modern life

Found money and hunger.

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As regular readers know, I pick up coins (and sometimes bills) all year long. The found money goes into a vase my daughter got from the free box at a yard sale when she was little. At the end of the year, I round up the amount and donate it.

Last year my found money take was pretty paltry: just $5.88, probably due to the pandemic*. For example:

Work slowdowns/job loss might have made some folks more apt to pick up those quarters they dropped. When times were better, they just let ’em roll.

People weren’t shopping in-person as much, for fear of contagion. Fewer shoppers means fewer chances for dropped coins.

And since I spent a whole lot of 2020 hiding away from the invisible** threat, I wasn’t in the stores much myself.

To some extent, those things were still true in the past year. In addition, the country has been plagued by a coin shortage in stores and banks so folks were using less cash. Maybe that’s why I kept thinking that 2021 was going to be another low year for found money. Imagine my surprise when I counted up: The vase held $10.11 – almost 72 percent more than in 2020.

Generally I donate the rounded-up amount either to Feeding America or the Food Bank of Alaska. This year, however, I’m going to focus on hunger in the rural town where I grew up. 

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S#!t my boyfriend says: The next generation.

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DF is at it again. As in, he never really stopped. The man never met a word he couldn’t play.

He cannot help making terrible puns, and I cannot help writing them down.

Some of them, anyway. Some are a bit too risqué to share, and others are so obscure it’s too hard to explain them in print. The fact that I understand them myself clearly shows that he and I were made for each other.

Every so often I publish a collection of them, inspired by the “Sh*t My Dad Says” books/Twitter feed/television show. [As an Amazon affiliate, I may be compensated for items bought through my links.] Each time, I can hear the groans of anguish (and sometimes admiration) from my readers, yet I can’t stop posting.

Sorry/not sorry. Some of these things are too good/bad not to share. This is your cue either to run screaming from the virtual room, or to stick around and be amused/buffeted by the volume of nonsense that the man emits on a regular basis.

Me, I can’t get enough of them. You, however, have been warned. 

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Disaster prep on a dime.

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(Happy Throwback Tuesday! Yes, I know it’s supposed to be Throwback Thursday, but given the various weather storms and power outages around the country right now, this article  needed republication before Thursday. The post originally ran on Feb. 18, 2021, when the Texas deep-freeze catastrophe was threatening lives and property.)

Disaster prep isn’t much fun. Who wants to think about all the ways that nature is trying to kill us? But it’s essential.

Texans couldn’t really be prepared for the double whammy of extreme cold and multiple utility failures. Burst pipes, multi-car accidents, disruptions to the food supply, boil-water notices, “seeking heating” shelters that don’t provide meals or a place to sleep – it’s pretty dire.

In some case it’s become a triple whammy: No way to stay warm + no power to cook/preserve existing food = needing to go out on slippery roads to seek a place to sleep. Assuming, that is, that local shelters aren’t full or that hotel rooms (if you can afford them) are still available.

I’m not looking to turn this into a diatribe as to whether Texas was foolish for wanting its own power grid and why officials didn’t winterize said grid. There’s already plenty of finger-pointing to go around. Instead, I’d like to ask readers whether they are even a little bit prepared if extreme weather or some other natural disaster should befall them.

If things got dire in your neck of the woods, how would you eat, drink and keep from freezing/developing heatstroke? Also: Got any idea where you’d poop?

 

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Missing out on the world.

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(Happy Throwback Thursday! This piece originally ran on Sept. 9, 2018. Given how much time we’ve all spent on screens in the past year-plus, and given that the Delta variant might send us all back into lockdown, I thought the points in this post bore repeating.)

Nature Valley Canada recently asked three generations of families about how kids have fun. Grandparents and parents were asked what they liked to do when they were young. The third generation was asked, “What do you, a kid, like to do for fun?”

The grandparents and parents cited fishing, fort-building, gardening, berry-picking and other pastimes, smiling fondly as they recalled these simple pleasures. Their expressions changed as they listened to the answers from today’s crop of children.

Texting and e-mail. Video games. Binge-watching TV shows. A couple of girls, who looked no older than 10, noted they spend three to four hours a day texting and sending e-mails.

“I would die if I didn’t have my tablet,” one of them said.

A boy said that his video games are so engrossing that the real world disappears. He forgets his parents, his sibling, even his dog.

One child said that whenever he gets upset, he starts playing video games until he feels “normal.” Another boy said he can play for five hours in a row. Another mentioned having watched 23 episodes of a TV series in less than four days

A saddened parent responded in this way: “I actually feel a little sad, because I feel like he’s missing out on what’s out there in the beautiful world.”

Ditto. 

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TikTok is not a fiduciary! A cautionary tale.

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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:

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Bobblehead me.

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You know you’ve arrived when The Motley Fool casts a bobblehead in your likeness.

My daughter says it just cements my street cred. My partner considers it very cool, although he thinks I should have been wearing one of my “Money Nerds Unite” T-shirts from the Financial Blogger Conference*.

I just think it’s funny as hell, especially since they even put a teeny-tiny copy of my second book in its li’l plastic hand.

The Motley Fool is a private financial/investing advice company. One of its sites, All-Star Money, is a daily digest of personal finance articles that resonate with the curators. I’m happy to have been noticed three times thus far.

One of those notices – “Extreme frugality: Be a frugalvore” – took me to the pinnacle of All-Star Money: being chosen as the Article of the Week. One of the honors accorded thereto is having a bobblehead made. These guys know how to party. 

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Does refinancing a car hurt your credit?

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Sometimes stuff happens: illness, job loss, divorce. When things get super-tight and you’re casting around for a cash influx your eye might fall upon that fairly new vehicle. Maybe you should sell it. Or you might wonder, “Does refinancing a car hurt your credit?”

Yes, it can. But in some cases it might be the best – or only – option for when things go sideways. (Looking at you, COVID-19.)

I tackled this topic recently for Self.inc. “Does refinancing a car hurt your credit?” covers the good, the bad and the WTF of this complicated topic.

On the face of it, refinancing a car isn’t a great idea. But sometimes it could be the right thing to do.

The most obvious reason to refinance is because interest rates dropped. This is especially true if you financed with the dealer rather than looking around for loan options. Given that the average new-car loan is $34,635 and the used-vehicle loan is $21,438, even a loan rate that’s just 1 percent lower will make a big difference over time. (Not-so-fun fact: The average used-car loan is 65.15 months long and the average new-vehicle loan is 69.68 months.)

You could even get some cash in-hand if you do something called a cash-out auto refinance, which is similar to a cash-out mortgage refi. If having cash is vital, this might be the right choice for you at this moment in your life.

For example, if you couldn’t make the rent during a COVID layoff, a couple of months’ worth of payments might stave off eviction. Or if you have credit-card debt at 18 percent and were eligible for a cash-out refi at a much lower interest rate, you would be able to pay off the card and improve monthly cash flow. (Ideally you’d use some of that money to start an emergency fund, because the only thing certain is uncertainty and we need to positions ourselves to punch back at it.)

As always, you need to look at the big picture – and to look at it from all angles. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. 

 

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“Nomadland”: An elegy.

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From my first glimpse of the “Nomadland” trailer, I knew that pandemic or not, I would eventually see this movie. For starters, I’ll see anything Frances McDormand is in. The actor is a marvel of nuance. I have loved her work since “Blood Simple.”

Besides, the topic – people imperiled by the Great Recession – is one that I’d written about over and over for MSN Money. I was curious as to whether a director could truly capture that, rather than paper it over with a requisite Hollywood resolution.

Thankfully, director Chloe Zhao didn’t slap on a typical amor vincit omnia verdict – or even a happy ending as such. “Nomadland” represents  everyday life for a lot of people, whether they live on the road or not.

Working as many hours as they can get at whatever job will have them. Wondering whether the money will hold out. Hoping no one gets sick. Banding together with others who are living the same kinds of lives, and supporting one another insofar as it’s possible.

The film moves at a measured, almost mournful pace. In a sense, “Nomadland” is an elegy: not for the American Dream as such, but for the notion that any working person can ever truly be safe.

The fact that some real-life nomads play themselves in the movie is a case in point. It’s doubtful any of them ever thought, “Say, you know what would be cool? Losing everything and having to shovel sugar beets for minimum wage while living in a van in my 60s!” 

 

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“Speed cleaning” is life-changing.

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Back in the day, spring cleaning was an annual ritual: curtains laundered, rugs beaten, windows washed, cabinets emptied and wiped, floors scrubbed. Rather than trying to make up for six months’ worth of neglect through one long, physically grueling attack on your home, I’m going to suggest something different: speed cleaning. It’s efficient, effective and, yes, life-changing.

  1. Pick one spot to focus on.
  2. Assemble supplies (which should be stored all together, in the same place) and put on some of your favorite music.
  3. Set the kitchen timer for 20 minutes.
  4. Clean like mad. Get spouses/roommates/partners/your kids in on the action, too. Even preschoolers can and should do chores like dusting, pairing socks and emptying small wastebaskets.
  5. Stop when the timer goes off. Or not: If you’re in the zone, just keep going.

Less than half an hour of churning and burning can make a huge difference in how you feel about where you live. Once the place is in shape, you can keep up it that way with a few short bursts of activity. This is much less onerous than thinking, “This weekend I have to clean the entire house.”

And yes, I know how busy you are. But as Thoreau asked, what are we busy about? 

 

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