$April is National Financial Education Month$

How do we learn how to handle money? Where to put it--bank, credit union or alternative financial services? How to pay bills? How to spend it? How to save and grow it?  If you're like most people, you learned the hard way, making mistakes and changing your behavior as needed. However, in order to highlight the need for financial education, the U.S. passed legislation designating April as National Financial Education Month (ok, it's actually called National Financial Literacy Month but I am one of many who feel that the word "literacy"has a negative ring to--who wants to be financially illiterate?). There are a ton of resources, both online and often in-person classes to learn how to handle money. In Maryland, there's the MD CASH Academy, a program of the MD CASH (Creating Assets, Savings and Hope) Campaign, where I am lucky enough to be their Director of Financial Education. The CASH Academy is a calendar and registration tool for the in-person, free, in-person classes which use fact based, non-biased curriculum. There is no selling of products and services. Community colleges often have non-credit classes and do most states' Extension Services. Some great online resources are:

• Federal Government's website on money--MyMoney.gov
• MD Public Television's $mart Thinking About Your Money site
• How Stuff Works site on creating a Spending Plan
• National Endowment for Financial Education® site SmartAboutMoney

Whichever website or class you go to, just be sure to find out how they are funded to do this work to ensure you are not getting advice/tips that are framed in a way to get you to buy a service or product.
Take a class, spend 10 mins a day on learning about managing your money, so you can tell your money where to go, versus it just going.........

Tax ID Theft

Maryland, where I call home, is a great state with beaches, mountains, top notch schools and a wide variety of rural vs urban living options. Unfortunately, Maryland also is one of the top states for Tax ID Theft, where someone files a tax return using someone else's name and social security number, usually receiving a hefty refund. Most people don't know about it until they go to file taxes and find out that a return has already been filed.

According to the Federal Trade Commission,  here’s what you can do to lessen the chance you’ll be a victim:  

• File your tax return early in the tax season, if you can.

• Use a secure internet connection if you file electronically, or mail your tax return directly from the post office.

• Shred copies of your tax return, drafts, or calculation sheets you no longer need.

• Respond to all mail from the IRS as soon as possible.

• Know the IRS won’t contact you by email, text, or social media. If the IRS needs information, it will contact you by mail.

• Don’t give out your Social Security number (SSN) unless necessary.

• Research a tax preparer thoroughly before you hand over personal information. If you qualify, use the free tax preparation sites which MD CASH Campaign, the non-profit I work for, supports in Maryland. If you use a paid tax preparer, make sure they are registered with the MD Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. 

• If your SSN has been compromised, contact the IRS ID Theft Protection Specialized Unit at 1-800-908-4490.

• Check your credit report at least once a year for free at annualcreditreport.com to make sure no other accounts have been opened in your name.

What if you’re a victim? Tax identity theft victims typically find out about the crime when they get a letter from the IRS saying that more than one tax return was filed in the their name, or IRS records show they received wages from an employer they don’t know. If you get a letter like this, don’t panic. Contact the IRS Identity Protection Specialized Unit at 1-800-908-4490. 

More information about tax identity theft is available from the FTC or the IRS. 

Vacation Rental Scam--I don't think so!

One of the many Key West Roosters

My family loves Key West, FL. We happened upon it during a cruise where the only thing going well was that we were with a bunch of great friends (who would have imagined eight foot waves in the Bahamas?). Our day trip in Key West, on my birthday to boot, was the salvation of that vacation. We have been back several times, always staying at the Sheraton Suites, which is a nice hotel, but not close to Duval Street.  In October, we decided to go to Key West for New Years Eve and to rent an apartment within walking distance of downtown. We are not novices to renting apartments for vacation, having done this our recent two-week vacation in three different European countries. And, my 19 years as a Consumer Protection Investigator taught me to triple check any contract.

We were surprised how incredibly popular Key West is for New Years. Most of the places we contacted politely controlled their laughter while letting us know that they are booked for New Years by July. Undaunted, we continued to look and found a perfect place-3 bedrooms, close to downtown, modern beautiful decor and a reasonable price. What's not to like? We had done it--found a "perfect" place in spite of the competitive demand (Sign #1). The emails had some misspelling (Sign #2) but were very courteous and professional. They had a website with two other properties so seemed to be a business. Racing off to work, I implored my husband to make the Paypal deposit as directed by the "business" and use a credit card of course. When he went to make the deposit, he noticed that the email address was a personal gmail address, not a business email address (Sign #3). Luckily, that sent up a alert for him and he called Key West City government to see if they required a license for rentals and if this "business" had one. The answer was yes followed by a no (Sign #4). Since we had been provided with an actual property address, I then found the owner of the property and called her. I was surprised that she actually picked up the phone and then not surprised when she immediately told me not to make any payment, and this was the second call she had had in a week on the scam.

Disgusted but determined, we continued our search. I was impressed by the helpful nature of all the condo owners we called--truly in the Key West spirit--they were tremendously helpful by giving me referrals which resulted in finding rooms in a wonderful hotel, The Palms Hotel, and having an amazing New Years trip.

Thinking of renting an apartment for a vacation? Do it! It's a great way to integrate into an area and have more space/amenities than some hotels. But be cautious and do your research:

• It it sounds too good to be true, it is. Look somewhere else.
• Check the rental licensing laws and make sure your company has one.
• Check the property records to locate the owner of the property. These records are generally public information and can be found by searching property tax records.
• If the name of the owner is not the same as the company, try to locate the owner and ask if the rental is legitimate.
• Check complaint records on larger rental companies to ensure they don't have a negative history. 
• Check out the rentals on the larger, well known sites such as TripAdvisor, VRBO and Airbnb and be aware that CraigsList, while a good site overall, contains a lot of vacation rental scams. 
• Use a credit card, not your debit card and by no means pay by cash, money order or check until you get to the rental and inspect it. 
• We saw 4 classic signs of a scam before confirming that it was indeed a scam. If you see 3, cut your lost time and look for another place. 

Frugal Football Fan

I love watching the Baltimore Ravens play football. It's so cool being in Baltimore on a Friday before a game and seeing the majority of people on the street wearing purple. Even in business meetings, people in Baltimore have figured out how to incorporate purple on those Fridays. Team Spirit is everywhere. But being loyal to a NFL team can be expensive. Tickets to games, official jerseys, parties at your house and all the stuff to decorate your car, home and office with your team logo can derail your Spending Plan. Fear not. There are ways to show your team spirit without blowing the budget. Look for apparel like long sleeve t-shirts, polos or sweatshirts at discount places like Kohls or Walmart. Royal Farms often has NFL car magnets, lanyards or hats at a decent price. Try eBay or even yard sales, some people ditch their team when they move from the area ( disappointing, I know). If you really want to go to a game, try Stubhub or SeatGeek for tickets or try to find someone who has season tickets but doesn't want to go to every games. While these are not always low cost options, they may be less expensive than full price tickets. If you bring in food or even one bottle of water to the game, do it! Park farther away from the stadium if safe and possible, a little extra walking can save lots on parking fees. Toward the end of the season, try negotiating with those vendors outside the stadium, they don't want to have that merchandise sit around for another 6 months and may be willing to give you a good deal.  If you're having the gang over to watch the game, do a pot luck so you don't bear the cost of everything. Stock up on football decorating things at the end of football season, when most Party City stores will discount those items 50%.

So. do what you need to do to support your team-in a financially responsible way. GO RAVENS!!!

Frightful Halloween Costs

Saying that sometimes Americans go overboard on consumption is an understatement. Our grocery stores are three times the size of most grocery stores in Europe. Our closet and the clothes they contain would outfit most families in other countries for years. Not to mention the number of households (mine included) that have more TV's than family members (if I could only count our dogs in that number). Halloween is definitely one of the American overboard examples. Between costumes for yourself; the kids; dogs (yep, I've done that as well); decorations; food for a party; or the actual candy given out to the trick or treaters, this holiday can cost a fortune. Take this 10 second Survey Monkey poll on how much you have spend on Halloween. I'll post the findings in November.

For full disclosure, I was one of those Americans spending way too much on Halloween. I absolutely loved this holiday when our children were young, carefully picking costumes months in advance, joyously decorating the house and yard with decorations, making cookies for the school Halloween parade and relishing in the fun of trick/treating. Looking back, I realize that some of that hard earned money was not well spent.  Here are some ideas on spending less money while still enjoying all the fun of dressing up and relentless pursuit of candy:

• Look for costumes at thrift stores, consignment shops or yard sales. The store bought ones for children, especially young girls, often cause you to have that awkward conversation in the store aisle about what's appropriate anyway. 
• Consider not putting your child into a costume until they can walk to the door to ask for candy on their own. Put the money you would have spent into a college fund.   
• Try making a costume that shows some creativity like these in a Huffington Post article.
• Decorations are another thing to get at thrift stores and yard sales.
• Don't get your dog a costume. I've done it. Thought it was cute at the time until they ripped it to shreds. It wasn't so cute that $20 disappeared so fast. Maybe a cheap bandana.  
• Put money into the type of candy you give out. You're less likely to have your house egged once those kids become teenagers if you give good candy (no apples or dental floss).
• If you're going to host a party, suggest a Halloween appetizer cook off with a prize to the winner. You can work on supplying some basic food, drinks and paper goods while your friends have fun creating delicious dishes.

Of course, please remember to consider your child's safety during Halloween.  Here are tips from Safe Kids Worldwide.