All Posts in "Month: May 2022"

What you can and can’t take on a plane. You might be surprised.

Your travel plans could hit the skids if you board a plane unwittingly carrying a banned item.

Airport security will likely pick up on goods which aren’t allowed and confiscate them, so the experts say it’s worth taking extra time before packing and heading to the airport to familiarize yourself with what you can take with you.

Many items have to go in the airplane’s hold as opposed to carry-on baggage with the passenger.

Here is a guide to some of the items banned by airlines, or where special measures are in place, as summarized by StressFreeCarRental.com, an online service for travelers renting vehicles.

Fishing rods

Fishing rods must usually be transported in the cargo hold, as they’re likely to exceed the maximum size of item allowed for carry-on items. Collapsible fishing rods which can be folded away may be allowed, depending on the airline.

Drills

Both drills and drill bits are classed as either sharp or dangerous items and can’t be brought in your hand luggage. These items will not be allowed through the security checkpoint if you have them in your carry-ons.

Liquids, food

You can’t take liquids through security in hand luggage in quantities over 100 milliliters (ml) or more than one litre in total. Liquids are classed as those foods which have high liquid content and includes oils and pasta sauces. Solid food such as fruit and sandwiches are fine, with some restrictions. Peanut butter is one. To meet safety standards, you can only bring a jar of peanut butter containing less than 100 ml, as it is classed as a liquid and can be confiscated by airport security if you are carrying any more. In the same way as peanut butter, creamy, soft cheeses such as goat cheese and brie and considered liquids and must be within the allowed limits of less than 100 ml.

Badminton racquets

Badminton racquets and bags aren’t allowed on flights as hand luggage because they exceed maximum size restrictions. Checked-in luggage is your best plan to transport badminton equipment.

Cigarette lighters

Overhead bins and the rest of passenger cabins in airliners are off-limits to items ranging from fishing rods to hair dye.

The rules allow passengers to take one lighter on a plane, but they must keep it on their person throughout the flight. E-cigarettes are banned from hold luggage. Lighter fuel is also not allowed on a flight.

Drones

The technology around drones continues to evolve, so the rules around carrying these items on a plane are also changing. Airlines differ in their guidance about what is allowed, so find out before setting out. Rules are in place around the type of batteries the drone uses and the size of the propellers.

Peroxide

Hair dye containing chemical peroxide is classed as chemicals and toxic substances by airlines in the same way as fire extinguishers and tear gas, and are therefore banned. Same goes for all oxidizers and organic peroxides, including bleach.

 

srmedia by — May 18, 2022 in Lifestyle, Home, Adventures

To learn more about personal financial situations, OppU, an online source of financial advice for consumers, surveyed nearly 1,015 Americans—22 percent of them 60 or older. Respondents had mixed feelings about where they stood financially, with nearly one in five feeling “bad” or “very bad” about their circumstances in terms of debt, savings, spending habits, and the ability to pay their monthly bills. Specifically:

  • Half said they’re in debt, and nearly half said they can’t pay their bills on time. Almost 2 in 5 live paycheck to paycheck, and 1 in 5 said spend more than what they earn.
  • Budgeting is widely considered an important aspect of personal finance, but 1 in 10 said they didn’t have a budget at all.
  • 47 percent have a savings account or emergency fund. Of those, nearly 1 in 5 said they could live off it for three weeks at the most.
  • Half of respondents are in debt, and most of those say their debt isn’t manageable.
  • 1 in 3 respondents have frequently experienced stress or anxiety about their finances since the COVID-19 pandemic started, and 1 in 4 took out a personal loan during the pandemic, mostly to cover food, clothing, housing and credit card debt.
  • On an optimistic note, more than 2 in 5 expect their finances to improve this year.

Of the 1,000 plus people throughout the U.S. who were contacted in the survey beginning in January, nearly half were 45 or older. The rest were between 18 and 44.

srmedia by — May 18, 2022 in Personal Finance/Consumers

Authorities are warning the public about frauds related to COVID-19, including bogus offers of tests and other services aimed at obtaining sensitive information from victims.

