Category: Mom’s Occasional Money Advice

The Mom Weekly Volume 88: April 15, 2025

You can read this, or any other previous Mom Weeklies, by going to the website here. https://themomweekly.com/

Notes

I hope that you have filed your taxes by now, but if you have not, today’s the day! So get to it.

Also, we are in Holy Week. The Triduum and Easter are in a few days. Enjoy this sacred season. To be honest, I will be glad—not for the first time—that Lent is over. It’s not my favorite season, but I want to appreciate it better than I do—something to ponder! For now, I’ll get ready to celebrate the Easter season. 

Remember how much I love you,

Mom

In Praise of People Who Share Their Scam Stories, Again

I recommend you take a few minutes to read this Wall Street Journal article (gift link):

“The Panicked Voice on the Phone Sounded Like Her Daughter. It Wasn’t.”

It is so helpful to read these kinds of accounts. I’ve written about them previously here and here.

First of all, so we can be sympathetic to people who have been through this. Everyone is susceptible to these kinds of scams, and that’s why involving trusted others (such as family members) in our financial lives is so important.

Also, it does make me fear for what AI can do to perpetrate these scams, and how we can guard against it. I do not have any firm thoughts on how to do this, except to say that we should stay vigilant.

A good resource on this? Frank Abegnale’s book Scam Me If You Can: Simple Strategies to Outsmart Today’s Rip-Off Artists.

This book, published in 2019, so well ahead of both the pandemic and the AI trend, is by the scammer turned FBI agent who wrote the autobiographical Catch Me If You Can (the book is way better than the movie!), not only covers the seemingly endless variation of ways that fraudsters try to cheat money out of people. It also covers the psychological tricks that criminals use to get people to trust them, or feel a sense of urgency. 

I first read this book early in 2020, before all the pandemic news, but one quote I wrote down from is especially helpful during this time:  

“I believe we have to get back to forming strong communities where people know and look out for one another. A lot of fraud happens in isolation and online. If we look up from our electronic devices and limit our online time to specific tasks and goals, we will vie less prone to scammers online. We’ll also feel happier and less isolated.”

What I wrote many months ago still is true, so no need for me to write it in a different way. Here it is, from “Expect to be Scammed.”

So, what’s the moral of this story? And the title, “Expect to Be Scammed”? Should we be constantly vigilant and expecting to be cheated at every moment? Looking over our shoulder, living in fear, and constantly worried about becoming a victim?

No. But we can be extra cautious when it comes to our financial lives. We can also begin to be relatively transparent about our finances with several trusted people in our lives.

“Expect to be scammed” means being realistic about the existence of bad actors in the world, who come up with sophisticated and devious ways to prey upon people. “Expect to be scammed” means we should practice excellent online “hygiene” when it comes to our financial, and indeed, our online lives in general.

Interesting/Notable

Marriage Article of the Week—How I Plan My Weekends: Laura Vanderkam

This may not seem like a “marriage article of the week” but it describes some of the the division of labor that goes on in a family, and how to make fun and good things happen for a family.

I thought this was a great paragraph that outlines why it’s good to “plan ahead” for group physical activity—so that inertia won’t take over:

I also see that all family members are free on Sunday afternoon from about mid-afternoon to evening. As the older children won’t actually have done much on Sunday, I feel like we could make a reasonable case for a family walk or bike ride during this time. The weather should be good. If everyone gets their heads around this beforehand, it will probably happen. If we wait until Sunday afternoon to try to decide to do something, inertia will take over and there will be a lot of screen time instead.

An Action Item: Plan Your Weekend

In the Laura Vanderkam school of thought, planning your weekend makes it more likely that you will do things you want, and not just what you need to do. You’ll be glad that you did!

Also, did you notice that I was ahead of time management guru Laura Vanderkam? (Not really, because I have read her for years and absorbed a lot of her ideas!). But still, remember that I had a section of The Mom Weekly for the first year and a half or so: “What Are You Doing This Weekend?”

Here are the questions again, and I will try to include these episodically, but not often enough so we get too used to them.

What are you doing this weekend?

So, now that it’s Tuesday, what are you planning for the weekend? I’m going to suggest trying to cover four “F”s to get ideas flowing:

*faith—when are you going to Mass?

*friends—what friends will you see or connect with?

*food—any fun recipes you plan to try, or restaurants you plan to visit?

*fun—anything interesting you are going to play, watch, or do this weekend? Now’s the time to think it through, and put it on the calendar (even informally).

