Jill Russo Foster

Tax Day Is Here!

Yes, today is April 15! With that it’s tax day for us here is the US.

If you haven’t already today is the day to pay your taxes. We file early ever year, but always wait to pay or taxes until today.

Filing early is one of the steps to help eliminate tax scams. You don’t want someone filing your taxes before you do! So we file early. On the other side, I don’t want to give my money to the government ahead of time. I want it to earn interest until the last possible day. So when we file, our ta preparer has the state or federal government automatically take the payment on April 15. I want to hold on to our money, but I don’t want to be late either.

Getting a refund means you are loaning your money to the government and NOT earning interest or use of the funds. Now, we plan ahead to have the money ready to pay when it’s due.

If you owe, make you payment today!

Packing Light

We don’t want to pay the checked baggage fee with the airlines, so we try to pack in a carry on.

If I can do it, you can to. Here are some tips on how we pack light:

Pick a color theme – I pick three colors (two neutrals and a color) so that I can mix and match outfits.
Make items do double duty – a pair of sandals can go to the pool and dinner.
Wear you bulkiest clothing – think sweater / coat / sweatshirt vs. packing it.
Consider packing less clothes and doing laundry mid way through the vacation.
Think multiple use items – your phone or tablet can be your camera, e-reader and still be able to check your email vs. all single use items / electronics.

So I wear my sneakers and sweatshirt. We bring a pack a clothesline, clothes pins and laundry detergent to do laundry. My tablet eliminates my need for a camera, book / magazines. I wear my sandals to the pool and then use them in the evening for dinner )shoes take up a lot of room in the suitcase). My pool / beach cover up can be used a as sundresses for dinner. It takes a little organization, but works for me.

Every little thing you can eliminate from your luggage will lessen what you hvae to take and in turn you will have less luggage and avoid luggage fees. One carry on can easily do a week of vacation for me.

Changes Coming To Travel

Thinking about traveling? It’s always on my mind.

Here are some things that you need to know for future plans.

If you are planning on traveling by plane within the US, you may need to upgrade your driver’s license. By October 1, 2020, you will need more than just your driver’s license for identification. You will need an enhanced driver’s license. It’s easy to do, I did this 4 years ago and it was simple. When I renewed my driver’s license, I just brought additional paperwork with me and I was all set. I now have a gold color star in the upper right corner of my license indicating that it’s an enhanced driver’s license. Here’s more information. If you have a passport this will work instead.

Are you planning on traveling to Europe? Right now US citizens can visit most of Europe for 90 days or less without a Visa. Well that’s changing. Starting July 1, 2021, European travel will require approval from the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS). This is for enhanced security requirements. Apparently, you can use this authorization multiple time during a three year period. Here’s more information.

Happy traveling!

Spring Cleaning And Changes

To my subscribers, starting with this weeks issue of my newsletter, Money Choices it will now be coming from jill@jillrussofoster.com

As you know, I have been cleaning up and streaming-lining things in my life. And this is one of the changes happening.

Shortly, I will be eliminating the email address book@jillrussofoster.com. Please make a note of this updated email if you want to reach out to me and make sure you have whitelisted jill@jillrussofoster.com so that you don’t miss out on anything.

What Can You Do With $20.00

In honor of Money Smart Week, let’s talk about cash. Do you have enough? Are you living paycheck to paycheck? My philosophy about money is that is comes down to make choices that are right for you at this particular time of you life. Let’s start with $20.00 cash. What would you do?

A $20.00 may not seem to be a lot of money, but it can be. If I gave you $20.00 bill, what would you do with it?

You could:

Deposit it to your bank account or open a bank account
Buy something
Give it to help someone or a charity to help others
Have fun by brightening your day

I bet you can think of more choices. Your choices are unlimited. But instead of think about one thing to do, how about thinking about multiple things to do. You might be thinking that $20.00 is too little to do anything with, trust me it’s not.

What will $20.00 buy you:

Movie ticket and possibly popcorn too
Flowers for you or to give away
Picnic lunch on a nice spring day
Pay extra on a bill
Can of paint to refresh a room

My suggestion is to think about money is multiples. In this case, it’s not $20.00 maybe it’s 2 $10.00 bills or 4 $5.00 bills. Now what can you do with that? Now you can select multiple things on your list. Your choices are unlimited. Instead of thinking it’s only $20, think 12 months ahead – that would be $240. What could you do with that?

Finding extra money (no matter how small) can be put to good use. The choice is yours – do you use it today or save it for tomorrow?

Are You Ready For the Next Disaster?

It seems like every time I see the news, there is another weather disaster. From hurricane damage that takes years to rebuild, to flooding that wipes out cities, to fires destroying whole towns, how can you prepare?

For starter, there is a website from the government that is step 1 in helping you plan and be proactive for possible disaster that might happen in your area. Visit ready.gov for more information and tips to get your plan in order.

Now that you have planned ahead as best as you can, what about your health in these situations? Did you think about what you need in addition to your medicines? Anthem Health put together a great resource to help you plan ahead to protect your health needs.

Don’t for get your financial paperwork, if you home is in danger. You need to think about original paperwork that is difficult to replace – car titles, insurance policies, wills / power of attorney and so much more. We have all our important original paper work in one holder, that we can grab and go. As a back up, everything is scanned, so we would grab our computer / hard drive as we left our home. Don’t forget family treasurer. You see people combing the remains looking for family items that are irreplaceable. Have those ready too!

Planning ahead / being proactive with a plan that works for you in your situation, will help you in case of an emergency. Here’s hoping we never actually have to use it.

What To Do With All Your Stuff You Don’t Need Anymore?

