Only Way To Protect Your Family Budget is To Save

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In recent years with interest rates so low many people ignore the need to save. Also with considerable research it is possible to find small to medium sized companies in industries that appear to have good potential. If a person invests at the right time in a cutting edge company they can increase their net worth at a good rate. Index funds from reputable companies have
performed well throughout the years if the investor does not panic and sell out every time there is a big decline. Hanging on to an index fund will almost always result in the value of the investment outperforming what a person could get putting in a fixed interest account.

A really good table
Effects of saving $500 a month assuming a 10% return over time are:
Year Savings Total
1 $6,335.14
5 39,041.19
10 103,276.01
20 392,848.45
30 1.139,662.66

From this table you can see how saving can provide a great nest egg for your family if you only discipline yourself to do it.

My mother’s cousin’s husband saved 50% of everything he made. His mother taught him this rule when he was a child. He was a mechanic working for the county where he lived in Colorado. He and his wife had saved 50% for almost 40 years. They were millionaires that lived in a small house with furniture obtained from used furniture stores. They drove an older pickup for many years and later bought a new smaller Chevrolet car but he did not want a radio or air conditioning because they cost too much when added to the base price. This man was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer at age 60 and died less than a year later. He was a smoker. They had no children and my mother’s cousin disliked her two nieces and did not want to leave anything in their will to them. They became attached to a young teenaged Hispanic girl that lived on a ranch near them. After the girl grew up she was a clinical psychologist and had her own practice, she married a medical doctor.

The cousin and her husband decided to will everything to the clinical psychologist if her husband would give unlimited time to caring for her husband in the last days of his life. The doctor was semi-retired and only practiced part of the time. He moved in with them and took care of him for the last eight months of his life. The doctor agreed to take care of the cousin after she died by putting her in an assisted living facility. She lived several years after her husband passed away. The clinical psychologist and the doctor inherited several million dollars from the estate. It seemed like a sad thing that they did not need the money and both of the nieces were practically poverty stricken. One had four children and no husband and the one had been in the military for several years and had a low paying job after she got out.

The point I am making is it is possible to be a millionaire if you start saving early and continue until your retirement years. Then use the money wisely when you retire and you can enjoy the fact that you saved all those years. No one knows how long they will live but certainly travel , mountain get aways, cruises, beaches seem appealing to retirees. To have the money to enjoy those things is a comforting accomplishment. I always felt it was so sad that my mother’s cousin and her husband did not enjoy the benefits of saving all those years.

Not everyone can save $500 a month but even if you only save half that you can see you will have a substantial amount to assist with your retirement. Or if you start saving late possibly your income is higher at that point than if you had started out earlier so then possibly you could save $1,000 a month?

The moral of the story is saving is a necessity for families to have a more secure future.

Protecting Your Family Budget By Participating in Political Caucuses and Conventions That Select Candidates

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You need to find out how the candidates are selected for the election this fall for Congress and the Senate and participate in them. Delegates are selected there to attend the County and State conventions. People that want to run for office are usually there and you can judge if you there might be a better candidate for your party.

Only a certain number of delegates are permitted to the County and State party conventions and they are elected or appointed at the local caucuses and meetings. The delegates have to pay their own expenses. Usually the County Conventions are close by in the County where you live. The State conventions are usually in the Capital of the State or another large city and you wuld need a hotel room for a couple of nights. Those people that have filed to run for a particular office will be in attendance at the conventions and the candidates that will represent your party will be elected at that convention.

At the State level there will usually be a party platform presented and a debate on what platform items the Party should present for that election. Pay particular attention to the platform items, if you disagree stand up and say so if given the opportunity. If you have a better idea present it to the Convention.

After the candidates are selected, their individual campaigns have a lot of work to do. Volunteer to work in a campaign office or to distribute campaign literature door to door or at public gatherings. Talk up your candidates to your friends and associates. Volunteer to be a poll watcher on election day for your Party to make sure nothing appears to be irregular.
Encourage people that are not registered to vote to register and to vote.

