I have aggressive melanoma, diagnosed late, waiting for further results which apparently will range from grim to worse. Chemo, etc.
I have no insurance, unfortunately. I'm about to get insurance which goes in effect in October (through wife's job, I am unemployed at the moment) but "waiting" to get treatment hasn't been an option,
as each additional week the melanoma spreads survival outlook and time is less.
It is very likely that once treatment starts, we will go bankrupt. We have about $10k between two checking accounts, no other savings, and a ~$175k house, with approx $100k mortgage owed.
We have no debt other than the mortgage.
My wife makes $50k a year before taxes.
So all we have is $50k income a year, about $75k equity (is that the term?) in the house, and $10k between two of our checking accounts.
We live in the state of Georgia.
Both of our checking accounts are under both of our names. The house is under both of our names, but she signed up for the mortgage with her income, her credit score was used, so she is the "main" person on the mortgage, I believe. Pardon my lack of terminology and general lack of knowledge.
She just got her job a few weeks ago. We were (are) in the process of signing up for life insurance (not signed up yet) and health insurance (signed up before the diagnosis, but won't go into effect until October) through her job which she just got. Then this happened, unfortunately before any insurance has gone into affect yet.
My main concern is protecting my wife from (very likely eventual) bankruptcy. I don't want her to lose the house or any of the money we have/she will make.
My first thoughts were to remove myself from the deed of the house? Or if I'm on the mortgage somehow? So she won't lose the house.
Second, I was thinking of having my wife make an account under only her name, and "gifting" the maximum untaxable amount to her a year from our "joint" money in our mutual accounts (that makes it joint?).
We file taxes Married Filing Joint, have done so for years. I guess we were going to this year.
I have absolutely no family, it is just the two of us. No one to ask advice to or turn to. I apologize if I'm not making sense, it is very difficult to think or function at all. I'm sorry if I'm missing anything, we're both a mess.
Any financial advice at all regarding any of these aspects of this situation would mean the world to me.
This has been the worst luck I could dare to imagine. I don't want to make any (more) mistakes that could hurt my wife down the road if it can be helped.
Thank you for any and all advice in advance and again sorry for the long or incoherent post.
Submitted August 24, 2019 at 09:24PM by throwaway_skincancer https://ift.tt/33Wic3N
