MomsRules

How to detect and protect yourself from a new kind of scam

Mina Sirkin — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 19:55:41 -0800

As the economy gets worse, the number of scams increase. These scams have dramatically increased in the last two years, some of which are directed at you and your family. You can protect yourself by knowing the signs and investigating any offer.

Here are the tell tail signs of some scams:

1. The scammer makes outrageous claims of financial success.

2. Scammer claims that he/she achieved the alleged multi-millions or huge success in a relatively short amount of time.

3. The scammer wants you to believe that you too can make a huge amount of money in a short time, if you just pay for the product or membership. Scammers use peer pressure to engage you as part of a society of outrageous claimants.

4. Scammer usually has left multiple versions of the outrageous claims on the internet, usually with facts that are different. (e.g. Jones made $$$ in one month on one site, and the same garbage is put on another site with different dollar amounts and different time frame).

5. The scam product or service makes you believe that you do not know the secret of making money.

6. The scammer generally jumps from business to business, when the outrageous claim is called into question by people.

7. The scammer is audited by the IRS for having made the outrageous claim.

8. The scammer hangs out with other friends who are also making outrageous claims and who are or were under IRS investigation. These friends all show up on sites giving testimonials which are not based on facts, but only are of opinion.

9. The scammer usually wants you to believe that the money you will be spending with him/her is an investment in yourself, or it will make you part of an elite group. (Remember Madoff?)

10. The scammer makes claims that just because many other people have fallen for it, that you must too, because all those people just simply can't be wrong!?

11. Scammer asks that you commit to pay a monthly or weekly fee to use something which you can usually get free or hire a VA to do at a small charge, and which they claim was the source of their outrageous success.

12. Scammer makes you believe that you will get leads from the product if you just subscribe to the product or site.

13. Scams usually offer low cost products first, then slowly move you to higher priced products over time.

14. Scammers spam to try to get you excited about their outrageous claim.

15. Scammer will never agree to show you his/her tax returns as proof of income.

16. Scammer wants you to go borrow or to get a business loan to pay for plan or product and makes you believe that without borrowing, you can't achieve success.

17. Scammer usually uses other scammer's products and tries to sell them to his/her new found target audience.

Remember this: If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Blind Trusts: Good, Bad, & Ugly

Mina Sirkin — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:43:01 -0800

Glancing at one of the top asset planning tools of the politicians and celebrities, you may have come across the term "Blind Trust."

A blind trust is typically a trust where the beneficiary has no discretion about the management of its assets. Bill and Hillary Clinton had one which they terminated in 2007, before the financial crash. Read the Washington Post article here.

The beneficiary does not have anything to do with its day-to-day management, or its investments.

It's good if you have a beneficiary whose assets need to be protected, such as a child with a disability or mental illness. It is also a good asset protection tool.

The beneficiary generally does not know what is in the trust in terms of the assets or what the trustee is doing. The trustee on the other hand, does not have any reporting requirements to the beneficiary. However, the trustee may be required to report to a third party. This can get ugly if the trustee mis-manages the trust assets.

Mina N. Sirkin is a Family Wealth Lawyer in Los Angeles, CA and a TV legal expert in areas of inheritance, estate planning and conservatorships. MSirkin@SirkinLaw.com. http://www.SirkinLaw.com.

Is any change in life good?

Mina Sirkin — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:50:27 -0800

Is any change in life good?

One of my 2009 resolutions is to explore and interview peple about how they feel about any change in life?

Here is what people have told me so far:

1. Change in life is good as long as you are willing to have a fluid view of life.

2. Change just for the sake of change is not meaningful unless you put it to good use.

3. There is a direct route to change and an indirect route to change. The first one is faster.

4. The more change life deals you, the more flexible you become.

5. What in your life needs change depends entirely on your view of yourself and your life.

6. Change in life style gets harder as you age.

7. Those who can go with the flow tend to believe that change is beneficial.

8. The younger generation seems to think that change is not likely to happen.

9. The older generation seems to think that change is inevitable in life.

Comment with what you think of change.

