Twila Van Leer

Building Breast Cancer Awareness

October 4, 2014 By Twila Van Leer

October is breast cancer awareness month.

The long fight to make Americans more aware of breast cancer is flagging, some advocates say. As October, the long-standing month when the campaign is at its height, gets under way, they are questioning whether changes should be made.

Some National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM) folks are using words such as “gimmicky,” “over-played” and “waning.” The pink ribbon that has been the traditional, and well-recognized logo for the campaign may have lost its freshness, they say. Even so, it is one of the emblems most widely associated by Americans with a particular disease. Bradford Exchange, one of the most successful personal check printers in the country, has recently issued new checks featuring the pink ribbon of support.

The need remains as great. Breast cancer is not a “solved problem.” More than 520,000 people throughout the world die of it every year. That includes 40,000 in the United States. Patients need support and researchers need funding, Elaine Schattner writes in a Forbes article.

Shattner suggests a shift in focus more in keeping with 2014’s information and approaches to breast cancer management. She would like to see people better informed about the number of people living with metastatic breast cancer. Even in the United States, their numbers are not sufficiently tallied. Their form of the disease is not curable and they require treatment until death.

Critical areas for more research are the ongoing quest to determine what causes breast cancer, how it can be prevented from spreading once diagnosed, better and more effective treatments and pathology improvements that would avoid over-treatment.

As always in the battle, patients need to know what their options are, Shattner said. The most effective care occurs when patients are educated and share in decisions about their treatment.

October will come and go and the drive to keep people informed on a nasty disease will continue. Whether the specifics of the campaign will change is a question for the future.

Use Credit Wisely

October 2, 2014 By Twila Van Leer

Credit is a fact of financial life for the great majority of Americans. The trick is to manage it so that it doesn’t manage you. A blessing when you’re in control, it can quickly become a nightmare if you are not.

Here are tips for setting up credit, managing it to your advantage and monitoring it.

The natural thing to do, if you have already established a good working relationship with a financial institution, is to use that institution to apply for credit. A secured credit card is a good first step toward expanding into credit. With the card, you can have money deposited automatically. As a rule, the amount of credit that will be offered by the company is equal to the amount you deposit. Keep up the payments regularly and you can convert to a regular, non-secured card.

A good way to ease into credit is to take out a personal loan for a large purchase, say a car, using a co-signer if necessary. Then you begin building a credit history. That history will be the foundation for more credit. It’s easy to feel too comfortable in the knowledge that you can get credit. Be responsible and stay out a trouble with missed or late payments.

You must be 18 to apply for a credit card. Until you reach 21, you will need a co-signer.

Some banks or other financial companies offer cards with a lower limit to help beginners to establish credit.

When you are ready to increase the amount of your credit, think about it carefully. The temptations to use the credit increase with the amount. Be certain you have paid your credit accounts on time for at least six months before looking at expanding.

Keep utilization low. Try to use no more than 50 percent of your available credit. If you max out your card, your debt to loan ratio (how much you owe over how much they will loan you) will be too high to get a good credit score. Having a larger credit reservoir will give you better credit scores. A credit lender looks at those figures when determining if you would be a good risk with more credit. Building loyalty to a particular lender by being responsible increases your chances for more credit, as well.

It is likely that credit will be a factor in your financial dealings throughout your life. You need to protect this asset by reviewing what is in the credit reports prepared by major reporting companies such as Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. The official site where you can get reports is www.annualcreditreport.com. They are required by law to provide you with one report annually free of charge. If you find anything amiss in the reports, deal with it immediately. Have the documentation you need to correct mistakes.

Monitoring your report won’t lower your credit score. Staggering the times at which you obtain a report from the major agencies makes the task less onerous.

Bottom line: do it. Keeping your credit history clean is an important element in your overall money management scheme.

Tailgate To Double The Football Fun

September 28, 2014 By Twila Van Leer

Tailgating has become part of the traditional excitement during the annual football frenzy. And you can do it in style at a lower cost if you plan ahead and take advantage of shopping specials.

When budgeting for a tailgate affair, be sure you have food, gear, games, gas and parking all on the list. Then start looking for bargains.

Start ahead of time. As you find such items as brisket, ribs, chicken, hamburger or other family favorites on sale, buy and freeze them. The warehouse stores, such as Costco, Sam’s and others are generally stocked with beverages and the makings for every-day favorites such as hot dogs at reduced prices. Buy in bulk and divide up so you’ll have food on hand, game day or not. Then, when the food is taken care of, visit a local dollar store to stock up on paper goods and grilling equipment.

Save on ice by freezing water bottles and using them as ice packs while they last. Or think in larger terms. Large empty milk or beverage containers make good cooler coolers.

