Twila Van Leer

Control Your Holiday Budget

November 24, 2017 By Twila Van Leer

If you are prone to go all out for Christmas and end up facing a New Year saddled with left-over debt, begin now to stay in control of your holiday spending.

Start the annual binge with a realistic view of how much you have to spend. Review your income and set expenses. What’s left over is what you can spend. (This is the time of year when too many people remember that they vowed last year to start a savings account especially for the holidays. Too late now.)

Work from a list, Write down every person to whom you want to give a Christmas remembrance. Even co-workers, the teachers and the neighbors. Remember to expect the extra expenses in foods, decorations and charitable donations you give at this time of year. If there are parties and special events that might dip into your budget, add them. If your plans include travel, that’s a big one. Start with that and build around it.

Go through the list and realistically determine how much you can spend for everyone on it. Homemade is good. Simple is easy. Trying to impress the recipient usually gets you into trouble budget-wise. This is a time when the old saying that “It’s the thought that counts” becomes operational.

Stick to the plan. It doesn’t take much of a hard left turn to put you off-track. Calendar your shopping, trying to categorize into foods and gifts. Don’t try to cram too much into a single shopping trip. When you get tired, you’ll be tempted to “buy anything” just to get the task behind you. Don’t weaken.

Keep track as you go through the process. Make adjustments if necessary, with your eye on the bottom line at all times. Keep your list up-to-date, crossing off the items as you purchase them. Once you have crossed them off, forget them. Second thoughts can be costly.

If you can wake up on Jan. 1 free of worry and ready to begin a new year with a clean slate, you’ll be glad you took the trouble to make your holidays debt-free.

Pay Equity 200 Years Away?

November 22, 2017 By Twila Van Leer

Two trends in the job market suggest that the gap in paycheck bottom lines based on gender won’t be going away any time soon.

The estimate, based on current conditions, say that it will take at least 217 years for equity to become the norm.
That outlook comes from the World Economic Forum. The forum gathers statistical data from 144 countries in the world with input from the International Labor Organization, the United Nations and World Health Organization

As one indicator that wage equity is not an immediate likelihood, the forum reports that fewer women are currently entering the workforce. That reduces the competitive pressure on employers to give male and female workers the same salaries.

Although the international agencies report that women are doing as well as men in health and education matters, the effort to promote pay equity continues to fall short. Salaries are, in fact, becoming less equal.

Women make less than men in the same field, the agencies report, but that is only one aspect of the problem overall. Women are more likely than their male counterparts to do work at home gratis. Women tend to work in fields that offer lower average pay. They are much less likely to rise to the top ranks in any of the fields.

Iceland leads the world in gender equality when it comes to pay, the forum reported. Western European countries also are making strides toward equity.

Gender equality is both a moral and economic factor, according to Saadia Zahidi, head of education, gender and work for the World Economic Forum. She said the countries that are seeing wage gaps gradually closing recognize that there are dividends for a country’s overall economy in parity policies.

The United States, although it scores high overall, still has big gaps in workforce participation and wages, the forum reported. The group estimates that the U.S. could add $1.75 trillion to its economy by promoting pay parity. Globally, the estimated economic benefit would reach $5.3 trillion by 2025 if disparity were reduced by just 25 percent.

When Job Interview Questions Are Illegal

November 20, 2017 By Twila Van Leer

Illegal Job Interviews — Guidelines set out by the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission make it illegal to discriminate against any individual based on age, gender, sexual orientation or pregnancy.

What if the person interviewing you for a job goes beyond the bounds of what’s legal? It happens fairly often, according to an Associated Press-CNBC survey. About half of the sample said they had been asked questions that could be used to discriminate against them under equal opportunity laws.

Questions that are disallowed include the applicant’s age, marital status, medical history or presence of a disability, whether they or a partner is pregnant or plans to have children or their religious beliefs. Guidelines set out by the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission make it illegal to discriminate against any individual based on age, gender, sexual orientation or pregnancy.

An employer who persists in asking such questions of prospective employees may be investigated for creating a “pattern of discrimination.”

Unfortunately, many job applicants are not aware of anti-discrimination laws and fail to report instances. Most large businesses have taken steps to assure that their hiring practices don’t fall outside the law. The rule of thumb is to ask only questions directly related to the job in question.

People who feel they have been questioned inappropriately can report to the EEO. It is all right to walk out of an interview that crosses the bounds, experts in the field say.