Mina Sirkin

Family Wealth Lawyer

Los Angeles, California

http://www.SirkinLaw.com

You've got to check this out

Mina Sirkin — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:09:55 -0800

I came across this fabulous article in the Ladies Home Journal written in 1900. Any of you who don't believe your thoughts can make the future, you should read it. Click here.
Now, go write your own journal of what the next 100 years will be like. Enjoy and Happy Holidays to you all. Mina Sirkin http://SirkinLaw.com

Do moms really choose to defer having kids when the economy is bad?

Mina Sirkin — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:20:20 -0800

Does the economy have any impact on whether moms will defer having kids? For older moms, the biological clock has a bigger impact on the decision to have kids now than the economy.

Although younger moms may defer having kids, surprisingly enough the statistics show that people actually have more sex during bad economic times! I think you will see some less planned pregnancies, but more unplanned pregnancies. Over all, I think nature wins, and we end up with more kids.

We have not noticed any change on the number of estates we plan in our practice for parents with new kids, so I would have to guess that people are still going about having their families, and hope that they don't miss out on a great part of life even when the economy is bad.

Mina N. Sirkin is a Family Wealth Lawyer and a Legal Expert in Personal Finance matters in Los Angeles, California. Ms. Sirkin is Certified as a Specialist attorney in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law by the Board of Legal Specialization of the State Bar of California. http://www.Sirkinlaw.com. MSirkin@SirkinLaw.com. Mina Sirkin has reported on the Estate of Anna Nicole Smith, and the Guardianship relating to Anna Nicole Smith and her daugher for CBS2/ KCAL9.

Mad at the economy? Do something about it!

Mina Sirkin — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:26:36 -0800

Are you mad at the economy? We might be suffering from communal pain. I was reading A New Earth, a book by Eckhart Tolle. There, he talks about a type of pain called communal pain. It took me a few minutes to really see what he was talking about. His communal pain theory is based on the premise that as humans the way we think as a society attracts things based on our thoughts. When the news services report news of the bad economy, it creates fear in some people's minds, who then react to it by spending buying less, or by hiring less people. A bad economy is our communal pain now. Likewise, as soon as the news services chain their tune, people behave accordingly and the pain eases.

The idea that communal thinking creates chain reactions goes back to tribal communities. Some tribes in Africa for example engaged in the rain dance and truly believed that the dance would attract rain. But you can apply the same theory to the economy. Some people react to the news in the economy while others see the bad economy as a door way to prosperity. Those like Warren Buffet know that while some people are thinking negatively, there are many opportunities out there. Why not you?

It's easy to sit back and let others do our thinking for us. Taking a step forward to change our thoughts about the economy creates changes in actions and a chain reaction which can propel us forward to prosperity.

Next time someone tells you how bad the economy is, run away, and take a simple action toward prosperity no matter how hard you may think it is.

Here are some ideas:

1. Sell just one item on ebay.

2. Call someone to do a joint venture.

3. Make your own coffee in the morning and put your Starbucks money towards something new.

4. Post something about your expertise on a friend's blog.

5. Learn how to create a new product.

6. Spread the word about good products.

Mina N. Sirkin is a Family Wealth Lawyer and a TV Legal Expert in Los Angeles, California. You can find out more about her work at http://www.SirkinLaw.com.

Avoiding the money arguments

Mina Sirkin — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 23:23:36 -0800

Most married people at one point or another of their marriage hit a spot where it seems like most of the arguments are about kids and money. Here are some tips on avoiding the money arguments:

1. Divide the sum of your disposable money. If you are a saver, save your half. If you are intent on buying something with it, or if your husband wants to buy a pair of nasty speakers with it, he can do it with his own half. This always allows the fiscally conservative spouse to save some of the money.

2. Every month ask each other if there are things you want. Write down your top three and cross out two. Then plan for when and how you can purchase the remaining two items.

3. If you disagree about giving allowances to kids, see if you can settle for giving points to kids which they can in turn convert into cash allowances.

4. Don't talk about money when you're hungry. Most people get into heated arguments when blood sugar is low. If you want to talk about money, do it on a full stomach. Odds are you will get farther in making a deal when you are not at the mercy of your insulin.

