Finances Change With Divorce

June 17, 2016 By Twila Van Leer

Knowing how to manage money after divorce is essential.

Unfortunately, in a society where divorce is common, no one expects women to be expert in personal finances. They tend to know more about weight loss, cooking and other traditionally feminine matters.

But, according to DivorcedMoms.com, knowing about money and how to manage it (especially when a divorce may have drastically cut your resources) can become absolutely essentially in your new reality. Here are some tips to help in the process.

Hope For The Best, But Be Prepared For The Worst

Though your ex may be as generous as he promised he would be, it often happens that support money begins to lag. Insist on discussing money issues as the split occurs. You’re better off, if possible, to plan on taking care of yourself financially. If you get all the help you are promised, you’ll be pleasantly surprised, and if not, you won’t be devastated.

Educate Yourself

Financial training for women should begin in high school, but it seldom does. If possible, plan to do your own taxes and hone your budgeting and investing skills. Find a consultant, research online or get advice from someone you trust.

Regular Savings Plan

If work is part of the equation for you, be certain that some set percentage of your income goes into savings. Take advantage of employer participation in a retirement savings, if that is feasible. If you still have dependent children, buying a home may be very desirable. But be sure that it’s affordable and leaves you enough for other necessities, including education for the kids. If you need to upgrade employment skills, there are agencies that offer free services or can steer you to affordable options. Don’t be reluctant to explore any options, including government support, if it is necessary to provide for your family.

Have A Strategy

Create long-term goals, including concrete plans on how you are going to achieve them. Get rid of what you don’t need in favor of the things that will help you reach your goals. Be sure your goals are realistic, seeking counseling if necessary to stay within reason. Most women have some assets, such as jewelry or over-expensive cars, that they can convert to cash if necessary. Incurring more debt trying to become financially self-reliant is not a wise way to go.

Live Within Your Budget

It may even do your children good to be forced to expect less. Teach them to live realistically within the new budget now in place. They could thank you for it later. Keep in mind that the old saying is true: You can’t buy happiness. Look for free entertainment, such as board games at the kitchen table, home movie nights, visits to the library, nature walks, local parks, etc.
Love and attention don’t cost anything and they’re the greatest gifts you can give your child. Don’t let your emotional fallout become their problem.

Seek Mediation If Necessary

Resist going to court with your ex-spouse for every dissatisfaction. Lawyers are expensive and courts not cheap. . With divorce child support orders can be changed if your circumstances change, but don’t make money a constantly divisive issue that too often puts children in the middle.

Look around you at all the women who have divorced and succeeded. One needn’t automatically exclude the other. Divorce creates challenges, but it isn’t the end. Learn from it, plan for success and stick with the plan.

Wells Fargo Launches Payment App For Android Phones

June 17, 2016 By Twila Van Leer

This summer Wells Fargo comes out with mobile payment app for Android OS 4.4 or newer phones. — This summer Wells Fargo comes out with a mobile payment app for Android OS 4.4 or newer phones.

Wells Fargo, the second largest debit card issuer and fifth largest credit card issuer, comes out with a mobile payment app for Android OS 4.4 or newer phones. The app will enable Near Field Communications (NFC) transactions for the millions of smartphones and tablets that use the app.

Wells Fargo Wallet will be added to the company’s existing mobile banking applications. Automatic refresh opportunities incorporating the WFW feature will be sent to Android users. Visa consumers and small business card customers also will be able to register.

Wells Fargo Payment App For Android Phones

Wells Fargo customers will be able to make purchases by tapping their Android phones at NFC-enabled payment terminals worldwide, including more than 1.4 million U.S. merchant locations. All transactions will be host card emulation-type, using the Visa Token Service.

Easy Sign Up Process

Wells Fargo supports Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay, apps that require a download and enrollment process for cards. WF believes some of its customers may prefer the new Wallet because of the easy sign-up process and other services offered with the mobile banking option.

