Archive for the ‘Finance’ Category
Got A Telephone Sales Pitch . . .
. . .the other day
for a burial plot
and I just told them
that’s the last thing I need.
Scammers Always in Season
A Social Security scam linked to tax time can reach you any time of year via e-mail, telephone or the postal service. The thieves offer refunds of Social Security taxes you’ve paid over the years, an attractive lure during the economic slough in which everyone has been wallowing.
This is not, repeat – not – even remotely connected to the Social Security Administration.
The schemers usually offer to file a refund claim with the Internal Revenue Service in return for a percentage of the refund and an up-front fee of $100 or thereabouts for doing the paper work. The only sure thing that will happen is that you lose whatever money you send to these crooks.
It Seems Like . . .
. . . we have to knock on every door
to get a response here.
Making a Will Won’t Kill You
If you want to get the last laugh on your family, don’t make a will. Let them squirm while they squabble about who should get what when you’re gone. It’s a fine way to get even.
But whether you like them or not, you’d be smarter to make out a will delineating the disposition of your belongings so the government won’t get them. Writing out a simple will – “I leave my watch to my oldest son and my baseball-card collection to my youngest son and my wedding ring to my daughter” – on your kitchen table and having a couple of neighbors witness it is still a simple and basic step toward shielding your assets from the coffers of the Capitol.
A will also eliminates much of the legal costs that can arise out of disputed estate claims.
A written will — you should talk about this and other estate plans with an attorney who specializes in such matters — avoids leaving the disposal of your assets and heirlooms open to legal maneuvering. It also can lessen the burden of death, estate, property and all sorts of other taxes local, state and federal politicians keep piling up on their side of the ledger.
My Son Said . . .
. . . his neighbor took her dog
to a veterinarian for some tests
and now
she’s waiting for a lab report.
No Vaccine for Scam Season
There’s no serum developed yet to shield you from crooks and con artists. The best protection is a healthy dose of anti-greed. The following premise is a pretty powerful antidote: if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Some slick scams never go away. Ponzi schemes are by far the most notorious. They’ve been around so long that most people think they’d recognize one if it came their way. That’s rubbish. Gullible — and greedy — investors are pouring their money into these confidence schemes somewhere right now. All on the promise, by someone they trust, admire, respect or like, of above-average returns on their investments.
Think of the current headline-grabbing FTX crypto currency Ponzi scheme that funneled billions of dollars through the hands of 30-year-old Sam Bankman-Fried.
Offerings of viatical settlements persists. If you don’t know what that or any other investment proposal means, run away from it. Viatical oversimplified means that you buy a life insurance policy from a terminally ill patient for less than the policy payout. These transactions, whether you’re the buyer or seller, are fraught with perils.
The same applies to promissory notes often sold by independent insurance agents, according to the AARP Bulletin. These are often offered by little-known or non-existent companies with the promise of returns as high as 15 percent with supposedly little risk. Better to turn your back on such a can’t-miss sure-fire opportunity than fall flat on your fiscal face when you’ve been fooled out of your money.
The Recognition . . .
. . . and celebration
of this season
goes all the way back to Adam
when he took a present to the Garden,
and said, “It’s Christmas, Eve.”
Moving May Damage Your Credit
Moving can result in a lower credit score because bills may get lost in the mail or may be forwarded but arrive too late to pay on time. The delayed payments, or lack of payment, become blots on your credit history.
Another bit of misinformation is that canceling unused credit cards will improve your credit score. It can do the opposite because you dump a chunk of available credit. It lowers the amount of credit available to you while increasing the percentage of available credit you use. If you do close down a credit card, do it to one with a low credit limit.
Some People . . .
. . . don’t know
what happiness is
until they get married,
and by then, it’s too late.
‘Tis Always the Season to Protect Your Identity
Identity theft, which is easier to commit than credit-card fraud because the criminal only has to steal your name and not your card, accounts for almost half of the thousands of consumer fraud complaints made to the Federal Trade Commission each year. Almost 10 percent of the population become victims of identity thieves each year. These are just the ones we know of because they are reported to the FTC.
You can lose your identity in an instant – the time it takes for a crook to memorize your birth date or Social Security number as you give it to a shop clerk, for example. The hurly-burly of holiday weekends and the Santa season are the identity thief’s playground.
Modern thieves can hack your cell phone and get your most personal information, such as your name, Social Security number, address, and other valuable data, to use to make a purchases and loans in your name. Many steal identities from mailboxes – more than 100,000 residential mailboxes are raided every day in this country – or they fish bank and credit-card statements from trash.
An identity thief may use your name but another address so you won’t be aware of the debt made in your name because statements will be sent to that other address and your credit will be trampled.
It’s Unfortunate . . .
. . . that we’re living in a time
when intelligent people
have to watch what they say
so stupid people won’t be offended.
