Best Results Organizing

Shhhh. Listen. Can you hear the crunch, crunch, crunch of the mail carrier walking up the snow-lined walk to your mailbox? Squeak (the box opens), THUD (the mail drops in) and CRASH (the mailbox has fallen off the house or the poll from the weight of the post-holiday bills)!

Where does all the money go? Forgetting the recession for a moment, and just focusing on typical planned (and unplanned, but non-emergency) holiday-related costs between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, it’s no surprise that the last five weeks of the year can be budget-blowingly expensive.

This is where your paper piles come in. Receipts, bank statements and credit card bills all provide clues as to how much you spent, on what items, and where, during this past holiday season. 

If you’ve been following Paper Doll for a while, you know what I recommend regarding holding onto receipts, especially about keeping receipts until you can reconcile them with statements. In the best case scenario, receipts are stacked neatly, awaiting the arrival of billing statements. If that’s not the case, take a few moments to dig through your wallet or purse, sort through the paper piles, and empty out all those shopping bags to find your receipts. Then pull up your credit card statements online for those whose bills won’t arrive for another week or two.

If this seems like too much work, especially if you’re weighed down by multiple fruitcakes (the baked goods, not kooky relatives who haven’t yet departed), think of this as an insurance policy for your holiday finances for next year.  If you know what you spent this year, it’s much easier to predict and budget for next year’s expenses (the global economy notwithstanding) and maybe even find a way to save throughout the year to keep credit card usage to a minimum.

It doesn’t matter whether you scribble on a pad of paper or make a tidy spreadsheet (though the latter would be a huge help for future seasons). Just take out those receipts and statements, and figure out what you spent this year on:

Food

Dining Out–Some holiday dining is planned; maybe you always get together with old friends who are only in town the week before Thanksgiving. Other times, you’re too pooped from schlepping through the malls to make a grocery run, let alone cook, so you plop down with your packages at the nearest appealing eatery. Calories aside, what was the damage this season? Check off the items and list the expenses.

Entertaining–Have your food receipts gained weight over the last month? Take a measure of what you spent on ingredients and/or catering costs, beverages, cups, napkins, plates, serving implements, paper tablecloths, etc. Perhaps once you see how much you spent, you’ll want to trade those sit-down bashes for an open house with just heavy appetizers and desserts.

Baking/Cooking supplies–Don’t forget to count costs for ingredients and food storage items (extra foil, Rubbermaid food storage, etc.) for potlucks, open-houses, gifts of cookies…We tend to lump all our grocery receipts together, not noticing (until the money runs short) that we’ve spent two to three times as much as in any other month.

Decorations

Whether you’re the family with 8 inflatable reindeer on the lawn or you just like one menorah or an old-fashioned tree with popcorn strings, holiday dcor can be expensive. Evaluate what you spent on ornaments, lights (for indoor and outdoor decorations), Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa-specific decorations and even those antlers to make your beagle look like Blitzen, to get a sense of your prospective 2010 budget.

Entertainment

Entertaining Others–In addition to food and decorations, make a list (and check it twice) to factor in any typical entertainment costs for your family (or business) for parties or open houses, including invitations and postage (unless you’re 100% digital).

If you tend to be long on guest lists and short on time, you might balance the cost of your time (and stress) vs. the cost of having a few teenagers act as waitstaff (circulating trays) or kitchen help (for setting up or post-party clean-up), or a job-searching college grad play bartender. The key isn’t always to cut expenses, but to place a value on your time and effort (and chance to enjoy your own party) so you can budget accordingly.

Entertaining Yourselves–Whether it means tickets to holiday performances (because someone wants to see The Nutcracker, for the 370th time, interpreted by seven-year-olds, on the coldest night of the year), movie tickets on Christmas day (to keep you occupied until it’s time to eat Chinese food), or On-Demanding downloads of every holiday movie ever made, take note of what you spent this season to keep yourself in a holiday mood. (And take a moment to note that it really is OK–Paper Doll says so–to not be, or even feel, festive all season long.)

Gifts

Actual Presents–Presents for family and friends, for gift exchanges at work or clubs/organization holiday events, for teachers (including tutors, music teachers, coaches, etc.), plus “surprise” gifts (like bookstore gift cards) to have on hand when you’ve unexpectedly received a token of someone’s esteem…they all add up. Indeed, when people think about their holiday budgets, they tend to only (or mainly) think of gifts.

