According to my favorite blog, Squared Away, allowances help kids learn to manage their money. Recent research reports: "Kids between ages 8 and 14 who get an allowance were two times more
likely to feel knowledgeable about managing their money than kids who do
not – 32 percent versus 16 percent – according to a survey
of 1,000 parents and 881 children by T. Rowe Price. The kids with
allowances also feel they know more about credit, student loans, and
other financial matters." Read more at: http://squaredawayblog.bc.edu/squared-away/in-support-of-allowances-for-kids/
September 10, 2015
September 8, 2015
Avoiding Elder Abuse
"Over 3.2 million adults living in nursing homes and other long term
care facilities in the U.S. As many as 40 percent of all adults will
enter a nursing home at some point during their lives and as the U.S.
population ages, the number of nursing home residents is expected to
grow. Many of these elders are well-cared for but many may be the
victims of abuse.
Elder abuse, particularly when it involves a patient in a residential care facility, can be difficult to detect and for every reported case of abuse, more than five cases may go unreported.
Nursing home abuse is a serious concern and seniors who have been abused have a 300 percent greater chance of death in the 3 years following the abuse than those who aren’t abused. Up to 1 in 6 nursing home residents may be the victim of abuse or neglect every year."
Learn more at: http://www.nursinghomeabuseguide.org/
The Utah Division of Aging and Adult Services offers Long-Term Care Ombudsman services, INfo on Legal Services, and much more at: http://www.hsdaas.utah.gov/
Elder abuse, particularly when it involves a patient in a residential care facility, can be difficult to detect and for every reported case of abuse, more than five cases may go unreported.
Nursing home abuse is a serious concern and seniors who have been abused have a 300 percent greater chance of death in the 3 years following the abuse than those who aren’t abused. Up to 1 in 6 nursing home residents may be the victim of abuse or neglect every year."
Learn more at: http://www.nursinghomeabuseguide.org/
The Utah Division of Aging and Adult Services offers Long-Term Care Ombudsman services, INfo on Legal Services, and much more at: http://www.hsdaas.utah.gov/
August 23, 2015
Pay extra on student loans
The Squared Away blog has a good resource to show the benefit of paying extra on student loan debt. "Paying down debt is just another form of saving, and larger loan
payments significantly shorten the time it takes to pay it off, while
reducing the total interest paid." For example: "Paying $96.66 per month on a $5,000 student loan with 6 percent interest
eliminates it in five years. An extra $50 every month – a couple of
nights out – knocks two years off the payment time." Learn more at: http://squaredawayblog.bc.edu/squared-away/paying-extra-on-college-debt-has-wallop/
August 14, 2015
Scam Gram
Check out the latest scams at the Consumer Action "Scam Gram"
Windows 10 scam
Phoney iphone fix
Beware the Craig's List kooks
It includes more examples of scams and "Tips to keep you safe." If you think you are immune from scams... think again and review this list.
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50872/t/0/blastContent.jsp?email_blast_KEY=1327634
Windows 10 scam
Phoney iphone fix
Beware the Craig's List kooks
It includes more examples of scams and "Tips to keep you safe." If you think you are immune from scams... think again and review this list.
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50872/t/0/blastContent.jsp?email_blast_KEY=1327634
August 7, 2015
Having trouble making ends meet? You're not alone
Almost one in five Americans struggle
to make ends meet. The good news is that in most cases spending can be
controlled. Watch this video to learn more. http://www.finra.org/investors/video-making-ends-meet?utm_source=MM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Investor%5FNews%5F072315%5FFINAL#sthash.LItKzIXx.dpuf
Check out the FINRA.org website for more financial information.
Almost
one in five Americans struggle to make ends meet. The good news is that
in most cases spending can be controlled. Watch our video to learn
more. - See more at:
http://www.finra.org/investors/video-making-ends-meet?utm_source=MM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Investor%5FNews%5F072315%5FFINAL#sthash.LItKzIXx.dpuf
Almost
one in five Americans struggle to make ends meet. The good news is that
in most cases spending can be controlled. Watch our video to learn
more. - See more at:
http://www.finra.org/investors/video-making-ends-meet?utm_source=MM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Investor%5FNews%5F072315%5FFINAL#sthash.LItKzIXx.dpuf
August 4, 2015
Indexed Universal Life Insurance
The insurance
industry is always inventing new products to try to sell more insurance or
insurance + investment products that charge higher commissions than basic term
or whole life insurance. Indexed universal life is one of these new complicated
products.
See:
Keep it simple. Buy
basic term life insurance to cover your insurance needs and invest separately;
again, keep the investments simple and straightforward (i.e. low cost, no-load
index mutual funds).
