Frugal Tips For Thrifty Seniors

Posted on February 28, 2009 by Barry Welford

In these hard times, everyone is having to learn how to do more with less. For some seniors there is little change. If they have had to get by on Social Security then they often lived a lifetime of frugality.

Long before the recession deepened, they were experts at making ends meet. Long after the recovery comes, they’ll still be masters of frugality.

Many retirees worked their entire adult lives but never qualified for a pension or earned enough to put anything aside. Others started retirement with a nest egg but never thought it would have to last 20 or 30 years.

Now they are also becoming models for younger Americans forced by the recession to trade in their spendthrift ways for a leaner lifestyle.

On the Web there are quite a number of places to read how these seniors have learned to cope with hard times. For example, you can find 5 Thrifty Tips From Our Mothers and Grandmothers.

Repair, Don’t Replace.
Cut Grocery Bills In Half by Cutting Out Cleaning Products.
Refurbish Your Closet Without Hitting the Stores. Repair or remodel or arrange a clothing swap
Skip the Drug Store and Make Your Own.
Cut Energy Bills by Hanging Wash and Closing Vents.

Perhaps the 12 Thrifty Tips to Stretch Every Dollar on Frugal Living may be more useful to you.

Tip #1: Think before you buy.
Tip #2: Know what things cost.
Tip #3: Grow your own food.
Tip #4: Unplug the “Energy Vampires” in your home.
Tip #5: Embrace the simple pleasures.
Tip #6: Hold an annual “Swap Party.”
Tip #7: Take advantage of free entertainment.
Tip #8: Get maximum mileage from coupons.
Tip #9: Shop smart.
Tip #10: Get free stuff.
Tip #11: Eating day-old bread won’t kill you.
Tip #12: Treat yourself once in awhile.

If you’re looking for even more ideas, then why not check out what Beth VanHoose, the Thrifty Guru at LifeTips has assembled. She boasts she has a collection of 631 Thrifty tips with more being added weekly.

Finally if you’re looking for thrift, we should not overlook the thrift stores as they’re called in the US. The Thrifty Chicks blog showcases the Thrift Store Gurus, a nation-wide network dedicated to a more robust global repurposing market. This is win/win as your dollars work even harder than in regular stores.

At the other end of the spectrum, if you would prefer to be finding ways of making more money rather than making your money go as far as possible, then perhaps the Smart Cookies may be able to give you advice that is more to your taste.

Footnote: If you have any particular thrifty tips for seniors, why not add them in the Comments. Someone may very well be very appreciative of your idea.

Technorati Tags: Frugality, Social security, thrift, US

Single Senior Citizens Struggle

Posted on February 25, 2009 by Barry Welford

This story is from California but the same picture probably applies throughout North America. Senior citizens who live alone may well be struggling to survive. On average, renters are in greater difficulties than those who own their own residences.

A newly released study shows that Nearly Half of California Seniors Living Alone Are In A Money Struggle. The report was issued by economists with Oakland’s Insight Center for Community Economic Development at UCLA. They base their findings on the Elder Index, an estimate of the minimum income needed for seniors living alone. In 2007, that figure was determined to be about $24,000 in California.

The report says housing is the biggest cost for California seniors, with older renters more than twice as likely to be in economic trouble than those seniors who own homes. Economic security also varied among races and genders, with about three-fourths of Latino seniors who lived alone unable to meet their costs, according to the report.

The problem is becoming more severe as seniors are living longer. The present severe recession which has cut the value of assets has magnified this problem enormously.

The majority of these single Senior citizens are women and poverty hits them much more frequently. Women are living longer but this has a downside.

75% of the elderly poor in the United States are women and the poverty rate of women is highest among those over age 65. Women live an average of five years longer than men; therefore, they will likely live at least some part of this time of life single and, most probably, end their lives living alone. This has important consequences for women. Unless they plan ahead, they stand the chance of living in poverty after the death of their spouse or partner.

An increasing number of women are single because of divorce or because they never married or partnered. If single, they are five times more likely to live in poverty than married or partnered women, and older women of color have the highest poverty rates of all. Many women have worked in jobs that did not provide a retirement income; therefore, without Social Security and Medicare, the degree of poverty for these women would be much worse.

The problem of senior poverty is being increasingly recognized, but solutions will not be easily found.

Technorati Tags: California, poverty, Poverty threshold, Social security, University of California Los Angeles

Seniors And Identity Theft

Posted on January 21, 2009 by Barry Welford

In these tough economic times, there are even more wrongdoers who will try to take your money. If someone can steal your identity, then they have open access to all your resources.

The Vancouver Sun describes an online scheme that offers refunds to taxpayers. The website looks extremely authentic but it does not belong to the Canada Revenue Agency.

The Canada Revenue Agency and security experts are warning consumers not to fall for an online scheme that is tricking taxpayers into divulging critical financial information. The phishing scheme, using the promise of a tax refund as a lure, is gaining momentum as Canada’s tax season approaches.

It’s even scamming in Canada’s two official languages. Prompted by the refund promise in an e-mail, people are directed to a website where they are supposed to fill in their social insurance number, date of birth, their full name and a line from their tax refund.

Armed with that information, someone could contact the CRA and authorize such measures as the redirecting of refunds to another bank account or the redirecting of all tax-related documents.

Avoiding such phishing schemes is essential but not always easy. In the US they are now moving to the issuance of a secure Social Security card. This would be part of H.R. 50, The Social Security Identity Theft Prevention Act. H.R. 50 is intended to protect seniors from identity theft and strengthen national security by providing for the issuance of a secure Social Security card.

Social Security Identity Theft Prevention Act – Amends title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) (OASDI) of the Social Security Act to require Social Security cards to be made of tamperproof and wear-resistant material (currently, of banknote paper), and include a digital image of the cardholder as well as an encrypted, machine-readable electronic record containing biometric identifiers

It is now being studied by the House Committee on Ways and Means.

In Canada there are a variety of online resources to guide you on how best to avoid your identity being stolen. SafeCanada in its information for seniors has a section on Seniors Safety and Security.

Other useful resources are:

Identity Theft – Seniors Fraud Awareness Campaign – Alberta (PDF document)
Identity Theft – Questions and Answers – SafeCanada
Five Key Steps to Reduce the Risk of Identity Theft – Privacy Commission

The last of these covers the following elements:

Protect your computer by using a firewall, anti-virus software and other security measures.
Always be suspicious of e-mails from financial institutions, Internet service providers and other organizations asking you to provide personal information online.
Protect your mail – place outgoing mail in post office collection boxes or at your local post office. Promptly remove incoming mail from your mail box. Get into the habit of shredding or destroying pre-approved credit card, insurance or loan applications, bills, credit card receipts and anything that contains your personal information
Get into the habit of checking your credit report on an annual basis — the major credit reporting bureaus will provide one free report each year.
Do not give out personal information over the phone, unless you know the person to whom you are speaking, or you initiated the call yourself.
If you believe or suspect that your personal information may have been compromised, contact the proper authorities (i.e., your bank, credit card issuer, credit reporting bureaus, utility provider, and so on) as soon as possible.

Be extremely cautious and make sure you are not the victim of some phishing scheme. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes and it can affect everyone, including you. Protect your personal information from being at risk. It is better to be safe than sorry.

Avoiding ID theft – CBC

Technorati Tags: Canada Revenue Agency, Crime, Identity theft, Social security

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