A Meaningful Life
One of the last classes I took for my college degree was Senior Thesis. The theme for the class was “A Meaningful Life”. I did quite a bit of reading and wrote self-reflection papers on where I am today and where I want to be. One of the big take-a-ways, was to live in the prelist month, stay in the present moment and treasure that instead of looking ahead in anticipation or looking back at the memories. I read Cheryl Richardson’s The Art of Extreme Self-Care while away and learned that no matter how busy life becomes, I need to make time for me. With that said, we are blessed to have family and friends in our lives and very fortunate to be able to travel to spend time with them.
One of the things that I will be doing over the holidays is to take time to reflect back on my 2015 goals to see how I did. Then I will assess where I am today where I want to be tomorrow. Yes, I always want to accomplish a lot and I have to remind myself to slow down and enjoy the present.
One of the things I do every year during my goal setting time is to create a vision board to actually see my life in pictures. This helps me to have a visual reminder for what I want to achieve.
What do you want to accomplish in 2016? Let me know your personal financial goals, so that I may be able to help you achieve them.
20% Off Books on Saturday, November 28
1 Day Only 20% Off Sale!
Saturday, November 28
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More About Thrive in Five
Each year do you resolve to improve your finances only to have something happen that pushes you back to the same place you were last year? Thrive In Five: Take Charge of Your Finances in 5 Minutes a Day will help you change that. With daily short tips that take five minutes or less, this book will help you improve your credit score, spend less, and save more money – all while getting organized!
“Thrive In Five: Take Charge of Your Finances In Five Minutes A Day” is a comprehensive, no nonsense book.
Jill’s direct, easy-to-understand style makes it Super Easy to take control of your finances TODAY. As someone who’s worked in a financial institution for 15 years, I’ve never seen everything so comprehensively laid out. This book should be required reading, and can be given to anyone at any age to help them save money. Jill truly understands that finances don’t have to be dull, boring and complicated. She even gives you days to ‘catch up’!
It sends chills up my spine to think about all of the people who don’t know these simple, doable steps.
READ this book and quickly take control of your finances. And get this— Each day the steps are written in a day-by-day, paint-by-numbers format, all EASY yet DOABLE!
Hey, it only takes five minutes or so each day — yet each step can take you one step closer to finally taking control of your finances!
I say get this book and get this book right NOW! It’s awesome!”
– Tracey Fieber, Retirement Transition Expert
New Face of Retirement
www.NewFaceofRetirement.com
More about Cash, Credit and Your Finances
The Perfect Teen Gift
Help your kids:
- Cope with product advertising
- Understand that credit isn’t magic money.
- Develop strong short-term budgeting skills
- Create a long-term financial plan
Cash, Credit, and Your Finances: The Teen Years looks at finances through the eyes of five different teenagers. They all have things they want and need, but they all handle their money differently. Some will succeed and some will give up… which one do you want your child to be?
We’re grateful for family and friends
From top to bottom and left to right, this is my nephew Kip and his family from Easter in New York, meeting up with friends in London, and dinner with my cousins Ray and Marge in Hawaii.
Happy Thanksgiving!
How To Save Money AND Get Dinner On The Table Fast!!
From guest contributor www.VickiHeise.com
I’m often asked how I put together quick meals and save money on food. I cook at home and prep ingredients early in the week, so that meals go together super fast. At the end of the week, I use the bits and pieces of leftover veggies, meat and grains to make a quick frittata or soup.
By taking a little bit of time to do some home cooking, you can save money and feed you and your family delicious meals that go together quickly. Check out these 4 tips that you can start using today!
KEY ~ Feed Your Body
How To Save Money AND Get Dinner On The Table Fast!!
Did you know that not only can you save money by cooking at home, but it doesn’t have to be complicated? If you think you don’t have time to add another thing to your to-do list, with a little planning you can not only save money, but feed your family great tasting nutritious food and not spend lots of time in the kitchen.
Here are 4 tips to get you started:
- Use whole foods. Buy whole foods, the ones you find around the outer edge of the grocery store. That’s where you’ll find the fresh herbs, fruits, vegetables, meat, chicken, fish and dairy. Add some things from the bulk bins like grains, beans and nuts (a huge money saver) and if you’re really pressed for time get some canned beans and frozen vegetables.
- Prepare them simply. You don’t need lots of recipes with long lists of ingredients. Save the complex, full of ingredient recipes for when you have the time to enjoy the whole cooking experience.
