Jude’s Eclectic Resources

I will definitely have to find someone else other than H&R Block to do my taxes next year. I had always filled out the EZ form and gotten money back and it was so easy to do that myself. This year I was lost because when I looked at all the forms I had to fill out for self employment I didn’t have a clue.

So I called the lady that did Bill’s and set up an appointment and went today. She had told me on the phone that all I needed to bring was my figures so I’m thinking she doesn’t do many small business returns, but I have done none. Bill did have to go back home and get my 1099’s and I had already added up everything from my spreadsheet so that was okay.

However I didn’t realize I was suppose to break my advertising costs and everything else up separately so we played it by ear and she put everything pretty much under supplies which I really didn’t care so long as I was getting them done. Next year they will be itemized. I have to pay the IRS $3.00 because of a penalty on my 401 from Lowe’s and the state gets $5.00 from me and H&R almost gave me a heart attack.

Now here’s where Bill and I both got a shock because when she said it cost 218 dollars for filling these forms out I almost fell of my chair. I did have a send a friend thing so we will get 30 dollars back in the mail and she must have felt so bad that she searched all over the place and found some kind of code that brought the total down to $193. so with the $30 rebate it ended up costing 163.

Bill makes good money and he even gets money back and his only cost 151. I thought it might run around 70 bucks for mine so that was a shocker. I feel sorry for small business owners because it doesn’t look like they get a break on anything. Now I’m wondering if I even want to make extra money on the side unless I learn to fill out my own taxes. Yup.. I’ll do my own next year, I’m sure there must be a home program I can use.

I am very happy to report that my Son found out today that my new Grandbaby is going to be a boy. I am very happy for him and wish him all the luck in the world and if this baby is anything like he was then he will need all the luck I am giving him.

He said he wanted a girl first when I talked to him before and now I just talked to him and he is very happy he is going to have a Son. I told him I was sorry it wasn’t a girl for him and he confessed that he had actually wanted a boy, but thought with his luck it would be a girl so decided he would be happy to have a she first.

He sounds a bit like a chauvinist to me, but I’m sure he would have cherished a little drama queen princess. Well, of  course I guess it could still be that. I am so funny I crack myself up. I just hope it will be carried full term and healthy, he has not been very lucky with his dreams of having children.

Jodi will find out in a few weeks if Nate is going to have a baby sister or brother. Nate wants a brother because he says he has lots of boy stuff to give him. When all babies arrive we will then have a grand total of 5. Isn’t life grand, now I need to work on being a better Nana because I don’t think I ever want to be a Granny.

Since Bill and I are getting nearer the retirement age we have more things to think about and plan for and that is one of the reasons I work part time on the Internet to make money. Bill wants to retire so bad, but he knows he will probably continue till he’s 65 because the pay out will be much higher.

One of the adjustments that is part of life once you end your working years is adjusting to living on a different kind of income.  We get used to that regular paycheck over the life of our careers in the working world.  And while we may be very happy to leave the stresses of the workaday life, that paycheck is one part of that world that we may miss when they finally stop.

Of course, many senior citizens have some resources going into their senior years such as savings, investments, a retirement program and, of course, Social Security.  But the thing that’s hard to get used to is that you are now drawing funds from a limited pool.  Whether the amount of your retirement resources is big or small, outside of the income from interest and dividends, you are no longer replenishing those funds.

We know it’s going to be harder to live once Bill retires and we know that a budget is going to be a must and of course we want to live a long time and not be a burden on our children so we will have to find ways to stretch our funds and that is one of the reasons we are not going to get married that extra income from Social Security will come in handy and I don’t mind not having a marriage license, it really doesn’t make a commitment more real.

One resource that is worth taking a look at are programs that are geared to helping senior citizens conserve on their limited funds.  One such resource is the phenomenon of the “senior discount” which is often offered at restaurants and other retail institutions to help us out. 

While you may be working to look young and defeat the influence of age on your health and looks, when it comes to senior citizen discounts, its time to be honest about your age and take advantage of any help that is being offered to stretch your fixed income as much as you can.

Public service companies such as your electric, gas or water companies also have programs that you can take advantage of to keep those bills under control.  The one thing you want for the sake of the budget is that your bills will stay the same from month to month. 

 But when your gas or electric bill changes a lot because of the influence of the hot summer temperatures or the cold winter months which use a lot of home heating fuel, those bills can get pretty erratic.

Be sure to contact your utility companies and see what they can do for you.  One program that is available to everyone is averaging your monthly utility bill, we already do this.  The gas or electric bill can do a quick calculation of your last year’s usage and average that and then bill you that fixed amount each month.  In this way, you will know each month exactly what to expect so you don’t have any “surprises” in the mail when the bills come due. This is an excellent idea.

Keep your eyes open for ways that the public institutions you use the most work to help out senior citizens.  They know that you are on a fixed income and nobody wants to see seniors struggle to make ends meet.  Sometimes your local or state government may even have programs to reduce your sales taxes at the grocery store.

Take advantage of these plans and don’t let yourself feel bad about it at all.  You have worked hard all your life to support others and to be a good citizen. So let society pay you back with whatever help can be offered. You certainly deserve it and so do we. I am good at living on a small income so it doesn’t bother me much to think about it.

Just this past month I had to go to the bank and this nice young lady reviewed my plan and told me that when I turned 50 I could have switched to a no monthly fee plus interest on my checking account. Meaning for the past 5 years if I had only known I could have saved $200.

