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  • mary hansen's Comments

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    Total recommendations for all comments: 157
    • Story: Should Allowances Be Tied to Chores? (1566 days ago)

      Comment: Money ought never be used as either carrot or cudgel. Nor should love. Whether paying for chores or not, perhaps the best way to teach children the value of both work and money is by example and conversation. When taking children to a store explain how much work time is required to pay for an expensive item, like large flat screen television set. Also, discuss with child how a choice 'for' something is also a choice 'against' something else. As in, if we get the television set, we won't be have money for a weekend vacation.

      No family has infinite resources. Few families have no resources. It's about leading by example. It's not necessarily easy to walk that line between stinginess and reckless spending, but it can be done. Children need to learn to defer gratification. So do some adults. There was a time when one could teach children the time-value of money by having them own their own bank account, add a bit of cash to it with money received as allowance, of for doing chores, or gifts from grandma for birthdays, etc. Interest could be earned, and children could learn that a Christmas Club, or some such, was an easy discipline for saving a bit regularly, and so have a decent chunk of cash for major items. Mr. Bernanke and the Fed have destroyed that learning experience. The very idea of 'saving' now seems so quaint. More's the pity.

      What lesson are children learning when they see a tattooed neighbor paying for groceries with food stamps? They they see that the kids in the free food line at school are wearing more expensive shoes than they are?

    • Story: Fund Firms Challenge Banks (1567 days ago)

      Comment: I was a tax professional for many years. Clients who used their brokerage accounts as checking accounts had no clue whether they were making money or losing it in the market. Their monthly and year-end statements were so complicated as to be almost useless to them.

      1 Recommendation
    • Story: Should%20You%20Purchase%20Long-Term-Care%20Insurance%3F (1567 days ago)

      Comment: Another point Mr. Prescott could have mentioned is the uncertainty of premium prices. Many people buy a policy they think they can afford only to see their premiums rise so much they drop the plan. This results in a windfall for the insurance company. And, unlike whole life insurance, there is no return of any of the premiums paid.

      10 Recommendations
    • Story: Rethink Your Withholding Amounts (1568 days ago)

      Comment: Dear Mr. Herman: You are, of course, correct that overpaying one's taxes is not the smartest thing to do. It was even dumber back in the day when an extra $100 or so per paycheck could be put into an ordinary bank account and earn 4% interest. I know. I have been an income tax professional - Enrolled Agent, thank you very much - since 1980, and had many, many conversations with clients about their over-withholding. However, taxpayers tend to fall into two categories: those who can save that extra $100 every two weeks and those who will spend it.

      It always seemed dumb to me to overpay my taxes and wait for a refund of my own money. Back in the day, before electronic filing, that wait could often stretch to eight weeks. No matter. There are millions of taxpayers who would never, ever, have the cash for a vacation or a new fridge, or even to pay extra toward a credit card balance if they received that little bit extra every two weeks. It would slip through their fingers, like water. They were/are constitutionally unable to discipline themselves to save it or put it toward paying down debt. However delusional, such people continue to think of that refund as a gift from the government to them. In one big chunk, large enough to 'make a difference.'

      Also, some people have no financial cushion. They are fearful that should, by chance, they owe additional tax when they file, they simply will not have the cash on hand to pay the IRS. Sad, but true. Sometimes the amount owed is a little as $200. There are people who have not managed to save even that little throughout the year.

      I learned very quickly that my clients would think I had done something wrong if the current year's refund was significantly less than last year's refund. It did no good to remind them that they had received their 'refund' in little increments during the past year. That money was gone. Spent. Vanished. No vacation. No new appliance. I think, in fact, that many paid tax preparers actually encourage over-withholding because their clients will view them, the preparers, as heroes for managing to secure them, the clients, such nice, big, fat refunds, year after year.


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