Chase and Capitol One preceded WF in offering proprietary mobile payment apps. Chase Pay is QR-code-based and Capital One Wallet, like WFW, is NFC-based. WF chose NFC to allow all of its card users to have the same experience, according to Steve Ellis, head of Innovation Group at WF in Fan Francisco.

Access Debit Card Balances

Cardholders will have access to their debit card account balance or credit card line of credit within the WFW app before and immediately after a purchase. Customers will be able to use the app for ATM transactions as well, without using a physical debit or ATM card. WF ATMs will be NFC-enabled by the end of this year, Ellis said. Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay customers also will have the ATM service.

More Young Adults Live With Parents

June 11, 2016 By Twila Van Leer

More millennials are choosing to still live with their parents. — More millennials are choosing to continue living with their parents.

For the past century and more, young adults were prone to leave the nest and set up housekeeping for themselves. Now, they are more likely to be residents in the family home, either as singles or with a spouse, according to the Pew Research Center.

Young Adults Waiting To Get Married

The phenomenon, statistically changing the 130-year trend, is as result primarily of young people who delay marriage until into their 30s, the Pew study concluded. In 2014, the percentage of young adults living in their parent’s home was 32.1. It is the largest percentage since 1940, when some 40 percent were living at home.

Young Adults With Less Education

Choosing a spouse or living partner is the most likely condition to prompt living with a parent when the young couple is not prepared financially to be independent. Status of education is also an important factor. Young people with less education may be more likely to remain at home, the study found. The statistical breakdown showed that in 2014, 19 percent of young adults with a bachelor’s degree were living at home; 36 percent of those who had some college but not a degree; and 40 percent of those who had failed to complete high school.

Since 1980, the level of education has been more telling, with college education being a definite benefit in the job market and more of those without a high school diploma dropping into less well-paying jobs.

The trend not to marry as early has had a definite effect, a Gallup Poll shows. In a survey, 60 percent of Millennials said they had never married, compared with 16 percent of Generation Xers and 10 percent of Baby Boomers. The increasing trend for women to succeed in the job market, while more males are floundering is one of the reasons, experts say. The Great Recession had a greater impact for men than for women.

Attitudes also have been in play. Marriage formerly was considered a step to help young couples to reach employment and financial goals. Now, marriage is seen to be the final step to reaching such goals, the researchers report. They delay commitment to marriage until they feel their education and career goals are stable.

The rising costs of education, with a larger percentage of young adults saddled with overwhelming education debt, also enters into the equation. Expectations for “living high” in marriage, which most of their parents did not harbor, have an effect on marriage decisions as well.

Unemployment

Relatively high unemployment rates over the past decade also have been a factor. The number of young men who are unemployed and living at home far outstrips the number who are employed and living independently.

The effect on the parental household of having young adults still in residence is the flip side of the new trends, with some parents delaying retirement and other decisions to accommodate the extra persons they are helping to support.

Watch For Fraud At The ATM

June 11, 2016 By Twila Van Leer

Fraudsters take $650 from each person they successfully skim.

You’d think, wouldn’t you, that you could transact business at an ATM without worrying about fraud. But the crooks are always on the alert, according to an article in the June AARP Bulletin.

Thieves Focusing On ATMs

In fact, automated teller machines have become a focus for some of those determined to benefit at your cost. The introduction of chip-enabled credit and debit cards has made it tougher for thieves to steal your information at the cash register, so they have turned more attention to the ATMs, experts warn.

Increase In Compromised ATMS

FICO Card Alert Service keeps tabs on three in five debit cards used in the U.S. and they have reported a 500-plus percent increase in the number of ATMs compromised by thieves since 2014. The proliferation of inexpensive skimming technology has been used by fraudsters to fuel the increase.

Card-Reading Devices

On average, fraudsters take $650 from each person they successfully skim, according to the ATM Industry Association. They do it by illegally installing card-reading devices at ATMs, gas pumps and other debit-processing machines located in public places. When you insert your card, their device “skims” the pertinent data from the magnetic strip. A nearby hidden camera records your PIN number. The information is then used to make duplicate cards or sold on the black market.