Having a gift budget doesn’t mean you are unduly parsimonious (that’s “stingy” for those of you who didn’t get a thesaurus for the holidays when you were 12). It also doesn’t mean that there’s a limit on how much you love or care about others. And if you got gifts that weren’t expensive, it doesn’t have any reflection on how much others care about you. There’s really no relationship (and shouldn’t be) between the dollar value of a present and the inherent sentimental value or the value givers places on their relationships with you. Gifts are tokens of esteem, not actual esteem.

Know what you spent this year, use it to help you decide how much you might want to spend (and therefore budget), and wrap price tag resentments in sparkly paper and keep far from the activity at hand.

Wrapping paper–Last year, we talked about recyclable wrapping inspired by Japanese art, frugality and a sense of the goofy. Paper Doll isn’t usually demonstrably green, but I do love the idea of saving the planet easily with multi-use wrapping implements. I also completely lack the ability to wrap anything that isn’t perfectly square or rectangle–there’s a 17-year-old son of a friend who, 15 years ago, received an incredibly poorly wrapped stuffed lion, to prove my point. However, if wrapping paper is a big part of your holiday joy, be aware of how much you spent to help you budget for next year. Better yet, take advantage of post-holiday deep-discounts and purchase next year’s wrapping now.

Greeting cards–You know how Paper Doll feels about holiday cards. That aside, look at your recipient list, the receipts for the cards you bought this year, and figure out what kind of card expense you want to budget next year. And consider, as with the wrapping paper, taking advantage of those post-holiday sales, and tucking the cards away. (Just make a note on your November ’10 calendar page of where you stashed them!) Unlike holiday cookies, cards don’t spoil, and nobody will know (or care) that you bought your 2010 cards at the close of 2009!

Postage stamps–Yes, it’s hard to budget when you don’t know what the U.S. Postal Service has planned for pricing next year. Still, checking those receipts for what you spent on mailing holiday cards and Thank You notes (you did send notes of gratitude, didn’t you?) will give you an baseline figure.

Mailing/shipping costs–Again, these are the little things we tend to forget when we’re planning for a holiday season. Food and gifts are at the forefront of our minds; finding the right size cardboard boxes and ample (but biodegradable) packing materials and standing in line to get packages across the country (or the world) by your holiday of choice tends to yield a “Wow, I coulda had a V-8!” epiphany.

Travel

Travel expenses can be outrageous, even if you planned ahead and booked your passage for Thanksgiving weekend on a sweltering afternoon in July. And, of course, travel costs are unpredictable. But if you travel during the holidays, identify what you spent this year and create an additional 15% buffer to help you plan for 2010. Consider:

Gasoline, or ticket costs to go plain or train, if not automobile

Extra costs associated with flying, like baggage charges and in-flight meals

Hotel expenses (which may include parking costs, if after you’ve gone over the river and through the woods, Grandma’s got no room for you in her condo), along with the associated charges for housekeeping and vending machines

Emergency Travel Goodies–Food and entertainment extras to keep your blood sugar up and your blood pressure down when your flight has been canceled or delayed 12 hours due to freak storms, freakish flyers or bad planning on the part of your airline are the most likely expenses. But if your luggage is already in the bowels of the airport and the heat takes a dip in your undermanned terminal, you might need to purchase an overpriced city-themed sweatshirt just to stave off hypothermia.

These small but insidious unplanned expenses are the true holiday travel budget-busters. If your travels manage to go according to plan, try to funnel that money back into an “emergency travel kitty” account, accessible the next time you’re unexpectedly you’re stranded.

Charitable Donations

You read this Paper Doll post, right? As with gifts, remember that budgeting for charitable giving doesn’t make you a Scrooge. It actually makes it easier for you to bless others with your largesse without doing yourself (and therefore future non-profits) any long-term harm.

Tips

Don’t be caught at the last minute, realizing you forgot those whom you were supposed to remember–delivery people, doormen, hair stylists, paper boys/girls (not to be confused with Paper Doll, who needs no tips to feel appreciated by her beloved readers).

Clothing

Everyone seems to feel a special need for “party clothes” during the holidays. If your children tend to go to parties or social events where dressing up is expected, factor at least one new outfit into the equation. And even if you’re frugal about your own fashions, consider the chance that you’ll at least need to put some money towards accessories or holiday dry cleaning.

