Whether to buy a wheelchair van or not   

That is the whole trouble. We already have to pay for the tv and the blue ray and also for the rest of the motel bill where we stayed while the house was being renovated. If we draw money from his registered retirement plan we will lose half of it. on top of that, we also need a new microwave, dishwasher, and refrigerator. Then we have to finish insulating the basement. I do have some money in my savings account but I consider that for funeral expenses, living on until the will is probated, and of course saving for the new laptop computer. I do not want him to decide that he can take that money. I do not mind using part of my pension to get the groceries, because I am a careful shopper, but I would rather that we all chip in for a handicapped van. And most of the members of the church are already putting money aside for the new church, and it is almost paid for, so I was thinking that once that is done, we can start a new fund for a handicapped van that will be used for a useful purpose rather then what is done in the city, of driving pensioners to the gambling halls to lose their money.

I remembered there was quite a bit you have to pay off first, dear suspenseful thats the reason or one of the reasons why I said no dont let your husband go and buy the van.
You are great in budgeting the money there is, and I think its right you wont touch your own savings now.
As I said several times and I know I only repeat myself, your husband seems to be the most selfish person I ever heard of in my life sorry to say this but he seems to be a me me me person. I never heard that he has one kind word to you or even better one word of concern about how your own situation will be once he is no more.

He does show concern sometimes, but his idea of how I will survive when he is gone is wrong. He thinks that I will go to pieces. The trouble is also that he thinks that because we have a joint account, that the money will come in from his registered retirement for the van when I make a phone call, but it is not as easy as that. First we have to get in touch with the investment officer, and then after speaking to her, she has to get in touch with the lady in charge of personal savings, and then they have to get back and talk among each other when they are both in the office at the same time. Then there is the government who deals with registered retirement plans. He actually asked that they transfer the money from the old rrsp he had in the other bank to this, but he did not say exactly "put the money into my plan 55 savings account" he just said put it in my account and they probably will go and put it in his registered retirement account.
He just assumes that they know what to do. So if we get the van, then he has to go through hoops to get the money and I do not want to transfer money from our equity fund to get it which is what would have to happen if things do not go right.

hi suspenseful, thanks for your detailed answer. I am a banker myself but this procedure you or rather your husband has to go through sounds very complicated to me.
And I am glad that he shows concern sometimes. But I also think from what I read in your posts you are a very strong person, jut like myself and its very unlikely that you go to pieces once you are alone again.
You simply are not one of these dependent little wifeys who never paid a bill or balanced an account by themselves. You seem to have a great ability to handle money and I bet you are doing a very good job and are very consistent in your use of cash. you will manage just fine on your own.

He had the money transferred to the equity account, but it was done almost when the bank was closed, so I will have to wait until Monday to find out if it has gone through, although it might be in there now and once it is in, that means we will gain interest on that account. We also have money in our property account and can use that. I do not know if we will get that van or not, and we will have transfer more money into the equity account if we get it. It is just that I was in debt once and do not like to go into it again.

That would be a good idea. We have handitransit here, but they only work in the city, and of course, you have to pay regular bus fare for that. But if we got a van for the church, and get someone to drive, they could help get others to church who are in power wheelchairs and cannot get to church because there is not enough handitransits, and also because even if the fare is low, they cannot afford it.
And we know that Handitransit only keeps its vehicles for five years.
We heard we can get vans from the States, but with the regulations, etc. it is almost impossible to get them regulated for Canada.

We can get to the church when it is nice. I was thinking of when there is snow on the ground and there are ruts in the road. Our street does not get cleaned that often and of course handitransit is unreliable. If there are no vans available for power chair users, you cannot go. So we were thinking of when it becomes quite snowy and the road is hard to travel.

We have three in the Church who are already looking into the idea. There have been some members who have been unable to go to church because of disabiities, or are no longer able to attend, so they feel that if they got the church more handicapped friendly not just for the ones who only need a walker, or a manual wheelchair but for those who need power wheelchairs it would help a lot.

That is why I am rather hesitant for my husband to buy the van himself. I do not want us to get into more debt. And the van is expensive. Even the second hand one which is the ones we were looking at or rather he had me look all over and he figured presto there is a place in Winnipeg that sells them. Well I did not see any. So we would either have to buy from Ontario, Alberta, or British Columbia and that would also include the shipping or transport charges. Now we have churches in Manitoba, Alberta, and Ontario and British Columiba so if there are handicapped vans tghere, then one of the members who has family in that area can drive it out here. Problem solved and it would then be forthe members of our church who cannot get here by other means and who cannot get handitransit because it is too busy, so if the whole congregation buys it, it is a win win situation.

We were talking to our friends and they say that they have tried to get in touch with handitransit and apparently they put the vans on public auction so we have to find out where there is one. The trouble is with public auction it is the one that pays the highest price that gets it and even if we all chi;p it, it might not be the $10,000 or less we are hoping for.
My husband asked me to write to an auto broker and I have emailed one, but do not know if that would help.

That is what I think. They really did not know how serious the problem was until they met my husband. True a friend of mine had a parent who died of Als but that parents lived in the Netherlands. There were people who could not make it, but it was mostly illnesses that were bedridden or there was a blizzard and they lived too far away that they would not make it there and back for dinner. Our church did have a chair for people to sit in and it would go up the steps - an elevator chair, but you have to be able to sit down in it. They did have a couple of members who had ms and died of it but they were mobile, just needed a cane.
I also do not know whether my husband suggested that we buy our van ourselves, because he may have peeked when he saw I have some money in my savings account. I lived with a family like that. They said "if you could afford that, etc." I hope it was not because of that, because I do not want to start to eat the wrong food because I am afraid of living longer then him.

I would think that is the way to go. My husband wants us to foot the whole cost, but I am sure some of the members of the church have a different idea. I also do not want to have our health suffer, by buying cheap and less nutritious food because we have to have the money not only to pay the credit card bill, but for the dishwasher, microwave, and refrigerator we plan to get after the credit card bill is paid.

I think they are willing to do it, but my husband wants to buy it himself. We can get a cheap used van for next to nothing, but it can only accept one power wheelchair, and our friend at church looked for a van that can hold two or more people, but according to him it looked like junk. The trouble is that my husband has the money in his registered retirement fund, but it is hard to get at. And the other trouble is that until the van is available to get to the credit union, he either has to wheel down there, or make a phone call and they would rather have him come down in person.

That is what I was thinking. My husband has this idea that he will die anyway so spend all the money, at least that is what the feeling I get, and that well he always said that we cannot live forever and I might die because of my diabetes. But I was thinking that I might live for quite a while and only God knows when I will die and I do not want to hasten my death by wrongful eating. I do hope his idea of getting the van is to help others, not to get rid of the money. That I wold understand, but I would rather that we all pitch in and help or that they start a volunteer fund raising.