So I learned over the past almost 30 years of my life, to NOT look for money advice from my parents, in particular, my mom. If anything, I learned what not to do.
My dad is dead, so I can't speak on his behalf. The only thing I knew about him, is during the divorce, he lied about $20,000 of his income. He denied my mom $9000 of his 401k, each of them was supposed to get $15,000 each. She only got 6k. He suddenly lavished me and my sister money during the divorce. In college, he once sent me a package of $400 cash stuffed inside. I learned over time he had multiple bank accounts and post office boxes to hide things.
When he passed away in 2008, his death was my saving grace in finishing college. My sister and I each received $12,750 from his death benefits from work. What I don't know, if there was ever a will. I know my step mom kept the rest of the stuff. She even has my dad's ashes. I met her for the first time at my dad's funeral. They were married for almost a year, he died a day before their first anniversary. If it weren't for my dad's death, I probably never would've finished college. Rather than stick myself into another $11,500 of debt for school, I just wrote a check for the year. I still took out loans, but no private loans that year. I had trouble my third year, when with my mom as a co-signer wouldn't work. I ended up finding a way to put loans in by myself, with the help of the school.
Any who, since my parents divorce in 2001, I went from a lower end middle class life, to poor. Suddenly, the food banks I donated to for years, because my food instead. My mom made too much money, by a mere $100, to qualify for food stamps.Presents became donations from charity organizations on my mother's behalf. I didn't want anyone to see me go to the food bank.
My parents divorce led to a whirlwind of changes for my mom. She hadn't worked a real job in 20 years. She found herself having to quickly get a job due to a push from the lawyers. She found a job at a call center and another one at a local large chain grocery store. The job at the call center didn't work out, but she moved to overnight cashier (the store was 24 hours at the time) and had a steady income. The problem is, the job is still part time, and vulnerable to hours being cut. Even then, that job was not enough to pay bills. But I guess my mom got comfortable receiving child support as well at the time.
Eventually, we got to be adults. My sister ended up moving to FL with my dad. And around 2007, the grocery store got rid of the 24 hours, and closed the store at midnight. This greatly reduced my mom's pay for hours and she lost the shift differential from working overnight.
So for the past several years, we've faced foreclosure on our home. Somehow we always had some saving grace, but I am waiting for our luck to run out. My mom did eventually get another part time job at a bakery, but then she got laid off there too. Recently she got a babysitting job, but it just ended as the school year is over. I don't know how many times I wake up to phone calls of the following being threatened to shut off: phone/internet/TV, cell phone, electricity or our gas shut off. Or the delinquency notices of those things, plus our water in the mailbox everyday.
My mom has been trying to balance a household budget on a 30 hour part time job, which lately, hours have been cut. (I work at the same supermarket, as well as my sister.) I've been insistent for years for her to get a full time job or at least another permanent part time job with equal or better pay. There is always excuses, for example, my sister doesn't have a vehicle. Miss Princess, I should call her, has to get rides from her. Or me, and we don't get gas money. I've been inconvenienced of my work and/or personal life because of her. I actually have lost hours because I had to get her.
My mom has to watch Ellen at 4pm. All these phone calls she has to make, she has to go to church on Sunday, now she needs surgery on her hernia she developed from a prior surgery a few years ago. The excuses, some legit some not, pile up, but I see no effort of her applying for a job. I even hear the "I'm getting too old" thing from her too.
I've been working on this post for like a week now on and off now. I just learned yesterday, that our house is already in the works to being foreclosed on. My mom has called RI housing, which called a lawyer, to stop the proceedings. So, I'm sure a new post will soon follow.
As the title suggests, a part time job does NOT pay a mortgage.
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