The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day

Last week, I looked up when Saint Patrick’s day was so I could write this greeting.

However, with the pandemic crisis, I forgot all about it. I went out yesterday to the credit union and to my local food co-op and Safeway to stock up on more food. When I got home, I followed the Consumer Reports recommendations for washing off my groceries, a time consuming process. Then I wrote about how to do it, also time consuming.

About an hour ago, I saw the governor of Washington state, Jay Inslee, on television wearing a green tie. Strange, I thought. Then, I remembered. It’s Saint Patrick’s Day.

Baby boomer bloggers offer advice about entertainment, travel, health, and love

Friends provide such joy in life. I was really fortunate when I moved to the Seattle area years ago and joined the League of Women Voters. I met a group of wonderful women who have become my good friends. We’ve worked on league projects together – land use, environmental, housing, educational, and children’s issues as well as registering voters. And through the years, we’ve enjoyed and helped each other so much.

Friday, Feb. 14, 2020, was the 100^th anniversary of the founding of the National League of Women Voters. To celebrate in the morning, I went to the Washington State Senate to observe the reading of a proclamation honoring the league and its work. In the afternoon, I attended a Gala 100th Birthday Party and High Tea sponsored by the Tacoma-Pierce County League of Women Voters.

It was a great day of celebration and memories.

Meanwhile, our baby boomer bloggers continue writing helpful articles. Topics include:

• Galentine’s Day, in which women celebrate with their women friends who support them through all of life’s experiences.

• A new dog that arrived last week.

• The complicated path a writer was forced to navigate on the way to and after surgery.

• Where boomers can go for support and useful information.

• A blog About page that needed to be updated to add new ideas and experiences.

• Opinions on the Academy Award nominated movies from 2019.

• A visit to a national historic site, the home of Eleanor Roosevelt in the Hudson Valley.

Rebecca Olkowski of Baby Boomster writes about these articles on the Best of Boomer Blogs #637. Click here to get the links to articles. And be sure to leave comments. Boomer bloggers enjoy hearing from readers.

Copyright 2020, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist

Happy Presidents' Day 2020

Presidents’ Day is a good day to think about government and what you can do as a citizen to be involved and help it work as effectively as possible.

For decades, I’ve been a member of the League of Women Voters, an organization who’s purpose is to educate citizens so that they can become informed participants in government.

Friday, Feb. 14, 2020, was the 100^th anniversary of the founding of the National League of Women Voters. To celebrate, I went to a Gala 100th Birthday Party and High Tea sponsored by the Tacoma-Pierce County League of Women Voters in Tacoma, Washington. The photo of me at the left was taken at the tea.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Americans love to celebrate Valentine’s Day. The page views on my blogs have been climbing since the beginning of February. Today, they’re reaching record numbers.

Total holiday spending for the Valentine’s Day this year is expected to reach $27.4 billion. Men will spend more than women on the holiday. Husbands plan to spend an average of $358, 74 percent more than wives plan to spend on their husbands.

I hope you’re going to have a great celebration with your partner – a nice dinner, wine, a movie or play, and above all chocolate. Like many people, I love chocolate.

If you’re single and feeling lonely, plan a nice treat for yourself – an outing, wine, chocolate, or pie.

Copyright 2020, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist

Watch out for phony florists when you order flowers for Valentine’s Day

If you’re ordering flowers for Valentine’s Day, be careful you don’t fall for a scam as a last-minute shopper. 

The Better Business Bureau has received numerous reports from shoppers who turned to online florists for last-minute orders. They paid for a beautiful arrangement but ended up getting disappointing flowers – or nothing at all. 

How the scam works

Since you can’t get flowers locally, you try the internet. You enter your credit card information and delivery details.

From here, the scam can take a few different routes. Your flowers are delivered, but they don’t arrive on time, are damaged, or look nothing like the picture. Your attempts to get a full or partial refund go unanswered or are flatly refused. In other scams, your flowers are never delivered, and the online florist shop becomes unreachable. Other consumers have reported that after paying, they’re contacted by the florist shop and forced to upgrade their purchase, paying extra for something they don’t actually want to buy.

