Tips for Successful Personal Finances
We were away and now back and ready to go. Yes, we took another cruise to the Caribbean on the Celebrity’s Equinox.
We had perfect weather 85 and sunny everyday. We did lots of fun things – relaxing at the pool, watching shows, comedians an magicians. Here are some photos of our day on Sapphire Beach, St Thomas, breakfast on our balcony, our glass blowing experience and more.
There are so many ways that scammers can get your information. It’s getting harder and harder to stay under their radar.
Personally, we request do a lot to be off lists:
We were very careful and put minimal information in the newspaper with the last death notice, we were responsible for. We give serious thought to what is posted in social media.
This is a constant effort that needs daily attention.
Do you want to know ways scammers get your information? They can get it through your trash, through your incoming / outgoing mail, over hear you on the phone and so much more. There are ways you probably don’t even realize. Here’s an article from AARP 7 Ways Scammers Get Your Information.
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!
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:
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.
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!
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.
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:
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:
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?
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.
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).
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.