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February 2021
Save Your Money With These Useful Budgeting Tricks
Saving money can be a challenge at any time, but last year made sticking with a savings plan especially difficult. However, this is a new year, and it’s the perfect time to start budgeting. Plus, with Tax Day on the horizon, it’s wise to start looking over your finances sooner rather than later. The first step to build your savings is to create and maintain a budget, which I know is easier said than done. Many people start using one, but after a couple months, they forget to update it with their current expenses. If you can find a budgeting system that works for you, this is a sure way to become an adamant saver. To help you get started, here are a few tips I’ve found very useful for devising a plan. Before you begin making your budget, find out where your money is coming from (income) and going to (expenses). Spend some time looking through your pay stubs, bank statements, and any other financial documentation you may have. Depending on how many documents you have and how far back you need to go, this can take a couple days. To make it easier, plan a weekend where you can focus solely on gathering all your financial information. Once you have this information at hand, calculate your monthly income. When you know your total after-tax income, you can calculate your total monthly expenses. These will include mortgage or rent, auto payments, electricity, food, insurance, medical expenses, and any other expenses, such as entertainment or a gym membership. Your total income minus your total expenses (if it’s in the positive) will show you what you’re able to put into your savings.
This familiar method is widely used to understand personal cash flow. Though this number reveals what you can save without effort, the challenge is to increase that number by reducing your expenses. To stay on track and ensure you are saving, one useful method is creating a weekly budget by tracking your typical weekly expenses. I’ll admit, it can be challenging at first. Withdraw your budgeted spending amount at the beginning of the week and limit yourself to using only that money to make purchases. Then, reduce that amount every week by $10, which will force you to think about where you can start cutting costs. While difficult, once you get used to this method, you’ll have far more money to put toward your savings. If you’re struggling to keep track of your finances, I recommend using a reliable budgeting app. Spending Tracker and Goodbudget are both easy to use and allow you to plug in your income and expenses to track where your money is going and how much you spend on different categories. Goodbudget even allows you to keep track of everything straight from your phone, iPad, laptop, or any preferred device, which makes updating and understanding your finances a little easier. Finding a budget plan that works for you might take some time, but you won’t regret the effort you put into it. You’ll be able to see which expenses you can cut, and it’ll feel great to see your savings grow. — Jeffrey Campbell
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The Truth About Dark Chocolate
As you give and get chocolate for Valentine’s Day (or jump on post-holiday chocolate sales), you’ll probably hear that dark chocolate is healthy for you. Before you decide to incorporate dark chocolate into your daily diet, you should ask yourself what that means. Can dark chocolate really be “healthy”?
However, the amount of flavanols found in a typical 1-ounce piece of 80% dark chocolate is very small. Alice H. Lichtenstein, a Gershoff professor of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University in Boston, says, “Dark chocolate has more flavanols than other types of chocolate; the data to suggest there is enough to have a health effect is thin at this point.”
Studies on dark chocolate’s supposed benefits focus on compounds found within cocoa, specifically flavanols, which are found in most fruits and vegetables (and cocoa!) and help lower blood pressure and reduce low-density lipoproteins, aka “bad” cholesterol.
A 2017 study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association that focused on dark chocolate, cocoa, and raw almonds also concluded that the heart benefits were small. Dark chocolate appeared most effective when paired with other heart-healthy foods, such as almonds.
By that notion, dark chocolate does have heart health benefits, but taking advantage of those benefits is not as simple as just eating dark chocolate. Each bar will include a percentage, which indicates the amount of cocoa.
So what about other types of chocolate, like milk or semi-sweet? Once the cocoa content falls below 60%, the benefits disappear entirely. The flavanol levels are too low and the sugar and fat content too high, which negates any heart health benefits. As with all good things, moderation is key. Eating too much dark chocolate has the reverse effect and can cause inflammation, and inflammation is the enemy of the heart.
The higher the percentage, the better; 70%–80% is considered the sweet spot in terms of balancing health benefits and flavor, but as the percentage of cocoa increases, the more bitter the chocolate becomes.
Money Scams Are Skyrocketing Here Are 3 Ways to Protect Yourself Right Now
For the past year, scammers have been working full time to fleece people. As a result of COVID-19, federal financial relief efforts, and state-level relief efforts, scammers have found a new way to get into their victims’ pockets. Now, they’re using COVID-19 again, this time with the “vaccine scam.” Through this
the same time, delete scam texts or emails the second you see them. If you get a call, text, or email from someone claiming to be with the government or a government agency, it’s a scammer No one from any federal agency will ever call you out of the blue. Anyone claiming to have a cure or pretending to be in desperate need of money is also trying to scam you. Never say a word back to them. Cut them off and go about your day. 2. Sign up for Informed Delivery by USPS. This free service is a great way to monitor your incoming mail. Every morning, USPS sends you an email with scanned images of the day’s mail (this doesn’t usually include larger parcels). When you pick up your mail later in the day, you can verify if anything is missing. Scammers may prefer phone calls, but mail thieves are still very much on the prowl. 3. Sign up for an identity protection and fraud detection service. You never know who might end up with your personal information, but you can take steps to keep it safe. There are several services, like LifeLock, Identity Guard, and Intelius Identity Project, that offer comprehensive identify protection. They monitor credit cards, addresses, phone numbers, bank accounts, and more with the purpose of scoping out unusual or fraudulent behavior. Many services can be customized to fit your specific needs.
scam, they’ll sign you up for the COVID-19 vaccine in exchange for a fee. They are also using variations of the grandparent scam, in which scammers pretend to be a family member in trouble (this time, they have COVID-19 or have lost their job) and they need money. Scammers make phone calls, send text messages, and craft phishing emails, hoping you’ll take the bait.