The Mom Weekly Volume 80: February 18, 2025

You can read this, or any other previous Mom Weeklies, by going to the home page here.

The Sunday Tramps

Last month, I finished a wonderful book from the library: The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes Who Created the Oxford English Dictionary by Sarah Ogilvie. The book tells the story of the thousands of unpaid volunteers from around the world recruited by James Murray, one of the first editors of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Each chapter tells of one category of volunteers, based on a letter of the alphabet. For instance, “A for Archaeologist,” “F for Families,” “O for Outsiders.”

The “T” chapter is “T for Tramps, the Sunday” and is worth some explaining. 

The “Sunday Tramps,” was coined by Leslie Stephen, a writer who also happened to be the father of Virginia Woolf. He gathered a group of intellectual men (“tramp” being a term at the time for ‘walking excursion.’) who met every other Sunday for long (up to 25 miles) walks (and conversation) in the countryside around London. Stephen was known as the “Captain of the Tramps.”

I thought at first: I would love to have a group like that! However, I don’t think my local hiking women friends would like the name much? Also, I don’t think I would have fit in very well with this male-only group, who were atheistic and walked on Sunday in defiance of honoring “the Sabbath.”

And then I came across this long passage about Murray being an avid hiker, and why he, too, would not have made him a good member of the Sunday Tramps. Here it is:

Murray’s Christian conviction would never have allowed him to join the Sunday Tramps in their sabbath-defying hikes. Walking in nature was for him a religious experience, an act of devotion, which went back to a mystical experience the had when he was thirty-eight years old. Murray was on his annual holiday with Ada and their young family at Easedale in the Lake District. Early one evening, he went out walking alone in the mountains, in anticipation of rate rising of the full moon. As night began to fall, he got lost. The moon had not yet risen, he fell in the darkness and badly injured his foot but kept on going. Scrambling down a steep incline, he reached an expanse of deep black in futon of him. He stopped and suddenly realized that he was in great danger, and clung to a heather tussock on a precipice overhanging the lake far below.

Writing in his diary afterwards, he explained, “I could myself do nothing but one thing. I dropped to my knees on the heather tussock on which I stood and earnestly besought God to guide me in this, one of the most dangerous emergencies of my life.” He got up and went to walk in one direction, but a strong feeling told him to turn around and go the opposite way. This decision, he believed, saved his life. “I have absolutely no explanation save that it was God’s answer to my prayer and such I have ever felt it. One does not proclaim these things from the housetops; they are too sacred. But they are among the most profound convictions of one’s soul; and, many a time since then, may faith in the Invisible has been restored by remembering my experience at Easedale Tarn.”

Murray’s belief in God sustained him throughout his work on the Dictionary. On his seventieth birthday, he gave a speech which reflected his lifelong devotion: “The Dictionary is to me .. the work that God has found for me and for which I now see that my sharpening of intellectual tools was done and became to me a high and sacred devotion.”

Murray’s religious beliefs, his lack of formal education, and his different social class are some of the reasons why he was not a member of the Sunday Tramps.

——-———

Isn’t that just wonderful? I hope you noticed that he got injured hiking in the Lake District, like I did last year. And I am so, so very glad that I wasn’t alone, and he was not alone, and that I was taken care of so well. But, as Murray would say about experiences like this “one does not proclaim these things from the housetop; they are too sacred.”

Remember how much I love you,

Mom

Interesting/Notable:

When Paying More Tax, Not Less, is the Smart Play (gift article unlocked)

This is such an interesting topic, at least to me! I always say to Dad, “It’s a good problem to have to pay taxes.”

I was lost in the cesspit of social media. Then Jane Austen showed me the way out—The Guardian 

“My brain got into the rhythm of the denser text at more or less the same time as I worked out who all the characters were (it helped to have seen Clueless several times), and suddenly I was … enjoying Austen. The chapter openings are consistently great, the asides are savage, and the social critiques are delivered in a flurry of bon mots. There’s a bit where a character goes to London for a haircut and everyone else is so bracingly mean about it, I laughed out loud in a cafe.”

An Action Item: Consider Maxing Out Your 2025 Roth IRA

Hear me out!

As I’ve written about before:

Probably one of the best financial things you can do for “future you” is add to your Roth IRA. If you haven’t opened one? Read the “action item” section here about how to open a Roth IRA.