For the four year election that will occur in 2024 there are National Political Conventions. Delegates to that Convention are elected at the State Conventions. They also must pay their transportation, hotel, and meal costs for the convention. It can amount to a substantial amount of money but if a person is financially able to perform that service they should do it.

Get Involved attend the functions described above and help get our country back on track

Reprint of The Post May 11, 2021 Protect Your Family Budget By Making Your Voice Heard

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It is so sad that the majority of the people did not take Joe Biden at his word when he said he was going to do all these things which would destroy our way of life and ended up voting for him. It is all right to have voter’s remorse now and admit you made a choice that is affecting us now and for years to come in a negative way. Please resolve to do something about that bad choice and elect a Congress and Senate that will begin to bring the United States back to stability.

(Reprint of May 11, 2021 Post)
It is surprising how few people contact their representatives in government to express their preferences and views. I am told by a Congressman and U.S. Senator only a few people tell them what they want and it is the same people after then consistently. We need to decide what our priorities are as far as living in the society we are faced with. Make a list, for example: 1) Getting the kids back in school and teaching them an honest curriculum 2) Taxation by the Federal Government and where it goes 3)Regaining our freedom after the pandemic.
4) Higher Education and their tendency to plant socialism in the minds of the students 5)Voting rights bills and the purpose behind adopting them.

The names and addresses of all the U.S. Congressman and Congresswomen can be found on the internet. Construct letters and inquiries that make clear what you want your representatives to do and that you will not take “NO” for an answer. Multiple letters in different forms may be necessary. Invite your representatives to call , email , or write you. Get a dialog going. Try to see their point and if it is not congruent with yours tell them why and ask them to change their ideas.

We have been talking about the Federal level of government but the state, local , and school government, are equally as important. Go to the town council meetings , get on the agenda and express you disagreements and tell them why they need to rethink what they are doing. Go to party caucuses and volunteer to be a delegate at the conventions. Support local candidates that will maintain your views and will listen to the electorate.

Contribute small amounts of money to candidates you are passionate about. Volunteer to help with the candidate’s campaign. If you feel you are ready to run for an office, prepare yourself financially and mentally to go the distance to the election and beyond. It takes a tough person to withstand the criticism and opposition when running for office. Ask yourself am I totally committed to carry this campaign to the conclusion and beyond. Am I willing to listen to my friends , neighbors, and opposition , if elected?

More candidates holding office need to organize their voting base so they are the salesmen and saleswomen to sell their legislation to the public.

The address to write to the President is on the internet. Write to the President often. Also write to legislators from other parts of the country than your own and solicit their support for your ideas. Be critical of representatives that are trying to slam through legislation that is damaging to society, let them know what you think.

Every waking hour there is work to be done. With the pandemic and so many people working from home or unemployed it is a good time to check your priorities and start involving yourself with government reform. I encourage you go get started now. It is so sad that the electorate could not see what was going to happen if we took Joe Biden at his word, open borders, no fossil fuels, “Green New Deal”, free education for all, school from age 3, cancel culture, destroying our history, defund the police. I can see nothing in Joe Biden’s platform that is positive. Write to the President expressing your dissatisfaction with his policies. People say Joe doesn’t care what you think, tell him anyway and help with campaigns to get opposition control of Congress so a lot of this non-sense can be stopped in 2022.

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Determining How You Are Going To Have Your Family Personal Income Tax Return Prepared?

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Each year everyone has to make the decision of who is going to prepare their income tax return. If you own a business you probably need to select a professional to prepare the business return or Schedule C on your 1040 Individual Return. If your income is primarily supported by W-2 forms and other forms submitted by the payer, for example Social Security and Retirement Income Payors, then possibly you want to use a tax preparer or do it yourself using a program like Turbotax.

