All Posts in "Personal Finance/Consumers"

Poll: Economy is biggest issue for Washington voters

For the first time in eight years, the economy tops the list of issues Washington voters want the Legislature to address in 2022, eclipsing homelessness and COVID-19 as the leading concerns statewide, according to a new Crosscut/Elway Poll.

The poll, released Jan. 6 as the Legislature was preparing for its 2022 session, asked 400 registered voters an open-ended question about what topics state legislators should focus on. Nearly a third of respondents — 32 percent — named economic issues as the most important.

While the economy typically ranks high among voters’ priorities, in the past few Crosscut/Elway Polls, the coronavirus and homelessness have led as the top issues.

Last January, 52 percent of poll respondents said the Legislature should focus most on responding to the coronavirus; that number dropped to 23 percent this year.

Also this year, only 21 percent of those surveyed named homelessness as something the Legislature must try to solve, compared with nearly a third of poll respondents in 2020.

Education, voters’ top issue from 2015 to 2018, was mentioned this year by only 8 percent of people surveyed.

 

Pollster Stuart Elway said the shift in voter priorities largely reflects how voter anxiety over the coronavirus is receding from levels seen a year ago. A similar number of voters last year said they were concerned about the economy, he said, but a far larger number at that time were deeply worried about COVID-19.

“There’s an old saying in polling that the most important issue is either the economy, or it’s something else,” Elway said. “The economy hasn’t been at the top of the list since 2014, but it’s back.”

The Crosscut/Elway Poll has a 5 percent margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level, which means that if the survey was conducted 100 times, the results would be within 5 percentage points of the results reported at least 95 times.

Those who named the economy as a top issue specifically mentioned inflation, employment rates, and housing prices as concerns.

David Camp, a marketing consultant who lives in Spokane, said he doesn’t think the economy is doing terribly overall, but he is concerned about housing affordability. The 64-year-old thinks increasing housing density will help reduce the high costs of housing. To that end, he favors a proposal in the Legislature that would allow duplexes on all residential lots in cities of 10,000 population or more.

In the 60-day 2022 legislative session, which started Jan. 10, lawmakers will also be discussing a proposal to ban high-capacity magazines for guns. That proposal garnered more support from poll respondents: 54 percent said favored it, while 44 percent opposed it.

Polled voters were contacted by text message and by calls to cellphones and phone landlines.

 

Melissa Santos wrote this article for Crosscut.com, an online, non-profit Pacific Northwest news site. It’s a service of Cascade Public Media.

srmedia by — February 16, 2022 in Personal Finance/Consumers
AARP, IRS offer free help with tax filing

Tax season returns, and once again, the AARP Foundation Tax-Aide program is here to assist taxpayers with form preparation. Tax-Aide sites will begin taking appointments for free tax preparation and e-filing services beginning in early February.

Another free filing service, Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA), is available through the IRS.

Tax-Aide will continue to offer the same options as last year for tax preparation. That includes:

  • Low-contact, which allows taxpayers to drop off their papers or have them scanned and return to review.
  • Fully virtual service.
  • Virtual coaching.

Much of what is available will depend on local COVID conditions. Tax-Aide sites have the discretion to run in a way that keeps everyone safe, complies with state and local laws, and takes into account the number of available volunteers. The sites are encouraged to offer more than one service model, and that information will be available at the Tax-Aide Site Locator website.

More information, including a comprehensive list of documents to bring to the tax site, is available at www.aarpfoundation.org/taxhelp or 1-888-227-7669.

Tax-Aide is capable of processing most personal tax returns with some limited exceptions and “is a free service for anyone who needs help completing their tax return and filing it electronically,” said Cindy Gossett, AARP Tax-Aide Washington coordinator. “Our dedicated and certified volunteers will provide the same high-quality service as in years past, just in a different way to accommodate COVID-19.”

AARP Foundation Tax-Aide operates the nation’s largest volunteer-run, free tax preparation service. Volunteers are trained and IRS-certified every year to ensure they understand the latest changes to the U.S. Tax Code.

In 2021, 1 million taxpayers using Tax-Aide received more than $689 million in income tax refunds. They also avoided any tax preparation fees and pitches for high-interest tax credit or refund loans. The service is offered in conjunction with the IRS, and AARP membership is not required.

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) is offered by the IRS to the public for free help filing federal tax returns.

The service, available at locations in Pierce County and elsewhere through April 18 (the filing deadline), is for low-income to moderate-income individuals, persons with disabilities, the elderly, and limited-English speakers.

The Pierce locations, where in most cases appointments are necessary, include Tacoma Goodwill Milgard’s Work Opportunity Center (253-370-0626), Tacoma Housing Authority in Salishan (253-370-0626), Tacoma Public Library’s Moore Branch (no appointment needed), True Blessings in Spanaway (253-370-0626), Point Defiance-Ruston Senior Center (253-756-0601), Puyallup Activity Center (253-841-5555), Puyallup Elks Lodge (253-693-8731), Puyallup Public Library (253-841-5454), Sumner Senior Center (253-693-8731), and Buckley Senior Center (253-693-8731).

Information is also available by phone at 2-1-1 and online at irs.gov/vita.

 

srmedia by — February 2, 2022 in Personal Finance/Consumers

American consumers spend much of their lives working toward retirement, so many have probably thought about their ideal retirement and how to make it happen.

