How to Properly Dispose of Mail, Credit Cards, and Other Sensitive Documents
.How to Properly Dispose of Mail, Credit Cards, and Other Sensitive Documents
Martha Stewart Living Roxanna Coldiron July 3, 2020
Those who have never experienced some form of identity theft are lucky. According to the Federal Trade Commission, there were 444,602 reports of identity-related fraud in 2018. Identity theft was also up by 24 percent that year. Cybercrime is certainly on the rise, but did you know that thieves can get your data in a much easier way than trying to hack some company's database?
All they need is access to your old mail, credit cards, and debit cards. "Bank statements, credit card statements and other documents that contain your personal information should never be disposed of in an insecure manner," says Debbie Guild, chief security officer at PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
"By wadding up a document such as a financial statement and throwing it in the trash or disposing of it in another insecure manner, you could be at risk for identity theft."
How to Properly Dispose of Mail, Credit Cards, and Other Sensitive Documents
Martha Stewart Living Roxanna Coldiron July 3, 2020
Those who have never experienced some form of identity theft are lucky. According to the Federal Trade Commission, there were 444,602 reports of identity-related fraud in 2018. Identity theft was also up by 24 percent that year. Cybercrime is certainly on the rise, but did you know that thieves can get your data in a much easier way than trying to hack some company's database?
All they need is access to your old mail, credit cards, and debit cards. "Bank statements, credit card statements and other documents that contain your personal information should never be disposed of in an insecure manner," says Debbie Guild, chief security officer at PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
"By wadding up a document such as a financial statement and throwing it in the trash or disposing of it in another insecure manner, you could be at risk for identity theft."
What do identity thieves need to be successful? Your full name and address is enough; oftentimes, this information is pulled from your utility bills. According to Guild, the Federal Trade Commission estimates that it takes consumers an average of six months and 200 hours to recover from identity theft. Here's how to avoid it with proper paper disposal, according to Guild.
Practice safe paperwork organization.
You should review your documents before throwing them away. Comb through property records, receipts, pay check stubs, utility bills, and more—do these documents contain any personal information about you that can be gathered and used to steal your identity? If so, you do not want to toss it in the trash intact.
Don't leave mail in the mailbox overnight or on weekends and never give out personal information via phone or internet, unless you are the one initiating the contact (and, even then, be cautious).
To continue reading, please go to the original article here:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/properly-dispose-mail-credit-cards-122057290.html
Should I Tell My Partner About My Dirty Debt Secret?
.Should I Tell My Partner About My Dirty Debt Secret?
NERDWALLET By Brianna McGurran
If you're worried about hiding debt from a spouse or partner, you're not alone. Here's how to come clean.
“I’m overwhelmed by student loan and credit card debt, and I’m embarrassed to admit it to my partner. Should I come clean?”
Some secrets are harmless, like eating the last slice of your partner’s favorite cake. Or saying you’re sick to avoid his aunt’s retirement party.
Hiding thousands of dollars in debt does not fall into the “harmless” category. While having debt is just one piece of your identity, it could directly affect your partner also: Maybe you’re unable to contribute to joint savings or keep up with your share of the bills, or you’ll have a harder time qualifying for a mortgage as a couple.
Should I Tell My Partner About My Dirty Debt Secret?
NERDWALLET By Brianna McGurran
If you're worried about hiding debt from a spouse or partner, you're not alone. Here's how to come clean.
“I’m overwhelmed by student loan and credit card debt, and I’m embarrassed to admit it to my partner. Should I come clean?”
Some secrets are harmless, like eating the last slice of your partner’s favorite cake. Or saying you’re sick to avoid his aunt’s retirement party.
Hiding thousands of dollars in debt does not fall into the “harmless” category. While having debt is just one piece of your identity, it could directly affect your partner also: Maybe you’re unable to contribute to joint savings or keep up with your share of the bills, or you’ll have a harder time qualifying for a mortgage as a couple.
The debt might not come as a surprise if, say, your partner already knows about your lavish sneaker-buying habit. But the longer you wait to divulge the details of your financial stress, the more betrayed your beloved may feel when you eventually do it, says Don Cole, clinical director of the Seattle-based Gottman Institute, which conducts research on relationships.
“It’s better to be honest than to get caught,” Cole says. “The relationship is going to be able to repair much better from a shared problem than one that’s discovered.”