How can you protect yourself from these financial scams and more? Try these three different ways!
1. Shut them down. If you get a call from a scammer, hang up immediately (better yet, don’t answer unknown callers at all). At
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TAKE A BREAK
Well, That Was Fast
Advertising in the Time of COVID-19
Almost a year ago, most of the United States entered a period of lockdown in an attempt to thwart the spread of COVID-19. For marketers facing an economic crisis, this presented a conundrum unlike any they’d seen before. On the one hand, it was likely that spending would drop, although the increase in nationwide unemployment payouts helped mitigate that. On the other hand, they now had a “captive audience” like never before, with people streaming movies and television from home at a record rate.
The lifestyles of those consumers had changed dramatically — could advertisers meet the challenge?
They certainly tried.
For retailer Carvana, the virus was almost a boon. The Tempe, Arizona-based auto seller had already gained fame for its “car vending machines” in several large American cities, but it had yet to crack the national market. As their ads put it, they wanted to be a coast- to-coast solution for new car sales, and our newly confined circumstances meant many more Americans were interested in Carvana than before. The company dumped money into its streaming ads, and the results speak for themselves: Bottoming at $30 million in March, their stock was valued at more than $200 million just a few months later. Some advertisers settled for merely reflecting the new norms of remote life and work in their advertising, with mixed results. If we weren’t tired of the Zoom-focused Progressive ads featuring Flo and cohorts back in spring 2020, we’ve surely grown tired of their hard-to-parse antics by now. No matter who’s doing the advertising, studies done as early as April 2020 found that many consumers were tired of being reminded of the pandemic every time they sat down to watch TV. With national anxiety at an all- time high and mental illness spiking during the pandemic, that’s no surprise. People didn’t want to face the reality of the virus every 10 minutes due to advertisements. On the other hand, some businesses were just hampered by circumstance. Carnival and Norwegian Cruise lines both ran aground with their streaming ads focused on spring and summer getaways. These seemed especially tone-deaf given that cruise ships made headlines at the time as vectors for massive COVID-19 spread.
It’s in the Cards Why Valentine’s Day Is the Ultimate Card Holiday
Handing out cards is now a well-loved Valentine’s Day tradition, but have you ever wondered why?
There are legends that the originator of this holiday tradition was Saint Valentine himself. One story says that on the night before he was set to be executed, Valentine wrote a small letter to a jailer’s daughter. He ended the note with “Your Valentine.” It’s unknown whether that story is true, but to 18th century Europeans and Americans, it was inspiring! So inspiring, in fact, that the entire Valentine’s Day industry began to gain traction. During the 1700s, it became fashionable to trade Valentine’s Day cards with a short poem or verse. The popularity of swapping cards only increased throughout the 1800s. Sometimes, people would go as far as to paint or draw spring-like images on the cards.
Today, Valentine’s Day cards are an ingrained tradition, and now people can’t get enough of them!
But the true loser of 2020 advertising was Corona beer. The poor beverage company never stood a chance.
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE 6110 Mayfield Road Mayfield Heights, OH 44124 www.MayfieldHeightsCPA.com (440) 720-0959
Tips to Budget and Save
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Is Dark Chocolate Really Good for Your Heart? Protect Yourself From COVID-19 Scams!
What’s the Deal With Valentine’s Day Cards? Lockdown Ads: Have You Seen These Ones?
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A Tiny Dog Is Crowned the Biggest Hero
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Heroes Come in All Sizes MacKenzie the Chihuahua is One Big Hero
The American Humane Hero Dog Awards competition is an annual celebration that honors some of the world’s most extraordinary canines. The awards recognize dogs that have gone above and beyond the call of duty, whether it’s saving lives on the battlefield, comforting the ill or elderly, or demonstrating just how powerful the bond between humans and animals can be. Winners are crowned in several categories, but the “American Hero Dog” is the top winner selected by expert panelists and a popular vote. It most often goes to dogs who show astute bravery in what they do, and in 2020, that bravery came in a 4-pound package. MacKenzie the Chihuahua bested over 400 competitors to be selected as 2020’s American Hero Dog. Born seven years ago with a cleft palate and severe pneumonia that nearly took her life, MacKenzie fought hard to overcome her sickness
and birth defects. Soon after she defied all odds, her owners noticed her affinity for other animals — despite being tiny compared to many of them. That’s when they gave her a special job: caring for baby animals born with birth defects just like she was. Many of the rescue animals MacKenzie helps care for have medical problems that prohibit them from staying with their mothers, but MacKenzie takes a genuine interest in each baby from the moment they’re introduced, no matter its species or size. She plays nurse, cleans, and comforts them through their recovery, becoming a pseudo-mother that teaches them how to socialize and play. She’s nurtured countless puppies, kittens, birds, squirrels, mice, goats, and turkeys. Despite her tiny size, she’s even mothered a Great Dane.
In addition to caring for rescued animals, MacKenzie also helps kids learn to be open-minded about both animals and people with physical differences or disabilities. The Chihuahua teaches the kids kindness and patience and shows them that no matter how small you might be, you can make a big difference. MacKenzie lost her ability to bark very early in life, but she has one of the loudest voices when it comes to speaking for disadvantaged animals. Heroism truly comes in all shapes, sizes, and forms, but MacKenzie demonstrates that the most heroic act of all is exuding compassion for others, no matter their circumstances.
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