Hello,

This story is tough to tell. I have lived at my current home since I was 4 years old, and I am turning 31 this Saturday. My father has been declining and has been unable to keep up on property taxes and has only discussed this with me recently. My mother passed away in April of last year and this caused my Dad's medical insurance to skyrocket and has caused a lot of emotional stress that kept us out of focus.

4K* is what's needed to be up to date on things, it's not completely necessary to meet. I am contributing more than I normally have, but some taxes have been sold already (I will be finding out the exact number of this bill is tomorrow when I visit the treasury), and others are close to its payment due date. $3K from last year is past due(EDIT: this has also been sold as of 3/15/23), so there is a giant wave of urgency on this that I was previously unaware of as I was being told for years that this was being covered. There are a lot of great memories associated with this home and I am unwilling to give up on it just yet.

EDIT: *I've raised the goal to 6K as I'm just learning that the total for taxes that have been sold by the Cook County Treasury is $5445.20 (+ $1,072.38 that have not been sold but it is due by next month). The 5.5k was sold to an investment group named "Corona Investments LLC". See the picture below. So... to be up to date it will now have to be around 7k. The due date I was given was 2025. There is no ability to pay this off in a payment plan as Cook County does not give this option for taxes sold in the annual tax sale. Interest is being added as time moves forward, as well.

IMPORTANT!!! Edit #2: The amount of tax debt that was sold in the Cook County Tax Sale was paid off in December 2023 (close to $7k, 2.8k was from donations on and off GFM. See updates tab for receipts). There are still 6-7k in property tax debt that has yet to be sold in the Cook County Tax Sale/Auction **SOME OF WHICH WILL BE SOLD ON THE NEXT AUCTION)** (which means once it's sold, the amount sold will need to be paid up front with no payment plan within 2-3 years or we lose the property) and I want to pre-emptively approach saving up to pay that off. One issue... I have been unemployed since a few weeks after paying this off, as of a week before Christmas 2023. I have laid out a plan to use 50-80% of donations via GFM to be placed in an account that will not be touched unless an extreme emergency happens, and the other 20-50% will go to immediate needs such as bills, groceries, etc. I will also fulfill ANY request that asks that 100% of their donation will go towards that savings account REGARDLESS OF ANY IMMEDIATE NEEDS AT THAT MOMENT. I've very slowly built that account up to $100 this year with the very little spending money I have, but it's been tough. Please feel free to email me directly for any questions, requests, or suggestions/resources for aide at metal4brainspodcast on Gmail (posting the entire email gets redacted for some reason). Thank you!