The more complicated
the product, the higher the commission to the sales person which is why the
financial industry heavily promotes their more complicated products. Life
insurance sales people cannot make a living by selling what consumers need-
basic term insurance.
In general,
consumers are better off with plain vanilla financial/insurance products.
July 29, 2015
Help for Caregivers
The mission of Share the Care (http://sharethecare.org) is "to improve the 'quality of life' of anyone who needs support–and to reduce the stress, depression, isolation and economic hardship of their caregivers.
"Caregiving will touch everyone at some point in life yet it often remains in the shadows of the public/media spotlight because it does not make for a picture that melts the heart but rather one to be avoided at all costs. Not so much because people are uncaring but rather frightened and uneducated.
Sometimes, friends disappear when illness strikes because they don’t know “what to do or what to say.”
And often the person needing support and their caregiver hide the fact and carry the entire burden alone rather than admit they could use help.
STC’s focus is on educating caregivers, patients and their concerned friends, neighbors, co-workers and acquaintances about the profound personal benefits to everyone involved through sharing the care.
Because we find that family caregivers often tend to be isolated and therefore less likely to reach out for help, we target professionals, and faith communities. They see caregivers and patients on a daily basis and are best situated to identify those who could benefit from a STC group. We also seek to reach working caregivers through corporations."
'
"Caregiving will touch everyone at some point in life yet it often remains in the shadows of the public/media spotlight because it does not make for a picture that melts the heart but rather one to be avoided at all costs. Not so much because people are uncaring but rather frightened and uneducated.
Sometimes, friends disappear when illness strikes because they don’t know “what to do or what to say.”
And often the person needing support and their caregiver hide the fact and carry the entire burden alone rather than admit they could use help.
STC’s focus is on educating caregivers, patients and their concerned friends, neighbors, co-workers and acquaintances about the profound personal benefits to everyone involved through sharing the care.
Because we find that family caregivers often tend to be isolated and therefore less likely to reach out for help, we target professionals, and faith communities. They see caregivers and patients on a daily basis and are best situated to identify those who could benefit from a STC group. We also seek to reach working caregivers through corporations."
'
July 28, 2015
Will College Pay Off?
While a college education provides much more than a ticket to a job, the focus has definitely shifted from the benefits of a well-educated populace who can think, analyze, and make rational decisions, appreciate the arts, and contribute to society. The emphasis now is on the financial aspects: can I get a good job when I graduate? And with the explosion in student loan debt, students and parents need to be a lot more savvy than in the past, especially when it comes to for-profit higher education. University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School professor Peter Capelli, new book, Will college pay off? A Guide to the Most Important Financial Decision You Will Ever Make, provides plenty of information for prospective students and their parents to consider before deciding on higher education. Check out this link to an interview with the author for more info: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/will-college-pay-off-a-surprising-cost-benefit-analysisision-youll-ever-make/
July 26, 2015
More evidence that financial advisers may not benefit clients
As recently reported in The Wall Street Journal,by Daisy Maxey on July 24, research in Europe found that:
"Investors trading stocks with assistance of financial advisers are more diversified and overcome some common pitfalls, a new working paper from European researchers found.
But they are worse off overall than investors who trade independently, because their stock purchases underperform, the study says.
The findings suggest advisers “do not help investors make superior stock purchases,” wrote the researchers, who examined client transactions at a large, unidentified Swiss bank.
There was “consistent evidence” that stock trades made by investors in conjunction with an adviser underperformed benchmarks as well as trades investors made independently, the researchers say.
Moreover, the underperformance was “particularly severe if the client-advisor contact was initiated by the adviser, suggesting that advisers actively approach clients with rather poor trading ideas,” the paper says.
"Investors trading stocks with assistance of financial advisers are more diversified and overcome some common pitfalls, a new working paper from European researchers found.
But they are worse off overall than investors who trade independently, because their stock purchases underperform, the study says.
The findings suggest advisers “do not help investors make superior stock purchases,” wrote the researchers, who examined client transactions at a large, unidentified Swiss bank.
There was “consistent evidence” that stock trades made by investors in conjunction with an adviser underperformed benchmarks as well as trades investors made independently, the researchers say.
Moreover, the underperformance was “particularly severe if the client-advisor contact was initiated by the adviser, suggesting that advisers actively approach clients with rather poor trading ideas,” the paper says.
July 22, 2015
Avoid Medicare Enrollment Mistakes
About to turn 65? Need to know more about Medicare?Watch the short video and check out the additional links to help you understand how Medicare works and what you need to do to enroll. All this is included in
this terrific blog post from the Squared Away Blog at http://squaredawayblog.bc.edu/squared-away/avoid-medicare-enrollment-mistakes/
this terrific blog post from the Squared Away Blog at http://squaredawayblog.bc.edu/squared-away/avoid-medicare-enrollment-mistakes/
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