Worrying about Grandma, aka the value (and limitations) of secondary data
My nonagenarian Grandma lives in Midland, MI. Home of the current floods that are making the news. I didn’t find out about the floods until too late at night to be making phone calls. And I love my Grandma, I would have a really hard time going to sleep if…
COVID-19 triggered mid-year benefits changes
One of the common questions I’ve been hearing lately is “I planned for XXX expensive, semi-elective surgery this year. Due to COVID-19 that surgery can no longer be done in 2020.” Or “I planned for XXX expensive, semi-elective surgery this year. Due to COVID-19 I can’t have that surgery right…
Ears Off
I was having a conversation a couple days ago with some other people in the profession, and we were talking about the challenges of working from home. Several had been working from home since long before COVID19 hit, but they were talking about how working with others was changing with…
Download your own free, no strings attached, COVID19 Symptom Tracker
I hope everyone is feeling well. Some people in my house are not (not that I think we necessarily have THE DISEASE, but several of us definitely are off-kilter). Being the data person I am, and knowing how much a good medical history can aid in making good medical decisions…
Should I do a Roth conversion now?
Roth conversions were the question on the table during a discussion I had recently. With the markets down, someone who had been contributing to a traditional IRA wanted to know if they should do Roth conversions during the current financial mess accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic. Roth conversions are all about…
Where is my stimulus check?
For those who desperately need their CARES Act stimulus check [1, 2], waiting for it is painful. And not even knowing if the IRS has all the information it needs for sending that money to you is even more of a black box. The IRS has set up a website…
Listening, with and without context
Much of America just celebrated a big family holiday, Easter. When we’re not in the throes of a pandemic, for my family it involves sitting around multiple large and small tables (50 would be a normal number of people for holidays, due to the size of extended family on my…
Unemployment Insurance during COVID-19
Involuntary furloughs are coming. As we start talking today about one of our country’s social protection systems, unemployment insurance, let me lead with 3 very important points. First, unemployment insurance varies GREATLY by state, there is no national standard. Second, if you don’t qualify for unemployment by your state’s standards,…