What a terrible time to increase it. This is just another cost that will be forwarded to the consumer, not to mention businesses that pay minimum wage (probably for a good reason, like low profits) will have to cut back on their hiring or even go ahead with layoffs.
Essentially, I've been saving since I was born (if you include savings made on my behalf). My grandmother used to buy bonds for me, which my parents saved until after I graduated from college.
We live out in the country, where folks tend to keep things in big sheds and piles. It's surprising how much of it can be reused eventually.
I remember having a supervisor who was astounded when he heard I was darning socks. He was a runner and bought his socks by the dozens and threw them out when they got holes. Well, I'm a walker, and I'm sure not going to replace my Thorlo's any more often than I have to!
1. Chinese and Spanish are the 2 languages I'd like to learn too. I'm on the way with learning French at least.. but Spanish would be muy bueno for the States
2. Any sort of computer skills (basic) like MS office stuff -- Word, Excel, Powerpoint, are generally highly regarded.. I'm just lucky to have loved computers all my life.
3. Organization is my middle name. I love it. Again.. I got lucky with a lifelong passion for arranging and decluttering.
4. Sewing -- I learned how to hem my own pants at least, since I'm 5'4" and most pants are made for 5'7" women. Saved me a bundle!
The best way to hem a pair of pants without sewing and to make it look great, is no-stich hemming tape. I LOVE this stuff. $1.00 for a chunk that will last you a while if you don't buy much, and it's worth every penny.
Just need an iron, pins, water and a sense of what's straight/not. Plus balance.
I'm in agreement with Xin Lu (#4), this won't be as easy for the bad guys as more traditional methods of identity theft.
On networks and other non-essential venues, I scramble the information I give, including age, soc sec, date of birth and anything else I can. They aren't verifying any of it either, otherwise I'd have been thrown out of any number of sites. If they're collecting information it's guaranteed they're assembling in a database for sale, so why make it easy?
It probably would do us all a world of good to reduce our "identity footprint" by giving out bogus info (extending to creating a bogus profile with scrambled info) and paying cash whenever and where ever we buy.
than you think! Fifty to sixty years ago, most clothing was home made and on far less sophisticated machines than are available today. The machines available now make things like hemming ultra easy with specialized stitches and feet. I make the majority of my garments and home deco items. I've also made some pocket change teaching others to sew as well as doing alterations. I've even taught my husband to sew. I recently taught a group of women to sew a travel wardrobe based on clothing in a popular (and expensive) travel clothing catalog. Cost for the identical fabric for ALL 6 items (2 tops, 2 pants, 2 skirts) was $32-40 dollars. No one item took more than 2 hours to make including cutting time. Total cost minus shipping from the pricey catalog for these same garments is $380. The savings were more than what some of the women had paid for their machine.
I agree that Dr. Richard Bernstein's Diabetic Doctor's Diet is the best possible advice. I was diagnosed 10 years ago, followed the diet, use no diabetes medication, and am at the pre-diabetic stage -- below 6.0 HBAIC. The diet is protein and low carb vegetables -- not hard or complicated. If I eat one piece of bread, I gain a pound. I can lose that pound if I eat no starch or sugar the next day. The insulin I overproduced before diagnosis made me gain 35 lbs; on the diet I lost that weight. I can tell what my blood sugar is by my waist and my weigh-scales.
How many times do you call up a financial institution or something and asked for the last 4 digits of your SSN? it's also a common password reset question (why?!?!?) You could probably with some social engineering call up the victim make up some story about being at a financial institution and to verify information get the last 4 digits of CC (this also verifies you have the right number) and last 4 digits of SSN.
Essentially, you're at risk. Most people's benefit is all this stuff to extract a ssn is extra work. A bigger target is someone who's famous or dumpster diving for account numbers and addresses. So as long as you're not obviously going "HERE IS ALL MY PERSONAL INFO WITH SSN, CREDIT CARDS, AND BANK ACCOUNTS" then you were just a "lucky" random person that got their identity stolen.
