The Day Tim’s Tax Bill Went National

Every so often the universe takes one of your private kitchen table crises and hangs it in a shop window for everyone to see.

That just happened to us.

Our story, “The Day The Tax Bill Tried To Give Tim A Heart Attack,” was picked up by The Data Advocate, a national real estate education site run by attorney and educator John Reilly.

You can read his version of it here:

👉 The Day The Tax Bill Tried To Give Tim A Heart Attack

 
What actually happened at our kitchen table
In case you missed the original, Tim opened our new tax bill, saw the number, and his brain did what a lot of brains do.

It skipped right past “what changed in the escrow account” and sprinted to “we are going to lose the house.”

Dementia did not cause that reaction.
Being human did.

 
Why this story landed with The Data Advocate
What made this worth sharing beyond MiM is the way the story landed with John.

He did not treat it as a caregiver drama. He treated it as what it is, a very common and very fixable information gap.

Most buyers never really understand how their monthly payment is built.

Principal.
Interest.
Taxes.
Insurance.

Four moving parts that can all change over time, while the person paying the bill is left staring at a new number and trying not to hyperventilate.

John called it an “informative post” and a good example of how professionals should be educating buyers about how their PITI payment is structured.

Coming from someone who has spent a lifetime training real estate agents, that meant a lot.

 
What it means for MiM
For MiM, it means something slightly different.

It means Tim’s voice is traveling.

Here is a man who lives with memory loss, writing about a moment that could have shut him down completely, and instead using it to teach other people what questions to ask before they panic.

That is exactly what we built MiM for. Not perfection. Not a cure. Just the next right question, written down where you can find it when your nervous system is doing cartwheels.

It is also a reminder that brain health does not live in a separate wing of your life. It lives in:

The envelope you open from the tax office
The way your lender explains, or does not explain, changes in your escrow
The conversations at the kitchen table when numbers on a page collide with fear in your chest
Stress is not a side quest for people with dementia. It is gasoline on the fire. Anything that lowers the temperature a little counts as brain care.

 
Counting this as a MiM win
So today I am counting this as a MiM win, not just a real estate one.

Tim wrote.
People read.
A national education site amplified it.

And maybe a few more families will pause before they spiral when their tax bill shows up this year.

If you have ever had a “tax bill heart attack” of your own, you are in good company.

If you know someone who is one scary envelope away from panic, feel free to send them John’s article or our original MiM post. Sharing practical stories is one of the easiest forms of support there is.

We know what is coming. We are living anyway.

Cheers,
Vanessa