MWM Finance

We walked not only through the encampment, looking for friends, but we walked around the outer edges of it as well, to just look at the canvas from afar and remember. There is something inspiring about looking at an encampment from a distance.
The type of voo I am referring to is a family friendly version of the pre-1840 Fur Trade Era Mountain Man Rendezvous (in other words, no camp followers or brawling allowed LOL!)
Two inspiring moments come to mind. I was at one voo in Diamond, Mo and one Sunday morning just as I crawled out of my tent I hear bag pipes. I wandered to the center of camp to see a woman dressed in a white deer skin dress, standing in a swirling low ground fog in front of her tipi playing Amazing Grace by the time she finished she was surrounded by all attending the voo.
There in the mist, with wisps of smoke curling out of the near dead campfires were probably 100 of us dressed in pre-1840 clothing. While none of us thought to take a photo, it will always be in our memories.
Bagpipes are a big part of historical re-enactments and the other memory was also early morning. I was at North Eastern National Rendezvous on Schroon Lake in upstate NY. Each morning the Piper Brigade dressed in full kilted regalia would pipe the morning in coming over the crest of the hill just as the sun rose behind them.
In both memories the white canvas, tipis, wall tents, marquis tents, Bakers, lean tos are all part of the scenery and you truly feel you have stepped back in time.

Then one moves their savings elsewhere. Like offshore.

There are other ways to save your money, go back to freezers, mattresses, burying in the back yard.

Problem is, people aren’t really saving anyway, so if someone reaches 3mil in an IRA, that is no small feat and I believe they have savings/investments elsewhere as well.

Funny to see outrage about saving 3mil, is seems like a challenge to me to actually get to that point. Come on, lets do it! I am going for it, my new goal is to take on the government, be part of the .03% with 3m in n IRA.

This, in other words, is nothing new and I don’t see how Obama gets blamed for it.
As far as letting tax exemptions expire… A bicameral congress couldn’t get it together to vote on it, so we all pay for their combined ineptness.

Granted the cap is 3 million in assets, but the problem is the government tends to change numbers OFTEN, remember when there would be no tax hike for the middle and lower classes only those that make over $250,000?check your paychecks. I know in this household we are no where near $250,000 yet we lost over $100 of our snowball a paycheck (every two weeks) due to them letting the tax exemption expire, and now they want to cut how much those on social security will receive for cost of living raises (after three years of NO cost of living raises at all). Plus the proposed budgets include MORE tax hikes.

Also, when they consider assets, are they talking ONLY cash assets ? Or are they talking assets in general? It may be one thing now, but will it stay that way in the future, or will they suddenly decide you should not have a paid for home, car AND a retirement fund?

I do not want this to turn into a political argument. What I want to say is WHO should put a limit on ANYONE if they have the gumption to put money back for their own retirement? Why should a person be punished for saving money over any certain limit?

The topic of discussion in my home today along this line is about what the law already says you can NOT have. Background, previously we had an HSA account and it was very handy to meet co-pays with and out of pocket for what our insurance didnt cover. When open enrollment for our insurance happened in 2013 dh was told he could no longer have an HSA. He took it to mean because we changed from catastrophic insurance to a PPO and told me we would have to close the account.

I had a few doctor bills and some rxs to order and so that was an easy task. I zeroed the account before the date we were told we had to do it by. Then I tried to go online to verify I hadnt gone over or under on the amount and to verify the account was closed. The online info told me no such account existed. Dh tried a few times over the next month and got the same result. So we took it to mean the account had been successfully closed.

Fast forward to this weekend when we got an you owe us money letter from the HSA, it stated we were over drawn and needed to pay them immediately. HUH? It had been nearly a year and now we suddenly owe them money?
Needless to say I called them first thing this morning. They claimed we owed them fees for keeping the account open. I let the gal go on and on and when she finally finished I told her dh had been told at work he could no longer have the account and what wed done and what had happened. Then asked why we hadnt been notified of the problem sooner.

There was silence on her end for a bit and then she said How old is your husband?

65

Is he on Medicare?

Yes, part A only, they put him on it automatically, he didnt sign up for it. We still have group coverage from his employer

His HR person is right, its against the law for him to have an HSA if hes on Medicare.

So, what do we do now?

I refund the fees, and close the account. You will receive a letter stating this is what is being done and if you had an unused balance prior to the fees you will receive a check within the next two weeks.

The long and the short of it, is they force you to take Medicare as you are turning 65 and it is illegal for you to have an HSA in your name.

The events are scheduled, there are local events?generally just on weekends, national events can be 2 weeks or longer and international events. These are put on by various clubs ie: Commanche Peak Muzzleloaders is one that comes to mind. The national Muzzleloaders, state parks (like the one this weekend), museums (Ft. Bridger) and similar organizations.

Word of a voo is spread by word of mouth, flyers, Muzzleloader magazine, and various buckskinning websites and newsletters. You generally know a year or so ahead of time when one will be. I have/had several friends who traveled year round doing nothing but voo and earned their living do it. I traveled full time one year with my kids when they were out of school for the summer and with friends when they were in school. The rest of the time I did weekenders and 1-2 nationals a year.

When we first started doing it Ft. Washita (state park) and Wooloroc (a museum) paid us to come and set-up. Now a days there are camping fees, traders fees and in some camps Ive heard rumors there are now fees to enter the events.

