Mindconnection eNL, 2009-01-04

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You won't get a federal bailout, so don't ask for one. We have a better solution: a fishfinder. These devices are not only effective, they are fun to use.

Click the link to find out more about these, if you have any interest in freshwater or oceanwater fish finding or cartography.

Chronic sleep deprivation is prevalent. Estimates vary as to what percentage of the population is afflicted, but there's substantial evidence putting the number above 90%. So, it's statistically likely you are chronically sleep-deprived and therefore not as sharp as you could be.

How do you get enough sleep? Begin by being very disciplined about your bed time. Culturally, "we" don't take this  basic step in eliminating sleep deprivation--those of us who exercise plain sense in this regard are ridiculed and pressured to stay up. Don't give in to this "join us in our stupidity" pressure. You are under no obligation to reduce your brainpower, just because other people choose to do such a thing to themselves.

Now, I understand we are just past the New Year celebrations and most people stay up late to "ring in the New Year." If you desire things to go well for you in the coming year, then starting out in a mentally-impaired state defies logic.

Why not choose to start each year on a high note, ready to meet it with your full faculties? I made a decision some years ago to start each year well-rested, rather than sleep-deprived. Consequently, I go to bed early on New Year's Eve rather than staying up past midnight.

If you stayed up late (thereby mentally crippling yourself just as the year starts), you can probably still feel the effects even now several days later. If you stayed up late and can't feel those effects, that is a really bad sign--you are too sleep-deprived to be aware of your sleep deprivation.

Make a small investment in Mindconnection's Sleeplessness causes and cures course if you want to beat the sleeplessness problem.

Now with regular citizens picking up the tab for the mess created by bigwigs who took their multimillion dollar bonuses and gave us the finger, we have one more thing to worry about in regard to banks. Bank draft fees today are on a hair trigger and are growing larger.

Since I typically take opportunities to blame CONgress for things, I would be remiss not to blame them for this, also. We have an $11 trillion (that's 11 million million dollars) federal debt right now. That's $11 million million that is "suspended" in the economy, rather than being available as capital to fuel the private sector. While common sense says the way to stimulate the economy is to reduce that debt so the fuel goes back into the system, CONgress and the White House maintain that spending even more somehow makes sense. This gross stupidity is another reason banks are getting edgy with their customers.

Bank draft fees, thanks to an out of control government and corporate boards that don't do what they are paid to do, are on the rise.

The average fee charged by the 10 largest US banks for overdrawing on an account is now just under 35 bucks. This doesn't sound like much, but it's per withdrawal. So if the bank plays timing games with your funds, you could be stuck with several hundred dollars in charges even though you had sufficient funds all along. The debits and credits just came in the wrong order.

It gets worse when you see that, thanks to now having $650 worth of fees on an account that actually wasn't underfunded, the account is now underfunded. Every other claim made to that account will trigger another $35 fee.

Not all banks sit back and laugh maniacally as the overdraft fees roll in. Bank of America allows up to five overdraft fees per day, which could total $175 each day. So, they do put a cap on this. Some banks don't.

I'd be leery about having any accounts at a bank that doesn't have daily overdraft caps. What happens is you don't even know you racked up, say, $800 in charges yesterday. So now each day until you get your statement, you trigger another overdraft charge because your account is depleted due to the overdraft charges you already incurred. But your checking register doesn't show there's a problem, because it doesn't see the $800 fees. With BoA's system, you could have a cushion equal to two days worth of overdrafts and sleep peacefully.

With no cap, you could wind up being cleaned out. And it all began with an overdraft of one penny (triggering that first $35 fee), because the check you deposited on Monday wasn't credited until Friday.

On top of all else, some banks add additional fees for each day you have an overdraft.

To prevent this situation:

1. If you work on a W-2 basis, have your pay on direct deposit. This clears immediately, instead of creating a wait of up to 10 business days. If you work on a 1099 basis, consider having your largest regular clients set up to transfer funds electronically. You can try setting that up bank to bank, for example. Or they can pay you via PayPal. This saves them the hassle of dealing with paper checks, and it gives you faster processing. The one downside is you won't be able to deduct mileage for driving to the bank to deposit the paper checks you are no longer receiving.

2. Get overdraft protection on your account. Even if there's a fee for it, do it. Not to advertise for Bank of America, but they provide this at no charge to qualified accounts. You can get overdraft protection via any "qualified account." Not to plug BoA yet again (you can tell we don't exactly have a love-hate relationship), but they consider a BoA credit card to be a qualified account.

3. Use online banking. You can have the system e-mail you on various triggers. For example, X number of transactions in a day, balance is below X amount, balance is overdrawn, etc. Also, checking your bank acct and updating your financial software (e.g., Quicken) with the data each day (or weekly, if you don't have much activity) will allow you to keep things under control.

4. Track your spending. Record everything in your accounting software as soon as possible. Don't let information age more than a day or two before updating you software. If you use a paper-based system instead of software, wake up and smell the coffee.