Insert Incentives in Inheritance
If you have a son-in-law whose drinking has been nettling you for years, there is a way for you to get him under control. If your grandchild hasn’t an ambitious bone in her head, there’s a way to give her some direction.
You can make bequests with conditions that your daughter’s husband curb his alcoholism and improve his relationship with his family and that her daughter complete college before either receives any benefits. Their inheritances can be received all at once, after they’ve achieved the plateaus you’ve established, or incrementally as they progress along the paths you’ve outlined for them.
Incentive trusts can be fashioned in such a way that you can set criteria and conditions for the beneficiaries to meet before collecting any of the inheritance you leave them. If they don’t meet your requirements, they receive nothing – or the minimal amount you’ve decided to allow them.
You can work out the details with your attorney and estate planner.
Those Who Claim . . .
. . .to have a clear conscience
probably just have a bad memory.
Why Collect in the First Place?
So you’re well on your way to completing the set of 50-state quarters that you began on a whim, decided to put them together for your grandkids, and then decided to do one for yourself.
What’s going to happen to the collection, whether it’s one or several sets, when you’re done? And will it (or they) sell for the profit you had in your head when you began? If you spend each set, you can buy $12.50 worth of something.
A recently-deceased relative left behind cartons of comic books and baseball cards. The recipient heirs haven’t found it worth their while to catalog the collection and have it appraised and offered in e-bay. It’s still just sitting there.
Collectibles are not only in the eye of the beholder, they’re also in the heart of the collector. They usually offer more thrill in the hunt and satisfaction in the acquisition than profit in the purse.
They give the collector a circle of like-minded colleagues to discuss likes and dislikes, as well as to brag about the latest addition to one’s collection. But you can conduct the same spirited exchanges over your favorite sports teams without having to spend the time and money tracking down another cloisonne piece for your collectible closet.
A Relative Says . . .
. . . they’ve solved a nettlesome problem.
Their new password is INCORRECT
so whenever they forget it,
their computer says, “Your password is incorrect.”
Thumb Drive Supports Safety Deposit Box
Keeping important documents, treasured heirlooms, and valuable jewelry in a safety deposit box long has been logged high on the list of secure venues. These boxes usually are in banks, which are difficult to break into and located in secure areas with alarms, video cameras, and top-notch locks. The vaults that hold safety deposit boxes are also reinforced to withstand fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other natural disasters.
You can use another tool to supplement the safety of important items.
You can scan or take pictures of your important papers and copy them into your computer, then download them onto a thumb drive, or several of them. Then you can wipe the material out of the computer so hackers can’t get at it. You can store one thumb drive in your safety deposit box along with your gold coins and important papers, keep one a in a safe place at home, bury one in the backyard and give one to your attorney.
I Used To Think . . .
. . . I was indecisive,
but now I’m not so sure.
Seniors Straining Economic Support
There were slightly more than 900 million people – about 12 percent — around the world aged 60 years and older in 2015. This number is expected to increase to 1.4 billion by 2030, an increase of more than 16 percent. By 2050, one out of five people – 2.1 billion scattered all over the globe — will be 60 or older.
Almost 90 percent of the Japanese believe this is a problem. Only one out of four Americans think this way. Since most of these people will be out of the work force, they will have to have fashioned their own retirement plans or be supported by somebody. Most people in most countries think the government should take care of its elderly. This socialism brush could be wider than anticipated and affect how the nations of the world are governed in the near future.
This rapidly aging population is creating an unprecedented set of problems, including a rapidly spreading and more diverse set of diseases, increased spending of time and money on health and long-term care, labor shortages, and steadily rising inflation chewing away at old-age income. Adding calluses to the problem is the fact that Social Security payments will probably be lowered when the surplus in the trust fund is depleted. The $2.9 trillion in reserves reported in 2020 is expected to be spent by 2034 – a year earlier than previously estimated.
When that happens, benefits payments will probably be slashed by about 25 percent if adjustments aren’t made in the meantime. This is happening because the millennium surge into the retirement age and the dwindling labor force that has Social Security support deducted from their paychecks. Simply, fewer workers will be paying for more Social Security recipients. While every elected official in Washington and every economist in the country knows the problem exists, no one has made any moves to fix any part of it.
Life . . .
. . .is just like money.
How you spend it
is what counts.
Sleeping Pills Hazardous
Getting a good night’s sleep may prove hazardous to your health if you use prescription sleeping pills every night, according to a recent study.
Men and women who used prescription sleeping pills daily were nearly 30 percent more likely to die within the six-year follow-up period than those who didn’t take pills, according to test results. The hazard associated with taking sleeping pills at least 30 times a month was similar to the hazard of smoking one to two packs of cigarettes per day.
Test officials said people often take sleeping pills to help them function better the next day. But research shows that people who rely on sleeping pills perform worse and have more accidents than those who don’t.
Mature Life Features 