I had some petty savings here and there, but I didn't think of REALLY saving until I was 23 and started my budgeting spreadsheet.
Incidentally, my dad kept my money from work, for me.. but I never really kept an accurate track of how much I made so I think he cheated me out of my earnings too....
Wow, thanks for reminding me of the “valuables” I had already: 1, 3, 8, and 10, if yoga counts. Perhaps I should do something with them now.
Like Beth, I will go to a tailor for complicated alterations. I can definitely save some cash just by hemming my own pants though. Mental note: dig out the sewing machine!
I started working at 12 and would stash money away religiously, saving 80% and spending 20%. My parents told me early that they wouldn't be able to contribute to college, so if I wanted to go, I had to save and get scholarships.
I took that to heart and saved almost $10,000 by the time I went to college. Between that and my scholarships, I only had to take $6000 in loans out for private college tuition. I was very blessed to have parents that taught me how to handle money.
In our pre-kid life, my husband and I used to keep things forever. His favorite casual shorts have been with us for a decade; much of our furniture is mine from before we were married.
But now that we have an active 4 y.o. and not-quite-1 y.o., it is astounding how much more we deal with repairs, stains and related issues. While we always try to fix things first, all of a sudden we understand why families have to replace, say, dishes.
Which leads me to my point - in some cases, it pays to consider whether a replacement item will be available. Much like the big bag o' socks, we buy our plates, etc. from Fiestaware. (At the factory store or on sale, or we get them as gifts.) It is reasonable to assume we'll always be able to replace them, if need be. (Actually, make that when!) That way, there's no such thing as having mismatched plates.
It was very early, probably 6 or 7 years old. My parents set up a savings account for each of us and we had the choice of putting money in there and taking it out when we wanted, within reason.
Bottom line, as I see it: don't make it any easier for the jerks who have nothing better to do than steal from the rest of us.
Keeping you entire life private won't protect you either, of course. After all, nothing is full-proof, as evidenced by your dramatically increased risk having shopped at TJ Maxx at the wrong time. Still, posting your mother's maiden name on your profile just unnecessarily put you in the cross-hairs of the bad guys. And for what?
This won't work for immigrants since we were not born in the states. The first 3 digits usually tell you in which state the card is issued, though. After that there are only 6 more digits so it's not even that hard to go through all the combinations with a machine. It is also true that a lot of verification systems only need the last 4 digits of your social, and then there are only 10000 possibilities. It probably takes a machine less than a second to count to 10000 and hit the right combination. However this method of "hacking" isn't extremely useful because very rarely do banks and other institutions allow you to guess a SSN or password more than 3 or 5 times. It's much easier for hackers to just get into some unsecured database and copy the SSNs instead of brute forcing it this way.
At the ripe age of 16, I got an afterschool job working in a local supermarket. After about 4 paychecks, I had more money than I knew what to do with. I was frugal then (and now). So I opened a savings account which I have continued to maintain to this day. I am now in my 50's. The balance has gone up and down with life's ups and downs, but it is the same account I started almost 40 years ago.
I have personally identifying information all over the web. This is scary stuff. I'm beginning to get the feeling that it's only a matter of time before my identity is stolen. :(
I can only add (re giving out personal info, especially on the Internet)--when will people learn to shut the **** up?! Seriously! Shut up already! Parents, please convey this to your kids.
What a terrible time to increase it. This is just another cost that will be forwarded to the consumer, not to mention businesses that pay minimum wage (probably for a good reason, like low profits) will have to cut back on their hiring or even go ahead with layoffs.
Essentially, I've been saving since I was born (if you include savings made on my behalf). My grandmother used to buy bonds for me, which my parents saved until after I graduated from college.
We live out in the country, where folks tend to keep things in big sheds and piles. It's surprising how much of it can be reused eventually.
