When I was growing up in the 1940’s and 1950’s every family had savings accounts and their children each had a interest bearing savings account. During World War II people bought savings stamp books and bought the stamps and pasted them in a little booklet like the old Green Stamps saving stamp booklets. The war taught people to save and made families feel good about it.

Moving forward to the last ten years, savings accounts have not been a good investment until the last couple of years. The collapse of the economy at the end of George Bush’s administration that had the Federal Reserve decreasing the prime rate over and over again for the years that followed. Interest rates were totally unattractive, like 1% even as low as .25% on savings. CD rates ranged were about 2.5 per cent just three years ago, then they started to increase very slowly. Still families did not have the money to save and did not have the incentive to save because the rates were so low

Two years ago we bought a $20,000 CD yielding 3.00 per cent for fifteen months. Since that time the CD rate for fifteen months from the same bank has increased to 5.25%. Now the same bank offers a 4.60 interest bearing savings account that pays interest on the balance in the account on an annual basis of 4.60 with no penalties for withdrawing money as needed. I now have that savings account and it works great, I needed $3,000 and went on line made the request and it was transferred into my account within three days. I get a statement from the bank monthly showing the interest that has been added to my account balance.

There are many banks and offers on the web if you want to see if setting up a savings account or purchasing CD’s. Be sure that bank you pick is Federally guaranteed and has a good business rating.

It is a good idea now that rates are higher to teach you children to save and acquaint them with how savings accounts work. It will amaze a child how they can get a little bit of money for the bank using their money and if they save long enough it can be a significant amount to help pay for their education.

I am going to relate a shocking experience I had this past month. As I have mentioned in a previous posts, I buy and sell used golf carts on a small scale to make a little extra money. I hire a professional hauler to haul my carts whether I am getting one or if the people that buy from me need the cart delivered. I go and see some of the carts before I buy them sometimes driving as much as 150 miles round trip. Some of the carts I just take the money and a Bill of Sale to Tim, my hauler, and he takes it with him to pick up the cart and gives it to the seller and brings back a signed copy of the Bill of Sale. He has hauled over thirty carts for me in the past eighteen months. On one occasion where I did not go look at the cart, Tim called me and said the cart will not run onto the truck what do you want me to do? I told him come back do not give them the money. The seller said the batteries were only two months old, Tim looked at them and determined they were no good and probably several years old. So, I paid Tim $150 for the trip and did not get a cart. Another occasion people stopped him on the Freeway and wanted to drive the cart on his trailer so he let them take a spin. The man wanted the cart the woman did not, so it was just a deviation on Tim’s trip. Tim lives in the town ten miles from me. The town I live in has a population of about 80,000 but many of the carts are from as many as 100 miles away. I determine with the hauling cost if I can make money on them selling them in this area and if the cart is in excellent condition, I do not repair them.

Last month when looking at Craigslist Phoenix and Facebook Marketplace I found a Western golf cart that seemed like a very good deal. I had purchased a couple of carts previously from this seller so felt pretty confident it would be a good cart. I called Tim and set up the time for the pickup and told him I would go to the bank and get the money and ask if he would be home. Tim said he was going to a doctor’s appointment, he said just leave it under my garage door, I will leave it up a little bit just slip it under the door. I will leave as soon as I get home from the doctor.

I had $1600 cash at home and went to the bank to get $1,100 from my bank account. I went inside and got $1100 in $100 bills and went to the car to prepare two envelopes as I always did on purchases, one for the seller, one for Tim. I put $2600 in the seller envelope and $180 in Tim’s envelope and put them in a bank money bag. I then drove to Tim’s house about five miles away. When I got there the garage door was up about two inches. I slipped the bag under the door and went back and pushed it a little further and looked to see if you could see anything standing outside near the door. I HAD A BAD FEELING LEAVING $2700 THAT WAY AS I RETURNED TO THE CAR. It continued to bother me as I drove home.

Two hours later, I get a frantic call from Tim asking me if I left the money, I said “yes I slipped it under the garage door.” He said, “there is nothing on the floor of my garage, someone has stolen the money.” We both agreed for him to call the sheriff’s office. Later that day they sent an officer that collected all of the details. The officer also called me to get information. The officer speculated that since the neighbors on both sides of Tim were elderly and not likely suspects, that someone followed me from where I counted the money in my car at the bank, and held back a little on the street following me in a vehicle to see where I was going with the money. After I dropped it, they just pulled up and probably had to get something to fish the money bag out of the garage, but they got it and were gone. The officer said they were getting more and more calls where criminals are following people after they have been to the bank, and several have involved shootings. He said I was lucky that when I got out of the car that the bad guy did not stop me pull a gun on me and hold me up, and possibly shoot me for the money.

