After years of struggling with anxiety, depression and addiction, my wife took her own life. She leaves behind her husband (myself) and our two daughters. While we are in the process of mourning her, we have to keep our live moving forward, but I'm at a loss and I have several questions if anyone has advice. Before proceeding any further, I should note that she lost her job in December due to her addiction and, despite starting a new job this week, she hadn't finished filling out the benefits forms and therefor did not yet have life insurance when she passed.
Due to her mental health condition(s), we spent everything trying to help her (savings, retirement, etc); hell, even my completely credit is shot (rehab and mental health facilities are incredibly expensive). I have a good job where I make a little over 100k, so I'm not worried about life going forward, but I don't know how to pay for her funeral. I can pull together enough for the cremation, which is what she wanted, but that's about it. Does anyone have any advice for planning a funeral? I would rather not ask friends/family for money, but will if I have to.
Also, how do I handle debt in her name? I only recently became aware of her spending habits, but I had no idea the debt that she created without my knowledge. She kept a lot of secrets from the family. As far as I know, none of it is explicitly in my name, but we are married, so I don't know how that effects me. We are Colorado residents, if that changes anything.
Lastly, and this is partially related to the previous point, she got a new (used) car a couple of months ago, which I was a cosigner, and is therefor likely underwater on the loan. Is there anything I can do about that or will I just owe whatever the difference is between what we paid for it and what we can sell it for? I was thinking about selling my car (three years old) and keeping hers since my loan won't be underwater as it was only a four year term.
I'm sure I'll have more questions, but these are the most pressing at the moment. Thank you very much for your time and advice.
EDIT: For those curious, I am using a burner account as I have not yet told all of our friends and family and I would hate for one of them to find out via a Reddit thread.
Submitted June 19, 2018 at 10:46AM by AManWithoutAPlan_ https://ift.tt/2trrlQD
