I was separated in 2004 when my wife kicked me out so her lover could move in. I have two children- my son lives with me in Pennsylvania and my daughter lives with her mom in New York City. I live in what was originally "our second house in the mountains". As a life-long New Yorker, there were a lot of adjustments to living the country life, but to keep it as short as possible, the cost of living is half here and the earning potential is less than half. Whereas you can be poor making $70,000 a year in the city, you can be rich making $40,000 in the country. For the past six years, I have worked one mindless $8 an hour job after another. Back in the hey day I was making $52,000 a year- and I'm talking back when gold was $350 an ounce. Today I am lucky to make $300 a week if that. With my new fiance's income, we make 80-90% of the money I need to maintain this humble house. As such, from time to time over the past six years I have fallen back on eBay to sell off my stuff for money to make ends meet. Well folks- at this point in time, I am out of stuff to sell and Christmas is coming. After much beating myself up, I have decided to sell the gold coins I bought when my daughter was born, which I was saving until she was 21. I am doing this because I have nothing left to sell and by selling them, I will have enough money to pay off old bills and ensure a merry Christmas for my children and fiance. I will use the money to catch up and have the money to buy the kids good gifts today. But I am parting with something I saved since my daughter was born- something I kept all these years for that one that now won't come... I will have to change my will now as these coins will no longer exist. I am reaching out to others who have made such sacrifices in the course of life- to keep life going. I feel horrible about it and at the same time delighted at the prospect of a merry 2010. I am shedding my skin and could use a hand from you guys-
most important you got your kids; everything else can be replaced when life goes full cycle again and you are earning big bucks to buy back the coins.
Apparently this forum is full of well do-do people who never had to choose between food and heat. With my divorce pending (and with the ex in New York earning $80,000 while I earn $16,500), I look forward to alimony. I intend to use a small part of that alimony to start a fund for both of my children so when they're 18 they get a few grand from me for a car or something.
I have lived with as little possessions as possible since 16. I never had to choose, because all my responsibility fits in a bag. To be honest, you made the right decision (old memory replaced with better new memory.) You can't go wrong with logic like that.
there's a goldrush right now, a panic the dollar is going to crash so currency is going into metal, the price going through the roof. hard times ahead for everyone.
I think, it's offensive to you, may be even heart breaking that you have to sell something you imagined leaving to your children when you die. Gold coins are very symbolic things to be inherited from a father. They are worth good money but buying it from birth and possesing it to this day, probably also means more than money and its value would multiply if you can pass it to your children. I didn't have to chose between heat or food. But to maintain your life, you do what you got to do. I know, I am broke and working from home and life is not sweet right now. It would be easier, if your children doesn't know about the coins were bought when they were born.
Yes- my daughter knows nothing about them. My son, however, knows full well of the trove I set aside for him at adulthood. I'm still going ahead with a small fund that adds up over the years to a few grand as a cash gift to her/them upon adulthood.
I also possess my daughter's great-grandmother's wedding ring which she wore from 1937-2008... that is a gift for her, ideally her wedding ring.
Can't you force your ex wife to buy out your half of the NY house? Can't you rent out the Penn house and get something smaller?
When she kicked me out and let her lover move in, she then went on a removal spree- removing our bed, removing the stove (I did the cooking), removing furniture I sat on... removing traces of me. She also ran up all her credit cards to the max circa 2005, at which point I signed the NY house over to her (with me singly owning the PA house for the PA house plus X dollars, which were quickly spent.) Today I own my PA house and she owns her NY house with a $300,000 mortgage. And in the past few years (surprise!) she ran up $60,000 in new debt- from Macy's and Pier 1 and whatnot. (Amazing- I was "the reason the debt was so high" but with me removed, the debt went exponentially higher. Hmmm...) She makes $70,000 and is poor. Because of a series of bad decisions. Meanwhile I make $18,000 and am equally poor. Good thing the court is in New York!
My advice is to find something consumable and hard to get in many places and sell it on Ebay, that way instead of clearing out your house you're selling off something for profit that will be somewhat steady. (for instance, you can't buy fluff in many states, so people buy it on eBay, or black jack chewing gum...etc)