Power

Electricity–If yours is the kind of family that makes a big splash with outdoor lighting displays, your electric bill for December should reflect that. Make a note of how much your December bill exceeds your winter monthly average (and look into long-term changes, like LED lighting.)

Batteries. Batteries. And more batteries. Toys, gadgets and goodies all need juice to work, and you don’t want to be caught short. Budget for a pack (or ten, if you’ve got little ones) in all the popular sizes.

Personal–Think about packaging your stress-busting holiday massage and even flu shots into your holiday budget, to keep you running like that Energizer bunny.

Getting organized and putting finances in order are always top resolutions or goals. Careful budgeting and planning may not sound all that exciting right now, but I bet that going into 2011 with some extra money in your pocket would be a reason for confetti and noisemakers!

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Thank you for your readership, Paper Doll fans, and for giving me the chance to share my perspective on the paper in your lives, from those finger paintings on the fridge to calendar pages, from the Post-Its to the financial, legal, medical and household files, from busting identity thieves to archiving the papers of the heart. It’s an honor to write for all of you.

Have a safe, healthy and happy New Year!

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives… not looking for flaws, but for potential. 

~Ellen Goodman

Depending on your life and lifestyle, you may be rushing towards this Friday’s finish line of a holiday season, or you might be counting the days until things get back to normal in the real world and the television schedule. Blogs left and right are walking you through surviving the holidays in an organized way, but Paper Doll is already looking ahead…

Just ten days left before 2010 dawns. (Do you remember when you were partying like it was 1999…because it was 1999 and you weren’t entirely sure that the Y2K you’d been laughing at would really be a bust?) It’s amazing how slowly a day can pass in childhood, and how quickly a year in the grown-up world (of life or business) can come and go. 

If you can find a break in the coming week, it’s the perfect time for a little quiet introspection about the accomplishments of the past year and the hopes and goals for the one to come. And the clues are to be found in the papers and Post-It’s and floozies that are likely stuffed in your current year’s calendar.

Too often, we jump from our post-holiday food comas directly into our shiny New Year’s challenges without really thinking about what lessons we’ve learned. So, let’s think of this exercise as organizing our thoughts for the new year…with a little help from the paper (and/or digital imitations) in our lives.

Settle in with a cup of cocoa, eggnog or warm cider, grab your 2009 daily planner or digital gizmo, your NEW 2010 planner, a blank legal pad and a clear head.  (So perhaps no “adult” eggnog this time around, eh?) Review your calendar, going day-by-day (trust me, not all 365 of these are info-packed), starting back on last New Year’s Day, and take note of last year’s:

1) Successes — We tend to dwell on the mistakes we made or the times we let things fall through the cracks. There are rarely medals or trophies for the small victories of life, but these are sometimes the sweetest and deserved to be savored.

Each time you find one of these successes, write it down, and keep the list handy. In fact, if you don’t already have a SUCCESS folder, either in your filing system or on your computer, create one now. You might even keep two sets of success reminders, one for your business files and one for your personal life.

Business successes may range from awards to notes of appreciate from clients. Personal successes might be represented by a number badge from that race for which you trained hard and finally finished, or a lovingly-crafted masterpiece from your child that lets you know you’re getting it right.

Were there things you were loathe to do but you accomplished them anyway? (These could be life-affirming things, like conquering a fear of public speaking, or life-sustaining things like learning to give yourself injections.) Were there skills you acquired or tasks you performed that you never, ever thought you’d be able to handle, things that still leave you gobsmacked when you realize you actually did it? That calendar shows you, in black and white (and maybe some glorious marker colors) that you are more than you can imagine yourself to be! Don’t close the old book without acknowledging your achievements.

It’s always good, on those rainy, ego-bruising days to have someplace to go for a reality check and appreciate our good days. Go into the new year emboldened by the the strides you took in the past year, and build on these triumphs.

2) Surprises — Every January 1st, we should start the year by planning for all the events (in person and online) we can anticipate. It’s just simple organizing to put things (like tasks) in their homes (the right dates).

But there are also unexpected events that can either break you or make you. Did a charitable organization call you at the last minute to fill in for a speaker at an annual event or to provide a gift certificate for a silent auction? Were there business opportunities you didn’t take because you weren’t comfortable with the lack of lead time? Did you have to buy cookies at the grocery store at 6:30 a.m. because your child “forgot” to tell you that she’d volunteered you as Snack Mom for that day?