Gather the Facts
First, nail down the specifics of the debt for yourself, says Kelly Luethje, a certified financial planner and founder of Willow Planning Group in Boston.
Understand your loans’ and credit cards’ outstanding balances, accompanying interest rates and payoff dates. That may help you gain some control, and it’s also the first step toward developing a plan to get out of debt.
Time It Right
Confessing your debt balance isn’t first-date fodder. Tell your partner the truth once the relationship gets serious, like by the time you’ve hit the six-month mark.
To continue reading, please go to the original article here:
Can We Print Infinite Money to Pause the Economy During the Coronavirus Pandemic?
.Can We Print Infinite Money to Pause the Economy During the Coronavirus Pandemic?
By Matthew Gault
The Fed prints money. What happens if we printed enough money to make sure everyone keeps their job?
More than 16 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits in the past four weeks. Economists estimate that the jobless rate in the U.S. is around 13 percent, the worst it’s been since the Great Depression. To stave off economic collapse, the Federal Reserve has turned on the money printing machine. It’s going brrrr.
With all these people out of work, businesses closed, and economic activity stagnating, some experts have suggested we can put the economy on “pause” by, essentially, printing infinite money, and giving it to businesses and people to keep things more or less the way they were before the coronavirus pandemic hit.
Checks are on the way to Americans, but that’s cold comfort for people with bills to pay now and who have no idea when, if ever, they’ll get back to work. To get through the crisis, can the Fed just print unlimited money? What are the consequences of just giving everyone enough cash to survive the next few months?
Can We Print Infinite Money to Pause the Economy During the Coronavirus Pandemic?
By Matthew Gault
The Fed prints money. What happens if we printed enough money to make sure everyone keeps their job?
More than 16 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits in the past four weeks. Economists estimate that the jobless rate in the U.S. is around 13 percent, the worst it’s been since the Great Depression. To stave off economic collapse, the Federal Reserve has turned on the money printing machine. It’s going brrrr.
With all these people out of work, businesses closed, and economic activity stagnating, some experts have suggested we can put the economy on “pause” by, essentially, printing infinite money, and giving it to businesses and people to keep things more or less the way they were before the coronavirus pandemic hit.
Checks are on the way to Americans, but that’s cold comfort for people with bills to pay now and who have no idea when, if ever, they’ll get back to work. To get through the crisis, can the Fed just print unlimited money? What are the consequences of just giving everyone enough cash to survive the next few months?
According to David Weil, a Professor of Economics at Brown University and the Director of the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Wealth and Income Inequality Project, it’s complicated.
But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it.
Motherboard: Are you familiar with the “money printer go brrr” meme?
David Weil : Yes, yes.
When we talk about financing the spending that's gonna happen, people conflate two things. One is the federal government going to debt markets and borrowing—that is issuing bonds.
So the deficit for this year was going to come in at about a trillion dollars. So the federal government was going to have to issue a net trillion dollars of bonds to finance operations. That's before all this happened.
And the debt was somewhere around $17 trillion. And now, with what's happened to the economy already and with the spending bills that have been passed already, It looks like the deficit for this coming year is going to be, lord knows, $3 trillion? $4 trillion? And the government's gonna have to borrow a lot of money.
Money, this special asset, is created by the Federal Reserve, which is part of the government. And it is true that the Federal Reserve creates money out of nothing. The Federal Reserve snaps fingers and a little computer entry in a bank account at the Fed suddenly has an extra billion dollars in it.
To continue reading, please go to the original article here:
How Money Forever Changed Us
.How Money Forever Changed Us
June 24, 2020 by Lawrence Yeo
During my six years of elementary school, many fads came and went. But there was one fad I remember that not only took our school by storm, but schools all across the country as well. It grew so feverish that after a few months, schools had to actually ban this activity because too many students were getting obsessed with it. If you were an ‘80s or ‘90s kid, chances are you’ll remember it too. I’m referring to the infamous world of pogs:
It’s interesting how money is accepted as an inevitable force in our lives, yet when we take out the concept and wrap it in unfamiliar packaging, it seems weird and dumb.
To the school staff, the whole pogs phenomenon probably seemed silly because they couldn’t understand what could be so compelling about flipping over paper and metal discs. But they wouldn’t think twice at the thought of coming into an office everyday, flipping over documents, and depositing a bi-weekly paper check in a metal machine.