As you know, we have been cleaning out and organizing a lot of stuff this year. I am really enjoying Joshua Becker’s book, The Minimalist Home

Here’s some of the things we have done this year and over the last couple:

We took a charcoal drawing my mother did many years ago and had it framed. Now it’s on display in our home, instead of the basement.

We took many books to our local library for their semi annual book sale fundraiser.

We took the old family movies and has them transferred to DVD’s. We were so impressed that we did this with the slides and old photos to. Then some of the original photos were donated to the local historical society for them to preserve. One of the old photos was one that included Phil Rizzuto when he was very young.

We scanned many records and shredded the originals. I wouldn’t want to lose those records, but I didn’t want to keep all that paper either.

As I have been working on this project weekends, I am always amazed that in our local paper there have been requests. One week, there was a pop donation site for business attire, so we took over a bag of clothes. Next, the local high school was collecting formal wear for the upcoming proms. Another bag of clothes gone. I really like it when I can donate items that someone else may be able to use.

We’re cleaning out the old electronics too. We replaced a laptop and tablet late last year. So it’s time to get rid of. We sold an old printer on Craig’s List. We donated a scanner with the help of the Cristina Foundation. And so much more.

My resources page has lots of suggestions if you are looking to get rid of items. In addition, here is a couple of great article from the New York Times’ What To Do With All That Stuff (Jan 27, 2019) and How To Sell, Donate and Recycle Your Stuff (Jan 11, 2019).

Digital Clean Out

Another part of my cleaning out, is tackling my digital life.

#1 – I get tons of emails. Yes, I want to read all of the ones I subscribe to and have the best of intentions, but I don’t have then time. I have started to go through the ones I really want to read. I have started to clean out ones that I never signed up for. I have achieved and deleted thousands. I don’t want my life to be tied to the computer reading emails. So I have unsubscribed from many.

#2 – I have updated my passwords. When was the last time you changed them? I make sure to use a different one for each site. Yes, this can be challenging, but with the help of Last Pass, I can do this fairly easily. They can tell me if I have a duplicate password and the strength of my choice. They will even generate ones for me.

#3 – I have started to close accounts that I don’t use anymore. Like everyone else, I have lots of accounts with my information out there. I want to minimize this, so I am closing accounts. For example, I have closed my account with a college text book company. I finished my degree a couple of years ago and don’t have plans to rent or purchase another text book. So that account is closed. Now, more to go. My theory is the less information I have out there, the less that can be compromised.

#4 – Backing up my stuff. Many years ago, my office was broken into and my computer was broken into many pieces. Fortunately, I was able to hvae the computer restored and all information was salvageable. Ever since then I back up my files. I have a service that does this automatically for me every time my computer is on. When is the last time you backed up your files?

If you haven’t done this lately, now would be a good time to look your situation.

Cutting The Cord – Step 2

For those of you who have been following this newsletter – Cutting the Cord – here is our last step. If you missed – Cutting the Cord – Step 1, please read this first.

The home phone number is ported! The actual process was supposed to take 3 to 4 weeks. So I started the process thinking I had time to set up the new actual device. Well surprise – I didn’t. I started the porting process on a Friday afternoon and the number ported by Monday afternoon (2 business days)!. So that was great because it was fast. It was bad because it wasn’t easy to set up the new device. I’ll be honest with you, currently it’s set up wired. I haven’t been able to connect the wireless setting to this date. But the phones and voicemail work!

So our next step was the TV’s. Over the years, we had reduce our TV package / channels down to basic so there wasn’t anymore we could do to reduce our bill. In honesty, we already had some alternative TV options in the house so my husband can watch live sports. This past weekend, I did some exploring with our TV options. I added and set up the major networks apps for streaming live TV and on demand. We installed an app recommended by our alternative TV sources for all local over the air channels and set that up (that is a minimal cost as they suggest a $5/ month donation).

Called the TV provider to discuss the cost of internet only (vs. the triple play). I wasn’t happy with that call. I was told that we wouldn’t be keeping the current price for that portion of the bill, because we were dropping the triple play. It would go up by $15/month. I knew there would be alternatives to this service and I was on a mission to find them.

First, we disconnect the bedroom TV from the cable TV and re-set up the TV and all worked fine. The next day, on to the living room TV. Got that TV disconnected and re-set up. That was a little more challenging as this one had more components involved, but we did it. All is working without cable box!

Next, we called the TV provider to disconnect the phone and TV service. Again, I was told the internet only was going to go up by $15.00. Not what I wanted to hear. After a lengthy conversation, I was transferred to another department and there I got to a great helpful person. I explained our situation – how long we had been a customer, the original TV package we started with and all the down grades over the years.

Bottom line, is that we did get the internet service (same speed) for the price that we were paying for the triple play. And, they gave us the basic cable with the box and remote for no additional change. Yes, we did go through a lot of set up to configure the TV’s without cable and then back to be with cable, but now with a savings of over 45% per month. When the price goes up, we will be ready to fully cut the cord.

Cleaning Out

As you know, we have been cleaning out. So far this year alone, we have made nine bags / boxes of donations – with more to come. Our library’s book drive is coming up later this month and we have two full boxes of books to donate.

Here is a great article from The Hartford Insurance about decluttering your home when you are downsizing (our in our case just getting rid of stuff).

If you like to donate your items (that are of good quality) and that someone may reuse, think about what organizations in your area are in need of that type of item. For example, cleaning out your linens closet (towels, sheets, blankets, etc. – think animal organizations). Most non-profits have a wish list of items they can use in their website. Don’t forget there are other options, you can sell items and or simple recycle or toss out. My resources page has some listing of organizations that might help you to get this part of your clean out started.

Do you have any organizations that you think would be a good fit for my resources page, let me know.