Beauty Products Great Christmas Gifts

November 18, 2017 By Twila Van Leer

Beauty Products Christmas Gifts — Beauty products have been at the top of the gift lists for many women each Christmas

Traditionally, beauty products have been at the top of the gift lists for many women each Christmas and the merchants who deal in such items are doing what they can to make the gift-buying easier. Some stores, including Walmart and Target, are rearranging their displays and adding less expensive niche brands to their selections.

Korean-produced beauty products are being featured in some discount and drug chains. Glow Studio, created by the online Korean retailer Glow Recipe, is one of them. Ulta, whose whole product line is beauty goods, has gone to pains to offer products in a wide range of prices and features brow bars at some locations. Online merchants such as Colourpop and Glambot, feature high-end brands at lower prices.

With all that availability, there are some suggestions you might want to take shopping for beauty products. Here are five, compiled by BeautyStat.com.

First, know what you have to spend and decide how far you can make it go. If you choose to make a $100 expenditure for a high-end face cream, consider how it will be replaced in the future. Some stores, including Walgreen’s, share weekly circulars that include coupons that can cut the outlay. Aim for Black Friday for even better deals. J.C. Penney, which features Sephora displays in its 600 stores, doesn’t wait for the holidays. It has its products half off every Thursday.

Shop online. Use your phone to compare prices while you shop and read reviews on beauty products ahead of time. Check out eBay and Overstock.com. Glambot will trade your new but unloved products for cash.

Follow the bloggers, who keep current on product trends. They often can provide information on drug store deals on beauty products.

Take advantage of merchants’ offers to test the products before buying. Some have concierge services that allow customers to get first-hand information about such things as color-matching. Target has such services in 75 of its outlets. There also are subscription sites such as Birchbox that allows you to test five samples tailored to y our skin, hair and style. Subscriptions range from $10 a month to $100 for a year.

Sign up for loyalty programs. Sephora and Ulta have reward programs that offer points on purchases. If you spend $400 in a year, you qualify for Ulta Platinum, which gives you 1.25 points for each dollar you spend. The points can be used in conjunction with couples and other discount offers. Be aware that at Sephora, your loyalty points expire if you haven’t purchased for 18 months or more.

With such smart shopping, you can look forward to putting your best face on the holidays and sharing the same with those on your gift list.

Prenuptial Agreements On The Upswing

November 14, 2017 By Twila Van Leer

Deciding before the “I do’s” how they are going to handle their combined assets is become a more popular approach for Americans. A prenuptial agreement can prevent hassles down the road and ease out the bumps that often cause trouble, experts say.

For instance: One of the partners is a very careful budgeter and keeps close track of her assets. Her fiancé tends to be looser in his money management and doesn’t shy from a few risks. An agreement in writing may help the couple find middle ground they both can live with. If, unfortunately, the marriage doesn’t work (half of them don’t) there is more solid ground for settling things.

One couple agreed to separate her retirement savings from his business funds. She had the peace of mind that her retirement would be more secure. He was on notice that he needed to remain within his means as he undertook new ventures.

Millennials tend to put off marriage until later in life than did their parents. They are more likely to have established careers, businesses and property. They can be protective of these assets. They are more open to a prenuptial agreement. Old perceptions that such an agreement is unromantic or selfish or that it indicates a lack of trust are being set aside in favor of a practical approach.

Back in 1975, about 43 percent of women were stay-at-home mothers and housekeepers. In 2016, that figure was 14 percent. The majority of women now have assets of their own when they are ready to marry. They are not as dependent on a husband for their living.

Prenuptial agreements have gained popularity for all these reasons. The increase of divorces in America also is a factor, according to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. An academy survey said that 62 percent of the lawyer members had seen an increase in the number of couples seeking prenups in the past few years, especially among those in the Millennial age span.

The pre-marriage agreements have also changed, the academy found. Initially, they were seen as a way to protect one of the partners if he or she had more assets or appeared likely to benefit from inheritances.

Now, they focus on such things as property and dividing debt, particularly student loan debt. The agreement can forestall sticky situations in the future. One man, for instance, wanted to assure his parents, who were likely to bequeath him a considerable amount of money from their business, that his inheritance would stay in the family should his planned marriage fail.

For some couples, such an arrangement is “the first step to a divorce.” But for some couples, pre-existing situations make a prenuptial understanding a good idea — for instance, when there are children from a previous marriage.

Some couples bypass the prenuptial agreement, but make legal arrangements after their marriage to address issues that could become stumbling blocks.

The experts defend pre-marriage agreements on the basis that “marriage is a financial decision and divorce is a financial decision” and the best approach is to keep them upfront.