- Make large batches ahead of time of the things that take a while to cook like beans, grains and rice. Yes they do take time, but it’s on the stove cooking time, not you actively being involved time. By making these ahead of time, you’ll have ingredients ready when you get home so you can quickly put all the pieces for dinner together. If you’re making soup, make extra to so you’ll have leftovers for lunch or dinner the next day or later in the week.
- Prep and freeze ingredients to save time later. What do you use often in your meals? Onions, peppers and other veggies? Chop these and put them in meal sized portion freezer bags. You could even cook bacon and freeze it to use as a garnish in recipes. When you’re ready to cook soup in the crock pot, just take out what you need and you’re ready to go! Also consider freezing meat, poultry and fish in meal size portions. My husband and I have different tastes, so I’ll freeze individual portions of beef and pork for him and fish for me. It makes for a drama free meal!
10 Minute Scrambled Eggs
I love making budget friendly 10 Minute Scrambled Eggs for dinner, using one pan and some freezer ingredients. There’s no chopping or prep time!
~ Saute frozen peppers and onions, in a bit of coconut oil.
~ Add frozen, already cooked, chopped bacon, then fresh or frozen spinach until it’s wilted.
~ Finally add the eggs with a bit of cheese if you want, and scramble it all together.
~ Serve with a favorite fruit and a piece of toast.
This is a dish that you can easily add in bits and pieces of leftovers from the fridge too.
Take a little time to plan ahead to save yourself time and money starting this week!
If you’d like other recipes ideas, you can check out over 1000 of them on my Live Your Healthy Life’s Pinterest page.
If you’re looking for weekly ideas to Live Your Healthy Life, you can sign up to receive my weekly email newsletter.
Prep Your Home for Winter
It’s time to get your home ready for the upcoming winter months. The Farmer’s Almanac predicts another snowy winter here in the northeast.
Here are some things that we do at our house:
1. Get all the patio furniture cleaned and put inside if possible. We have a lot – and most comes inside – but there are a few pieces that are too big and heavy. For the pieces that stay out, we put those orange cones atop the table and cover with patio furniture covers. This prevents the water from puddling up. Make sure to secure the covers tightly.
2. Turn off the outside water and drain the lines. You don’t want to have to call a plumber in the middle of winter to fix a frozen line. Remember to bring in the outside garden hoses once you have drained them.
3. Clean those gutters before you have problems. Scoop out the debris from inside (even if you have gutter guards), so that the water can flow easily. Remember to clean out the down spouts too.
4. While you are on your roof… Check for leaks that might need fixing, cracks, and moss growing in the roof (not a good thing as moss holds moisture and that can mean rot). Don’t forget to look around the chimney. All these could become a major problem as we get into winter. As I have told you, it’s easier to fix a small issue now rather than a major issue later. You can either do this yourself or call a professional for help.
5. Get your heating systems tuned up and serviced before winter to make sure it’s in working order. There is nothing worse than waking up to no heat on a cold winter morning.
6. Caulk around the windows to seal up any drafts. You don’t want leaky, drafty windows sucking the heat outdoors. You should caulk every few years as preventative maintenance.
7. Because winter storms can mean loss of electricity… You will want to check up on your emergency supplies – lanterns, batteries, flashlights, battery powered radio, warm blankets, non-perishable food with a manual can opener, bottled water, and matches if you want to cook on the barbecue grill.
It’s much better to prepare ahead of time and do little projects now while the weather is nice. You don’t want to deal with emergency repairs in the winter.
The Power of Vacation
Thought you might find this interesting: These are the Top 10 Dream Trips according to Trip Advisor. We’ve only done 2.5 of these, so the rest will have to go on our bucket list. I can’t wait.
The power of vacation. Yes, there is such a thing.
According to Fox news, 1 in 4 Americans don’t get paid time off. By contrast, France and Italy top the list with employees getting 31 days off each year and Canada giving 19 days. Even of the people in the US who get paid time off, 75% don’t use it.
We are lacking, and all of our hard work is actually hurting our bottom line.
According to Business Insider, the vacationing worker is:
- More productive when they return
- Relaxed upon their return – I would agree with this one.
- Refreshed and rejuvenated – possibly better able to solve problems and come up with answers / ideas. This has happened to me several times. When I step away from something and turn my thoughts to something else a solution or new idea pops into my mind.
- Have better relationships with their partners – time away will do this.
- Live longer lives
You don’t have to travel far to get the benefits. Time away from work (think stay-cation) will work wonders.