Watch out: Romance scams rising sharply

Consumers reported losing $201 million to romance scams in 2019 – up nearly 40 percent since 2018, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Romance scammers prey on consumers who are looking for love, converting what feels like a budding relationship into an ask for money to help the scammer get out of some manufactured crisis. The stories and feelings can be compelling, and the losses can be huge.

In 2019, more than 25,000 consumers filed a report with the FTC about romance scams, and over the past two years total reported losses to romance scams were higher than to any other scam reported to the FTC.

If a new romantic interest asks you to send money, don’t do it. It’s a romance scam.

Here are tips from the FTC to avoid romance scams:

• Stop communicating with the person immediately.
• Search online for the type of job the person says they have. See if other people have heard similar stories. For example, you could do a search for “oil rig scammer” or “U.S. Army scammer.”
• Do a reverse image search of the person’s profile picture. If it’s associated with another name or with details that don’t match up, it’s a scam. 
• Never wire money to a stranger, or pay anyone with gift cards. If someone asks you to wire money or pay with gift cards, report it to the FTC at ftc.gov/complaint.

More information on romance scams is available on the FTC’s romance scam page and in a video. Information about FTC complaint data can be found at ftc.gov/exploredata, and consumers can file a complaint at ftc.gov/complaint.

Copyright 2020, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist

Facts and figures for Valentine's Day 2020

Shoppers plan to spend more than $27.4 billion on Valentine's Day this year. That makes Valentine’s Day the second most expensive holiday on the calendar for U.S. consumers. About 31 percent of people expect their Valentine to spend at least $50 on a gift, according to WalletHub’s 2020 Valentine’s Day Survey. More than four in 10 people in the survey said they'd break up with their significant other if he or she spent irresponsibly.

Source: WalletHub

 

Copyright 2020, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist

Best wishes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Over the years, I’ve written more than a dozen articles for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. They included his most famous quotes, how a day to celebrate King was finally approved, and how it’s a day of service, not a day off.

But one of ones I liked the best was on King’s commitment to eliminating poverty. I found it when I did research on what were King’s thoughts about consumers. In his last book, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” written in 1967, King said programs to improve housing and education and to offer counseling to families were sporadically funded and uncoordinated. And, in addition, he said such programs are indirect. Each seeks to solve poverty by first solving something else.

King supported a guaranteed income for all Americans in his book.

Guide to getting bargains throughout the year

It’s January and it’s a famous month for getting lots of items on sale. However, every month of the year usually offers bargains.

Here’s information from DealNews, a website listing bargains, so you can make a plan for saving throughout the year:

January

Gym memberships, white sales with deals on bedding and towels, winter clothing especially winter coats, fitness equipment, spring travel, holiday décor

February

Winter apparel, home goods, television sets, non-traditional Valentine’s Day gifts

March

Chocolate, frozen food, St. Patrick’s Day food, cruises, gift cards, luggage

Baby boomers are looking backward and forward as the year ends

There are similarities between the 1920s and 2020 such as big wealth vs. the rest of us, refugees escaping violence, and Russian influence, says Rebecca Olkowski of the blog BabyBoomster. She describes how both of her parents were born here in the early 1920s, with most of her family arrived in America in the 1880s from parts of Poland, which was Russia then Czechoslovakia and now Slovakia.

“The world works in cycles,” Olkowski says. “It’s kind of weird that way.”

Meanwhile, some of our boomer bloggers are saying goodbye to another year in their articles and others are continuing to provide helpful information. Their articles include:

• How quickly the year and decade have passed.
• A year of travels, including getting some warm sun.
• How to put your goals for next year on a calendar to help achieve them.
• How to keep warm safely this winter.
• How events that stop you in your tracks can give you a new perspective.
• How a mother’s death taught her daughter the lessons of a lifetime.

Olkowski writes about these articles in the Best of Boomer Blogs #629. Click here to get the links to the articles. And let us hear from you. We love to get comments and suggestions.

Copyright 2019, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist