Living Solo Part One

There are basically two types of women living solo, ones who do it out of choice and have for many years and then ones who living solo happens suddenly. The second type may have been divorced or had a significant other pass away suddenly. The thing that we all have in common is that we have a situation to deal with, how do we handle daily life solo? ..

I just want to give one disclaimer. I am not an authority. I am a survivor and all these comments to follow will come from my personal experience. Could I have done some of them better? Probably. You may not agree with me. You may have better ideas on how to handle matters and I hope you share them but please do them from a place of being helpful, not of one up man ship. Kindness always works best.

Your money. Do you know where it is? Every quarter I make a list of all my assets from bank accounts to portfolios. I make a list from the printed statements that I get from Fidelity, Vanguard and Merrill and my bank, Chase. I make a total of dollars and compare it to the quarter before. Am I up or down? Did anything change drastically? If so, I look at that one account more deeply. What exactly was lower? Was there a reason? Did I make a withdrawal or was it the reason a particular investment? I keep these little papers in a file. Do not include your real estate holdings as these are not liquid assets as in not cash made readily available. This makes me feel in control and lets me know where I stand financially.

Your investments. Full disclosure: I am risk adverse. My 401K’s are invested at Fidelity and at Vanguard, mostly in mutual funds that are built on stocks. The rest of my money is invested in certificates of deposits that I have built in a ladder. If you do this you must keep careful records, so you know when your maturity due dates are and so that you do not invest close to $250,000 at the same bank. My husband had a friend at Wells Fargo but when I read the statements carefully, I realized that I was spending $4,000 a year as an advisor fee. As much as I felt an allegiance to my husband’s friend, it did not fit in my budget. I made a phone call to him and moved my money to Merrill Lynch. The only two individual stocks that I own are Microsoft and Facebook that my husband bought 20 years ago. I am not selling them and I am not buying anything new.

Your tax accountant. My husband and I had the same tax accountant for over 30 years. I am a widow. I did not like the way I was treated when my husband passed away and when I asked for guidance from this man. After talking to my acquaintances in my community I found that the name of one woman at H&R Block kept popping up. I made an appointment to meet with her after tax season, showed her my most recent tax return and asked if H&R Block could replicate it. She said no problem. Nine months later after my appointment I saved 50% off my former cost and got my tax return done the same day with explanations, something I had not gotten before. Please take careful notes if you are going this route.

Your lawyer. I kept the same lawyer that we always had as she drew up the revocable trust for us. I made sure that my daughter was named co-trustee. I like my lawyer. It is important to have a good working relationship with all the people who help you with your finances.

This is the end of part 1. Please check back in for more info next month. In the meantime, please share your story, your challenges, your successes at NGoldInteractive@gmail.com. Let’s continue the conversation!