H & R Block and the tax services with all the people waving at you on the street are a very expensive way to get a rather simple tax return prepared. The base rate is quite high for a simple individual return. The expensive part of their services is when they offer to give you your refund within 24 hours and you sign over the refund coming back from IRS. If you compute the interest rate on an annual basis it can be several hundred percent. For example a military person with just W-2 income selects the plan to get his money within 24 hours. The cost might be as much as $150, basically the tax service is loaning you the money until the refund comes which they take in payment for the loan. Let’s say this person has a $750 tax refund coming back and the charge was $150 for that service, the tax refund usually comes within a month. $150 for one months interest on $750 be $1800 on an annualized basis. Divide $1800/750 would result in an interest rate of 240%. This type of service also wants to sell you audit protection service for $50 and above and if they file the forms electronically you may have to pay additional for that service. Audit protection says they will represent you in tax court to support the return they have filed. Any principal and interest due after an IRS audit is the responsibility of the taxpayer. If the tax service makes an error resulting in more taxes being due and penalty and interest. The tax service usually agrees to pay the interest but not the penalty.

Considering the case I presented above, if your tax return is pretty straight forward and supported by documents from your employer, retirement plan or Social Security, then consider doing it yourself with the help of Turbotax. There are several versions of Turbotax depending on the income to be reported. If a person just has supported income , interest, dividends and capital gains, then Turbotax Deluxe will work for you. If you have business income requiring a Schedule C with the form 1040 you will need the Turbotax Business version. The Turbotax Deluxe verson costs about $60 and you have the choice of purchasing the disk at Officemax, Walmart, Costco, and outlets carrying Turbotax. If you need the Turbotax Business, it will cost about $20 more. Also you are given the choice on line by Intuit that is the provider of Turbotax to download the various Turbotax products. There are also Turbotax versions for Partnerships and Business.

If you purchase Turbotax, load it onto your computer, also select add current updates when it appears on the screen. After you have entered the personal information, it asks if you want them to guide you through the return or do you want to do it on your own. If you are new to Turbotax and even if you are familiar with this system select Guide Me Through The Tranactions. When you come to the end of the return Turbotax will do an error check and show you any areas where information is missing or does not make sense, after you have corrected those errors , it will say no errors found. Turbotax also offers an audit representation service in the event you are audited for a fee, I do not select that but you can. Then Turbotax shows a graph showing what the percentage chances are you will be audited, it shows the range from low to high. If the audit chance is low you should be ok. If it is high you need to keep all the backup handy in the event of an audit.

Time To Set Up A Family Budget for 2022

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A new year has begun time to set up a family budget for the new year. I would suggest you begin with a monthly budget and expand it each month until you are comfortable with how it is working.

There are several free worksheets if you search for personal budget forms on the internet. Begin setting your budget up on Excel with the Income portion. Some of the categories might be income from salaries (W-2) , then income from stocks and bonds, income from interest, income from rentals, miscellaneous income, etc.. TOTAL THE INCOME

Then begin listing expenses by type. For examples: Groceries, eating out, house payment or rental, child care, car payment, loan payments, education expenses(example student loan payments, utilities-electric, gas, water trash, pet expenses(food vet expenses), car expenses (gas,servicing,insurance), house expenses (inside and outside), personal expenses (hair, personal care items), Medical expenses, health club, HOA dues, vacation fund(Put even amounts monthly for your annual vacation totally your estimated cost), property taxes and insurance( even amounts monthly for total annual expense if not included in house payment), internet, phones, computer expenses(ink cartridges, paper, etc), savings, investments, there are probably several more categories unique to your family. TOTAL THE EXPENSES

Subtract the total of the Expense Categories from the total of the Income categories, that will show how much your income exceeds your expenses or your expenses exceed your income.

The amounts you have charged on your credit card should be allocated to the expenses on your budget. I would recommend that you have a separate worksheet to show the total credit card charges on each card for the month. First show the total charged for the month to the card, then have columns for the categories that match your budget like groceries, gas for car, medical, eating out, vet bill, etc going across the page that total the total monthly credit card charge.

Reconcile your bank account monthly before preparing your family budget. It may provide ideas for the categories that are needed. You may have to add categories in your budget as the year progresses.

After you get the January budget set up by the end of January compete it as soon as possible and see how you can improve upon a budget for February.

Search on the web for free budget preparation sheets if you do not feel comfortable preparing one yourself using Excel.

Who Should Prepare Your Personal Income Tax Return as a result of your Family Budget?

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As 2021 nears yearend families begin to ask the question who is going to do my income tax return?


There are a multitude of sources that can assist you in getting your income tax return for 2021 prepared.

If you have a very simple return Turbotax offers to let you fill out the form on line and the return is prepared free of charge. Possibly you have an accountant or bookkeeper that has been preparing your return. The cost of having a return done by a professional has been increasing dramatically in recent years. You might consider purchasing one of the Turbotax Systems that is appropriate for your situation. Turbotax offers several systems that can be purchased at Walmart, Costco, Target, book stores, and other outlets. The cost for an individual return with no business income is around $60. The cost for an individual with business income is about $80. The cost for those having more complicated returns and partnership returns is around $100. Also Turbotax systems can be purchased and prepared on line with no disks involved. I have been using Turbotax for about ten years now with no problems. Turbotax systems guide you through the return and runs several error checks. They also offer professional representation in the event of an audit if the taxpayer elects that option and pays a fee at time the return is finished. Turbotax usually offers one free State Return with the purchase of the Federal Return system. After the returns are completed on the taxpayer’s computer, they can be electronically transmitted to the IRS and the State Revenue Department. The IRS and State Revenue systems notify the taxpayer of acceptance within a short time usually 48 hours.

There are other tax systems similar to Turbotax offered at Walmart, Costco, and other outlets. I am not familiar with them and their cost.

The big tax preparation companies have a multitude of offices in all the larger communities like H & R Block are much more expensive than using Turbotax or just out and out doing the returns yourself. Individual preparers and CPA’s are many times more expensive than the tax preparation companies. I was a CPA and had a fulltime job with a college, I was hired in January by a tax preparation company to do their partnership and corporate returns and supervise three of their eight offices. I was paid a low hourly rate barely above the minimum wage with the understanding if I stayed until the end of the tax season April 15th I would share in their profits. The reason they had so many offices was they located them near military bases and colleges to catch the taxpayers that just had W-2 income and were desperate for their tax refund. The offered to give the amount of the refund to the taxpayer within a week if they signed an agreement that the refund check would come to the tax preparer. In exchange for that service, they charged high amounts for that service like $150 regardless of the amount of the refund. As an example, say a person had a $900 refund and paid $150 to get their refund within 5 days. They would get $750 and the tax preparation service gets $900 in about three to four weeks from the IRA. Compute the interest rate that is over 15% for just one month or an annualized rate of 180%. The tax preparation firms also offer taxpayer representation to the IRS if the taxpayer is audited for a fee, they also guarantee the taxpayer will not have to pay any interest to the IRS. All that means is that if the IRS does not accept your return and charges you additional tax , interest , and penalty, the preparing company will pay the interest only.

Remember I told you above I would be paid a bonus by the preparation service if I stayed until the end of the tax season April 15th. A woman that had worked for that service told me, “Good luck with that offer of a bonus, I have been working for them for several years and no one got a bonus, the owner closes down all but the main office by the end of the season.”
That was a true statement after the W-2 rush season around the military bases the owner closed those offices down, no bonus for those managers. Then about a month before the end of the tax season he closed all of temporary offices and ran everything through one office. No one received a bonus.

