personal finance Archives - Page 2 of 25

Support the reader economy: A giveaway series.

March 1, 2022 by Donna Freedman

For some time now, my giveaway scheme has been “support the local economy.” As in, giving away stuff made in Alaska or produced by Alaskans.

While one or two books, pieces of jewelry, soaps or chocolates won’t exactly enrich the local company, it helps publicize what we do up here. Someone who wins (or doesn’t win) might say, “I want more of that” or “I want to buy that as a gift for someone.” (And it’s been confirmed that this has happened.)

Lately, I’ve been very concerned about the effect inflation is having on people living on tight margins. It doesn’t take much to send the whole house of cards tumbling. I learned this from painful personal experience.

Inflation also injures those who were middle-class stable until prices went sky-high. They’ll probably be all right, but will have to retool their budgets and make some tough decisions (especially as regards what they can no longer afford to do for their children).

Thus I’ve decided to do a “support the reader economy” giveaway series. This week it’ll be a $15 Walmart gift card, because that’s what I have on hand; if Walmart isn’t their brand, I would be willing to switch out a different kind of card. In subsequent weeks, the card will be whatever the winner wants.

I’m not foolish enough to think these modest prizes will fix someone’s money woes all better. Instead, I’m thinking of it more as a small boost or a special treat.

Then again, even a “small” boost might have a big impact.

Credit card requirements easing.

February 8, 2022 by Donna Freedman

The good news: Banks have lately made it a bit easier to get a credit card.

The bad news: Banks have lately made it a bit easier to get a credit card.

According to the Federal Reserve’s new quarterly survey of bank senior loan officers, nearly 15 percent of large banks and 25 percent of other banks have eased the required minimum credit score in the fourth quarter of 2021. This trend is likely to continue in 2022.

Notice that not all banks are doing this. Notice, too, that I said it’s both good and bad news.

The relaxing of standards could help people who don’t currently qualify for credit, or who qualify only for cards with lousy interest rates and lots of fees. Getting a legitimate card and using it carefully can help them build their credit history. Without a solid credit history, you’ll pay more than you must for things like car loans, vehicles and insurance.

The idea is to get the best possible card and, more important, to have a plan to build credit, not create debt. That’s the “bad news” part: Being able finally to get a card could harm someone who doesn’t have a plan in place. A credit card is not the ticket to the good life, with zero consequences attached. It’s a tool, and like any tool it can be used for good or for ill.

6 money lessons from “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.”

December 8, 2021 by Donna Freedman

I didn’t expect “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” to be a cinematic classic. It was clear from the first preview that this would be a popcorn movie. What I did expect is that Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon would take the lead in supernatural heroism.

So I was pleasantly surprised when the middle-school nerd, Phoebe (Mckenna Grace, of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” among others) and her new (and only) friend, Podcast (Logan Kim) pretty much walked away with the movie. They – and especially Phoebe – are the film’s heart and mind.

And the scene where Podcast asks if she would be….

…wait for it…

his lab partner? That was one of the shyer, sweeter movie scenes I’ve encountered in ages.

The protagonists are the daughter and grandkids of one of the original Ghostbuster gang, and they’ve inherited his dilapidated house in Middle-of-Nowhere, Oklahoma. The mom, Callie, tells the kids they’re just going out there to sell the place, but we know before they do that they’re going to stay; after all, an early scene shows Callie begging the landlord not to evict them.

What could go wrong? Especially when teenaged son Trevor (Finn Wolfhard, of “Stranger Things”) and his new buddies start hanging around an abandoned mine? Or when Phoebe starts noticing some strange things of her own around their new home?

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” drags a bit here and there, and I could have done without the Hallmark-y denouement, but overall I had a pretty good time. Didn’t hurt a bit that I paid only $6 because it was cheap Tuesday, or that I had a $3-off coupon for the concessions stand. (Like I said: Popcorn movie.)