Not for the first time will you hear that one of my big regrets is not maximizing Roths when we were younger. Roths have only been around since 1998, but I could have rolled over old IRA money into a Roth decades ago. (And I have started gradually rolling over some money each year from IRAs into my Roth).

The maximum Roth contribution for 2025 for most people under 50 is $7,000 (see this page for details). You may or may not have $7,000 hanging around to put into a Roth, but even if you have part of it, wouldn’t you be glad that you did it early? That way, at the end of the year, you can look back and see that you have already checked that item off your list.

Even if you don’t have the amount right now, consider using some or all of your tax refund to go towards your Roth IRA.

I’ve explained to some of you how you can consider or use your Roth as your emergency fund. That’s because you can always, penalty free, take the money that you have put into your Roth IRA. (It’s the earnings that are “locked up” until age 59.5)

Here’s an article explaining how that might work.

If you make more than $153,000 and you filing single, or $228,000 married filing jointly, you can’t contribute directly to a Roth. 

If that is you, so-called “Backdoor Roths” are a good possibility. Read about how to do that in this article.

If you need help in the next few days doing some of this, I’m happy to help. Just let me know!

The Mom Weekly Volume 73: December 31, 2024

You can read this, or any other previous Mom Weeklies, by going to the home page here.

What’s on Your 2025 Bingo Card?

The last few years, social media is rife with the meme or concept “well, that wasn’t on my bingo card for …..” this year or a certain time. For example, not on one’s bingo card: a pandemic, social distancing and shutdowns, a president dropping out of the race just before the election, swarms of drones flying over New Jersey.

Do you notice how it is almost always bad news that is (not) on the bingo card?

So I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to create a bingo card that includes only good items? And then, through the entire year, to try to cover the entire board by seeing that those good things could happen. All the items, of course, would be things mostly within one’s control—so, for instance, winning the lottery would not be an item.

We know the unexpected bad things are going to happen. No one has them on their bingo cards. When they do happen, we can rue that this didn’t seem very likely to happen. Who knew? 

 But good news, or accomplishments of one sort of another, can be a fun challenge.

An Alternative New Year’s Resolution List

I have mostly gotten away from the concept of new year’s resolutions. But years ago, I did what I found very satisfying new year’s resolution, and also attainable with a good bit of effort. 

That year, I set a goal of running a half-marathon each month. They didn’t all have to be official “races,” but at least one run of 13.1 miles or more, each month. I started in January with the Naples Half-Marathon– I think I have run that race six time or more! I had a few other races sprinkled through the year, so I could easily do a training run of the amount. It took effort, but it was “doable.”

So this year, I’m going to go for the “bingo card” concept, in the hopes that I can enjoy getting to mark items, for the satisfaction of filling in the entire board, or at least most of it.

I’m going to include a blank bingo card as the image for this weekly, and you are welcome to print it out or download it and add your own items. (Also, in a timely design choice, the background color of the bingo card is Pantone’s color for 2025—mocha mousse.)

No one will be surprised to hear that many of my bingo card items are travel related, but I also have goals related to organizing, spending intentional time with friends, and volunteering.

Have fun with yours, and feel free to share your items, or your entire bingo card, with me!

Remember how much I love you,

Mom

Interesting/Notable:

You Don’t Have to be Injured to Benefit from Physical Therapy—NY Times (gift link)

NY Times Quiz—Do You Speak 2024?

I love quizzes like this. I didn’t do well, but probably better than other people in my age range.

An Action Item: Get Ready for Your Quarterly Net Worth Update

It’s not just the end of the year, it’s the end of the quarter!

Remember that at the end of each quarter, the action item is to update your net worth. December 31 is the end of Q4 (or the fourth and final quarter of 2024!). 

Repeating my regular script:

This may take slightly longer this first time, if you have not done so. But I promise you, over time, you will be happy that you do this. 

The reason I hesitated is that, especially for younger people, it could be pretty likely you have a negative net worth, largely because of student loans. But that’s will be so temporary (over the long haul!) that you should not be discouraged by it. 

When people begin to track their net worth, they call it “getting back to zero” when they have a zero net worth. That may not seem promising, but it’s a great accomplishment for those who have paid off a significant amount of debt, whether student loan debt, credit card debt, or other types of debt. 

And it can be very encouraging to see an improvement in your net worth over time. 

Here is a super-simple net worth spreadsheet I put together. There’s no formatting with cool colors and such, but it works and completes the calculations for you. Let me know what you think about it!