MagnifyMoney researchers set out to identify what a dream retirement looks like, but plenty of personal and societal factors could be impeding those dreams. Researchers found a large share of the 2,050 consumers who were surveyed expects to retire in debt. Plus, many folks are afraid that Social Security benefits will run out, or that they’ll face a medical crisis that upends their retirement plans.

Whether they’re focused on retiring as soon as possible, or at a more common age but on a beach, consumers have big retirement dreams. Some may have to plan more carefully to avoid a retirement nightmare.

MagnifyMoney, a source of financial information for consumers, commissioned Qualtrics to do the online survey in September 2021. Key findings include:

  • 46 percent of Americans think they’ll retire in debt. At the same time, 54 percent have no plans to work with a financial planner or retirement specialist on their retirement goals.
  • 7 percent of baby boomers (ages 56 to 75) say their dream retirement age is less than 55, but a larger share of retired boomers — 18 percent — say they are living their dream.
  • Nearly 30 percent of millennials and Gen Zers want to retire before they turn 50. Plus, more women want to retire before 50 than men (21 percent versus 15 percent, respectively).
  • 43 percent of Americans fear their retirement dreams could be derailed due to Social Security running out. In addition, 22 percent worry about losing their savings in a stock market crash.
  • Florida, California and Texas top Americans’ list of their dream retirement destinations.

Even the humblest of retirement dreams may require some cost-of-living adjustments, but how retirees financially support themselves can vary. It appears a large share of folks are depending on Social Security income to partially or totally fund their retired life.

There’s no single dollar amount that will allow every American to retire comfortably, but 55 percent of consumers would ideally just relax in retirement and probably not have to worry about affording bills or other necessities. Other popular dreams include traveling and spending time with family, which typically mean having a lot of free time. Still, only 31 percent of respondents say they want to stop working completely in retirement, so it’s possible folks will look to earn an active income at a smaller scale than during their primary working years.

 

Kamaron McNair, who wrote this article, is the editorial assistant at LendingTree, parent firm of MagnifyMoney.

srmedia by — January 20, 2022 in Personal Finance/Consumers
Fraud can happen to anyone—young, old, millionaire or low-income

An estimated nine in 10 Americans (229 million people) encountered a fraud attempt and one in seven (33 million people) lost money to a scam in 2020, according to a new AARP study. The findings come as fraud reports have skyrocketed during the pandemic, and as technology and business sophistication has allowed scammers to cast even wider nets attempting to snare unsuspecting victims.

But while consumer protection advocates and authorities struggle to keep up with a proliferation of new scams and schemes, AARP’s report, “A Moment’s Notice,” revealed the specific environmental and emotional factors that are present in most all successful attempts to defraud consumers. The findings from the July 2021 national study present a new opportunity to get a step ahead of the scammers by helping consumers understand when and how any of us can lose money to fraud.

“Consumer advocates have long struggled to identify exactly who is most likely to become a fraud victim,” said AARP Washington director Doug Shadel. “The truth of the matter is that scam artists are master manipulators of emotion, and anyone can experience a scam, regardless of age, income or education. Our research has shown that it isn’t necessarily who you are that matters, but how you are when the pitch is made.”

AARP’s study identified three risk factors that can create vulnerable moments in which targets of scammers may be more susceptible to criminal tactics – emotions, environment, and exposure:

Emotion.

Victims of fraud reported significantly more and stronger emotions than non-victims at the time of fraud encounters. And more victims than non-victims reported feeling out of control during encounters with scams, which is precisely the goal of the criminal.

Environment.

Coping with changes like loss of a job or death of a family member may impact a person’s response to fraud. Stressful life events can lower defenses, which may make it harder to spot a scam.

Exposure.

Significantly more victims than non-victims experienced multiple exposures to fraud. Many victims also reported being more open to solicitations from strangers and making remote purchases at a pace that significantly exceeded that of non-victims, which may have caused additional fraud exposure.

“The scammer’s goal is to target those vulnerable moments and to get their target into a heightened emotional state so that they are easier to persuade and control,” said Shadel. “When our emotions take over, we become more susceptible to fraud – it’s not weakness, it’s human. But if we pay special attention and take extra precautions during those moments in our lives, we can gain the upper hand in recognizing and avoiding scammers’ attempts.”

The AARP report findings support four key areas that may limit the likelihood of a scam’s success:

  • Fraud prevention education should include the role of emotion and stress. Bolster current fraud education efforts that focus on cognitive learnings, by including content that addresses how heightened emotions can weaken our defenses to scams.
  • Encourage the use of protective factors that can limit exposure to scams. Encourage the wider use of protective services like call-blocking, credit freezes, protective software, online monitoring of accounts, and password management.
  • Strengthen social support networks. One of the most important findings was the role that social isolation and a relative lack of social and family support may play in fraud victimization. The study found victims reported more experiences of loneliness and less social and family support than non-victims.
  • Underline the fact that fraud can happen to anyone. AARP’s research shows that no one demographic characteristic is the primary source of fraud susceptibility. “An individual can have a PhD in psychology, be a millionaire or a senior partner in a law firm, and still lose money to scams,” said Shadel. “If consumers think that older people, uneducated people, low-income people, or some select others are the only ones susceptible to fraud, that may give them a false sense of security, which paradoxically can lead to greater susceptibility.”

For more information on the latest scams targeting your community, visit www.aarp.org/tipoffs

Credit carddholders of all ages and income levels are among victims of fraud.
srmedia by — January 6, 2022 in Personal Finance/Consumers