I must admit that while my family stayed very close to budget with Christmas gifts this past year, we went way over on the food budget during the holidays. We only had some family over one evening, but we had other friends over a few times and we ended up buying a lot of snack foods. While the snacks tasted good in the moment, I found that later on I wanted something more filling or substantial that wouldn't leave me feeling so groggy. After seeing the bill for all the snack food, I really wished we'd just spent the money on a meal of ham, scalloped potatoes and corn rather than potato chips and fried spring rolls; in the end it would have tasted better and been far less expensive. A lesson learned for next time.
I'm starting out 2011 by looking at the things I've learned in 2010. Here are a few of them:
Criminals are very resourceful, but can be stopped - In 2010 staff at Rocky Credit Union helped stop a large number of fraudulent transactions. We are finding that criminals are getting more aggressive and creative in the ways they try to steal from others. It used to be they just tried to steal your money, but now they are trying to steal your information so that they can set up credit cards and loans (even mortgages) in your name, which is far more lucrative than stealing a few hundred dollars from your wallet. Protect your information by being careful about sharing it over the phone, the fax and the internet. Shred your bills when you discard them. Cover your PIN whenever you use your debit or credit card. Criminals can't do much when we don't give them anything. And please, if an offer or deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Prepaid credit cards sound like a good idea but they can come with a lot of fees. While gift cards are legislatively not allowed to expire, prepaid credit cards (usually around $50 or $100) are not included in the gift card legislation. If you hold on to the prepaid credit card, your gift may be dinged by as much as $2 every month, reducing the gift and putting money into someone else's pocket.
Many Baby Boomers have not saved much money for retirement, but most aren't concerned because they don't plan to fully retire. For years we have been told that there will be a massive wave of retirements as the Baby Boomers hit their 60's. So far it hasn't really happened. The first Baby Boomers are 65, but many are still working. For some it is because of financial need, but for others it is because they want to keep active, both socially and mentally. This generation at 60 some years old is not the same as their parents were at 60. They feel they have many productive years ahead of them and there is no reason for them to leave work because of age. They are changing jobs, however, so that they are working in their retirement years at something they enjoy with flexibility that works for their wants and needs.
News headlines don't always express the full truth. So much news has been about job layoffs, poor economic conditions, and oil prices being at 2 year highs. While these things have happened, every comparison is to the peak of economic activity that occurred at the end of 2007. A more accurate reflection of economic activity would be to compare to a 10 year trend. Sometimes the activity will be above or below the average, but all comparisons will be poor when compared to a peak. I feel that too many news shows or magazines emphasize the short term data in order to get sensational headlines, and do a disservice to the viewers by not showing longer term trends.
Feel free to post any lessons you learned in 2010. Jerry
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