A couple of notes:

*Unfortunately, Google Sheets does not allow password-protecting of items. I prefer to keep this information, and most of my spreadsheets, in a format I can password protect. Think Microsoft Excel, Apple’s Numbers, etc. You can even do this on paper if you want, and store it somewhere safe. 

*There are two “sheets” in the shared spreadsheet —the first is a blank one, and the second is a sample with random numbers that I have included. I have added in pretend numbers to the sample sheet, so you can see how the numbers change over time.

*Sometimes people do not add in their vehicles or mortgages. I do, because you can see how much equity you have in the house or vehicle. But I mentally don’t include them the same weight as other assets, since they are not liquid and it’s not likely one would sell them for living expenses, in retirement or not.

What are you doing this weekend?

You may have noticed that I’ve dropped the weekly item of “what are you doing this weekend?” 

That’s because I found it just extra filler, and since it was the same text each week, probably all of you skimmed over it and didn’t actually read it, much less do the suggested action (plan your weekends ahead of time).

But I thought I would add it in occasionally, in the hopes that you will plan your weekend, at least this week, and when you see how positive it is.

I’m also writing to myself, because the action items I include are often things that I want to do and accomplish. And this week, I’m going to make a good effort to plan things out.

So, now that it’s Tuesday, what are you planning for the weekend? I’m going to suggest trying to cover four “F”s to get ideas flowing:

*faith—when are you going to Mass?

*friends—what friends will you see or connect with?

*food—any fun recipes you plan to try, or restaurants you plan to visit?

*fun—anything interesting you are going to play, watch, or do this weekend? Now’s the time to think it through, and put it on the calendar (even informally).

The Mom Weekly Volume 69: December 3, 2024

You can read this, or any other previous Mom Weeklies, by going to the home page here.

Notes: 

Yes, I realize that part of this newsletter is kind of a “repeat” of last week’s “action item.” But I expanded on it, and posted it to my neglected Your Money Mom website, and sent it to that email list yesterday (so you might be receiving it twice!). But it’s worth a look.

Also: I have pre-scheduled the next few weeks of The Mom Weekly, since as you know there will be some travel involved in the coming weeks. And I’m pre-scheduling because, for the first time in many years, I will not bring my laptop, as I do on almost every trip.

So if there is any breaking news, know that it won’t be covered in these pages—not that it ever was!

Remember how much I love you,

Mom

Two Modest (but Rewarding) Money Tips (Mom’s Occasional Money Advice )

(You can also read this on the Your Money Mom website, if you want!)

I’ve not been too active here on Your Money Mom in recent times. But that’s not because I’m not giving money advice. I’m just not doing much of it online!

Despite that, I often have valuable information to share, since I’m still the money nerd that everyone knows and loves. I just wonder what is the best way to do this well, and reach a good number of people. In the meantime two modest but “rewarding” money tip are getting me back to posting here.

I would appreciate your thoughts about what kind of content you would like to see from me, and how often, and in what form. I’m pondering options (Substack, maybe?). Your feedback is welcome! You can hit reply to this email, and it will come directly to me.

Friendly Money Advice: Always Check Friends/Family for Referrals Before Signing Up for Something

On to today’s first money tip!

Whenever you’re about to sign up for a service or get something, find out if there’s a referral link you can use to help a friend or family member. I do this often with websites I trust and want to support, but it also works well with friends and family members.

Case in point:

Less than a year ago, I heard something (for the millionth time) about Rakuten, the free online shopping portal/app/browser extension to get rebates for online shopping.

Surprisingly, I had never joined, even when it was Ebates. I think I had been using the Honey extension on my browser; and while it helped with coupon codes, I wasn’t getting many rebates.

Anyway, I thought, it’s probably time to sign up. And before I did, I stopped and thought, I wonder if anyone has a referral link? So I texted the family, and one of my kids had a referral offer that gave us each $30 for me signing up. Nice! Neither one of us would have gotten anything if I had just signed up for Rakuten.

My experience with Rakuten

Now that I’ve been using Rakuten for awhile, I’m kind of impressed at how easy it is to get some decent rebates. t’s not life-changing money, but it’s not “nothing,” and it’s worth doing, in my opinion.

For instance, I had to make a Shutterfly purchase the other day to keep my account current, and I see I got $5.32 back.

I ordered glasses from EyeBuyDirect last week, and got $31.60 back (that was because of an increased offer, which I don’t remember now—occasionally Rakuten will give you a higher percentage back, like 20 percent, on a purchase). More about EyeBuyDirect below!