And, of course, I found money lessons therein. Don’t I always?

Financial gifts.

September 23, 2021 by Donna Freedman

A fellow named Brandon, of Rinkydoo Finance, posed this question today on Twitter:

“What’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you financially?”

The expected “parents paid for college” answer popped up a few times. Other responses were things I’d consider not mere kindnesses, but rather enormous advantages:

“Gave us $10k cash for a honeymoon. Loaned us $100k at 3% to refinance my wife’s high-interest student loans.”

“When they purchased my business.”

“Someone anonymously donated $13,500 to my brother’s medical fund when he was battling brain cancer. Never found out who it was. (The number was just under the gift limit for the year so they would not need to file any paperwork with the IRS.)”

Here’s mine:

When I was a 21-year-old unmarried mom, preparing to move from rural New Jersey to Philadelphia, an acquaintance took me out to lunch. He asked how I could possibly keep the baby and myself alive on my “permanent part-time” salary. So I laid it out for him: I make X dollars an hour, rent and public transit pass are X dollars a month, child care is X dollars a week, I just bought a scrub-board and we’ll eat a lot of beans.

Then I excused myself to the restroom. When I came back, he’d paid for the lunch and said, “Well, I have to be going.” After he hugged me goodbye, he put a slip of paper in my hand. Unfolded, it turned out to be a check for a month’s worth of child care. Immediately I said, “I can’t accept this! It’s too much!”

6 money lessons from “Black Widow.”

August 30, 2021 by Donna Freedman

A few weeks back I checked out “Black Widow” with my great-nephew, a superhero nerd. Appropriately enough for a Marvel Comics Universe film, I wore my mask, at least until we sat down. Social distancing is in effect in terms of how many tickets the theater will sell, so I felt safe enough removing my mask to enjoy some kettle corn* and a soft drink.

We’d been waiting a long time for this pandemic-postponed female action movie to open, and I went in planning to love the film so much that I wanted to bear its children.

This was not to be. Although I liked a lot of things about it, it ultimately didn’t hang together as a super-epic. One thing I did love was Florence Pugh’s portrayal of Yelena Belova, a sardonic young badass and sister to Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanov.

While I think Johansson’s a fine actress, and that the two of them played marvelously well against each other, Pugh walked off with the whole film tucked into one of her many pockets.** She lit up the screen and owned every scene in which she appeared.

So in-like, not in-love. Still a good day out – and I paid only $6 because it was cheap(ish) day. Even more luckily, I can call it a business expense if I write about it. So here we go.

Some people look for life lessons in movies. I look for financial ones, whether it’s in Metropolitan Opera HD Broadcast Series productions such as “Parsifal” and “Gotterdammerung,” or slam-bang action films like “Wrath of Man” and “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.”

Did I find them in “Black Widow”?

Do you really have to ask?

34 discarded dimes.

July 25, 2021July 20, 2021 by Donna Freedman

Recently I waited a long time at the supermarket, staring fixedly at the front of the store as the line inched along. That’s because an optometrist once told me to focus on things 20 or 30 feet away from time to time, as an antidote to all the screen work I do.

Thus I ignored the Kindle app* on my phone and focused on the Coinstar machine. In part that was because a big green rectangle is an easy thing on which to focus. It was also in pleasurable anticipation of stopping by that machine after I checked out.

As regular readers know, I glean lost coins in stores, on sidewalks, from vending machine change-return slots and, yes, from Coinstar machines.

These machines will spit out dented or otherwise compromised specie, as well as foreign coins. I’ve also found they’ll spit out U.S. coins if they’re too light to be recognized.

Which is what had happened: The rejected-coins cup was full of what looked like dimes. No other coins; just 34 dimes, all issued between 1946 and 1964. I e-mailed my PF blogging pal J. Money**, who’s also a numismatist with a site called Coin Thrill. Turns out these dimes are so common that they’re not worth much to collectors unless they’re uncirculated.