In essence, the kids were doing the same thing the adults were doing: they were accumulating value in the form of a communal good. But because it took the form of something unrecognizable, it was considered dumb rather than profound. In the eyes of the adults, pogs were shittily constructed paper discs that had no intrinsic value, and only held importance because the kids themselves thought they were.
Well, those kids could say the same thing about the way we regard our own currency as well.
How Money Forever Changed Us
June 24, 2020 by Lawrence Yeo
During my six years of elementary school, many fads came and went. But there was one fad I remember that not only took our school by storm, but schools all across the country as well. It grew so feverish that after a few months, schools had to actually ban this activity because too many students were getting obsessed with it. If you were an ‘80s or ‘90s kid, chances are you’ll remember it too. I’m referring to the infamous world of pogs:
It’s interesting how money is accepted as an inevitable force in our lives, yet when we take out the concept and wrap it in unfamiliar packaging, it seems weird and dumb.
To the school staff, the whole pogs phenomenon probably seemed silly because they couldn’t understand what could be so compelling about flipping over paper and metal discs. But they wouldn’t think twice at the thought of coming into an office everyday, flipping over documents, and depositing a bi-weekly paper check in a metal machine.
In essence, the kids were doing the same thing the adults were doing: they were accumulating value in the form of a communal good. But because it took the form of something unrecognizable, it was considered dumb rather than profound. In the eyes of the adults, pogs were shittily constructed paper discs that had no intrinsic value, and only held importance because the kids themselves thought they were.
Well, those kids could say the same thing about the way we regard our own currency as well.
The most fascinating thing about the pogs phenomenon is how closely it mirrors the story of money, and how that concept naturally manifested in children.
On one side you have paper, aluminum, and plastic discs that have no inherent value – they can’t be eaten, worn, or slept on. On their own, they’re useless. On the other side you have paper bills, metal coins, and digits on a screen that can’t be used as ends in themselves either. They’re just as useless.
Yet in both scenarios, a united story emerged that turned an intrinsically useless thing into the distributor of status, value, and prestige.
How in the world does this happen?
How does something with no intrinsic value become the universal determinant of value? And what are the implications this has on human behavior as a whole?
Discussions of money usually come with the implicit understanding that money is valuable, so they revolve around how one could accumulate more of it, or why it introduces all kinds of strange behaviors. But in this post, we’re going to take one step back and actually look at the concept of money itself: why we need it to represent value, how it impacts our goals, and how it reconstructs our idea of individuality.
This is a dive into the philosophy of money. It’s a look into humanity’s greatest idea, its greatest paradox, and the story that forever changed human behavior. Let’s begin.
Money and The Great Abstraction
Everything starts with the fact that money has no intrinsic value.
To continue reading, please go to the original article here:
Under This New Law, Cryptocurrency Could Become Illegal
.Under This New Law, Cryptocurrency Could Become Illegal
Notes From The Field By Simon Black June 29, 2020 Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico
In early 1775, Benjamin Franklin and his European colleague, Charles Dumas, developed a secret method of communicating with each other.
Dumas had spent years gathering intelligence in Europe to assist the Americans in their revolt against Britain. But the two needed a secure way to pass information across the Atlantic.
So they developed a special cipher-- a crude form of encryption where letters and words were substituted for numerals.
The decryption key changed with every letter; so, for example, in a letter from Franklin dated March 2, 1781, the word “MERCHANT” was written as “23. 3. 4. 13. 6. 14. 24. 18.”
Under This New Law, Cryptocurrency Could Become Illegal
Notes From The Field By Simon Black June 29, 2020 Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico
In early 1775, Benjamin Franklin and his European colleague, Charles Dumas, developed a secret method of communicating with each other.
Dumas had spent years gathering intelligence in Europe to assist the Americans in their revolt against Britain. But the two needed a secure way to pass information across the Atlantic.
So they developed a special cipher-- a crude form of encryption where letters and words were substituted for numerals.
The decryption key changed with every letter; so, for example, in a letter from Franklin dated March 2, 1781, the word “MERCHANT” was written as “23. 3. 4. 13. 6. 14. 24. 18.”
At the same time, the physician James Jay (brother to the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay) developed an invisible ink so that revolutionary leaders could communicate in secret.
