Cancer Impact - Kevin

All: I'm reaching out to the community for a little help. My wife has been battling cancer for 3 years, and as a result, I'm tapped out.

I have an immediate need as there were some unexpected tax implications of what I had to do with my retirement funds (withdrawal) and I'm up against it with our friends in Washington.

My need is pretty urgent, and pretty immediate.

As a note to those who have never had a spouse fall grievously ill, I just wanted to share as well what the financial impacts of these things are.

When you look at my lost wages from the first year she was ill, add in 3 years of lost wages for her and do the projections, the hard dollar costs are probably around $190,000.

The opportunity costs in cashing out your retirement plus not contributing for 3 years are likely in the hundreds of thousands.

In other words, cancer, especially with a recurrence, is very expensive. And we had/have good insurance.

For those that have helped us previously, I'm not asking you to help again. My friends and family were very generous when she took ill the second time, and we managed to cover about half of what our insurance did not.

If you can't help with money (and trust me, I feel you), a little social amplification can go a long way.

Thanks as always, and love you all.