5. Never spend large amounts on credit cards without your spouse's knowledge. This is one of the top deal breakers in marriages.

6. Use a site like Mint.com to create a budget and spending plan. This helps you put your budget in plain view and share it with your spouse.

Personal Finance News

Mina Sirkin — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:12:39 -0700

News widgets and RSS feeds on Feedzilla.com

Top Six Strategies for Organizing Homework and Other Kid Memorabilia

Mina Sirkin — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:25:54 -0700

By Stacey L. Crew

We’d like to keep it all, but in all honesty, where will we put it? Right now, it may seem as though you have unlimited space, but tack on another five years and a couple more children and you will quickly be using up precious real estate to store junior’s artwork/homework/memorabilia.

Here are some proven strategies for maintaining the memorabilia and your sanity at the same time!

1. Think long term –When Jack is three, you can’t keep enough of his artwork from pre-school. However, by the time Jack reaches junior high school, there could be mountains of paper to sort through and necessary to devote an entire room to his legacy.

2. Plan ahead—Boxes the same type consider buying half a dozen boxes that next until it’s time to use. Get them all the same size (like a boot box size). Label them and clear a space either in Jack’s closet on the upper shelves or another area that is perhaps accessible but out of the way.

3. Be choosy—Don’t put EVERYTHING in the boxes. Set up some guidelines for yourself so you can easily decide what stays and what goes. For example, I will keep the “first” of something, but consider tossing the rest after that. I will scan whatever I can and keep an electronic record that can be put into an online photo album, eliminating hard copy space.

4. Let them help—Okay, so maybe this isn’t realistic to ask a three-year-old what to keep and what to toss, but soon enough kids will be able to tell you what it is they really want to keep. Have a back-up box (stored somewhere else) in the event s/he decides they wanted it back but toss after a few months.

5. Display and Rotate—Set up a large display (not on the refrigerator) but in a hallway or mudroom area where all “new” homework and artwork is displayed. Leave it posted for a determined period of time, and then rotate out the old with the new on a daily/weekly basis. When items are rotated off the board, make a decision whether or not to keep, then file in the storage memorabilia boxes or toss.

6. Live in the Moment—Yes, we can hold on to stuff, but the best strategy is to live in the moment, constantly creating new memories. If focused on the “now” you will find that the memorabilia is great to have, but not the main focus of one’s life.

Stacey Crew is a mom of two, Organizing Expert, author and speaker with a book, The Organized Mom, due in 2009. For more organizing tips, visit http://staceycrew.blogspot.com

Bad Economy = More sex?

Mina Sirkin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:46:11 -0700

by Sandy Maple Oct 13th 2008 3:00PM

It is hard to find anything good to say about the economic crisis that has gripped not just the United States, but much of the world. People are losing their retirement savings, their jobs, their homes, their sense of security. Many of us have altered our normal spending habits and instead of going out to dinner or a movie, we stay home and find something else to do. Apparently in Britain, that 'something else' is sex. And according to some, this at-home recreation is having an impact on the sales maternity clothes, pregnancy tests, and sex toys (not necessarily in that order).

While many businesses are downsizing and wondering just how they will survive, those who specialize in sex-related merchandise are experiencing a boom. Pharmacies report a 20% increase in the sales of pregnancy tests and one chain selling maternity wear boasts of a 46% increase. As Miranda Levy, editor of Mother & Baby Magazine, points out: "What's cheaper and more fun than making babies?

Making babies with the help of sex toys, that's what! One online sex toy shop claims to have experienced a 27% increase in sales since the economy began melting down. "We are gobsmacked by the upturn in sales, while everyone else seems to be suffering. We've especially noticed the rise in sales of couples' toys, showing that people are buying for play with their partners," said Monique Carty, a spokesperson for the store.

I think it is great that couples are rekindling their romance in these times of trouble. But in about nine months, those who end up shopping in the maternity stores are going to find that staying home and having sex is a play now, pay later kind of fun. Ultimately, dinner and a movie would have been much cheaper.

Source: Parentdish.com