Right now, Rakuten has a $40 signup bonus. That means just for signing up, the new member gets $40, and your referrer (me, if you’d like) also gets $40. Not bad! This referral link (click here) is good until December 8, 2024.

I think everyone who uses Rakuten has the $40 offer, so if you have a family member who uses Rakuten, feel free to ask them for theirs, to keep the $ in the family.

Final Rakuten hack: when I first signed up, I got “double” points back that week. I think that is still the offer, but just know when you do sign up, that clock starts. I wish I had known about it ahead of time to plan for some purchases.

Check for referral links when you are shopping

So back to EyeBuyDirect. You may have noticed it was a link—and that’s my referral code.

As I mentioned above, I got Rakuten cash back from purchasing glasses from EyeBuyDirect, something I’ve done for years. It turns out that EyeBuyDirect has a referral program.

When I was writing about EyeBuyDirect, I thought, I wonder if there is a referral link. And it turns out there is! So I have added it in here. Again, if you have a friend or a family member who uses EBD, and want to use their referral code, please do!

I just want to double underline that whenever you are spending money or signing up for something online, it’s good to check with a friend or family member to try to avoid “leaving money on the table.”

Paypal Fundraising Hub

Money tip number two!

Now that it’s almost Giving Tuesday, I hope you are all considering some charitable giving. I know we are at our house.

I have also been trying to meet the minimum spend on a new-to-me credit card so I can get the sign-up bonus. I hesitate to share the referral link, because I don’t want people to sign up for credit cards unless they are actively seeking credit card rewards, and not in credit card debt. If you have interest in my referral link, just reply to this email, or search around for the best offer for you. Donating to a charity, using a credit card that offers points and other perks, is a win/win for all.

Many charities ask you to contribute extra to cover the credit card payment processing fees, which is fair! But as I chip in, I always think, wouldn’t it be nice if credit card companies didn’t charge charities the payment processing fee?

And then I learned that there is a way to donate to (some) charities without payment processing fees for either the charity or the donor.

It’s called PayPal Fundraising Hub

What’s great about this is that PayPal covers the payment processing fees for these charitable donations. The charity doesn’t have to pay, and you don’t have to pay.

From PayPal:

PayPal covers all transaction fees. You’re donating to PayPal Giving Fund, a 501(c)(3) charity, subject to its terms. Donations can take up to 45 days to get to your chosen charity. It’s rare, but if we can’t send your money to this charity, we’ll ask you to recommend another. If we can’t reach you, we’ll send it to a similar charity and keep you updated. Your donation is typically tax-deductible in the US.

I can find at least a few of the charities I donate to here. It’s a great way to donate if you want to use a credit card (for points or other benefits, not to go into debt, of course!). It’s really a win/win for everyone.

I may also ask some of our local charities to consider joining PayPal Fundraising Hub; as far as I can tell, it’s free to join, and there are no downsides.

Your Turn

I hope you enjoyed these modest but “rewarding” money tips.

Have you had any great referral bonus offers lately? Any good tips for saving, giving, or spending money well?

Let me know!

Remember, you’re doing well with your money, and you can do better!

Nancy
Your Money Mom

Interesting/Notable

Tolkien Gives George R. R. Martin the Smack Down or Why Happy Endings in Fantasy Are a Requirement

A must-read!!!

An Action Item: Consider (continuing /starting) the St. Andrew Christmas Novena

I wrote about this last year, and so I’m going to share again. The St. Andrew Christmas novena began last Saturday, as it does every year on November 30, but it’s ongoing, so you can jump in at any time.

The St. Andrew Novena is an interesting novena. It starts on the feast of St. Andrew, which is November 30, and ends on December 24. You are meant to pray the pray 15x a day. You can read about it here on the Hallow website.

Now, 15 times a day may seem like a lot, but it’s really not. I have an album in 15 photos of different artist versions of the prayer. Some are repeated. What I do is “favorite” a prayer once I’ve said it, and come back to the album when I have a chance. Once all of the photos are favorited, I’m finished for the day. The next day, I remove them from favorites, and so on, through the novena. It’s worked really well for me. This year I decided to create my own. I quickly created five different ones in a graphic design program, and they are now part of the album. 

Here’s a screenshot (from last year!) of my album of St. Andrew Novenas:

Here are a couple of individual ones that you can save if you would like: