What safety and security steps can you take to protect your money? Follow the blog for personal security advice. I'll also review the latest scams with tips on how to help you avoid them.
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It’s that time of year and we are ramping up to another flu season. With flu and Covid19 on my mind, I did a little reading on how to help prevent the flu. We should have already been doing some to the same things to prevent the flu as we would for any virus. Here are some ideas I’ve found.
Get a flu shot - If you older get the super flu shot
Eat Healthy, fruits, vegetables, fish basically a Mediterranean diet
Take a brisk walk, it will help boost your immunities
Get plenty of sleep, 8 hours is the preference, set your room up for good sleep
Vitamin D, if you life in the north and don’t get winter sun take supplements
Use an Humidifier - Virus linger longer in dry air
Wear a mask and stay socially distant
Wash your hands often, everything you touch can carry virus
Don’t touch public surfaces, eat at buffets, use the pen from the wait staff
Your vote matters to help America recover from the Covid19 Pandemic and it’s impact on every bit of our society. At the national level, when you vote you are electing the next President, Senators and Members of the House of Representatives. At the state level you may be voting for your next Governor or State Legislators.
The elected officials set policy and enact laws that affect our future. Here are the main issues you should be considering if you are retired or near retiring:
The Economy - Who will best serve your needs
Medicare - Will it continue to the level that you need
Prescription Drugs - How to reduce the costs
Social Security - Make sure you continue to receive what you deserve
Long Term Care - Has Covid19 changed how you feel
Taxes
Legalization of Marijuana and other Drugs
Foreign Relations
The fight against Covid19 for the safety of all Americans
If you travel like my wife and I do, you probably want to sign up for receiving permanent absentee ballots. In Michigan we have an online system where you can check your registration status at Michigan.gov/vote. I’m sure other states have a similar type of system. Every election my local clerks offices mail me a ballot for voting. Make’s it real easy to vote when away from home.
It’s not to late for the 2020 Presidential election. In Michigan, here are the deadlines, check your states dates:
Oct 19 - Last day to register to vote online
Oct 20 thru Nov 3 - You can still register to vote at your local clerks office
Nov 2 - Deadline to request absentee ballot
Nov 3 - Ballots due
I really like the absentee process. It enables me to do reserach on the issues and candidates to make sure I’m voting with good information.
So if you are out of town or if Covid makes you nervous. Sign up for an absentee ballot and vote early.
How Does Your Vote Impact our Country's Recovery from Covid?
Have you ever wondered how to interpret the tire size numbers. They might look something like ST205/75R14.
Letters like us ST in front of the first number are the type of tire.
ST = Special Trailer used for trailers, boats etc.
P = Passenger Car
LT = Light Truck
No Letter is a European Tire
Tire Width
Tire Width is the width of the tire. So for us ST205/75R14 the 205 is the tire with in millimeters.
Aspect Ratio
Tire Aspect Ratio calculates the side wall height of tires. For ST205/75R14 the 75 means the sidewall height is 75% of the width. 205 mm x 0.75 = 153.75 mm tall.
Radial
The R means it’s a radial tire
Wheel Diameter
The last number stands for wheel diameter. In ST205/75R14, the 14 means a 14" wheel.
My friends taught me this little trick to fly for free anywhere in the world. They’ve been doing this for years and have been everywhere from Europe, Africa, Asia, Middle East and many other places. Use this for domestic travel also.
This is totally legal and takes advantage of frequency flyer programs with major airlines and credit card promotions. In short you cycle through credit card company airline mile promotions.
Here are the steps for Free Airline Travel
Rear the Tips for Success for Free Air Travel below before your start!
Look for major credit card promotions from companies like Chase, American Express and others
Try to find promotions with 50,000 miles or more. They normally require you to spend $3,000 to $4,000 in the first three months to lock in the miles.
Signup for that credit card in your name only NOT with our wife or others.
Move all of your bill payments and everything, I mean everything to that card. You need the $3-$4,000 in purchases to lock in the miles.
Make sure you meet the 3 month purchase requirement.
Once your 1st card has confirmed that you’ve locked your 50,000 miles then
From within your credit card account, refer you spouse to the credit card for which you’ll receive a referral bonus of 4,000 to 5,000 miles.
Your spouse signs up for their card in their own name which qualifies them for 50,000 miles as long as you meet the spend limit.
Now you move all the bill payments and everything you purchase to your spouses new card to lock in their miles.
Make sure you meet the 3 month purchase on your spouse’s card
Transfer the miles to your frequent flyer program, see below
Base on the sample above, by now you should have accrued:
50,000 for your
4,000 for your purchases
5, 000 for your spouse referral
50,000 for your spouse
4,000 for your spouse purchases
Total: 113,000 miles in less then a year
Wait a bit and don’t forget to cancel both of these cards before the yearly renewal feel comes up.
Book a flight and enjoy you free air travel!
Transfer the Miles for your Free Air Travel
Your card is typically connected to an airline, if you aren’t enrolled in the frequent flyer program for that airline, you and your spouse will need to do so.
From you Credit Card Accounts, transfer the frequent flyer miles to your airline program
Don’t forget to cancel the cards before the yearly fee!
Time for New Free Air Travel Card
Start the process all over again to get another 100,000 free frequent travel miles.
Tips to Success for Free Airline Travel
Don’t pick a card where you have to pay a signing fee ups front.
Don’t fall for the low mileage promotions like 25,000, it takes 60,000 or 70,000 miles to fly overseas.
Make sure the miles transfer to a major airline frequent flyer program as soon as they are confirmed.
Add reminders in your calendar for when to cancel the card before fees hit
Cancel the card before the yearly fee is due
Here a are some great places to use your Free Air Travel:
Always beware of social media scams. While it’s fun to connect with friends and family, you need to beware of your online presence on social media. Facebook, Instagram, Next Door, Google Hangouts, Words with Friends and more, always keep your guard up. Here are a few social media scamps you should be wary of.
The Gift Card Scam
The gift card scam goes like this. You want to buy something, lets say a puppy and you find a great deal on one of the social media sites. Cute little puppy for a great value. You reach out and the seller asks you pay with gift cards from various stores. They come up with a great excuse on why they need the gift cards. You send them the gift card numbers and they’ll ship you the cute puppy. Your monies gone and guess what, the do never shows up.
The Celebrity Scam
The celebrity scam goes like this. A “Celebrity” reaches out to you and asks for a donation to their favorite charity. They do this through their social media sites. The issue is it’s probably not them and someone has created a spoof site making you believe it’s the celebrity. Before you know it, you’ve made a donation to a celebrity scam. Saw a stat that over 8,000 Americans lost $10,000 in scams in one year resulting in millions of dollars per year in scams.
New Job - First Month’s Pay in Advance
Your on Google Hangouts or Facebook and mention that you need a new job. Someone reaches out to you with a great new position. You talk for a while and they give you and interview. The best part of the deal is they offer to pay you a weeks advance that goes with the new job offer. All they ask is for you to send them a couple hundred dollars to handle the job processing fees and we’ll be good to go. Guess what, your out the money, their check will bounce and you never hear from the company again. Anyone offering a legitimate job will not ask you for money in advance. You’ll have to work first, for which you will receive a pay check.
Word with Friends… Not Really a Friend
My mom loves to play Word with Friends, she plays every night. If you didn’t know it, strangers can reach out to you and ask for a game. The same stranger reaches out to her time after time and before you know it she has a new “friend”. They continue to play and talk about their family. All of a sudden they have a family emergency, maybe they allege their grand child needs an emergency surgery, they ask Mom for $1,000 to help them out. She sends it, just helping a friend. Happens every day of every year. Don’t let this happen to you, don’t send money to people you don’t know!
NextDoor Social Scam
Great app to learn about what’s going on in your neighborhood. Picnics, parties all kinds of run with friends. Contractors also lurk on NextDoor looking for new business victims. They contact you them. They quote your job and ask for a deposit never to be heard from again. Beware!
Facebook Friend Requests
Really simple, only accept friend requests from people you know. If you friend someone you don’t know, they gain access to your profile. Once they know you and who you are, it makes it easier for them to spoof your ID and who your are. Certainly don’t friend a second friend request, could be someone you know who had their account stolen by a Facebook scammer.
More Advice with Online Scams
Online scams are prevalent and fraudsters will do anything to get into your accounts. Here are a few ways you can stop them:
Don’t click on pop-ups or attachments if you don’t know who they’re from
Never share your password with someone on the phone
Don’t allow anyone to control your computer remotely