I remember having a supervisor who was astounded when he heard I was darning socks. He was a runner and bought his socks by the dozens and threw them out when they got holes. Well, I'm a walker, and I'm sure not going to replace my Thorlo's any more often than I have to!
1. Chinese and Spanish are the 2 languages I'd like to learn too. I'm on the way with learning French at least.. but Spanish would be muy bueno for the States
2. Any sort of computer skills (basic) like MS office stuff -- Word, Excel, Powerpoint, are generally highly regarded.. I'm just lucky to have loved computers all my life.
3. Organization is my middle name. I love it. Again.. I got lucky with a lifelong passion for arranging and decluttering.
4. Sewing -- I learned how to hem my own pants at least, since I'm 5'4" and most pants are made for 5'7" women. Saved me a bundle!
The best way to hem a pair of pants without sewing and to make it look great, is no-stich hemming tape. I LOVE this stuff. $1.00 for a chunk that will last you a while if you don't buy much, and it's worth every penny.
Just need an iron, pins, water and a sense of what's straight/not. Plus balance.
I was 28. I'm 29 now.
I'm in agreement with Xin Lu (#4), this won't be as easy for the bad guys as more traditional methods of identity theft.
On networks and other non-essential venues, I scramble the information I give, including age, soc sec, date of birth and anything else I can. They aren't verifying any of it either, otherwise I'd have been thrown out of any number of sites. If they're collecting information it's guaranteed they're assembling in a database for sale, so why make it easy?
It probably would do us all a world of good to reduce our "identity footprint" by giving out bogus info (extending to creating a bogus profile with scrambled info) and paying cash whenever and where ever we buy.
than you think! Fifty to sixty years ago, most clothing was home made and on far less sophisticated machines than are available today. The machines available now make things like hemming ultra easy with specialized stitches and feet. I make the majority of my garments and home deco items. I've also made some pocket change teaching others to sew as well as doing alterations. I've even taught my husband to sew. I recently taught a group of women to sew a travel wardrobe based on clothing in a popular (and expensive) travel clothing catalog. Cost for the identical fabric for ALL 6 items (2 tops, 2 pants, 2 skirts) was $32-40 dollars. No one item took more than 2 hours to make including cutting time. Total cost minus shipping from the pricey catalog for these same garments is $380. The savings were more than what some of the women had paid for their machine.
Marketing is the top one on my list. If you can learn to sell something thing that skill can be applied to many roles in life and work...
At various stages in life you will have to market yourself (interview), your products, etc...
"Silky underwear are almost impossible to repair so avoid buying them"
Are you kidding me? What about getting SOME ENJOYMENT out of the undies?! What if, I actually purchased a THONG?
I agree that Dr. Richard Bernstein's Diabetic Doctor's Diet is the best possible advice. I was diagnosed 10 years ago, followed the diet, use no diabetes medication, and am at the pre-diabetic stage -- below 6.0 HBAIC. The diet is protein and low carb vegetables -- not hard or complicated. If I eat one piece of bread, I gain a pound. I can lose that pound if I eat no starch or sugar the next day. The insulin I overproduced before diagnosis made me gain 35 lbs; on the diet I lost that weight. I can tell what my blood sugar is by my waist and my weigh-scales.
How many times do you call up a financial institution or something and asked for the last 4 digits of your SSN? it's also a common password reset question (why?!?!?) You could probably with some social engineering call up the victim make up some story about being at a financial institution and to verify information get the last 4 digits of CC (this also verifies you have the right number) and last 4 digits of SSN.
Essentially, you're at risk. Most people's benefit is all this stuff to extract a ssn is extra work. A bigger target is someone who's famous or dumpster diving for account numbers and addresses. So as long as you're not obviously going "HERE IS ALL MY PERSONAL INFO WITH SSN, CREDIT CARDS, AND BANK ACCOUNTS" then you were just a "lucky" random person that got their identity stolen.
