Hi ladies,

I have recently discovered my insurance won't cover my SRS so I am pretty much depressed and screwed. How were you girls able to fund your SRS or are currently funding it outside of insurance coverage? It seems like every girl on here has their surgery date but me. 

Thanks in advance,

Stella

I'm doing it through Medicare and supplemental insurance.

You can rest assured there are plenty of ladies here who don't have a date yet.

As for me, I could fund it out of savings thanks to a massive redundancy I received last year. However i was thinking it might be better to take a loan out against my mortgage; it would mean not having to spend all of my money and repaying it back in instalments over twenty or so years instead.

I'm doing it just with saving money from my take-home pay at work.

I make about $32,000/year, and I live very minimally. One-bedroom apartment, (I could have gone $150/month cheaper if I'd decided to split a 2-bedroom with a roommate, but I decided against it,) low-cost car, I live very close to work so that I don't have high gas costs, I cook everything from scratch at home rather than going out to eat or paying for food at work, I skip going out for drinks (alcohol is expensive,) I don't have cable (just internet and a computer, where I get all of my entertainment from,) and I keep my budgets for clothes, entertainment, and basically everything at the bare minimum that I possibly can. All of those weekly $10-$20 differences add up over the course of the year.

I've put away $8,000 in the last 12 months, which is about 2/3 of the total cost of SRS in Thailand.

Work hard, and make sacrifices. That's about the only advice I can give.

Quote from: Ms Grace on February 07, 2016, 01:15:37 AM
As for me, I could fund it out of savings thanks to a massive redundancy I received last year. However i was thinking it might be better to take a loan out against my mortgage; it would mean not having to spend all of my money and repaying it back in instalments over twenty or so years instead.

Hi Grace, I think you might be doing this wrong. If you have your money in a separate account to your mortgage then you'll pay tax on the interest, as well as paying the interest on the mortgage. If you instead use an offset mortgage account then you won't pay tax on it. Basically it cuts your interest in half, and it could be quite a lot of money.

If you pay the extra money into your mortgage you don't pay the tax either, but might have problems getting it back out again (according to he terms of the contract).

Even though my father was a banker I'm useless at understanding that stuff, makes my brain hurt.

Quote from: Ms Grace on February 07, 2016, 04:03:59 AM
Even though my father was a banker I'm useless at understanding that stuff, makes my brain hurt.

This one is easy. You pay tax on income, and the interest on your bank accounts is income so you pay tax on it. If you got 5% interest, you'd pay half (or so) as tax, so you only really get 2.5%.

If you instead pay all that money into your mortgage, you don't get any interest (because you still owe heaps of money) so you don't pay tax on it. However you don't owe as much interest on the mortgage as you did before, and that's where you save the money.

Just look at how much money you get in interest on that separate account, and your losing whatever your top rate tax is. If that's a lot of money then look at changing to a mortgage with an offset account (or similar).

Quote from: Carrie Liz on February 07, 2016, 03:29:57 AM
I'm doing it just with saving money from my take-home pay at work.

I make about $32,000/year, and I live very minimally. One-bedroom apartment, (I could have gone $150/month cheaper if I'd decided to split a 2-bedroom with a roommate, but I decided against it,) low-cost car, I live very close to work so that I don't have high gas costs, I cook everything from scratch at home rather than going out to eat or paying for food at work, I skip going out for drinks (alcohol is expensive,) I don't have cable (just internet and a computer, where I get all of my entertainment from,) and I keep my budgets for clothes, entertainment, and basically everything at the bare minimum that I possibly can. All of those weekly $10-$20 differences add up over the course of the year.

I've put away $8,000 in the last 12 months, which is about 2/3 of the total cost of SRS in Thailand.

Work hard, and make sacrifices. That's about the only advice I can give.

Yeah I am thinking that is the most viable option. So I guess Thailand is where I will be going too, I just feel a bit confused about how to start the operation over there. I started a thread about it the other day and emailed the institution that was reccommended but it is convoluted. Any tips?

Although I haven't checked into it personally, I hear Starbucks offers a pretty comprehensive "Trans" insurance program. It might be worth getting in with them for as many hours as you need to qualify for their insurance.