For many tailgaters, it’s a social occasion. Plan a menu in advance and divide up. The same goes for transportation to the game. Share rides and parking expenses if possible, with the promise that the hosting duties will be rotated among your group. Just be sure the vehicle you choose has a tailgate. Before you run out to buy fold-up chairs, tables or canopies, check with family and friends to see if you can borrow these items. Return them in good shape and maybe they’ll let you borrow again.

Do as much of the food preparation yourself as possible. No store-bought potato salad ever tasted as good as the one that comes from your kitchen. Ditto sandwiches, cookies, cakes and other tailgate goodies.

Anyone who has tailgated more than once knows the routine. The early arrivals get the prime spots. That may mean several hours in the parking lot. Plan on taking a few favorite games or crafts to fill the time. Pinterest has ideas you can follow or adapt.

Many families can’t afford to attend every home game for their favorite team, but that doesn’t mean the tailgate party must go by the wayside. Nothing wrong with the back yard – or even the basement or family room if the weather is as football-ish as it sometimes gets around the country. The idea is the same, pre-game festivities and then the game itself. Improvise.

More Education? Think It Through

September 26, 2014 By Twila Van Leer

Going back to school has become a strategy many people consider as the country slowly climbs out of the economic slump that began in 2008. More education equals more skills and for some, it has been the answer to the near-impossible job situation. There are those in the employment pool who never have been employed since the recession began and there is a logical supposition that going back to school could help.

But using more education to either make yourself more attractive in your original field of work or to move into a new job sector should be undertaken only with care. Especially if you have a family to support or other significant financial obligations, you should consider whether more education would really be worthwhile.

Experts offer these suggestions to consider before taking serious steps toward a return to school:

Find out if you are eligible for aid. Some programs are specifically aimed at adults. There may be more opportunity for an older, independent student than a recent high school graduate. They may be allowed to borrow more for educational purposes. Older students are not obligated to use their parents’ income as a qualifier. To find out what the eligibility rules are in your area of the United States, visit www.fafsa.ed.gov.
Go to the institution you plan to attend for specific information. Most adult students are interested in proximity when choosing a school. Arrange a personal visit to the financial aid office and discuss opportunities for grants or scholarships. People in these offices can steer you in the right direction and can provide applications for the most commonly used resources. With a better understanding of the various grants and scholarships, you’ll be better prepared to determine if more education is advisable for you.
Determine how quickly you could repay loans. Borrowing is a fact of life for most students today. Young students have a lifetime to repay, but an older student does not have that luxury. Knowing beforehand how student loans will fit into your financial profile is very advisable. If repayment might last into retirement, you may want to think twice. The closer to retirement you are, the less you should borrow, as a general rule. For many professionals, the lure of launching into a new career path may be enticing. A return to class may be very stimulating to some who enjoy study, but be certain your plans make financial success before signing up.

Save For Self-Fulfillment

September 24, 2014 By Twila Van Leer

There are people, believe it or not, who save with enjoyment in mind, rather than serious objectives such as major purchases or retirement. They consider personal growth and fulfillment worthy objectives for their savings. Their goals could be as diverse as donating to a charity pursuing a hobby, traveling or doing things that make life more enjoyable.

Ohio State University did a study to see if there was a correlation between Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and people’s saving habits. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? That’s an old established psychological tool that looks at human needs and ranks them from absolutely necessary (food and shelter) to more lofty objectives (fulfilling one’s potential, etc.) The vast majority of individuals have to cover the basics before moving on to more abstract requirements for a happy life. Most savings objectives follow that same pattern. Retirement, security, emergencies/safety and family needs are what inspire most people to save. Only a few reach that state of perceived well being that they will devote savings to those “lofty” goals. But, the researchers found, there is a higher likelihood that they will actually do the saving.

In fact, the researchers learned, the self-fulfillment goals may be more important to this particular segment of the population than the “necessity-based” objectives are to their compatriots. Desires for self-fulfillment are “incredibly powerful motivators for actual savings behavior,” they concluded.

By extrapolation, they suggest that thinking about one’s self-growth might be impetus for more effective savings. They say that those motivations can be built into an individual’s approach to saving for the future.

While the practical needs of a family are likely to take precedence in making decisions about savings, not all human needs are covered by that kind of thinking. There should be room in the analysis for such things as dreams of becoming an entrepreneur, taking classes in a favorite subject, traveling, donating to charities that are near and dear to one or any other objective that doesn’t fall into the “necessary” category.

Based on their analysis, the researchers suggested that someone with a desire to set aside money for self-fulfillment should start with an analysis of what they really want to save for. Then begin by putting spare change, if that’s the most you have available, in a designated jar. Or open a separate auto-debit savings account for any amount of money that is reasonable for your own budget. The amount is not as important as the commitment. Then avoid the temptation to dip into this special savings account. You’ll be joining an elite group that sees the fulfillment of life’s “wants” as being as important as providing for the “must-haves.”