These encrypted communications became critical to the Revolution. And it’s safe to say there would probably not be a United States if they hadn’t developed a secure way to send information.
Ironically, politicians are trying to destroy modern methods of encryption.
Over the past few months while everyone has been in mandatory isolation, cowering in fear in their homes… and over the past few weeks while the Land of the Free has been consumed with rage. . .
. . . a few US Senators have once again proven that chilling political adage-- ‘never let a good crisis go to waste.’
Exhibit A: Senate Bill 4051, the “Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act”, which was quietly introduced last week when everyone’s attention was consumed elsewhere.
First thing’s first, like all freedom-killing bills, this one has a catchy name.
The Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act is LEAD for short, as in “Move over China! The Land of the Free will LEAD the way in destroying the last remaining freedoms of its citizens.”
(In that way it seems more like ‘lead’, the highly toxic metal that poisons the brain and creates severe intellectual disability.)
At its core, the LEAD Act is an encryption killer. It aims to require technology companies to build ‘back doors’ into their products to ensure that the government can remotely access your data, your device, and your life.
This is nothing short of earth shattering.
Apple, for example, currently provides device encryption on its iPhones and iPads. And once you encrypt your device, only YOU can decrypt it. Apple can’t. Hackers can’t. And the government can’t.
So if your device is ever stolen (or confiscated), your data cannot be compromised.
Under the LEAD Act, this practice would become illegal. Apple would no longer be able to offer device encryption, and they’d have to provide a way for the federal government to remotely access your device, and all of its contents.
The same goes for your favorite chat applications.
WhatsApp, for example, is one of the most popular texting apps in the world. A few years ago, Facebook (which owns WhatsApp) began implementing end-to-end encryption for all WhatsApp data.
This means that any message you send someone via WhatsApp is immediately encrypted the moment it leaves your phone.
That messages arrives to the WhatsApp servers fully encrypted. So any hacker (or Facebook engineer) who intercepts the data will see nothing but a garbled mess.
And the message isn’t decrypted until it arrives to the intended recipient’s device. So the only people who can see the message in “clear text” are the two people participating in the conversation.
No one else can eavesdrop, or download the data.
But again, under the LEAD Act, this too would become illegal… and Facebook will be obligated to build in a ‘back door’ for the government to remotely access your conversations.
LEAD also requires developers of operating systems, like Microsoft Windows and Apple’s MacOS, to provide backdoor access to your computer.
It’s extraordinary to think of how far-reaching the effects of this legislation will go.
For example, do you use an online password manager like OnePassword?
They will also be required to give the government access to your data… which essentially would give the government access to EVERYTHING you do online.
Do you upload files and photos to iCloud? Yup. That too. Apple will be required to build a back door and give the government access to your data.
Any ‘zero knowledge’ encryption, whether it’s for storing files, sharing photos, texting friends, making video calls, sending encrypted emails, etc., will become illegal under this legislation.
And to be crystal clear about what that means, CRYPTOCURRENCY will effectively become illegal under the LEAD Act as well.
That’s right. Cryptocurrency relies on data encryption too.
Your ‘wallet’ is essentially a public key / private key combination. And in theory, only you are supposed to have access.
But that’s exactly what this legislation aims to prevent. The government wants backdoor access to everything.
Honestly this legislation would be hilarious if it weren’t actually true… because it shows how totally clueless these people really are.
The politicians are calling it ‘lawful access’, as if only the government would be able to use these back doors. Clearly these people understand nothing about cybersecurity.
There is no such thing as a ‘back door’ that only the government can access.
Once a technology company creates a way to remotely access a device, then that back door is available to ANYONE who can crack it.
It’s not like some hacker, or foreign intelligence agency, is going to probe the back door on your iPhone and say, “Oh, nevermind, this is only for the US government. I guess I’ll try to find another way in.”
If this law passes, not only will the government be able to access your devices, but hackers will have endless new treasures of data to steal… courtesy of the United States Senate.
It’s genius.
To your freedom & prosperity, Simon Black, Founder, SovereignMan.com
https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/under-this-new-law-cryptocurrency-could-become-illegal-28066/
The Marginal Utility Of Money
.The Marginal Utility Of Money
By Mike Piper Published: 16 June 2010 – Updated: 29 May 2019
I know I'm taking a risk by starting an article by defining a term from economics. But please, stick with me. It's not a hard concept to understand, and it directly relates to your financial success.