Good luck in determining what tax preparation option is best for you and your family budget

Scams Have Cost Families Millions of Dollars in Their Family Budget

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Every day I get several scam calls even if I have punched the block this number button on my phone. One caller from Colorado calls every day at 9 A.M. telling on a recorded message that they represent my retirement insurance company. Every two or three days I get a call my extended warranty on my car has expired. They know what kind of car I have, the year of manufacture, and how long I have had it. I don’t know who shared that information with the scammer.

My wife and I use different techniques. When my phone says “likely a scammer” I answer, “Good Morning Scam and do not call again.” My wife plays along with them sometimes and asks how they got her number and she is going to find out and get the prosecuted. Do you think they really expect to sell you a medicare or health plan when they call? Do you think they think they will sell you an extended warranty on your ten year old automobile when they call? Do you think that the Social Security Administration is going to stop payments if you do not call them back within two hours? Do you think that the city you live in has condemned your property if you do not make certain improvements? Do you think it is required in your community that you have monthly treatments for termites to eliminate the spread within the community and they can save you lots of money if you just sign a monthly contract with them?

DO YOU REALLY THINK THE VARIOUS UNSOLICITED CALLS TRYING TO SELL YOU SOMETHING EXPECT TO SELL YOU THEIR SERVICE? THE COMPANIES THAT DO EXPECT TO SELL YOU INSURANCE , MONTHLY SERVICES ON YOUR PROPERTY, AUTO WARRANTEES, ALL SET A SHORT EXPIRATION DATE IN AN ATTEMPT TO CLOSE THE SALE. MOST OF THE OTHERS ARE TRYING TO GET YOU TO GIVE THEM YOUR EMAIL, YOUR ADDRESS, YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER, A CREDIT CARD NUMBER, OR ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION THEY CAN USE TO USE YOUR ACCOUNTS OR BRIBE YOU TO NOT USE THE INFORMATION THEY EXTRACTED FROM YOU.

I will give you a couple of examples of a technique that has been used for several years now. A friend of mine that lives in Canada told me about his neighbor advertising his furniture on Craigslist. They had several calls and gave their address to one particular caller. A couple with a pickup came to look at the furniture and said they would pay them $8,500 for the furniture, his friend accepted the offer. When it came time to pay, they said we are moving from here to the U.S. and are leaving tomorrow which was a Sunday. They said we still have our bank account here and can give you a check. They talked to the couple for quite a while and decided to accept the check. Then another wrinkle entered the transaction, they ask if they could write it for $9000 rather than $8,500 and if the people would give them $500 for gas money? Again, both couples discussed this transaction trying to decide whether to accept the offer. Low and behold the people accepted the offer. Monday morning, they went to their bank and deposited the $9000 check, they were told you will have to wait five banking days before it hits your account. On the fifth banking day the people get a call from the bank telling them the check was no good. They were out the furniture and $500. The bank fraud division contacted them and told them they could go to jail for attempting to collect money on a fraudulent check. They ask what about the people that gave the check to us? The bank said you will have to get an attorney and try to find them and sue them for your loss.