The events include tomahawk throwing, fire starting (no matches allowed?even though Lucifers did exist during that time period) and yes I can start a fire with a piece of steel and a hunk of flint. Skillet toss, all sorts of black powder shooting events?I love watching candle shoots (you try to shoot the flame off the candle without touching the candle itself?some of those guys are REALLY good), Mountain man runs (kind of a historic iron man run), cannon shoots ( my kids LOVED the candy cannons?hard candy was shot out of the barrel instead of the usual wadding and cannon ball) and much more.

Big encampments generally have seminars on doing the early American crafts too. I gave lessons on Inkle Loom weaving, cord making with a lucet, needle tatting, clothes making, and the most fun of all?how to play early American games like Jacobs ladder, marbles, and similar games.

Kids are safe in camp because everyone in camp is their mom and dad if a child is seen with someone not familiar to the camp every skinner they pass will ask where the child is going and who their friend is. If even one parent felt the least bit hinky about something the child would be detained until their actual parent could be located and it was verified the person was a safe person for them to be with. Many of the kids are home schooled. My kids grew up in voo. While they attended public school they got their true education by traveling to all the historical sites we visited in the course of running the circuit for 15 years.

We walked not only through the encampment, looking for friends, but we walked around the outer edges of it as well, to just look at the canvas from afar and remember. There is something inspiring about looking at an encampment from a distance.
The type of voo I am referring to is a family friendly version of the pre-1840 Fur Trade Era Mountain Man Rendezvous (in other words, no camp followers or brawling allowed LOL!)
Two inspiring moments come to mind. I was at one voo in Diamond, Mo and one Sunday morning just as I crawled out of my tent I hear bag pipes. I wandered to the center of camp to see a woman dressed in a white deer skin dress, standing in a swirling low ground fog in front of her tipi playing Amazing Grace by the time she finished she was surrounded by all attending the voo.
There in the mist, with wisps of smoke curling out of the near dead campfires were probably 100 of us dressed in pre-1840 clothing. While none of us thought to take a photo, it will always be in our memories.
Bagpipes are a big part of historical re-enactments and the other memory was also early morning. I was at North Eastern National Rendezvous on Schroon Lake in upstate NY. Each morning the Piper Brigade dressed in full kilted regalia would pipe the morning in coming over the crest of the hill just as the sun rose behind them.
In both memories the white canvas, tipis, wall tents, marquis tents, Bakers, lean tos are all part of the scenery and you truly feel you have stepped back in time.

I know what the word rendezvous means but I dont get what you mean when you say you walked around it. Maybe I am just having a dense, caffeine-deprived moment? LOL

About the red beans and rice … we LOVE LOVE LOVE red beans at our house. Down here in south Louisiana they can be quite a delicacy. In fact, I was trying to figure out this morning when I can fit them into the menu this week. DR can make it sound pretty bad, eating beans and rice that is. However around here it is quite the comfort food. In south Louisiana most restaurants have them on the menu every day and most have it as a special on Monday. Usually it is served with some sausage. For those who are eating it as a money saver, you can cut out or reduce the sausage. I use a pound of sausage for each pound of dried beans I cook.

Have fun taking advantage of the Veterans Day specials!

Dh worked 2 hours overtime every day this week, and ds was in Calument, OK doing a walk down all week. It gave me time to do some deep cleaning, lots of bean cooking (we only actually ate bean meals twice because of leftovers that were still in the fridge from previous meals)?more beans to come LOL!
I managed to make small extra payments on the Best Buy account, but its still very near the $1,800 mark?driving me NUTS! I want that sucker GONE!
Ds came home for the weekend, but we barely saw him because dh and I went out to walk around a rendezvous that was less than 30 miles from our home hoping to see some old friends. Only one of the grey beards we knew was there, but we chatted with him awhile about old times. Hes been considering stopping voo too because so many of our friends have gone on to their reward.
It was a bittersweet day, we talked about those who were gone, and the young bucks coming up and of course the good and bad times of the 15 years wed vooed together. Walking Stick said we should have gone to Wooloroc voo two weeks earlier because what was left of most of our friends were there. Maybe well visit the spring one there.
Dh and I agreed while we miss our friends, the fun and atmosphere of voo we most certainly do not miss all the work of setting up and especially tearing down of camp or being subjected to all the variables of the weather. Far better to camp in our tin tipi and just visit with friends when we stumble upon a voo.
This week looks to be much as the same as last week. I made another small payment on BB this morning first thing (Im trying to pay SOMETHING every 3-4 days) I shoved the guys out the door early, dh to Tulsa, ds back to Calument. Ill spend the day working on my candle cupboard most likely. Yes, I know a candle cupboard? Its a small 2 shelved cabinet that I keep all my candles, candle sticks and such in. Its actually in pretty good condition, but Im thinking there are some votive cups I never use in there that could go and Im in a deep cleaning sort of mood.
Cold weather is suppose to hit here tomorrow, so the fireplace preparation is on my agenda for the day today as well. Weve only needed two fires so far this fall and they were basically to take the chill off the air inside. Serious colder weather is headed our way now.
Tonight we are taking advantage of the Veterans Day specials at the restaurants and going to go out for dinner where dh can eat free and I can eat on the seniors menu. It wont be quite as cheap as a bean supper, but hey it will be a change of pace. LOL! Tomorrow has Red Beans and Rice on its menu.
So while we look forward to being debt free we also looked back at all the good friends, many of which were Veterans like dh, this last week.