These were circulated. Very circulated. However, their condition doesn’t matter when it comes to melt value.

TikTok is not a fiduciary! A cautionary tale.

July 15, 2021 by Donna Freedman

Guys! Did you know that if you have an S corporation you don’t have to pay taxes??? You can give yourself and your children jobs without owing the government one thin dime!

Bonus awesomeness: You can call everything you buy “a company expense,” and even take a “corporate vacation” every year.

Pretty sweet, huh? Except it’s also completely wrong.

You can start an S corporation, no problem. But your business still has to pay FICA taxes on the salary you pay yourself (and your kids, if you wind up employing them), and those paychecks will be subject to income tax.

This and other sketchy financial advice is available free for the taking from TikTok. And it’s worth every penny you paid.

“Surely no one would take such ridiculous info at face value,” you’re thinking. “And just who gets all their advice from the Internet, anyway?”

Quite a few get at least some of it that way. According to a poll from CreditCards.com, 28% of Gen Zers look for advice from “social media platforms and influencers.” Of the other demographics, 24% of millennials, 10% of Gen Xers and 4% of Baby Boomers get advice there.

When we go online to search for money help, there’s a chance we’ll find good stuff right away, such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission or Consumer Reports.

But there’s just as good a chance that we’ll run across:

COVID-19 and retirement.

July 12, 2021 by Donna Freedman

In a piece over at Money Talks News today, I address a Pew Research Center study about COVID-19 and retirement. But I didn’t write the headline.

That’s because “7 unusual tactics to keep COVID-19 from derailing your retirement” was made up of tactics that I personally don’t see as all that unusual.

Then again, a lot of money tactics/frugal hacks that others think are offbeat don’t strike me that way.

Learning to cook. Delaying a purchase if it means saving either money or your budget. Stocking up on items at today’s prices ahead of the inflation that’s already taking place.

But as I learned from my early days at MSN Money: It’s always new to somebody. Maybe to a whole lot of somebodies.

During the 2008 recession, personal finance blogs were offering posts on topics like “how to pack a lunch” and “how to save money by going to yard sales and thrift stores.” These are things that strike me (and maybe you) as just basic adulting skills.

This morning DF and I were talking about these and other basic skills. I reminded him that a lot of success as an adult depends on what you grow up hearing. For example, no one ever said to me “it’s best to start saving for retirement early because of compound interest.”

I was well into adulthood before I learned this – and other people would probably have responded, “How could you not know this?” Because we don’t know what we don’t know, that’s why. What I heard growing up was, “Work hard, pay your bills and if there’s anything left over, put it in the bank.”

Had I known better, I’d be so much farther ahead when it comes to money. For that reason, I’m going to add a few more tactics that could help people with regard to COVID-19 and retirement. If they sound familiar or even oversimplified, remember: We don’t all start at the same place.

Monday miscellany: WFH and PF edition.

July 7, 2021June 28, 2021 by Donna Freedman

(Edited to add: The Freelance Writer Academy now offers scholarships! See below.)

Almost one in four U.S. residents joined the WFH (work from home) club at least part of the time since the pandemic was officially called in March 2020. According to a recent Bankrate.com poll, more than half of those (57 percent) said that working from had a positive effect on their personal finances.

Among those effects: fewer lunches out, no commuting costs, less need to dress up and fewer impulse purchases. Some also didn’t have to pay for child care, although how they got much done with kids at home is a complete mystery to me.

In fact, one of the least-favorite parts about working from home was simply the distractions while they were trying to work. Those surveyed also said they missed interaction with coworkers, and cited fewer chances for salary increases and promotions while at home.

Their favorite parts: more freedom, family time and sleep.

It’s worth noting that a lot of those who did well with at-home work were already doing well. More than a quarter of those surveyed (28 percent) earned $40,000 to $80,000 a year and more than half (54 percent) earned $80,000 or more.