I'm planning on setting aside a thousand dollars or two and trading it on the market.  Its something I've learned to do after watching people do it and reading about it.  Even though I'm 15, I have a well enough understanding to actually make a profit.

Quote from: DiamondBladee on February 07, 2016, 09:36:09 AM
I'm planning on setting aside a thousand dollars or two and trading it on the market.  Its something I've learned to do after watching people do it and reading about it.  Even though I'm 15, I have a well enough understanding to actually make a profit.

Just make sure its money you can afford to lose it as there's every chance you will. You're competing against a lot of big companies doing this.

Give it another 20 years and you'll see it go though cycles of boom and crash. And just before the crash everyone's talking about how wonderful it all is.

A lot of people think they know what they are doing because they are making money, but really most people are making money and they are just along for the ride. They then proceed to lose it all when things change.

Quote from: DiamondBladee on February 07, 2016, 09:36:09 AM
I'm planning on setting aside a thousand dollars or two and trading it on the market.  Its something I've learned to do after watching people do it and reading about it.  Even though I'm 15, I have a well enough understanding to actually make a profit.

That's a reasonable long term plan if, as Amoré said, you can afford to lose all of it. Just be aware that, at 15, you'll need an adult to officially own the account. Get someone you really trust.

Quote from: DiamondBladee on February 07, 2016, 09:36:09 AM
I'm planning on setting aside a thousand dollars or two and trading it on the market.  Its something I've learned to do after watching people do it and reading about it.  Even though I'm 15, I have a well enough understanding to actually make a profit.

Might I make a suggestion. As you don't have the money yet, write on a piece of paper $2000. Every time you want to buy or sell, record it and don't forget to take out a small amount to pay the broker. When you have the money to invest, look at the paper and decide if the market is where you want to put the money.

Am I telling you not to invest in the market - no. I have made a pile of money in the market but I started out with a pile of money and conservative investments over a long time worked their magic. Day trading requires you be on top the market minute by minute and sometimes I suspect there is insider trading which is illegal. You might be the wiz who can make it pay but most of the time it works the other way.

I don't have a date yet, but I have two people willing to give me a letter for it. I just have to make the decision.

I have no idea if my insurance will cover it or not, but they wouldn't cover HRT so there's a good bet that it's a no. I'm planning on taking a loan out on 401k to pay for it.

Oh, honey, I'm so sorry.

I basically worked 3 jobs (1 full-time, 2 freelance) for a couple of years, and we saved every penny we could.

Quote from: Stella Sophia on February 07, 2016, 01:08:16 AM
Hi ladies,

I have recently discovered my insurance won't cover my SRS so I am pretty much depressed and screwed. How were you girls able to fund your SRS or are currently funding it outside of insurance coverage? It seems like every girl on here has their surgery date but me. 

Thanks in advance,

Stella

Save, save, save. I still look back and wonder how in the heck I was able to to all that I did and paid cash for it all. I somehow managed to come up with the almost $10,000 I had to pay for Dr Brassard. One thing all of that saving did was give me really good financial discipline which is paying a lot of dividends now. For the record, I believe I had put myself in a position where I was able to save all of the money for my bottom surgery in about 6 months.

Well here's the motto I used during transition.  'You're not doing it right if you are not going broke doing it.'  Yeah, old school thinking...but I'm old...er.
So, despite having insurance and executive level job.  It's cash, cash and more cash, oh, and credit cards!
Best 20K I ever spent was on SRS.

You might also want to try some of the medical loan websites such as Prosper.

EOM

Quote from: Dee Marshall on February 07, 2016, 10:29:49 AM
That's a reasonable long term plan if, as Amoré said, you can afford to lose all of it. Just be aware that, at 15, you'll need an adult to officially own the account. Get someone you really trust.

I consider trading a potential bonus.  I'm primarily going to use other methods, but I've become pretty confident in my trading.  And yes, at this age my father has to look over it.  One of the only things we really bond on anymore.

Although I don't have a date yet, but my parents are going to fund it They are also funding for my HRT and other medicare (along with my brother). I am 21 and work as a freelance writer but I don't make enough money to fund everything on my own, and so glad to have family's support!

Luckily for me, I also had parents' support. Plus my great uncle who is no longer with us.