Author Topic: Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer  (Read 4830 times)

gillstone

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Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer
« on: September 27, 2016, 11:36:18 AM »
About six weeks back DW was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer.  We named the tumor Donald Trump because it’s lumpy, bad for your health, and only 2.4 centimeters.  She is in the process of treatment and our prognosis is good overall.
 
Before the cancer we were discussing how frugality had built this cushion for us that allowed us to absorb disasters better than if we used that money to buy jet skis or a cable TV package.  Mustachianism has been a big driver in our financial decision making for about 4 years. Given what happened, I have been looking back at the site and a few things came to mind about Mustachianism.

•   Yay for frugality! We can shrug off thousands of dollars in medical bills because we bank 50% of our income.  It won’t even affect our ability to pay other bills.  Cancer treatment can bankrupt families and because we put aside the money and have good insurance, this will be a monetary speed bump.

•   Yay for health insurance! All told, the cost of surgery and treatment is expected to run near to $300,000.  We have good insurance so we’ll end up putting out $10,000 and only because treatment will straddle coverage years.  If we had self-insured or purchased the cheapest insurance on the market, we could be out thousands of dollars before coverage even kicked in let alone hitting the max out of pocket caps.

•   Yay for fitness! We don’t run marathons, but a consistent regimen of activity and healthy eating meant that DW is considered to be very healthy (you know besides the cancer) and we don’t need radical changes in diet.

•   Yay for badassity! DW is fucking ironclad, she walked a mile and a half right after chemo to go get nachos and walked the block with our oldest boy and I this weekend to help him sell popcorn.

•   Yay for progress! Even though this is fucking terrifying, there have been remarkable advancement in the last couple decades and the progress to improve treatment continues. 

•   Yay for luck! Yes, even really shitty luck like getting cancer has still has lucky parts like catching it relatively early, healing quickly, no major post-op complications and tolerating treatment well.

•   Meh for a new targeted FIRE date.  We talked about hitting FIRE in about 9 years.  But private market insurance will be incredibly expensive after DW’s diagnosis, and that assumes the USA maintains a system where she can at least get coverage.  This changes our math on FIRE considerably as we don’t want to leave a job with solid benefits until we have enough saved to pay the larger annual insurance cost and have funds set aside to cover treatment if there is recurrence.  I can’t really complain though because we both enjoy our jobs and a few extra years is not an eternity.

Big thanks to MMM for the inspiration!
« Last Edit: September 28, 2016, 08:53:57 AM by gillstone »

dandarc

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Re: Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer
« Reply #1 on: September 27, 2016, 11:41:21 AM »
Sorry for your wife.  Glad they caught it early and you're in a strong position to handle this.

Must've been some good nachos.

begood

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Re: Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer
« Reply #2 on: September 27, 2016, 11:45:44 AM »
It sounds like y'all make a great team!

Ceridwen

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Re: Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer
« Reply #3 on: September 27, 2016, 01:12:49 PM »
All the best to you and your family!

geekette

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Re: Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2016, 01:57:26 PM »
Hope all continues to go well!

Assuming the ACA isn't gutted, your wife's diagnosis will have no effect on coverage cost or availability. It's purely location, age, and smoking status.

scottish

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Re: Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer
« Reply #5 on: September 27, 2016, 05:43:47 PM »
I love your positive attitude!

steviesterno

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Re: Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer
« Reply #6 on: September 27, 2016, 06:42:16 PM »
sorry to hear about it. my fiancé at the time (now wife) was diagnosed with thyroid cancer during the lumpectomy. Thanks to our insurance it ended up costing like $800 out of pocket since she worked for an insurance company. it was great knowing that we could both use up sick time, stay home and rest/recover. we were able to go and order all the pizza we wanted since she was house bound for a bit.

the buffer was great to help us get through a tough time. not worrying about bills just helps make everything better.



currently have a buddy (non-MMM) running around like crazy trying to come up with $2500 to cover a random car accident repair. he can't come up with it, despite just purchasing almost 100k in vehicles... wonder if that's related?

FrugalFan

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Re: Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer
« Reply #7 on: September 27, 2016, 06:49:52 PM »
I'm sorry to hear about your wife but I love your attitude. MIL is currently going through something similar, but didn't have to do chemo. I do think about this aspect of mustachianism sometimes. We hope not to need it, but you never know and it's good to be prepared and to have this extra layer of resilience.

PtboEliz

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Re: Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer
« Reply #8 on: September 27, 2016, 07:50:08 PM »
This was really inspiring to read, thanks for taking the time to post.
Having experienced 9 years of a cancer journey with a family member who passed I'd add Yay for perspective.. it's a gift to see clearly what is really important in life.
All the best to you and your wife :)

Pigeon

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Re: Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer
« Reply #9 on: September 27, 2016, 07:50:32 PM »
Breast cancer survivor here--eleven years out. I had 8 rounds of chemo, lumpectomy, rads, a year of Herceptin infusions, femara and a partridge in a pear tree. Best of luck to your wife in kicking Trump's ugly butt. I found having a sense of humor was key to getting through it.