I had some petty savings here and there, but I didn't think of REALLY saving until I was 23 and started my budgeting spreadsheet.
Incidentally, my dad kept my money from work, for me.. but I never really kept an accurate track of how much I made so I think he cheated me out of my earnings too....
Wow, thanks for reminding me of the “valuables” I had already: 1, 3, 8, and 10, if yoga counts. Perhaps I should do something with them now.
Like Beth, I will go to a tailor for complicated alterations. I can definitely save some cash just by hemming my own pants though. Mental note: dig out the sewing machine!
I started working at 12 and would stash money away religiously, saving 80% and spending 20%. My parents told me early that they wouldn't be able to contribute to college, so if I wanted to go, I had to save and get scholarships.
I took that to heart and saved almost $10,000 by the time I went to college. Between that and my scholarships, I only had to take $6000 in loans out for private college tuition. I was very blessed to have parents that taught me how to handle money.
In our pre-kid life, my husband and I used to keep things forever. His favorite casual shorts have been with us for a decade; much of our furniture is mine from before we were married.
But now that we have an active 4 y.o. and not-quite-1 y.o., it is astounding how much more we deal with repairs, stains and related issues. While we always try to fix things first, all of a sudden we understand why families have to replace, say, dishes.
Which leads me to my point - in some cases, it pays to consider whether a replacement item will be available. Much like the big bag o' socks, we buy our plates, etc. from Fiestaware. (At the factory store or on sale, or we get them as gifts.) It is reasonable to assume we'll always be able to replace them, if need be. (Actually, make that when!) That way, there's no such thing as having mismatched plates.
You shuld not be using your real birthdate for anything you do online.
Pick an "internet birthday" that is easy to remember and use that instead.
Since my actual birthdate is late in the year, I picked January 1 of the following year as my "internet birthday"
Wasn't this an article on Yahoo!'s or MSN's page yesterday? It wasn't explained like this at all. Too much.
It was very early, probably 6 or 7 years old. My parents set up a savings account for each of us and we had the choice of putting money in there and taking it out when we wanted, within reason.
Thank you for sharing this important information.
Bottom line, as I see it: don't make it any easier for the jerks who have nothing better to do than steal from the rest of us.
Keeping you entire life private won't protect you either, of course. After all, nothing is full-proof, as evidenced by your dramatically increased risk having shopped at TJ Maxx at the wrong time. Still, posting your mother's maiden name on your profile just unnecessarily put you in the cross-hairs of the bad guys. And for what?
I understand that this is an article-worthy subject. But what is this CNN? Maybe tone down the panic in the title.
This won't work for immigrants since we were not born in the states. The first 3 digits usually tell you in which state the card is issued, though. After that there are only 6 more digits so it's not even that hard to go through all the combinations with a machine. It is also true that a lot of verification systems only need the last 4 digits of your social, and then there are only 10000 possibilities. It probably takes a machine less than a second to count to 10000 and hit the right combination. However this method of "hacking" isn't extremely useful because very rarely do banks and other institutions allow you to guess a SSN or password more than 3 or 5 times. It's much easier for hackers to just get into some unsecured database and copy the SSNs instead of brute forcing it this way.
At the ripe age of 16, I got an afterschool job working in a local supermarket. After about 4 paychecks, I had more money than I knew what to do with. I was frugal then (and now). So I opened a savings account which I have continued to maintain to this day. I am now in my 50's. The balance has gone up and down with life's ups and downs, but it is the same account I started almost 40 years ago.
If you are older and got your Social Security card in a state different from the state in which you were born, you do not have to worry.
I have personally identifying information all over the web. This is scary stuff. I'm beginning to get the feeling that it's only a matter of time before my identity is stolen. :(
I can only add (re giving out personal info, especially on the Internet)--when will people learn to shut the **** up?! Seriously! Shut up already! Parents, please convey this to your kids.