I buy and sell bicycles on Craigslist and Offerup. About three years ago was the first time several people tried this scam on me for a new Schwinn Midtown bicycle. A woman sends me an email on the Craigslist email system and states my husband is a very busy man, he is in Chicago right now and we are moving to Hawaii, he loves Schwinn Midtown bicycles. His wife said he ask me to handle this transaction for him. She asked for my name, address, phone number, email, so she could mail me a cashier’s check that day which should arrive in one to two days. She explained that his agent would come and pick up the bike after I received the cashier’s check. She also said I will make it for $50 more than the price of the bike just for you saving it for him. THE FIRST TIME THIS PROPOSITION WAS PRESENTED TO ME I FELL FOR IT. Two days later I get a check marked cashier’s check written on an Illinois bank for $1,200. The price of the bike was $150 and the $50 she wanted to give me for holding it would have made it $200. A man called me on a Friday and ask if I received the check? I responded that I had, but what is the additional one thousand dollars for? He said just cash the check it is a good check and give the $1,000 cash to my agent that will come this afternoon to pick up the bike. I responded I am not a bank and I will not deposit the check or give your agent the bike or $1,000. The guy got real pushy he called me back several times just saying “Take the check to the bank and deposit it, they will take it”. I ask for his return address so I could send the check back. The guy on the phone refused to give me his name and his mailing address. At the conclusion I told him I had found the online sight of the FBI and I was sending the check to them. The caller hung up the phone and I never heard from him again. I did fill a report with the FBI for this transaction which included the guy’s email address and phone number. Two days later I got a check for $1,000 for another bike from a local person that was supposed to come and see the bike. It was in fact another scam attempt saying they were local but too busy to come and would be sending an agent and had already mailed me a check for the bike. I only gave them my name and address to come and see the bike. I also sent their $1,000 check to the FBI. I told the person calling that their check had gone to the FBI, they hung up. THAT WAS THREE YEARS AGO THIS SCAM SURFACED, NOW THREE YEARS LATER IT HAS RESURFACED. EVERY TIME I ADVERTISE A NEW SCHWINN OR DIAMONDBACK BIKE I GET AN EMAIL THAT THE PERSON IS SO BUSY THEIR SECRETARY IS HANDING A TRANSACTION TO PURCHASE A BIKE FOR THEM AND THEY WILL SEND A CASHIERS CHECK WITHIN TWO DAYS.

ANY TIME A CALLER ASKS FOR PERSONAL INFORMATION CONFIRM EXACTLY WHO THEY ARE BEFORE REVEALING ANYTHING. IT CAN COST YOU LOTS OF MONEY AND YOUR REPUTATION IF YOU DO NOT VERIFY THE PERSON REQUESTING INFORMATION FROM YOU OVER THE PHONE.

The Personal Family Budget Savings Dilemma

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The interest rate paid by most banks is .40 % less than a half of a per cent. If you have the right to withdraw the money at any time probably that is better than just letting it set idle in your bank account.

There are banks and credit unions offering interest rates of several percentage points if you are willing to commit to leave the money for several years or suffer a withdrawal penalty.

Then there is the problem now that Congress is discussing monitoring every bank account for transactions $600 or more in an effort to detect income tax evaders. If the huge infrastructure bill is approved there are millions of dollars designated to hire IRS agents so every single tax return can be audited. That sounds like and looks like an impossible task. At any rate many freedoms we have enjoyed are disappearing by leaps and bounds under the current administration.

If the proposed plan is put into operation families are going to have to plan differently in handling their banking I am sure. We all know there are many cash businesses that people operate now. The number of those businesses will increase by leaps and bounds if their bank accounts are going to be a source of controversy. There are many people like plumbers, roofers, electricians, landscapers, insect control people, beauticians, and some retail businesses like cafes. There are other individuals that only accept cash. I do not know if they report the income or not. But the government’s plan is probably only going to expand the cash system dramatically. Also I would think they will collect less in taxes because people are going to figure out ways to avoid putting the money in the bank.

People on Social Security, Retirement Programs, Government and State funded income programs will have to have a bank account to receive the money. If that is the only income they have why would the IRS want to audit their tax returns, that would be a total waste of time and money. But we all know the Federal Government is very adept at wasting money and harassing citizens.

Write to your U.S. Representatives and Senators and discourage them from supporting such a costly plan with the only purpose being to collect all the money they possibly can for them to determine how it will be used.

IT IS TIME ALL CITIZENS TAKE NOTE OF WHAT IS HAPPENING AROUND THEM AND STAND UP FOR THE IDEAS AND SYSTEMS THEY CHERISH. WE ARE LOSING OUR FREEDOMS, WE ARE LOSING CONTROL OF OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM , AND WE ARE LOSING CONTROL OF OUR COUNTRY SINCE OUR PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT WILL NOT ENFORCE OUR IMMIGRATION LAWS AND ARE GRANTING AMNESTY TO MILLIONS OF IMMIGRANTS. ALL OF THESE THINGS SHOULD LIGHT A FIRE UNDER EACH OF US. WE SHOULD MAKE IT CLEAR TO OUR REPRESENTATIVES AND CURRENT ADMINISTRATION WE WILL NOT STAND FOR IT.