Remember: taking a vacation does not mean working remotely from your laptop or phone. You need to disconnect from email and technology to relax. If I can do this being self-employed, so can you.
It’s Time to Order Your Last Report for 2015
This month use TransUnion
Hello, it’s Jill again, reminding you to get your finances in order so you can enjoy the holiday season.
How to Order Your Credit Report
The only authorized source for your report is AnnualCreditReport.com. You won’t be charged and they won’t force you to sign up for “credit monitoring”. It’s yours to review by law. Learn more.
Visit www.AnnualCreditReport.com:
- Select your state, then click Request Report.
- Fill out your information, then click Continue.
- When it asks you to select a service, select TransUnion.
Not comfortable ordering online? There are other ways to order your report:
- Mail your postal order by downloading the form at AnnualCreditReport.com
- Call in your order at
1-877-322-8228
1-877-322-8228What should you do with your report?
- Review it for accuracy!
- Follow the instructions to correct any errors.
- And, always remember to keep copies for your records.
Were you hoping for your credit score instead? Try CreditKarma.com. It doesn’t give you a FICO score, but it comes close by providing scores from TransUnion and VantageScore. And, there’s no charge for you. CreditKarma funds their service through website advertising.
May you have a fun and meaningful holiday season from Halloween through to New Year’s Eve and everything in between.
P.S. I’ll send you another reminder in January so you can start 2016 off right.
Identity Thieves Don’t Stop with the Living
You know that I go to great lengths to protect myself from identity theft. I do what I can from my end even though I have no control over corporate breaches. Ugh!
But, there are others in my family who may be at risk.
Have you ever had a close family member pass away? You probably said ‘yes’ to that question. If so, you know that the family writes an obituary for the newspaper that includes a number personal details. When I was the Executor for my father’s estate, I did that. I even looked at the newspaper to see what information other families included to make sure I didn’t leave anything of importance out.
Well, that was mistake number #1.
I (like many others) handed a potential identity thief the information on a silver platter. I included his date of birth, where he grew up, the names of my mother and siblings, his past places of employment, and the organizations he was a part of. I included everything everything but his social security number.
According to AARP, 2.5 million deceased people have their identity stolen postmortem each year. This is wide spread and the victims can’t speak up, so it’s a win for the thief.
So what can you do about it?
- Send death certificates to the three credit reporting agencies and request that a death alert be posted to the deceased credit report – I did this.
- Contact the banks and investment companies with death certificates. See if you can get the accounts out of the deceased’s name. In some states you can do this if the account was joint – I took care of this, too.
- Notify the Social Security Administration, the IRS and Motor Vehicles – this is where I could have done more (partial mistake #2 – I did social security and the IRS but not motor vehicle).
Then, preventatively, check the deceased’s credit reports to monitor for any suspicious activity so you can catch it early on. For more options, please go to my previous newsletter on reports available to consumers.
Hopefully, I won’t lose anyone close to me anytime soon, but from now on I will do ALL the steps – not just most. I was somewhat lucky, as my father was collecting social security and had a government pension, so I notified both. It didn’t even occur to me to notify the DMV. Learn from what I have done (and not done) to protect your loved ones.
Stay away from these types of loans
Are you familiar with these types of loans? These are the ones, I would strongly encourage you to stay away from:
1. Payday loans aka payday advances rely on your employment / payroll history. You borrow short term money to be paid back at your next pay date. These are unsecured in the sense that there is no collateral. Depending on how the interest is calculated by individual state regulations (in the states that allow them), your interest rate can be upwards in the hundred percentage range. Not a very cost effective way to borrow money.
2. Balloon loans / mortgages: These types of loans are NOT fully amortized. With most “good” loans you make an agreed upon payment, and at the end of the term the loan is paid in full. But that is not the case with a balloon loan. Your payments are not high enough to pay off the loan at the end of the term. Once you think you are finished, you end up with a very large final payment which may be 50%, 60% or even 100% of your principal (hence the name ‘balloon’).
3. Rent-to-own loans: You make rental / lease payments towards the ownership of an item (furniture, TV, computer, etc.). You can terminate the rental / lease at any point and return the item, though there may be a penalty. Once the agreed upon payments are made, the item is yours. This looks like an affordable way to get what you want right away, but it isn’t. Typically, you pay substantially more for the item than if you just used a credit card.
In each of these cases, borrower beware. Read and understand any legal agreements prior to signing. You need to understand what you are getting into and for how long, so that you can make an informed choice that is right for you and your situation. If you don’t understand the contract or feel pressured, that would be your signal to walk away.
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