Tonight the spouses and I are going out to a fancy restaurant on a rare date (we're all so busy with separate interests and pursuits these days!) to celebrate our CoastFIRE milestone moment.
I'm looking forward to it, but a new fear has come to replace my worries about retirement. A few months ago, NT had an accident where he was driving and hit a pedestrian. At a slow speed thankfully, but she was older and hurt, so he felt awful and it was really stressful. NT stayed with her until the ambulance took her away, and we don't know anything more about her condition.
Various documentation things have been winding their way through the process with our car insurance provider, but again we weren't sure what it would end up meaning. A couple days ago, we were served with papers for a lawsuit filed by the woman he hit.
So. I don't really know what it's all going to mean in the end. I assume it will cost us money but my imagination ranges everywhere from just a higher insurance premium to a big settlement where we lose a bunch of our assets or spend the rest of our lives putting a big chunk of our paycheck toward it. Maybe it'll be somewhere in between?
The good news is that our downstairs neighbor, with whom we share the car and insurance policy, is a lawyer. With a lot of lawyer friends. So I'm kind of trusting the process and hoping this is something that others who know a lot more than me (our insurance company and our lawyer friend) will help this come to a conclusion that isn't too ruinous to our financial security.
For tonight, I'm going to try and put those fears aside and celebrate the fact that we're a really good team and if we got this far on retirement, we can be resourceful and pull out of whatever situation we find ourselves in.
June 18th, 2024 at 11:34 pm 1718750099
In any case it is good to know that any investments you have in "qualified" (employer plans such as 401(k)s) are out of the reach of creditors. IRAs are in most states too but check the rules for your state.
Best of luck and enjoy your celebration!
June 18th, 2024 at 11:51 pm 1718751060
But I know it still is awful for her so I understand to some extent wanting to sue. I just hope it doesn't ruin our life.
Dido, that's really good to know about the umbrella coverage. We do have an umbrella policy with our homeowner insurance providers. So it's totally separate from the car insurance, which our neighbors are the primary holders of but we're on the policy. The umbrella one is just for my household, doesn't include my neighbors. I can't remember the policy details but it's good to know that it could come in and cover some or all of what our auto insurance doesn't cover.
June 19th, 2024 at 04:51 pm 1718812267
They will most likely provide a lawyer experienced in claims like this to defend you.
Having a lawyer as a friend is fine for small advice, but n potentially large suits, you don’t want to lose a friendship as well as money.
And if they haven’t mentioned umbrella liability, they don’t have the right experience for this situation.
And moving forward, I would use your unique situation to decide carefully whose accounts money comes in to and goes out of to shield as much as you can without behaving fraudulently.
June 20th, 2024 at 01:34 am 1718843693
You have the maximum car insurance. And the maximum health insurance. And hopefully umbrella insurance.