Enhance Your Family Budget By Ordering Your Groceries and Needs On Line For Pick Up the Following Day

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Walmart, Safeway, and Fry’s in our area all offer curbside pickup in the parking lot since COVID-19 free of charge.

It is so easy to enter each of the items by going to the store site for your location and paying for your order with a credit card when it is complete. The person goes to the numbered parking spaces designated for order pick up and calls the number on the sign and they bring your order out and load it in your car free of charge. There is also a sign on the Walmart spaces that tips are not accepted. Think of the time and the steps walking up and down the aisle that is handled by the personnel at the place you are ordering from. This service is great we use it once every two weeks at a Walmart in Coolidge , Arizona. They do a super job, they explain when they bring the order anything they did not have on your order or substituted brands for items ordered.

It is not surprising that you can save money when you only buy what you need when you order on line. If you go in the store and walk each of the aisles probably you are going to see and buy things you would not buy otherwise.

For Walmart you can order anything in the store in addition to groceries on line for pickup the next day. Safeway, Fry’s and Koger, on line order next day orders is pretty much restricted to groceries.

Petsmart also offers curbside delivery of orders texted by phone in advance of the visit. When the person arrives they call the specified number and a person brings their order to the parking space reserved for curbside pickup.

Some fast food and restaurants also offer curbside service for orders called in or texted , they call it no contact food delivery.

Home Depot and Loew’s are also offering delivery to designated spots in their parking lot. They select the items for you , put them in reserve spots in the store, and bring them to your mode of transportation. The person has already paid for the products with a credit card on line prior to pick up.

If you have not tried purchasing your groceries and other products using this service , try it and I am sure you will want to continue taking advantage of this great service that was born because of COVID=19.

Your Personal Budget And What Does Your Family Have to Do to Get A Good Return on Your Money?

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If you go to the bank and ask them how much interest will you pay me to invest $10,000 for a year as I did , they will probably tell you the interest rate will be less than 1/2 of 1%, or 0.40%. When the bank told me that I started thinking what I could do that would help our family budget and make more income on the money we have to invest. I recently sold a summer retreat property and received enough for it to pay off the loan on our primary residence which is financed at 5 1/4%. We started the process to refinance at at 2.75% for 15 years instead of continuing with a 30 year loan. But the closing costs are so much that it takes at least 3 to 4 years before you can break even on the refinance.

I ask my wife what she thought of the idea of paying off the loan on our home and then saving the amount of house payment monthly to build up our savings? She is thinking about it.
In effect we will be saving 5.25% interest on $69,000 , we will have to pay the property taxes and insurance separately, but the result would be that we could put $400 a month in savings. So in effect we would creating a situation that we could have the equivalent of receiving 5.25% benefit as opposed to O.40% interest.

If a family has high interest credit cards, be on the lookout for the credit cards that offer 0% interest for a year to eighteen months for balance transfers. There is a transaction fee based on the amount transferred but generally you could save a substantial amount of money for the interest saved. Then try to pay the debt transferred off before the zero interest offer expires.

Edward Jones Investment company will make proposals after a family explains their financial goals based on their financial status. As long as the stock market does not tank investors seem to do pretty well with the mix of mutual funds that the Edward Jones representative recommends for their situation. If the market tanks the investor needs to have the discipline to ride out the dips because always in the past the market comes back within the next few months or years. My wife had $160,000 in Edward Jones American Funds when Obama was President and it decreased in value to $110,000 before stabilizing then it started to climb. Within three years her investment was back to the level before the declining market.

Wentworth investments advertising they are able to protect a families income in most financial situations. I do not know anyone that has used this investment service, I have only seen the ads.