The Annoying Stimulus Check

 So my ancient suegra, who lives in an ALF, has been broke for years. This has been by design, though Medicaid planning we did years ago, when my father in law needed to go to a nursing home with Alzheimers.

We used a great lawyer named Steve, who I jokingly called the world's tallest Cuban, since he was Cuban and easily 6'8" -- he retired from law and is now a financial planner. But he set things up very well -- and we paid down my suegra's assets over the years, so that now she has none at all, and gets Medicaid. This is helpful, as Medicaid pays $1250 per month towards her fees at the Palace, a luxury ALF here in town.

My suegra also gets money from Social Security, as well as the German government on account of the fact that they enslaved her and killed her family during the Holocaust. Wifey and I pay about $1000 per month to keep her happy in the Palace.

So -- to stay Medicaid eligible, you can't have more than $2000.00 in the bank at any time. I am a hawk about this, since I ABHOR wasting money or properly entitled to benefits, and am constantly after Wifey to keep the account balance acceptable.

Alas -- the plague threw a wrench into things -- my suegra got the two $600 stimulus checks. Luckily, we paid the Palace immediately, and now started an auto withdraw -- they take out her monthly Social Security benefits automatically, on the 5th of the month. Or do they?

Sure enough -- this month the withdrawal was delayed. And what's on the horizon? Even MORE free government money since the Democrats are back in power -- apparently there is a $1400 check coming to my suegra -- this week.

So I set about with thrice daily checks -- making sure the Social Security money is out of the account before the windfall comes. Luckily this morning the Palace made the withdrawal -- days before the next stimulus check is due to be deposited.

It's a conundrum, of course. The money is great -- $1400 we don't have to pay -- but if we're not careful, it can come at the cost of losing Medicaid and having to get it back.

I think my fear of dealing with government silliness is greater than my fear of root canal. At least with root canal, there's an ending, eventually.

So -- for now, at least, my suegra's needed indigent status remains. I guess we'll see if the government insists on even MORE free money for her -- another annoying benefit.

Meanwhile, in the good news Department, D2 and Jonathan got their jabs, courtesy of Jackson Health's common sense approach to giving out jabs. They went to North Dade yesterday am, to a well run clinic, and got the shots.

So with that, our entire nuclear family, with the exception of the grandson, have been at least partly inoculated against the dread disease.

That makes me a most grateful Daddy in the USA.