Need financial advice

I hate to be morbid by asking, but what does your long-term prognosis look like? Obviously it's a degenerative disease, but do you think you have 5 years? 10 years?

Do you have any life insurance? Any kids?

Also, I'm 36 as well. Praying for you dude.

I don't mind at all... docs tell you 2-5 years. I will be 1 year in, next month. I'm in pretty good shape still. Not many people my age get it. So I'm sure the 2-5 years is for mostly older people. I was pretty physically fit last year. 6 feet 180 lbs. and could run 3-5 miles pretty easy. So the docs said that would help. So to answer you questions I really hope to get 10 years. But I don't won't to be a complete burden on my family for a long time. I have about 400k in life insurance. I know that's not enough but no one else is selling me more... haha... I have 2 girls a 6 and a 7 year old. They don't know what's gonna happen and they won't till they get older. They just know my muscles are getting weaker and I have to use a leg brace to walk. Anything else just ask. Thanks for the prayers I'll take all I can get. I'm a firm believer in my god.,,

2.75%

Man, I truly hate to hear this. My father died of a Parkinson's Plus Syndrome, progressive supranucleur palsy, which is related to ALS, when I was 18, so this hits home for me. Praying for you and your family.

The first thing that pops into my head is taxes. Find a good accountant and do everything you can to have your taxes done well. It wont save you a ton, but every penny counts in a situation like this. Look into things that will make probate easier on your wife (getting real morbid here, sorry) such as gifting, and "transfer on death" titling. This could save your family a LOT of money in the long run. If you leave assets directly to underage beneficiaries, it could possibly end up costing your wife more money in the long run in court and lawyer fees by being named their "custodian". As opposed to doing this, if you trust your wife, I would put whatever you want to be your children's in a mutual fund and tell your wife to give it to them at a certain age. If you dont trust your wife completely (not saying you dont, or shouldnt, but money is a special situation) build a trust.

If you want to get into some more sketchy things you could possibly do, I believe you could possibly have some options. You have good money, and if you have good credit, you could get a good amount of money on credit cards. Hell, I have over 100k limit and I'm only 25. I would talk to a lawyer before proceeding with any of this, as it is approaching credit card fraud, and I'll probably be flamed for it, but in a situation like this, you do what you have to do.

First I would immediately begin transferring all jointly owned property solely to your wife. CC debt CANNOT be collected from life insurance money paid to your wife, but it can be collected from other probate items like house, retirement, etc. If you are going to run through your retirement anyways, this doesn't matter. If you choose this route, certainly avoid buying large items that could be considered for both you and your wife. I've done a lot of "travel hacking" and there are certainly ways to get cash from credit cards (see manufactured spending) This is one way to help your wife later on if you are willing to put morals aside.

Back to your 401k: A terminal illness appears to meet the stipulations for a qualifying disability in the federal tax code. Section 72(m)(7) of the code grants retirement account holders an exception to 401k withdrawal restrictions in case of a physical or mental impairment that likely will either result in death or have a long-term, debilitating effect. An account holder qualifies for the exception only upon presenting proof of the condition, such as a written diagnosis from a doctor, to the plan administrator. I did not type this, I found it on google, just to clarify.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask!

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Do anything and everything you can with them now. Get dressed up and have your wife video a "wedding dance" for when they get married. Write them letters now to open on their wedding day. DO anything you can to show them how a man should treat them.

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Dear lord

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We have came to the realization that she is probably going to have to quit her job within the next year or so to take care of me. I have about 112k in my 401k that I can cash out and get about 90k after taxes. We are thinking about taking that + about 35k in cash we have and refinancing 35k for 30 years so our payment will be real cheap so she can stay home with me and we can just live on my income. What other options can you guys come up with if you were in my shoes ?

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A) I'm terribly sorry to hear this, and I'll keep your family in our prayers.

B) Assuming your income is SS disability only, and it is your only income other than your retirement distributions, it would make much more sense to leave the mortgage as is and pay it out of your retirement income as you go.

1) You can safely take out $1600/month from the 401k without having to pay federal income tax on that money, assuming you're filing married with 2 dependents. That is much better than the 22k hit you've calculated on the lump sum.

2) Based on the amount you say you're paying per month, the 2.75% interest rate on the mortgage, and the $160k you said you owe, I figured you've got about 9.5 years left on the mortgage. The 112k in the 401k and the 35k in cash you want to use would fully fund the payments on the house if you could average a 4.8% return. That is doable over a ~10 year time frame.

3) Even if you parked the money (147k total) in a savings account @ 1%, you'd be able to cash flow the $1600 mortgage for 8 years. The remaining payments would be ~$30k over 19 months, but that is much better than the 30yr mortgage on the 35k would have been.

You should talk to a CPA and perhaps a financial advisor, but that is the way I would lean.