changes from month-to-month, reporting the changes every month. Finally, a worker told me not to do that, because it may delay my food stamps for the next month, so unless I was reporting that I no longer qualified, just hang with my 6 months qualification and report changes at the end of that six months. I suspect it was really because it created a lot of work for them, and at that time, so many people were going onto food stamps after the recession, they were struggling to keep up.
When I got Medicare, it came with a $140 premium for Part B plus a pretty large co-pay (over $1,000) and deductibles, none of which I could afford. I went through three months of applying for and being granted subsidies for these expenses, however, the rule was that I could not go over $1,010 total income for the month to qualify. I get less than $700 a month in SS widow's benefits, and I'm allowed to earn $1,410 (as of 2017) a month to receive that amount. Getting the subsidies meant I could only make a little over $300 a month, which would be plenty, except that I want to buy and outfit a van.
Cutting the Cord
To buy and outfit this van, I'm going to have to save about $1,000 a month for the next year. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending how you look at it, that means working my tail off and giving up my food stamps and medical subsidies. That means that to save that money, I'm going to have to earn $340 over and above that $1,000, plus whatever I have to pay in taxes. Not only will earning that much money put me over the $1,410 allowable income for the month through Social Security, it will cause me to lose $1 of SS for every $2 I go over. This turns out to be a complicated financial formula where I try to earn as much as I can while still being able to pay my bills.
Once I turn 66 in less than a year now, all this will be null and void, and I will be allowed to earn as much as I want without any consequence, but right now, it's a juggling act. I earn the money, then at the end of the year, I have to report it to SS and they will literally take away my SS payments for however many months it takes to repay my overages. I can work out a payment plan so I will still have some kind of payment, but I will have to work to supplement that while I'm on the road.
So you can see why some people just give up and learn to live poor. It's so hard to get the benefits, and having anything can cause you to lose them, and then you have to go through the same rigamarole to get them back.
Becoming Self-Sufficient Again
I'm working out a spreadsheet now (I do love my spreadsheets) to track all my expenses and earnings over the next year. My goal is to set up some sort of residual or passive income before I leave that will supplement my SS payments so that I have to work very little. Like I said above, once I turn 66, the widow's benefits revert to regular SS payments, which will not only be a little more than what I get now, but I'll be able to earn as much as I want.
Remaining in poverty has been in part an experiment to see how frugally I can live, but also, it's been due to the serious depression I fell into when I lost everything during the recession. All in all, you have to be ready mentally to break out of this trap that the government puts you into, and I'm finally there after 9 very long years of depression, stress and deprivation. I'm more than ready to become a self-sufficient person now, and hope that I can set up my new affiliate marketing business so that I can remain that way for a long time to come.
The Future
I don't know if van life will work out for me. My hope is that I am able to set up enough income so that I can do it without as much hassle as those who are thrown into it. If it doesn't suit me, I can always move back into a stick and bricks abode, but I'm hoping to be able to last for at least a couple of years on the road. We shall see what the future holds.
If you want to follow my journey to self-sufficiency and independence, please subscribe to this blog below.
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