Will follow up

This past week was definitely one for reflection on our own mortality and what we have in place for our loved ones when we pass on.

Last Monday, nine people were killed in the Washington DC metro train crash. They ranged in age from 23 to 62. All walks of life. One woman was a widow and mother of six, one was 23 and just starting her career as a hairstylist with a young child to the retired decorated Major General of the DC National Guard and his wife. Some had life insurance and money for burials and care for their children, others did not.

Thursday was the passing of Farrah Fawcett and the unexpected death of Michael Jackson. Then Sunday the death of Billy Mays.

This brings me to ask, Have you looked into making your will from the link last week? I have heard reports that Michael Jackson didn't have a valid will. Why? Who knows exactly, but this should not stop you from making yours. You need to make sure you look at and update yours yearly to include new children, assests and other items.

Go visit Suze Orman's Free Will & TRust and start yours now. Use the code PEOPLE FIRST to receive it first.

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Do you have a will?

As a single live in nanny, I have not made a will. I am not really sure why. I don't own a car, own a house or have dependants so really I just have life insurance. Besides life insurance, I have a "ton" of material stuff that I guess needs a new home should I pass on.

I know I need to make one. My mom and I had a conversation about 3 months ago about making one with this computer program she bought. I never got the software though. Yesterday I received my email update from DealSeekingMom which included a link to Suze Orman's Will and Trust Kit. You can get this for a limited time for free!

I signed up for it. I have to go through it all and fill out the paperwork. I am still debating on who gets my bird, Lemongrass :) Anyone? This is really an awesome FREE item that Suze is giving us. It includes a financial power of attorney, revocable trust, and many other things that need to be filled out. It took me about 15 minutes to fill in my information to get into the system. I hope that you carve out 15 minutes of your day to start setting up your estate. It is one of the items I will be working on creating this weekend.

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Cars & Work

We just had a poll on car usage. There were 7 people who responded. Here are the results:

What kinda of car situation are you in?

own your car, don't use for work 1 (14%)

own your car, use for work 4 (57%)

don't own a car/don't drive 0 (0%)

don't own a car/car provided by work for work/personal use 2 (28%)

lease a car for personal use 0 (0%)

lease a car for personal/work use 0 (0%)


Using your car for work purposes can be very tricky. If you transport children daily in your personal vehicle, you need to make sure that you have the highest level of insurance coverage of 500/500/500 and a possible umbrella policy of a million dollars. Why you ask? Think if you were in the unfortunate event to be involved in a car accident with you and two of your charges. You each are taken to the hospital, ER visits, xrays, possible overnight stays. This can run into $100,000 in medical bills before the day is over. We normally never think that something can happen. My previous insurance agent shared with me the potential costs of an accident involving 3 people. This doesn't even include the property damage, other car/driver involved or your car damage.

You need to make sure that your insurance agent understands that you are carrying children in your personal vehicle for "work" purposes. You will need to make sure a rider is attached to your insurance for this. This bump in insurance coverage does cost more, but in the long run will pay off if you are ever involved in an accident.

If you are using your car to drive the kids around you should be getting reimbursed the IRS's mileage rate of 55 cents a mile. What you should do is track your mileage and turn it in at the end of week for reimbursement or whatever time frame you and your employers agree to. From what I understand, but I could be wrong, you can use google to figure out the mileage to/from preschool, grocery store, doctors etc and the IRS accepts those rates. If you take little "Billy" to preschool 3 days a week and it is 9 miles round trip, you submit 27 miles for reimbursement. That is 14.85 a week for driving little "Billy" to preschool.

This money is to be used for car repairs and gas. You should open up a savings account at your bank or online like at ING and put that money in there. That way if you need to replace your brakes or tires you will have the money waiting there.

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Receipts...and how not to store them :)

Today, Kidlet #3 wanted his scissors back. He asked to go in my purse to get them, I said fine. He starts pulling things out and can't find them. In order to find his scissors, he dumps my purse upside! I was just laughing. He then goes on to lecture me on the contents of my purse.

I have tons of receipts loose in my purse, werther's candies, a notepad,my camera, a calendar, pens, and candy wrappers..junk basically. He then starts telling me that I don't need the candy, the notepad: because I have the calendar, and that I need to keep my receipts in a box or something.

That leads me to my question to you my readers: "How do you organize your work receipts?"

Please leave a comment so that we can discuss. Oh and my receipts are now in a gallon size ziploc bag till I go through them and get reimbursed :)

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Poll Results and a new Poll is available

For the past two weeks, I had a poll on "What type of living situation did you have". I am happy to report that 45 nannies took part in this poll.
The results are:

live in 10 (22%)

live in married 1 (2%)

live out single 19 (42%)

live out married 15 (33%)

These results didn't surprise me too much, as the demand for live in nannies has been decreasing it seems since 9/11. I was shocked to see that someone was a live in married nanny. I would love to know more details on that.

For those of you that are live out single, do you have roommates or live alone?

This week's poll is "What type of car situation do you have". Looking forward to the results!

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And the winner for the INA membership is....

Over the past two weeks, Glenda and myself, have given nannies the opportunity to win an INA membership for the upcoming year. It is valued at $95. We tallied the entries from the 31 nannies who entered and used random.org to draw the number. The winner is:

Number 18

belonging to

Mallette

from Minnesota!

Congratulations on receiving the INA membership from Creative Nanny, Nanny Adventures, Nanny Transitions & The Financial Nanny.

Thank you everyone who shared with others and entered our contest.

Please consider joining INA.

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