Got money questions? One of them might win you a copy of Liz Weston’s updated and revised Deal with Your Debt.
She’s hosting one heck of a Tweetchat on Thursday, May 9, and will be giving away several copies of the book to folks who submit questions ahead of time (more on that in a minute).
Even if you don’t need the book, surely you know someone who does.
I picked DF up at the airport last night. He’d spent nearly a week in the Lower 48 dealing with his father’s end-of-life issues. Hospice is now involved and his dad is being made comfortable. He feels extreme weakness but no pain and is receiving oxygen as needed.
DF spent most waking hours slogging through reams of paperwork and bushels of belongings. Bank, insurance and health records were every which way. The power of attorney (written some years back) turned out to be problematic so DF had to get it rewritten, re-signed and re-notarized.
One agency wanted to know the names of all doctors his father had seen in the past two years, and guess what? Nobody knew. Heck, there wasn’t even a record of the defibrillator he’d had implanted.
Got a money question? Let the experts answer it. Four financial advisors will host a free live web chat on Kiplinger.com on Thursday, March 21.
They’ll take questions about topics such as insurance, taxes, investing for retirement and saving for college from 1 to 3 p.m. Eastern. Ask your question before or during the chat using the Kiplinger web chat link or the Kiplinger Facebook page, the NAPFA Facebook page, or the #JumpStartRetire hashtag on Twitter.
Can’t stick around for the whole rodeo? You can go back later and view a transcript.
I’m a little late totaling up my 2012 found money. Okay, I’m several months late; normally I count the money around Thanksgiving.
Even though the money’s been counted, it’s still at my friend Linda’s house along with some other things I haven’t moved to my new place. Also still at Linda’s is the old vase in which I keep my finds, a gift from my daughter when she was very young. Abby found it in the “free” box at a yard sale. (That’s my girl!)
I’ve been using an old plastic container for all the coins I’ve picked up since Jan. 1. It doesn’t have the soul of that vase, which is actually pretty ghastly: fthe color of a Pepto Bismol tablet left out in the sun, embellished with gilt and bearing a painting of what looks like a 17th-century dude courting a 17th-century dame. But it was a gift from my kid, and I treasure it. Perhaps my descendants will take it to “Antiques Roadshow” and find out it’s worth a million bucks.
Last year’s final tally:
I also found a single Canadian dime, which I’ll add to my stash. Who knows? I may drive the Al-Can again some day.
To prepare for my current column at Get Rich Slowly, “25 ways to give (without breaking the bank),” I counted my found money collection. From last December through yesterday, I’ve picked up $13.24 in singles and coins.
Here’s the surprising part: $5.60 of that amount was in dimes. As many as 56 people didn’t bother picking up the 10-cent pieces they dropped. I routinely see dimes in those “need a penny, take a penny” cups at cash registers, too.
Maybe some shoppers added the dimes by mistake, and maybe those who dropped coins didn’t always realize it.
Maybe they just didn’t consider it a big deal — or maybe they were too embarrassed to pick the money back up.
I got a big surprise in the mail the other day: a check for $850. That’s the amount of the loan I made to a friend 15 months ago, plus the Western Union fee to get it to her.
In fact, it’s $6 more than I sent. I guess I should consider that interest, or maybe bus fare and aspirin.
This week’s giveaway is sponsored by Stacy Johnson of Money Talks News, a website that produces a personal finance television news series. You’ve probably seen these pieces on MSN Money (among other places). If you have, you’ve also seen Stacy, who stars in many of these programs. He also writes PF articles to go along with the film work.
Two other important facts about Stacy:
He syndicates my stuff over at Money Talks News. Bless his heart.
He designed a heck of a funny T-shirt — one which you get six chances to win this week, rather than five.
Two dates for you:
February 7 – The last direct deposit for my day job
March 11 – The earliest I can expect to get paid again
I’m not saying this because I feel sorry for myself. For reasons I’ll detail below, I’m doing fine. I’m bringing it up to remind other freelancers – and fully employed folks – to get creative about meeting your needs.
John Robbins was born into wealth and, as an heir of the Baskin-Robbins fortune, could have stayed there. He walked away, though, and focused on a planet-friendly and sustainable lifestyle.
The money he did have was lost to Bernie Madoff’s antics. But Robbins, already an author, focused his writer’s eye on a potential silver lining: “Curtailed consumerism could lead us to reassess our lives and values.”
The result was “The New Good Life: Living Better Than Ever in an Age of Less,” which I’m giving away this week.
These two goals are the subjects of my recent work at MSN Money and Get Rich Slowly — and they complement each other.