I did a lot of research on Homeowner’s Insurance policies and cash losses. Homeowner’s policies sometimes will reimburse policy holders a small about from $200 to $1000 for cash losses. I had Tim file a claim with Geico and they pay nothing for cash losses. We both determined Geico is not a good insurance company. They were rude and seemed insulted Tim would file a claim. Tim and his wife filled out the forms and sent them in and got them back with a big “Denied” stamp on the front. So the result is I am out $2700. I should never have agreed to put the money under a garage door.

BE CAREFUL CRIME IS EVERYWHERE IT SEEMS AND THEY FIGURE OUT ALL KINDS OF WAYS YOU MIGHT NOT BE AWARE OF TO GET MONEY FOR DRUGS

In my lifetime I have had way too many times when I felt the business I was dealing with took advantage of me in one way or another. In most cases it meant a financial sacrifice for the disputed action.

I lived in a small Colorado town population 3,000 and there was a popular pizza restaurant on the main street which was also a state highway. There were not many restaurants in the town so the pizza place got a lot of business. The original owner ran the restaurant for about five years and then sold it to the main cook that worked there. The cook had a residence built over the restaurant and lived there. The food and service quality declined dramatically after the cook took ownership. My two children and I lived across the street from the restaurant and went there to eat about once a week. On a Friday night I ordered a Hawaian Pizza for our family for take out. When we got it home, sliced it and got ready to enjoy it, we suddenly realized the pizza crust was just like a plastic frisbee you could not even bite into it. I took the pizza back to the restaurant and told the waitress the problem. She said she could do nothing about it, only the owner could decide what to do. I ask her to call him which she did. I spoke to the owner and explained the problem. His response was my wife and I make the Pizza crusts daily exactly the same and there is no way that is a defective crust, you do not know what you are talking about. That really set me off. I invited him to come down here and try the pizza. He declined the invitation. After a long conversation he said the next time you come in and if I am here I will give you a $25 credit slip. I thanked him and went home. They did not offer to give us another pizza that night, which I thought was strange.

I worked for a community college in the small town. The college was offering a continuing education course in “Small Business Public Relations” that they claimed would increase that business dramatically. I sent a letter to the Pizza Restaurant owner and suggested he take this course. I recounted our bad experience and told him that he needed instruction on how to run his business to make it more profitable. The business had declined significantly after the cook took it over. l did not hear anything back from the owner, but we did eat in there periodically.

Several months after the “Small Business Public Relations” course was given. My two children and I are sitting in a booth having pizza when the owner asked if he could sit down with us. He did not know who I was and that I was the one that had complained about the plastic pizza and I was the one that sent him the course information. But that night one of his servers told him that it was me that was guilty on both counts. The owner said “I want to thank you for recommending that course at the college and for sending the letter. I began to realize as my business declined something needed to be done. I took the course and applied the recommendations. Afterward my business because to steadily increase and I found joy in making my customers happy. I just wanted to find out who sent that letter and to thank them for getting me on the right track, so “Thank You”!

An incident this past week is another example of a total failure in public relations by a restaurant hostess. We picked up a friend in Phoenix at the Sky Harbor airport and went to Cheddar’s in Chandler, Arizona to eat about 3 P.M. in the afternoon. The parking lot at Cheddar’s did not have many cars in it. Also when we entered the restaurant there were not very many customers seated. The hostess said you have to get on the waiting list. My wife ask how long is the wait, she said five or ten minutes. There were two other couples seated on the two benches by the door also waiting. After twenty minutes I stepped forward and asked the hostess, “What is going on?” We have waited twenty minutes you said there was a five or ten minute wait. I asked when will we be seated. She responded, “I don’t know we are waiting for servers”. My wife came forward and said, “Let’s go somewhere else if that is the case, take our names off of the list.” I told the hostess and one of the managers that was visiting with her, we have always had good experiences with Cheddar’s for several years, and this was not one of them.” The waitress smiled and said , “Do come back!” I responded that is not likely this is rediculous.

I wrote a letter to the Cheddar’s manager recounting the experience. I told him we had a wonderful meal at the Cheesecake Factory, thanks to his poorly trained hostess. I ask why we could not have been seated and served drinks while you were waiting for more wait staff? I finished with maybe you should close down if you are not able to get enough help. I did not get a response. I am now writing to the main office for Cheddar’s and see if I get a response.