Utility is a term used in economics to describe how much value or happiness one derives from a good or service. Marginal utility refers to how much additional value/happiness is derived from one additional unit of the good or service. Most goods and services are said to have “decreasing marginal utility.”
“Decreasing marginal utility” sounds like gibberish, but it's actually pretty easy to understand:
The Marginal Utility Of Money
By Mike Piper Published: 16 June 2010 – Updated: 29 May 2019
I know I'm taking a risk by starting an article by defining a term from economics. But please, stick with me. It's not a hard concept to understand, and it directly relates to your financial success.
Utility is a term used in economics to describe how much value or happiness one derives from a good or service. Marginal utility refers to how much additional value/happiness is derived from one additional unit of the good or service. Most goods and services are said to have “decreasing marginal utility.”
“Decreasing marginal utility” sounds like gibberish, but it's actually pretty easy to understand:
First slice of apple pie: “Yes, please!”
Second slice of apple pie: “Well…OK…one more piece.”
Third slice: “Oh, I couldn't. I'm stuffed.”
Each slice of pie provides less happiness (“utility”) than the previous slice. The same thing holds true with nearly every good or service.
In fact (or perhaps, as a result), this idea holds true for money as well. For many of us, an extra $500,000 in cash could accurately be described as life changing. But what if you already had a liquid net worth of several million dollars? An extra $500k would still be nice, but I doubt it would change your life meaningfully.
Get Rich Slowly has practically been a real-time case study in this concept. J.D. used to be deeply in debt, at which point he had a high marginal utility of wealth. That is, every extra dollar he earned and saved made a big difference to his well-being.
However, as he climbed out of debt, built his income, and built his wealth, his marginal utility of wealth has slowly declined. J.D. recently put it this way:
“Debt used to be my biggest source of money stress. Then it became an obsession with frugality, which led me to cross the line to cheap bastard. Now my biggest problem seems to be an obsession with income:
To continue reading, please go to the original article here:
https://www.getrichslowly.org/the-marginal-utility-of-money/
You Don’t Have a Savings Account You Have a Dwindling Account
.You Don’t Have a Savings Account You Have a Dwindling Account
Notes From The Field By Simon Black June 25, 2020 Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico
On April 5, 1933 everyone’s favorite fascist, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, signed an executive order which outlawed the private ownership of gold. To justify the seizure, FDR used wartime authorities under the “Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917”. The law was never repealed after World War One, so Roosevelt used it to declare a national banking emergency.
Roosevelt’s order demanded that all Americans must surrender their gold to a Federal Reserve Bank by May 1, 1933, less than a month after he signed the executive order. Gold was a popular form of savings at the time; US dollars were convertible to gold, and many Americans, from wealthy business owners to rural farmers, owned gold as a form of savings.
You Don’t Have a Savings Account You Have a Dwindling Account
Notes From The Field By Simon Black June 25, 2020 Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico
On April 5, 1933 everyone’s favorite fascist, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, signed an executive order which outlawed the private ownership of gold. To justify the seizure, FDR used wartime authorities under the “Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917”. The law was never repealed after World War One, so Roosevelt used it to declare a national banking emergency.
Roosevelt’s order demanded that all Americans must surrender their gold to a Federal Reserve Bank by May 1, 1933, less than a month after he signed the executive order. Gold was a popular form of savings at the time; US dollars were convertible to gold, and many Americans, from wealthy business owners to rural farmers, owned gold as a form of savings.
So Roosevelt’s order affected a LOT of people.
Anyone who failed to comply faced up to ten years in prison, and a $10,000 fine-- which was a huge sum at the time equivalent to several times a typical annual salary. And the government actually prosecuted people who refused to turn over their gold.
One man, Louis Ruffino, was convicted of hoarding gold and went to prison. He also had his 78 ounces of gold confiscated by the government, without compensation. In today’s money, that would be over $135,000.
For people who did comply with the order, the government paid them $20.67 for every ounce of gold that was turned in.
But then, shortly after the deadline, Roosevelt raised the price of gold to $35, essentially stealing nearly half of the wealth of those former gold owners.
It wasn’t until the 1970s that gold ownership was once again legal.
But before that happened, in 1971 Nixon entirely divorced the dollar from the gold standard.
