Jill Russo Foster

In One More Day

You have heard about all the security breaches – from major retail chain stores to credit bureaus and more. You can’t turn on the news or read a newspaper without learning about another breach.

Because of this, I have always encouraged you to freeze your credit to lessen your changes of identity theft. Well tomorrow is a big day for consumers. Credit report freezes will become free – no more small fee to freeze your credit and another small fee to unfreeze – all this adds up. As of tomorrow, September 21, 2018 and just after the one year anniversary of the Equifax breach, there will be no cost to freeze your credit.

Please remember that you will receive a PIN with your freeze. You will need to keep this in a safe place, but not so safe that you forget where you put it to unfreeze your credit.

In addition, fraud alerts will now be available for 1 year (it was 90 days in the past).

Get out there and take advantage of the free credit freeze tomorrow!

FREE Stuff To Do

This Saturday is a big day! You have so many choices of what to do and it’s all FREE. Yes, I you heard me FREE!!!!!!

There are two options with many choices for things to do this Saturday, September 22 only.

Option 1 – it’s National Parks Free Day – so you can visit a national park and save on the entrance fee. Click this link to find out more. You can check out a local park or make plans to visit one farther. Don’t worry if you can’t make it this Saturday, there is one more free day coming up later this year.

Option 2 – it’s Smithsonian Museum Day – now is your chance to visit a museum for free, both in your area and across the country. Check out this link to see which museums are participating and to get your ticket. You’ll need a ticket to visit for free and you can get that at the website.

Two options for you and your family for this Saturday that won’t break your wallet. Enjoy!

Upcoming Workshops

Now that we are gearing up for the fall, I wanted to share with you some workshops I am teaching at Norwalk Community College (Norwalk, CT) in the Extended Studies Dept in the Fall term.

Take Control Of Your Finances

Welcome To The Real World: Teens and Money

Budgeting For The Fluctuating Income

For more information and/or to register click here.

If You Don’t Succeed, Try Again

You’ve heard the saying, if you don’t succeed, try again. We’ll that was try number two yesterday to get the results that we wanted.

Every August it’s the time in our home to negotiate the TV, internet and phone bill. It’s a time that I dislike, but it’s something that has to be done. Every year, we get that letter that our current package is expiring and the cost will be increasing substantially. Ugh!

I phoned earlier in the month and was given a new package that didn’t meet our needs or budget. We have lowered our services in past years, so there isn’t a lower package with less channels (we’re on basic). Not being happy with the call, I research other companies and their options.

Yesterday, was call number two. Spoke with two different people and get the results we wanted. The price will be increasing less than $5. Yeah!

If you need to negotiate with a company to get the results you need / want, be prepared to make multiple calls. You might just get a person that will go the extra mile to find what you are looking for. We did and we are set for another year.

Password Security

At this time of year we are getting ready for back to school. Along with all the things happening, sometimes cybersecurity isn’t something that you are thinking about. But it should be.

Your kids are creating new accounts and with that comes passwords. I am reruning a past newsletter on How To Use A Unique Password For Every Account Without Going Crazy.

In addition, Lass Pass’ blog has a great post on .

Make sure to do these steps and share with your kids to be safer online. A little time now could save you hours later.

IRS and Travel

If you love to travel like we do, you better read on. Do you owe the IRS money? If you owe a substantial money and haven’t made payment arrangements, your passport could be in jeopardy.

Here’s some more information from AARP’s travel newsletter.

Another reason to stay on top of your finances.

Getting Ready for Winter

It’s August and there is still plenty of summer left. I know this, but it’s also the time of year that we start to get ready for winter.

Next week, we are having our trees trimmed. I want to lower dead limbs trimmed, so as not to come down with a winter storm. Also During this month, it’s time to inspect your home to get those last minute projects in before the cold weather sets in. One of the things on our list is to replace our front door. After that, it’s time to get the furnace cleaned before we need heat.

In the fall, it will be time to clean the gutters and make sure the snow blower is ready.

Preparing now and maintaining your home and equipment will save you money in the long run.

Enjoy the rest of the summer

Have You Checked This Lately?

Every year around my birthday is the time I check my social security.

No, I am not ready to apply. But it’s something I do annually to make sure all is correct. Every year social security posts your income to your account (the same income you file on your federal tax return). I like to double check to make sure mine is correct. It’s much easier for me to check now, then to figure it out when I apply for social security down the road. My records are easily accessible and easy to review to double check.

When was the last time you looked at your social security account?

Planning Our Fall Vacation

What to do in each port? That’s a difficult question. So much to do and so little time.

If it’s a new place, sometimes we just want to take a tour to get an overview. That’s the case for the first and last stop of this cruise. We are taking a cruise line shore excursion to see the coast and in another city we are doing a whale watch.

Yet another city, San Francisco with a two day stop (we have been there before), what to do? Our original thought was to go to Yosemite for the day. We even worked out the details to make it work for us. But now the wildfires may derail this plan.

For us, the research is critical to saving money. First, what do we want to do? To start, we look at the cruise line shore excursions for ideas. If we find something that appeals to us – great! Then the research begins. What other companies offer this excursion? The research piece begins with for these other companies:

Is there a cruise guarantee? Do you get your money back if the cruise line doesn’t come into port?
Will they guarantee you will make it back tot he ship in time?
Will they pick up and drop off at the pier or very close by?
What are the companies reviews like (both on the website and with outside companies)?
What is the cost and what does it include?
Are there discounts?

These are important questions that we need the answers to.

Some of my favorite websites are Trip Advisor, Viator, Cruise Critic and more. I should tell you that Cruise Critic is the best. You join the chat room for your specific cruise and this puts you in touch with others sailing with you. This is a great resource, as we have shared private tours many time by joining others (and sometimes we have booked the tour and are looking for others to share with us).

All these are factors in determining what to do in port.

Planning Our Fall Vacation

Those of you that are regular readers, we have an upcoming vacation for the fall. I am going to take you through the planning this week, to see how we save money.

Our airfare, hotels and cruise are booked and paid (a while back). We always fly in a day or more before a cruise (never want to miss the ship). Since we are arriving late the night before, we are staying close to the airport.

Getting to the the ship in the morning, we have several options:

Back to the airport and take the cruise transfer
Make our way on our own
Alternate transfer

Our choices was the alternated transfer. This was our thought process, we have never been to this city and wanted to see some of it. We didn’t want to get to the ship too early and wait there to board. We found a cruise transfer tour company that will pick us up at the hotel and give us a 3 hour tour of the city and drop us off at the pier.

The savings for us:

No rental car needed
Tour company will take luggage on tour
Hotel pick up with pier drop off

Yes, this is more than the transfer alone, but we have never been to the city (I don’t count changing planes here years ago a visit). This way we will be familiar with the city before we spend the weekend after the cruise.