These are just two small incidences that show people need to respond to bad customer service to get businesses back on track. Good luck with your experience.
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First of all,why pay Dish or Direct TV between $120 and $200 a month for your home Television watching packages? The Roku is one of the most amazing small gadgets ever invented. The same technology has been in incorporated into most smart TV’s. If you do not have a smart TV, you can order a Roku streaming device for about $25 from Amazon or Walmart. With this device and home internet service you are able to get services like Sling which provides over eighty changes for as little as $60 which includes ESPN, Fox News, CNN, and many of the more popular channels you have been watching on the cable systems and paying through the nose. You need to have good internet service so your TV is not interrupted. I pay less than $50 for a 12bmp internet service and it supports two TV’s, two tablets, and a desktop without interruption. Some of the local channels appear on a smart TV but not all of the ones you might like. The Roku will run Netflix and Prime Video if you subscribe to them.

To get all of the local channels in you area, you will need an outdoor antenna, it does not have to be a big antenna that looks like the aerial for a TV or Radio station. The have them on Amazon for as little as $40 that will get channels within a 50 mile radius. Do not believe it when they say they get channels for 100 to 120 miles. Most low cost antennas will get about forty channels which would include ABC, Fox, NBC, and ABC, Grit, and a lot of other channels. There are usually about five or ten Spanish speaking channels in there, a movie channel, weather channels, mysteries, Court TV, and marketing channels.

Now you have the full range of channels, the network channels, the local channels , and others that you have not heard of until adding the channels with your new antenna. You can order a Roku Streaming Stick which attaches to the back of your TV rather than a standard Roku that attaches to the front of the TV. Some people prefer the streaming stick because it is not visible.

Of course if you want to spend more money on a big antenna that sets on top of your house, you can, but storms and wind make take your antenna down and make it a more expensive way to get local channels.

Our monthly cost for TV aside from the cost of the internet which we had already, is $60 Sling, $12 a month Netflix, and $139 a year Amazon Prime. If you want more sports than Sling initially offers for $10 or $15 for additional package items can be added on Sling. So, if we compute it on a monthly basis $60 Sling, $12 Netflix, $12 Amazon, that would be $84. We were paying $130 a month for basically the same channels to Dish before we made the conversion to Roku and also got a smart TV which has the Roku built in.

Good luck, we have been off Dish for three years now and no regrets.

Year 2023 has been an unpredictable year to say the least. I am sure if you prepared a family budget it had to be revised many times throughout the year.

Let’s prepare for 2024 by building a budget based on your anticipated income and expenses for next year. Then on January 1, 2024 begin the year right by keeping track of what you are spending in each category. A runaway budget is not helpful to your family. Begin 2024 right and keep right throughout the year making adjustments in your budget aa you encounter income changes or expense changes.

Using Excel set up a worksheet that lists the names of your income sources and the amounts anticipated for 2024. Show a total for your income projection for the year.

Next list by category your anticipated expenses on the Excel worksheet going down the page. Suggestions for categories are: (1) House (2) Auto (3) Food for Family (4) Work related meals (5) School Lunches(6) Fuel for Cars (7) Car Repairs and Services (8) Clothing (9) Phone Service (10) Internet Service (11) Pet Costs (12) Utility Electric (13) Utility Water (14)Trash Service (15) Home Maintenance and Cleaning Supplies (16) Landscaping and Outdoor Maintenance (17) Car Insurance (18) Insurance On Home (19) Eating Out (20) Entertainment (20) Computer Supplies (21) Health Insurance (22) Medical Expenses (23) Savings and Investments (23) Credit Card Interest. I am sure you will have other categories as you prepare the list for your family. When the list is complete total the anticipated total expenses for 2024.

How does your Total Income compare to the Total Expenses? If they are less you can readjust categories you feel you might have slighted. If the Total Expenses are more, then look at each Expense category and see what you can reduce so that the income and expenses closely match.

Now set up a column next to the total anticipated income and expenses column that you can use for the total income and expense divided by 12 to establish your anticipated January monthly budget. At the end of that month post the actual income and expenses for that category in the third column. See how they compare and show the differences in the fourth column so you can see where you were over and under and if you need to adjust your budget.

I am sure you are saying “What about credit cards and the monthly payments on them?” The payments on credit cards are for items included in your expenses and the credit card statements can be used to post the expenses incurred on the credit card. If you do not pay your credit card off completely monthly and incur interest, then have a category for credit card interest. Some families will have a credit card imbalance where they incur expenses and just pay interest on the credit card and the credit card balance gets larger and larger and out of control. If that is your family try to get a credit card that has no interest as an introductory promotion for possibly a year and pay it down so you will not have interest in the future.

