Happily, I was able to arrange to get ear mite medication for Not-Junkpile! One tube of the kind to spread onto the skin between the shoulder blades. Now, we just have to get ahold of her in a calm way to apply it.

On the way home, I stopped at the post office. Happily, the last of the tomato transplants that had been left outside as give-aways were gone! I hope the people that took the transplants get to enjoy them all.

It was what we got in the mail, however, that leaves us in a bit of a conundrum, and I am more than open to people’s thoughts on this.

Not long after we moved here, my husband got an offer from his insurance company, to buy out his disability. The letter stated that this would be a one time offer. It was about $250,000. We decided against it, and figured that was that.

Well, he got another offer. It’s been a few years, so of course the offer is less – about $220,000.

The question is, should we take it?

The pros and cons haven’t really changed over the years.

For the pros, it means being able to put the majority of the buyout into a TFSA, where it can earn compound interest. We could give ourselves the same monthly “income” out of that, and be okay. He would also still be getting his CPP Disability.

Not being on disability payments means that I would no longer be penalized for earning an income. With the current set up, we are allowed to have a maximum amount of outside income, and the rest gets deducted from his private insurance payments. When he started to get CPP Disability, it meant getting an extra $400 a month at the time, which was about a third of what his CPP Disability payments were at the time. In other words, his private insurance was reduced by about $800. Since the amount we are “allowed” to earn – and any income I make would be counted as household income – is maxed out, anything I earned would be deducted from his private insurance payments. We’d have to report my income, otherwise we’d risk losing it all.

This would no longer be an issue, so if I wanted to get a job, or start a home based business, etc., I would be free to do that.

Basically, we would have a lot more flexibility if we took the buyout package.

One thing that is both a pro and a con is that we would lose his medical insurance, too. Blue Cross pays 90% of most of his medications. Without insurance, we’d be paying about $2000 a month on his medications. Then there are the occasional costs, like CPAP supplies and, once every 5 years, a new CPAP. The province we live in has Pharmacare, and once the equivalent of the deductible is paid off by the 10% we pay ourselves, some of his meds switch to being covered completely by Pharmacare. He has one medication that his insurance has limited coverage for, so the doctor filed for a special exemption, and it is now covered 100% by Pharmacare. So while my husband would still get prescription coverage, but he might have several of his medications completely switched out to versions that the Pharmacare system covers. His CPAP, however, is not covered by Pharmacare, though I believe they will cover the costs of a BiPAP.

As for the cons…

Right now, we have a regular income that is unaffected by external factors. Something we really appreciated when the world went crazy. Had my husband still been able to work, he would have lost his job 3 years ago. We’d go from a regular income to living off a lump sum.

Now, arranging it so that we have a monthly income equivalent to what we’re getting now, plus adjustments to compensate for changes in prescription coverage, is great in theory. The problem is, we both know just how easy it would be to dip into the funds for things we need. For example, we need to replace the van. We’d be able to buy used one outright and not have car payments, but that would remove a large chunk out of the buyout. There are a lot of things we need that we do without, because the funds just aren’t there. It would be just too easy to use the buyout funds. Then, of course, if we end up with emergency vet bills, emergency vehicle expense, etc. … well, the money would be there.

But not for long.

Yes, I could go and get a job, but I’m turning 55 this month, and there is no job out there that I could get that would replace the lost income. I’d only be going for part time work, anyhow, because my “job” right now it taking care of the farm. Even if the girls both got jobs outside the home, the three of us together wouldn’t be able to replace the income. There are exceedingly few higher income jobs out here and, with the cost of gas, commuting to the city just isn’t feasible, even if we did replace the van with a newer vehicle that gets better mileage. If we did have to commute, we’d have to replace my mother’s car, too.

Of course, working outside the home isn’t ideal, anyhow. Especially in winter, where even if the plows manage to clear the roads quickly, we might not be able to get out of our driveway until a kind neighbour comes by – which means we’d have to go into the buyout to buy a new snow blower or some other snow clearing equipment. There are small utility tractors that come with all sorts of attachments, like plows, mowers, soil augers, front end loaders and back hoes. One of those would save us all kinds of effort here on the farm, but the cost would take a huge chunk out of the buyout package.

I admit, the thing I’m chaffing over is not being able to bring in my own income, but that would come at the cost of giving up a fixed, but liveable, reliable income.

On top of that, he’s only got 10 years left, anyhow. At age 65, his insurance plan ends. Even his CPP Disability would be converted to just CPP. In theory, in 10 years, I could also start getting a pittance for CPP (the consequence of being a stay at home mom and homeschooling the girls) and Old Age Security, which is also a pittance. Assuming both even exist 10 years from now. Both together would not make up the loss of his private insurance.

So do we accept the buyout and live off of it while working to build up incomes?

Or do we keep a fix income that pays the bills, but has very little wiggle room, and I would actually be penalized for earning extra money to make up for it?

What do you think?

The Re-Farmer