Throughout the next decade the US (and much of the world) was hit by terrible stagflation-- a period of high unemployment, high inflation, higher taxes, higher debt levels, and pitiful economic growth.
When adjusted for inflation, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost nearly HALF of its value during the 1970s.
And government bonds paid just 5.5%, at a time when inflation peaked at 10%. This means that anyone who owned bonds in the 1970s was LOSING more than 4% per year.
It was the same with bank accounts; depositors who held their savings in a bank account LOST money every year after adjusting for inflation.
Economists call this condition “negative real interest rates,” meaning that, after adjusting for inflation, the rate of interest is actually negative.
If your bank pays you 1% interest, but the inflation rate is 3%, this means that the purchasing power of your savings is actually losing 2% per year, i.e. the “real rate” is NEGATIVE 2%.
Coincidentally, this is the same situation we find ourselves in today.
For most of the last decade, in fact, REAL interest rates in the Land of the Free have been negative.
Wells Fargo, for example, offers a “Way2Save” savings account that pays a big fat 0.1% interest.
And it’s important to bear in mind that interest from your bank account is TAXABLE in the Land of the Free. So after accounting for taxes, you’re looking at around 0.08% interest.
The annual rate of inflation for 2019 was 2.3%. So this means that a depositor with a Wells Fargo savings account is LOSING 1.5% per year.
When you’re guaranteed to lose money, you don’t have a savings account. You have a dwindling account.
But GOLD is one of several assets that tends to perform very well when real interest rates are negative.
Gold has a 5,000 year history of maintaining its value; and back in the 1970s when real rates were negative, investors who bought gold made more than 10x their money over the course of the decade.
(And silver actually outperformed gold, rising from less than $2 in 1970 to more than $30 at the end of 1979.)
Gold and silver have been very attractive investments lately; in fact, gold just hit a 7-year high.
That’s not surprising given that the US national debt has increased by more than $1.2 TRILLION dollars just since the beginning of May.
And the Federal Reserve has expanded its balance sheet by nearly $3 trillion since the start of the pandemic.
These are insane figures that point to a deteriorating value for the currency… which is reason enough to own gold.
Personally, I keep some of my own precious metals on hand in a strong home safe-- so there is no counterparty risk. I have it when I need it.
But as FDR’s confiscation shows, it also makes sense to consider holding some precious metals overseas in a safe jurisdiction.
It isn’t 1933 anymore. It’s perfectly legal (for now) to own gold. And it makes a lot of sense.
If you’re new to this and looking for a great resource on getting started, I’d encourage you to download our free Ultimate Gold and Silver Guide.
To your freedom & prosperity, Simon Black, Founder, SovereignMan.com
What If?
.What If?
Richard Quinn June 10, 2020
IT SEEMS THE WORST of this economic crisis may have passed, though the health risks will be with us for some time. What have we learned? For many people, long-discussed financial risks became all too real in 2020.
There are two words that should always be part of our thinking: what if. Those two words aren’t always associated with bad things. What if I win the lottery? I have a plan for that, which varies depending on how much I win and whether it triggers estate taxes. The chance of that plan being needed is, of course, nil.
Most “what ifs” relate to family, money and our future security. Could anything—short of a world war—have done more than today’s pandemic to heighten those concerns? And yet I suspect the current crisis will soon be a dull memory and most Americans will be back to their old financial ways. But for those who want to be prepared for the next crisis, here are eight “what ifs” to ponder:
What If?
Richard Quinn June 10, 2020
IT SEEMS THE WORST of this economic crisis may have passed, though the health risks will be with us for some time. What have we learned? For many people, long-discussed financial risks became all too real in 2020.
There are two words that should always be part of our thinking: what if. Those two words aren’t always associated with bad things. What if I win the lottery? I have a plan for that, which varies depending on how much I win and whether it triggers estate taxes. The chance of that plan being needed is, of course, nil.
Most “what ifs” relate to family, money and our future security. Could anything—short of a world war—have done more than today’s pandemic to heighten those concerns? And yet I suspect the current crisis will soon be a dull memory and most Americans will be back to their old financial ways. But for those who want to be prepared for the next crisis, here are eight “what ifs” to ponder:
1. You die unexpectedly. Do you have adequate life insurance? If you own a small business, what will happen upon your death? Are your beneficiary designations up to date? Does your surviving spouse know where to turn for income?
