... with any remaining money now unprotected from Medicaid seizure to pay for her long term care....
Medicaid will put a lean on the house, so it's not really protected. I suppose if you got better the house would still be there to use, if that's what you meant. My grandpa didn't get better, all that was left of his 450k house when medicaid got done was about 60k. 92 years old and he died of what amounts to natural causes. You
really want a zero balance sheet before you enter into that cesspool of TLC. This has led to my parent's standing instructions of "as soon as we're old enough so nobody's asking questions, just smother us."
I hate his whole tithe advice too. Ass over head in debt? Tithe because the church is always the answer! Always! Not sure how the church is going to solve a person's financial problems, but okay. Nearly all of Ramsey's advice is poor outside of the few rather obvious claims he makes.
Struggling to figure out how to meet my 10% obligation to charity is what first prompted me to start a budget. I'm sure there's a bit of trying to find meaning amid the chaos in that, but there's no way someone is going to set aside 10% for charity without budgeting for it, and I can personally attest that it's led me to save far more than I ever gave away. Also the positive benefits of that giving sold me on the idea that there is something out there that can make me happier than more stuff will. And that led me to the possibility of financial independence.
The conversation went like
Me: "No way can I just give away 10%, that's way too much."
Catholic co-worker:"Well, how much can you give away?"
Me: "Umm, I don't know, you want like a %?"
Ccw:"You not knowing is why you can't give away 10%, it has nothing to do with how much you make, or how much you have left over."
Ccw: "The issue isn't with giving 10%, the issue is that many people give
nothing. Not because they don't have
enough, but because despite having far more than enough, they spend
even more."
An accomplished, educated, humble, intelligent man speaking in a reasonable tone to someone 20 years his junior. I'll always remember this conversation, it happened at a Taco Cabana on the northwest side of Houston. There were about a million different things that clicked in my head all at once, from finance classes, from talking to rich people, from talking to poor people, how my parents grew up, how their siblings lived, I mean
everything. Prior to this I saved, but in a sort of reckless, out of control, "saving money is good" sort of a way. I had never paid attention to it before.
The religious obligation to give 10% to charity is 100% about living below your means. By definition, in the word, in the spirit, and in actual practice. The non-religious looking in focus on who is receiving that charity, instead of who is providing it. I have never attended a church that even suggested tithing (as I understand it, catholics are pretty big on it. As I've gotten older, alot of the catholic stuff seems to really just be about efficiency in religion, so my rage has settled quite a bit). "You need to be doing this for yourself, for your family. You can give the money to us, or you can give it to any cause you wish, but you must give it away."
More than one road can take you where you want to go. Just because you got there another way doesn't mean this isn't a tried and true tactic.
Rage at DR about any particular piece of advice I think would be equivalent to rage at MMM about spending money on beer being OK. You're sort of missing the overall message.