Skimming Technology Constantly Upgraded

The skimming technology is constantly being upgraded, giving the crooks the advantage, the article reports. Banks can’t react fast enough to stay ahead of such tricks as the “shimmers” that crooks implant inside ATM slots to read your card, or the Bluetooth processes they use to transmit your stolen data to other bad guys.

What to do?

Go inside the bank. They aren’t perfectly immune to fraud, but better than the ATM and are usually protected by cameras. The most susceptible ATMS are at convenience stores and other non-bank locations.
Inspect ATM before using it. Be wary of those with card slots that are different colors than the rest of the machine. If there is unusual-looking equipment on the slot, keypad or overhead, avoid using it. If it is difficult to insert your card, stop the transaction. Newer ATMs have a flashing or steady light at the card slot. If it is obscured, don’t use it.
Put your hand over the keypad when punching PIN numbers.
Keep close tabs on cards. Most banks offer real-time alerts via text message or email if there are suspicious transactions.
Create a separate account, smaller than normal and use it only for debit card transactions. That will cut your losses if you are illegally skimmed.
Lower the limit on daily ATM withdrawals to a reasonable amount, say $100 per day so a crook cannot make multiple withdrawals within a short time.

When To Begin Social Security

June 9, 2016 By Twila Van Leer

Social security main source of income for retirees.

A growing number of Americans are starting to withdraw Social Security benefits before reaching full retirement age, according to a research poll conducted by Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs and reported by the AP.

Forty-four percent of those polled said they will look to Social Security for their main means of financial support after retirement and they will start collecting before they reach 65 or 66, the benchmark for receiving full benefits.

Benefits Reduced If Collect Early

Social Security regulations allow retirees who were born in the period from 1943 and 1954 to begin collecting as early as 62 years of age, but the benefit is reduced by up to 30 percent. That can have a significant effect on the long-term benefit.

Retirees who wait until they over 66 years of age see considerable increases in their monthly benefit, according to experts at the AARP Public Policy Institute. For each additional year past 66, the amount of retirement pay rises by 8 percent. The benefits top out at age 70, at which time the retiree is receiving the maximum amount.

Individual Circumstances Affect Retirement Decisions

But many Americans can’t or don’t want to wait that long to begin collecting, depending on their individual circumstances. Health and other considerations may weigh heavily in decisions to retire. Some people who lose their employment while approaching retirement are not able to get another job and early withdrawal of Social Security funds is a necessary option.

Social Security Main Source Of Income

Social Security is becoming more and more the main source of anticipated income for the retirement crowd. Fewer companies are offering standard retirement plans, opting to offer employees 401(k) and other plans to provide for their old age years. Only 43 percent of those polled said they are expecting a traditional pension.

Supplementing Social Security

Some workers, about 50 percent, reported that they also have other padding, such as a regular savings or IRA account, but some Social Security is by far the most commonly anticipated source, the survey found. Some 86 percent of those polled said they expect Social Security to contribute to their retirement income.

Retirement Age Rising

The average retirement age has been rising, as more Americans, particularly women, see the necessity for working longer to make retirement affordable. The average age for males is 64, and 62 for females. Compared with other countries, the American retirement ages still are relatively young.

Many factors enter into the retirement decision, including life expectancy data that show there are differences between rich and poor and among ethnic groups.

Questions about the solvency of the country’s most–drawn on retirement finance source have been a troubling aspect of the issue for some time. Since 1984, the program’s trust fund has run a surplus, but that is expected to end by around 2020 when the Baby Boomer generation hits the retirement ranks. The Social Security Administration believes interest income from the fund should be able to handle the increase until 2034, but at that point, the possibility of shrinkage in benefits could become a reality unless the issues are addressed. The matter is part of the current presidential debates taking place before the November elections. Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton sees a need for expansion of the program, while likely Republican candidate Donald Trump has declared it should not be changed.