Do you have an updated will? Have you prepared final instructions, so your family knows what to do and where important papers are located?
2. You suffer a prolonged illness. Do you have an idea of the income you could expect from employer or government benefits? Do you carry long-term disability insurance? For working people, disability is a greater risk than death.
3. You lose your job or your pay gets cut. Sure, we’ve been told about having a three-month emergency fund forever—and, for just as long, most people have ignored the advice. Has the current crisis been a wakeup call? There’s some evidence Americans are saving more. But will this last or is it just that these days it’s harder to spend money on nonessentials?
To continue reading, please go to the original article here:
The 50 Biggest Money Mistakes Household CEOs Make
.The 50 Biggest Money Mistakes Household CEOs Make
By Len Penzo
As this penny illustrates, even the United States Mint occasionally makes money mistakes.
I’m not ashamed to admit I make mistakes. After all, everybody screws up occasionally; for us humans, mistakes come with the territory.
For example, I remember the time I decided it would be great fun to play Wii golf for eight consecutive hours. Unfortunately for me, my middle-aged left shoulder vehemently disagreed — after the fact, of course — and so I spent the next week popping acetaminophen tablets like they were M&Ms. I know.
It can be even more costly when we make mistakes managing our personal finances; I know I still make them from time to time.
Here are 50 of the biggest financial faux pas household CEOs make. How many of these apply to you?
![double-die-2[1].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5222a44813620001d89582/1593129795696-JHRTTVQAJ4XCT78C9MO6/double-die-2%5B1%5D.jpg)
The 50 Biggest Money Mistakes Household CEOs Make
By Len Penzo
As this penny illustrates, even the United States Mint occasionally makes money mistakes.
I’m not ashamed to admit I make mistakes. After all, everybody screws up occasionally; for us humans, mistakes come with the territory.
For example, I remember the time I decided it would be great fun to play Wii golf for eight consecutive hours. Unfortunately for me, my middle-aged left shoulder vehemently disagreed — after the fact, of course — and so I spent the next week popping acetaminophen tablets like they were M&Ms. I know.
It can be even more costly when we make mistakes managing our personal finances; I know I still make them from time to time.
Here are 50 of the biggest financial faux pas household CEOs make. How many of these apply to you?
1. Being impatient. People of modest means should understand two important facts: 1) we cant have it all at once; and 2) saving money takes time — sometimes lots of it.
2. Failing to read contracts before signing on the dotted line.
3. Using payday loans to cover temporary financial shortfalls.
4. Giving your kids everything they desire. It’s hard to get a feel for the value of a dollar when you grow up never wanting for anything.
5. Signing your tax returns without reviewing them — even when they’re done by a tax professional.
6. Buying a new car and selling it after only a few years. Buying new cars is costly because they can lose upwards of half their value by the time they are three years old.
7. Not doing your research before purchasing extended warranties.
8. Going into debt to purchase things that will decrease in value.
9. Maintaining memberships with monthly payments even though you no longer take advantage of them.
To continue reading, please go to the original article here:
https://lenpenzo.com/blog/id13789-the-50-biggest-money-mistakes-household-ceos-make-2.html
38 Secrets for Financial Success: My Personal Finance Manifesto
.38 Secrets for Financial Success: My Personal Finance Manifesto
By Len Penzo
Awhile back, somebody asked me to summarize my personal finance “playbook” in a blog post. Well … Here it is:
Debt is a form of indentured servitude where people agree to sacrifice a portion of their future earnings in exchange for instant gratification.
ATM machines are the Achilles’ heel of impulsive spenders.
History tells us that all fiat money eventually returns to its intrinsic value: zero. The US dollar is fiat money.
Given a choice, it’s always better to live your life anonymously rich, rather than deceptively poor.
If you have to ask your boss for a raise, then you need to find a new employer.
When in doubt, always choose credit over debit.
It’s almost impossible to effectively manage your personal finances if you don’t track your income and outgo.
38 Secrets for Financial Success: My Personal Finance Manifesto
By Len Penzo
Awhile back, somebody asked me to summarize my personal finance “playbook” in a blog post. Well … Here it is:
Debt is a form of indentured servitude where people agree to sacrifice a portion of their future earnings in exchange for instant gratification.
ATM machines are the Achilles’ heel of impulsive spenders.