Here are some of the major scams running today (in the USA):

SS scam #1. antiSocial inSecurity is a scam in its own right, and the system should be abolished (with those now dependent upon it still getting the payments they were promised). The SSN fund is 100% depleted. CONgress stole the money to meet current spending and left an IOU there. They don't have the money to pay back the IOU. It's now Pay as You Go, and it can't go far.

Protection. Currently, there is no protection against this scam. Contact your CONgressman about this theft of the funds that could otherwise go toward your retirement. Since your CONgressman is a paid employee of lobbyists, this is a vain effort because you are asking for CONgressman to do something other than steal from you to give to someone else. But it's better to at least say something to the criminals than to be robbed in silence, because silence conveys consent. It also helps if you refuse to vote Demopublican, as that sends a message of "I don't like being robbed" and if enough people send this message then perhaps the lobbyists won't be the only people represented on Capitol Hill.

SS scam #2. There are actually con artists not currently employed by lobbyists as US Senators or CONgressmen! These second-tier criminals have another way to separate you from your money. They will phone (or e-mail) to allegedly verify this or verify that or to correct an error in your file. Then they use your SSN on various identity documents to commit fraud. You get left holding the bag. They can clean out your bank account(s) and do all kinds of other damage, then go on a spending spree with credit cards they got pretending to be you. Variations of the theme for getting information are immense.

Protection. No matter what the claim is, don't pay attention to it. The SS Administration does not phone people about their benefits, address, inheritance, missing checks, underpayments, overpayments, direct deposits, etc. Do not give any information. Hang up. Then, call the SS Administration at 800-772-1213 and explain what just happened. Ask if there are any problems associated with your SSN and what you should do next.

Refund scam. Variations exist. Someone contacts you claiming to be able to get money back on your federal income taxes, SS taxes, or whatever.

Protection. Understand that the govt doesn't give this money back. Don't give these people any information. Don't even confirm your name. Hang up on them.

Opt out scam. Variations exist. Someone contacts you claiming they can free you from this or that govt-mandated obligation. It doesn't happen. The number one scam is "never pay taxes again." This is impossible, as most of the taxes you pay are embedded in the products and services you buy. The federal income tax is what they are referring to, but the tax you pay directly in this regard is a minor part of your overall tax bill. You can't get out of it, so don't entertain any delusions that you can.

Protection. Hang up on these people. The only people who can help you even remotely in this regard are legitimate organizations that are trying to change the laws. There are no individual exceptions that anyone can get, no matter what they claim. Exception to hanging up: You may decide to engage these people, for the purposes of reporting them. See the final item in this article about how to do that.

If you have a problem with your SSN, contact the SS Administration. If you have a problem with the federal income tax, contact www.fairtax.org. If you have problems with your taxes personally (or with the IRS, which often engages in collection activities even if the taxpayer has duly paid and filed--to them, facts don't matter but inflicting pain on others is some kind of Nirvana), contact a competent tax attorney.

Banking scam. Someone calls and claims to be from your bank. Gosh, how did they know that? Could have been a lucky guess. Could have been the result of finding a tiny scrap of paper in your trash. Could have been from any of dozens of ways. They ask you for information that your bank already has, such as your account number. Why would they need to call and ask you that? Duh, let me guess....

Protection. No matter what this is about, don't give any information. Instead, ask that person for his/her name, location, and phone number. Then, either call your bank or go online and use your bank's help or chat feature to see if there is something the bank needs from you.

General response to scams. Except for the legally mandated scams, such as the SS tax and the federal income tax, our federal govt amazingly enough does investigate and close down scams all the time. They can't do that very well without the help of victims. Here is how you can help:

1. When contacted by a scammer, engage that person (so you can do the next step). Give fake info, if need be. Don't confirm your name or anything else. If they ask for you by name, say, "He's in a meeting right now. Perhaps I can assist you?"
2. Get as much information as you can from them, and write it all down.
3. If the scammer gets pushy, pretend to have a bad connection and then hang up. You can hang up in the middle of a sentence, or you can say, "Hello?" repeatedly. Don't give any clue that you are on to them.
4. File a police report (with your local police department). Don't just call it in, file a report. Your local police will then enter the report into the FBI's  national database. The FBI is one of the few federal agencies that actually serves a purpose other than taking money from you or destroying American jobs by.

One reason to file a police report is to protect yourself legally. So, contact your local PD immediately after being contacted by the scammer. If the IRS shows up at your door with a posse of armed goons based on a (now legal) wire tap of your phone, your attorney can use that police report in your defense.

The FBI won't show up at your door with a posse of armed goons based on a phone call. But, the IRS is noted for doing crazy things with complete disregard for the facts. It's probably in your best interests to promptly hang up on any tax scammers rather than try to do your citizenly duty to help nab them.

http://www.supplecity.com/articles/howcaloriesbecomefat.htm.

1. The Pistol Shrimp “shoots” water and sound from its pincher to stun its prey. CONgress simply passes yet another tax to stun its already stunned prey.
    

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