My treatment probably ran close to a million. Herceptin alone is $$$. Luckily we also have fabulous insurance. That's one thing that I hate about these boards. People tend to think if you ride your bike and eat home grown kale you'll be magically protected from nasty medical surprises.

Hope it all goes as smoothly as it can. Your wife will probably find that she gets progressively a bit more tired as chemo goes on. That is normal.

GetItRight

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Re: Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer
« Reply #10 on: September 27, 2016, 07:56:53 PM »
The flip side is if you decide not to work and live on welfare the government will pay for all the surgery and treatment with money stolen from other people. True story, watching it happen right now.

G-dog

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Re: Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer
« Reply #11 on: September 27, 2016, 08:12:25 PM »
Trump has no idea how to handle strong women! All the best as you battle the beast. Thank you for such an uplifting post!

Secretly Saving

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Re: Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer
« Reply #12 on: September 27, 2016, 10:06:15 PM »
This was really inspiring to read, thanks for taking the time to post.
Having experienced 9 years of a cancer journey with a family member who passed I'd add Yay for perspective.. it's a gift to see clearly what is really important in life.
All the best to you and your wife :)

I second this!!!  All of it!!

Grogounet

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Re: Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer
« Reply #13 on: September 27, 2016, 10:56:43 PM »
I don't have something intelligent to say but I'm posting to follow your story.

MMM has given you the inspiration but you're the one giving it to me now. I'm REALLY impressed.

Guava

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Re: Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer
« Reply #14 on: September 28, 2016, 06:44:46 AM »
Posting to say good luck to your family and agree with everything you posted. I similarly had a little bit of stage 2 cancer with chemo and rads and I eventually stopped working. Thanks to MMM lifestyle, my net worth still increased during that time, despite the medical bills split over the two coverage years. That'said when I really realized how great this lifestyle is!

Good luck to your wife, she's got this! And other sounds like you both have the right attitude to get through it.

GettingThere

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Re: Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer
« Reply #15 on: September 28, 2016, 07:03:05 AM »
The flip side is if you decide not to work and live on welfare the government will pay for all the surgery and treatment with money stolen from other people. True story, watching it happen right now.

Wow, that's pretty narrow minded. So you think people on welfare should just be refused treatment and left to die?  When you are insured and have cancer, the  1 million used to pay for treatment is also other people's money, not yours. I'm so glad I live in Canada and don't have to worry about health insurance. Yes we pay higher taxes, but it would be so stupid if poor people would not have access to health care.


Spork

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Re: Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer
« Reply #16 on: September 28, 2016, 07:08:09 AM »
The flip side is if you decide not to work and live on welfare the government will pay for all the surgery and treatment with money stolen from other people. True story, watching it happen right now.

Wow, that's pretty narrow minded. So you think people on welfare should just be refused treatment and left to die?  When you are insured and have cancer, the  1 million used to pay for treatment is also other people's money, not yours. I'm so glad I live in Canada and don't have to worry about health insurance. Yes we pay higher taxes, but it would be so stupid if poor people would not have access to health care.

Can I kindly request both sides of this move elsewhere?  Not the time.  Not the place.

gillstone

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Re: Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer
« Reply #17 on: September 28, 2016, 09:45:49 AM »
Thank you for the kind words of support.  It’s also comforting to hear from long-term survivors.  Even when you have a 90% chance of never seeing it again, it’s hard not to wish that the 10% was more like 0.01%.  Hearing from others is a good reminder that the other 90% do exist and we might be lucky enough to be a part of them.

We were pretty happy with the frugal life before this happened and this has provided us with another argument for building a stash.  The sometimes undersold value of frugality is that you can enter into a crisis like this and know that at least one thing (money) isn’t going to make it even worse.

Luck can be shitty, kale tastes like foot and bikes aren’t magic, but frugality means at least we can do this without wondering if keeping her health will costs us our house.

BunnyBoi

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Re: Thoughts on Mustachianism and Cancer
« Reply #18 on: September 28, 2016, 07:42:34 PM »
Hello there.

Hoping you and your wife are doing well.

I myself have just been diagnosed with a recurrence after 1 year remission and will be having surgery in 2 weeks time.

I definitely have to say that being Mustachian has been a huge help in coping with cancer. I am not freaked out over my medical bills, my housing cost, my daily expenses or having to restrict myself from spending on leisure if I wished.

Recently I have actually gone on a spending spree, buying things that I know will give me comfort during my surgery and treatments, all of which I had budgeted for months before my recurrence thankfully. I feel that being Mustachian means that we are a lot more prepared financially and mentally speaking for any issues that we will face when it comes to cancer, and it's a huge advantage to not have these extra worries.

You can check out my blog at https://thebucketliststory.wordpress.com/

I don't write much about the financial side of cancer, but it would be a nice perspective to read if you are interested.

Best wishes to you both :)