People live to exist and with existence along comes purpose. It is that one inevitable thing that every one yearns for. It is usually the only thing that is left missing in a lot of people’s lives. That’s why many people now cease to live their lives, and the main reason is because they don’t have a purpose to do so.

You may think that finding your sole purpose in life is impossible and if that’s the case, you better think twice. There are ways to find what you are looking for if you look in the right places. It’s not that easy to find that purpose, but it is possible and having a life purpose coach would be of great help, many people take up yoga to help them find purpose and follow their Guru’s advice.

Defining Roles

In this kind of coaching program, you are able to sort out your life and seek out your purpose. It won’t be your coach who will find it for you because you are the only one capable of doing that, but you would need your coach to guide you through the process to see a clearer perspective of things.

No Arrows To Lead You

Sometimes you may feel that you are lost. You do daily tasks and activities just out of routine. There’s a big intersection ahead of you and you don’t know which direction to take or pursue, I’ve been there many times.

In situations like these, your coach would be your guiding path. He would let you see the different routes you can take, the pros and cons of each direction and your means of going with that path.

When Everything Gets Stuck

At times that you feel you are stuck in your life, when everything seems to be successful yet there is no feeling of contentment or fulfillment at all. When you think that there is no more steps to take, your coach will be the one to show you that little extra step you need in finding what you are looking for.

Being Who You Really Are

Purpose is not dictated by the things that you do. Each of us has our own, and this is in our system from the day we are born. Sadly, a lot of factors in our lives are culprits on why it got lost. Factors such as family, peer, social, academic and even media influences us and makes us unable to find our point of living.

Here, you get to honestly appraise your life and see what factors are over shadowing that purpose in you. In the process you get to know yourself even more. You can see in a new light your beliefs, joys, sadness and what matters the most. It can be a scary process but in the end you get that enlightenment like no other.

You will be able to see what matters most. You get to set your real goals and aspirations. In a gradual process led by your coach, you can achieve them in no time.

Your inner dreams and real wanting in life could be revealed and trying to achieve that would lead to that sense of contentment for you. A new lay out of your life will be formed and this would bring you back the joy in living. That excitement that was lost would be found once again and you can start existing the way you are supposed to!

A while back I signed up with the Best Mark Mystery Shopping Company and I fully intended to do it because it sounds like fun to go to all those different shops and grade the service that consumers must deal with on a daily bases. I think it’s an excellent idea to keep employees on their toes. However younger people I noticed from my stint at Lowe’s really didn’t care.

Customer service is everything when you are running a business and it’s very important if you want repeat customers. You have to treat everyone special even the difficult ones and believe me I know how hard that is since I worked in people pleasing businesses all of my life except the past 5 years, which has been blissfully peaceful doing work from home.

When I worked at Lowe’s they were very strict with their policies and you have to continually learn things and take test. Basically I simply wanted a part time job so I could be around people again, so I decided cashier would be okay. My big career days are over and I definitely did not have the ambition to learn every department in the store.

It’s a great place with really good benefits and a young person could really grow with them, but dang I’m almost 55 now and when they ask me where do I see myself with them in 10 years, I answered retired. I kind of got use to being at home 5 years ago and being my own boss so the 5 months I worked at Lowe’s in 2006 was pure torture.

It was a new store with brand new employees all trying to prove they could do the jobs they had been assigned to. It actually felt like I was working under a Gestapo rule, it was a very horrible feeling. Smile at everyone, speak to everyone, stand here, do this, wipe here, straighten there, go help there, go climb that horrible high ladder and straighten light bulbs, etc., etc. oh and I loved that you couldn’t point.

Now, the Lowe’s that I worked at was a humongous store and you were suppose to know every aisle and what was on every aisle so you could tell the customer to go either left or right and which aisle, never, never, ever point in the direction, if caught you could get a spanking, well not really, but you could expect a very stern talking to. Like being called to the principle’s office.

Cashiers of course were not expected to leave their position in front of the aisle unless they were straightening something, but if you were working on the floor you never told a customer which aisle, you were expected to take them to what they were looking for. I felt like I was in the Army and there are always cameras on you and everyone else and you feel like you are being scrutinized every second.

I was used to the camera’s because I worked in Reno years ago so I simply ignored them and did my job as I normally would. The really fun part was the department meetings when everyone is expected to be there, even if it’s your day off, you do get paid for your time though and thank goodness it was usually only an hour unless someone had some really heavy grievances.

Back to the fun part of those meetings, the all seeing video, seemed they loved showing video’s especially of some forgetful employee doing some no no and breaking some rule. I really didn’t see them as funny to have someone totally humiliated in front of all their peers unless they had been hateful to me of course and thought they knew everything and could do no wrong. (Especially the new head cashiers that thought they were the boss.)

Needless to say 5 months was as long as I could take there and I’ve been happily at home ever since, but they had secret shoppers come there every month some times twice a month so they could make sure the customers were being treated the way they dictated and that’s a good thing. Most of the reports they told us about at the meetings were okay, but every now and then there were reports of someone not saying thanks for shopping Lowe’s or something else stupid.

This post got way out of line from the thought that I first started with and the point was I wanted to be a secret shopper, but the pay isn’t great and we sold our second car to my brother so until I decide I want to work on the outside again I’m happy to stay here and be a hermit. Sorry about the Lowe’s rant, but I sorta feel better now….Goodnight and have a nice weekend.