Jill Russo Foster

From Holiday Card To Gift Tag

Turn this year’s holiday cards into next years gift tags. An easy way to save money (and recycle / re purpose too)! Just cut out your favorite design. Then when you need a gift tag, just write your message on the back side.

Sticking To A Budget In The New Year

Happy New Year and welcome to 2018!

The reality of January has arrived, bills from the holidays are coming in, it’s cold outside and you have set your 2018 goals. If one of your goals is to budget your money, then here are some tips that might help you stay on track.

Check out this great article by the Daily Worth about budgeting.

You May Want To Do This Before The Year Ends

I hope you enjoyed your holidays. Now back to finances.

You may want to consider these steps and do them in this calendar year:

If you pay estimated taxes, consider making your January payment before Dec 31.
If possible, you can prepay your January installment of your real estate taxes before Dec 31. This may be difficult to do if your taxes are escrowed in your mortgage payment. You will need to check with your tax assessor to details in your city / town.

These two steps may work to your advantage with your income tax. Always check with your tax preparer about your individual situation.

Vacation Insurance

With vacation season underway, are you covered if something happens?

According to Wallet Hub, 1 in 6 Americans have an illness or natural disaster happen to them. Are you covered so that you don’t lose you hard earned money? Of these 1 in 6, only 22% have insurance to cover their travel costs and expenses.

Some credit cards offer you coverage for lost or delayed luggage, missed connections, trip cancellations and even death sometimes. All credit cards are different and you need to check your individual card for what your offers you. If you are covered, they offer you reimbursements. That means that you pay upfront. Do you have that money? And they come with restrictions. Remember my Microsoft Surface Pro experience from last fall?

We have one credit card that we always use to rent a car. It gives us coverage so that we can decline the optional rental car company insurances and feel comfortable. We have another credit card that gives us the travel protection of lost or delayed luggage, missed connections, etc. We have done the research for us and you should too.

You should think about what you may need and find out if you are covered with the credit card you already have. Typically, if you don’t charge the trip to that specific credit card, you don’t have the coverage. Then check with your personal insurance, such as auto insurance for rental car coverage, home owners / renter’s for loss of property, etc. Then look into travel insurance, if you need or want more or additional coverage.

You should do this process for your health insurance as well. Most insurance policies don’t cover you when you travel outside the US. All of this pre-planning could offer you the needed assistance in your time of need. So do your research and make the choices that are right for you.

Happy Travels!

Is It Time to Clear Some Clutter?

In my next life, I think I want to be an organizer. I am not a hoarder, but living in the same home for years, things and stuff just seem to accumulate. Over the past few years, I have scanned many documents, going from 3 four draw file cabinets down to 1. Gone are the paper medical records, tax returns and other paper work. Yes, I have burned up a shredder or two.

So this summer, I took a break from this newsletter. I accomplished so much. We tackled the family movies, photos and slides. We looked through thousands and saved some, but mostly gave them to family members and had the others scanned and archived. This was a big accomplishment.

Earlier in the year, we started going through the collectibles, things that have meaning or are possibly valuable, so I didn’t want to just toss them. I wanted to find a place for them and this was a lengthy process. For my dad’s sports memorabilia, we gave it to the local high school’s hall of fame to be displayed. That felt good. They are out of our home and somewhere I can go see with a visit. His leather football helmet was one of the display items at the induction ceremony.

There is still more to go but we are seeing progress. Are their items that you want to get rid of but don’t know what to do with them. Check out the Resources Page on my website, as I keep updating it with the places that we have used.

Save

Are You In Credit Card Debt?

Are you one of the increasing many who rely on credit cards to live?

Since the financial crisis, we have seen consumer debt decline. That’s a good thing. But not anymore. Credit cards debt has now hit the $1 trillion mark according to the Federal Reserve. To read more, click here

For more tips, visit my website.

Can You Really Save Money With Your Insurance?

You see the TV ads that save your can save money with your insurance. But can you?

I have always been told that if you bundle your insurance – say car and homeowners or car and renters – you can save money. This study breaks it down by state on how much you could possibly save. Read more

For more tips, visit my website.

Cheap and Fun Halloween Costumes

Do you want to celebrate Halloween and be frugal?

One year I wore an old pair of pants and top (any color) will do. I took out my glue gun and glued leaves all over the clothing – I was a pile of leaves! Creative and low cost.

Here are some other costume ideas, that could save you money.

For more tips, please visit my website.

Do You Live In One of These Nine States?

If you live in one of these nine states, you may have to have a passport for air travel within the US! These states don’t have ID that is compliant with the Real ID Act of 2005 yet.

Is your state one of the 9? Read more.

For more financial tips, visit my website.

Holiday Travel

As you get ready for the upcoming holiday travel season, here’s a great article on saving money on airfare.

We specifically buy our airline tickets on a Tuesday, as it seems the prices are lowest on that day. We recently purchased airfare for almost $200 less per person, as we watched the pricing for a specific flight go up and down.

Read here and see if you can save money.

For more financial tips, visit my website.