Via telemarketing calls, text messages, social media, and door-to-door visits, fraudsters are offering services in exchange for personal details, including Medicare information. The scammers hope to use the information to illegally bill federal healthcare programs, according to the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

To guard against attempts at medical identity theft, officials recommend:

  • Be cautious of any COVID-19 testing that requires a person’s financial or medical information in order to receive a free test. Over-the-counter or at-home tests are sold at reputable retailers and pharmacies. And each household in the U.S. can have free COVID-19 test kits shipped directly to their homes by contacting gov.
  • Offers to purchase COVID-19 vaccination cards are scams. Valid proof of COVID-19 vaccination can only be provided to individuals by legitimate providers administering vaccines.
  • Photos of COVID-19 vaccination cards shouldn’t be shared on social media. Posting content that includes your date of birth, health care details or other personally identifiable information can be used to steal your identity.
  • As volunteers go door-to-door to inform communities across the country about COVID-19 vaccines, watch out or fakers. Don’t provide personal, medical, or financial details to anyone in exchange for vaccine information, and obtain vaccinations from trusted providers.
  • Don’t give your personal, medical, or financial information to anyone claiming to offer money or gifts in exchange for participation in a COVID-19 vaccine survey.
  • Medicare won’t call beneficiaries to offer COVID-19 related products, services, or benefit review.
  • Be suspicious of any unexpected calls or visitors offering COVID-19 tests or supplies. Hang up on any suspicious call.
  • Don’t respond to or open links in text messages about COVID-19 from unknown individuals.
  • Report suspected COVID-19 healthcare fraud at 800-447-8477.
srmedia by — May 18, 2022 in News
Ritzy locales (Seattle included) require at least close to a million bucks for comfortable retirement

Location, location, location.

It’s no surprise that where you live would make a big difference in how much money you need to retire there. What is interesting, frightening or reassuring (pick your adjective) is just how big of a nest egg retirees need to retire in various locales.

To provide more specifics, MagnifyMoney researchers calculated how much money is required, on average, to retire in every U.S. metro based on average annual spending. Analysts found 28 metros —half of them in California — where retirees need at least $1 million to retire with an average lifestyle.

Seattle is just outside the “millionaires club.” Retiring in the Emerald City requires a nest egg of $995,000, which ranks 30th on the MagnifyMoney list. Other Washington metro areas that are ranked include Bremerton (52nd at $898,847 ), Olympia (54th at $895,528), Bellingham (124th at $781,000), Mount Vernon ($777,718), Wenatchee (165th at $746,192), Kennewick ($731,258), Walla Walla (212th at $708,000), Spokane (240th at $696,413), Longview (244th at $694,753), and Yakima (298th at $659,908). Tacoma doesn’t show up on the list.

Here are some retirement pricetags, on average, for other metropolitan areas around the country:

  • You’ll need more than $1 million to retire with an average lifestyle in 28 of the 384 U.S. metros. A retiree in San Francisco needs a nest egg of $1,564,760 — the highest total across the U.S.
  • 14 of the 28 metros in which retirees need more than $1 million to retire are in California. San Jose ($1,424,081) and Santa Cruz ($1,351,937) join San Francisco in the top five metros across the U.S.
  • You can retire with an average lifestyle for less than $500,000 in just one metro–Jackson, Tenn., at $495,942. Danville, Ill. ($510,202), and two Texas metros (McAllen and Brownsville, both $513,406) are closest.
  • Locals may need far less to maintain their incomes near retirement age once they collect Social Security payments. If you focus on the median income of near-retirement workers rather than average spending by retirees, residents in just three metros would require more than $1 million to retire — San Jose, Calif., San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Are you saving enough for retirement? The answer will depend largely on where you plan to retire, and whether the amount you should be saving is more enormous than other locales. And if an average lifestyle won’t cut it, you’ll need to save even more. But if those numbers make your eyes bulge, there’s good news in Texas, Tennessee, and Arkansas, where only about $500,000 is needed at a combined five metro areas.

For the Magnify Money study, analysts based the amount required to retire on the average amount retirees spend in a year in each metro. Researchers calculated the pretax income needed to meet retirees’ average annual spending in these locales, based on federal and state taxes. Then analysts subtracted the average retirement Social Security benefits in that state to figure out how much annual income a person would need from their retirement fund to meet those spending needs. The nest egg size was determined using the 4% rule — a formula where you withdraw 4 percent of your total assets in the first year of retirement, then adjust that amount each year based on inflation.

Seattle is just outside the “millionaires club” of most-expensive U.S. metropolitan areas for retirement.

Source: Magnify Money, an online source of financial information for consumers. Its parent company is Lending Tree.

srmedia by — May 18, 2022 in Spotlight