History tells us that all fiat money eventually returns to its intrinsic value: zero. The US dollar is fiat money.
Given a choice, it’s always better to live your life anonymously rich, rather than deceptively poor.
If you have to ask your boss for a raise, then you need to find a new employer.
When in doubt, always choose credit over debit.
It’s almost impossible to effectively manage your personal finances if you don’t track your income and outgo.
Only suckers play the lottery.
People who properly manage their finances don’t fear credit cards. In fact, they embrace them.
Credit card “convenience” checks are anything but.
Frugality has its limits. The most effective way to stretch your income is by finding ways to earn more money.
Treat your household like a business; actively manage your finances and continuously look for ways to maximize your income.
Not everyone requires a budget to effectively manage their personal finances.
When it comes to saving money, patience is a virtue.
Nobody should pursue a non-technical college degree until they’ve calculated their projected payoff point and return on investment.
Precious metals such as gold and silver are for insuring wealth; not investing.
Money does not buy happiness. If you’re looking for nirvana, you need to focus on attaining financial freedom.
Only fools and the financially naive believe that everyone who drives an expensive luxury car is financially well-off.
Only fools and the financially naive believe that everyone who drives a beater is broke.
To continue reading, please go to the original article here:
https://lenpenzo.com/blog/id25399-38-secrets-for-success-my-personal-finance-manifesto-2.html
What to Do When Money Causes Friend Drama
.What to Do When Money Causes Friend Drama
By Rachel Miller; illustrated by Daniel Zender Jan 15 2020,
When a pal keeps suggesting restaurants you can't afford or making snide comments about your salary, it's time to say something.
Hard to Say is a column about delicate situations and difficult conversations, for people who wish they could hire a ghostwriter for all their texts.
Knowing you have to have a money conversation with someone is stressful. Even fairly straightforward situations can lead to endless procrastination followed by an hour of strategizing with a close friend before you finally text your roommate… “Hey, could I get the rent check from you later today?”
But the anxiety makes sense: a person’s finances can be deeply intertwined with their ego, identity, beliefs, and sense of self-worth. And because talking about money often means communicating a desire or a need, it can leave us feeling very vulnerable.
What to Do When Money Causes Friend Drama
By Rachel Miller; illustrated by Daniel Zender Jan 15 2020,
When a pal keeps suggesting restaurants you can't afford or making snide comments about your salary, it's time to say something.
Hard to Say is a column about delicate situations and difficult conversations, for people who wish they could hire a ghostwriter for all their texts.
Knowing you have to have a money conversation with someone is stressful. Even fairly straightforward situations can lead to endless procrastination followed by an hour of strategizing with a close friend before you finally text your roommate… “Hey, could I get the rent check from you later today?”
But the anxiety makes sense: a person’s finances can be deeply intertwined with their ego, identity, beliefs, and sense of self-worth. And because talking about money often means communicating a desire or a need, it can leave us feeling very vulnerable.
But when a friend keeps suggesting pricey activities you can’t afford, or constantly makes snide comments about your salary, avoiding the topic is only going to make things worse in the long run. Learning how to deftly handle these situations is good for your financial health, and the long-term health of your friendships.
Remember you can never really know what’s going on with someone else’s bank account.
When going into these conversations, it’s a good idea to avoid making assumptions about other people’s finances. Even if you know what a friend’s salary is, or can infer certain things based on, say, their lifestyle or past comments, none of us really know what’s going on with someone else’s bank account.
People have staggering debt, medical bills, bad credit, trust funds, credit card points, job perks, alimony agreements, parents who support them, parents who they are supporting, as well as personal desires and values that influence what they want (or don’t want) to spend their money on. And because money is so tied up in self-image and can be a big source of shame, a lot of people simply… don’t ever mention any of this stuff to their friends.
We all know, intellectually, that most people are fairly private about their finances, and that everyone’s definitions of “broke” and “worth it” and “reasonable price for a bridesmaid dress” are going to be different… but it’s easy to forget that when we want certain stories to be true, or when everything would be easier if others’ perspectives were aligned with our own.
If you’re frustrated with how a friend is acting with regard to money, it can be helpful to remember this, and to try to approach the situation from a place of genuine curiosity and generosity.
Make money talk a natural part of everyday conversations.
To continue reading, please go to the original article here:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5dmg3k/talking-about-money-with-friends