In a previous post, I mentioned that I was buying and selling used golf carts as a part time way to make some extra money. I have been flipping carts, as they say, for about eighteen months now and have had a few disappointments and costly repairs that I had not anticipated on carts I have purchased for resale.

Just ten days ago I saw an ad for a cart advertised to be in Green Valley, Arizona. It had several photos of the cart and a list of upgrades made to the cart. The cart included a full enclosure, and a battery charger. I called and spoke to a guy supposedly named Chase Hatton who said he was in Texas but if I would transfer $2000 to him via Paypal , he would give me his garage code in Green Valley and I could pick up the 2006 Club Car golf cart , charger, and enclosure. Chase warned neither me nor my hauler were to touch anything else in his garage. He had several photos on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and Offerup of the cart. He had a list that said: 2006 Club Car Electric golf cart STREET LEGAL. Have the title, the following new parts: $1400 enclosure, $1100 new batteries, $1500 high speed torque motor, $500 on board computer system, $300 rims and tires, $100 dash tray, $100 dash cover.

He explained at the end of the list I quote: I am currently in Texas , but the cart is in Green Valley, AZ at my winter home. Need gone before I return.

He insisted I send the money by Paypal. I initiated a transfer using my bank account as the source, everything was going through fine until they ask me to answer two of my secret questions. One was what was the college you attended and the other was my dog’s name? I graduated from Brigham Young University and my dogs name is Cha Cha. Apparently I left a space for Cha Cha and it should have been ChaCha so they locked me out of my account. The only solution to that is to call the bank and ask if you can set up new questions, they do not know the answers to your questions. So, I used my American Express card as the funding source and it went through right away. I called Chase and told him I had made the transfer and it went through and ask what is the garage code. He said it is on hold by Paypal they have not released the money to me yet, it may be a day or two before I get the money. I called the next day and he still said the money was on hold. I called the third day and he said the money was on hold. I ask him to give me the code, I said you will get your money it is with Paypal, let me have the code. He said, “No, I want to wait one more day and I will probably have the money before I release the code.

If you look on the internet at the many comments about Paypal and their holds which may be as long as 21 days, many four days, and some as long as 60 days before they credit the money to the account of the person receiving the money. So, I bought Chase’s story about the delay.

I called Paypal and ask what was going on with the $2000, the guy said what do you mean, it was given to him the day you transferred it he is lying about it being on hold. RIGHT THEN AND THERE I KNEW I HAD BEEN SCAMMED. I CALLED THE NUMBER I HAD BEEN SPEAKING TO CHASE ON AND NO ANSWER. I TEXTED HIM AND ASK WHERE THE CODE WAS AND TOLD HIM I THINK THIS IS A SCAM. I HAVE MADE REPEATED CALLS AND LEFT MULTIPLE TEXTS WITH NO RESPONSE FROM CHASE.

Every time I list an EZGO, Club Car, or Yamaha golf cart I get several scam responses with almost the same description on each one. They said let me text you a code to see if you’re real, well the one not real is them. They start by saying “I want to buy your cart can I pick it up later today?” Then they start asking to send a code to get you to email your personal information. I just respond no legitimate buyer says without looking I want to buy your cart today and they do not ask for codes and that you not call them but email them with the information. I also say I only sell to buyers that come in person with cash.

Then there is the one my husband and I are so busy, our daughter is getting married soon and we do not have time to look at the cart, but we will take it. I will send you a cashiers check with a little extra like $100 until our agent can pick it up. If you give them your name and address, they send you a big check like $5000 for a $3900 cart. Their instructions are go ahead and cash the Cashiers check for $5000 keep the $100 I promised and give my agent the $1000 difference. The agent needs the money to pay for shipping the cart. This scenario is used frequently. Cashier’s checks are not bullet proof they can be refused by a bank just like a regular check. If you take the check to the bank, chances are they will accept the check and credit to your account. A week later the paying bank on the check is either fraudulent or the person did not have that much money in the bank when it cleared and they bounce the check. So, the person gets the check back, has lost the cart to the agent, and $1000 to the agent and the $100 that you were to get is not there.

There are so many scams on Craigslist, Offerup, and Facebook Marketplace, that it is like a minefield. BE CAREFUL IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD IT IS DEFINITELY NOT GOOD, I CAN ATTEST TO THATFiling Status
2024 Standard Deduction Amounts Announced
Filing Status 2024 Standard Deduction
Single $14,600
Married Filing Jointly $29,200
Married Filing Separately $14,600
Head of Household $21,900
Qualifying Surviving Spouse $29,200