Looking back on the calendar to see who called, who begged, who desperately needed you…can help you face the possibilities next year has to offer.

In business, get the jump on guiding “disorganized” groups and approach them to secure speaking or promotional opportunities while they’re still in the planning stages. Be an early bird and use last year’s surprises to build on the coming year’s successes!

For your family, keep a batch of slice-and-bake dough in the freezer, a short stack of funny but tasteful birthday cards tucked in a file folder or with the stationery, and a hidden stack of singles (because you can pay for pizza delivery via credit card when you’re cash-poor, but it’s tacky to tip the delivery person in pennies and Green Stamps).  If bills you only pay twice a year surprised you every time they popped, make a notation on the calendar every month, on the same date, to pay yourself (in a cash envelope or separate online account) so that the money will be there (no surprises!) when you need it.

3) Opportunities — Did your local newspaper keep printing news wire service articles about your profession instead of contacting you for a local interview? Does a member of one of the networking groups where you lurk casually offer up posts on a subject for which you have greater expertise, but since you neglect to post, nobody thinks to ask you?

Do you make notes on your to-do lists or calendar pages to act, but never follow through? Do you save flyers because you want to take a workout class, join Weight Watchers, meet a friend of a friend of a friend whom you think you’d really like, but get nowhere?

Get inspired. Be motivated enough to ask someone else to help you be more motivated. Use last year’s unexpected happenings or desires to guide your planning for the new year to share your expertise or experiences.

If you’re in business, develop a genuine relationship with your local/regional/professional newspapers’ editors and reporters, and actively post on the social networking groups you frequent, whether that’s Facebook or Twitter, LinkedIn or whatever new comes down the pike. Schedule days each quarter to send press releases and network with local media; schedule time each day/week for active online networking. Treat marketing (i.e., finding clients) as a task of equal importance to working with clients by making your plans firm, and in writing.

Call a friend (or even someone you don’t know that well) to make a plan to attend the annual Home Show (for which you’re still saving last year’s flyer), train for a half-marathon or attend a class together. If whatever “it” is showed up in last year’s calendar or papers, but you never acted on it, here’s a chance to get ahead of the game and chase your dreams!

You’re much more likely to accomplish goals for which you’ve set aside time in your schedule. Treat these opportunities as a way to boost your mental, social, professional and physical health, and carve out time far in advance, as if you were scheduling a doctor’s appointment.

4) Recurring Events — Did you keep missing recurring teleclasses or monthly in-person meetings because you somehow found yourself otherwise booked by the time the activity rolled around? Did you keep canceling on someone (or many, many someones) because you were using multiple calendars, or going off the appointment cards stuffed in your wallet, or trusting your memory?

Review your old calendar for last year’s conferences, Chamber of Commerce meetings, client sessions, PTA meetings, annual expos and trade shows, industry-specific events, etc. and find out the dates or patterns (e.g., third Thursday) to get a handle on when and where they fall.

Note the dates for your kids’ school breaks and teacher’s conferences, and even though you won’t be notified of the exact dates for beyond this school year until the new school year starts, make notes to remind you they’ll be coming, so you can plan for sitters, activities, etc. You can’t be sure when your kids’ friends will be having their birthday parties based on last year’s social events (because even though the birthdays don’t change, the activities and the circle of friends do), but even having a running list penciled in regarding what might pop up helps you flesh out whether you’re likely to have a heavy month or a flexible one.

Schedule fixed recurring activities for the whole year; you’ll be far less likely to have conflicts if your schedule is blocked off. (Don’t forget to schedule payment deadlines for things you can’t afford to miss, like quarterly estimated taxes or loan payments — you’ll have fewer financial surprises if they’re marked in your schedule, perhaps in a bright color.) 

Schedule some vacation time to make sure you make plans to nurture yourself. If you don’t already have your first 2010 dentist appointment and your annual doctor’s appointment scheduled, call now. When you get your hair cut, have your calendar handy to schedule your six week (or whenever) follow-up, so you know it’s not conflicting with anything (or everything) else in your life. Paper Doll knows that nothing, not even a paper cut, ruins a mood like a bad hair day.

5) Rekindled Connections — Every year, business prospects cancel their first appointments and continuing clients fail to schedule (or reschedule) follow-ups. Friends have to cancel the rare lunches you do get to schedule because of conflicts or illness. Time marches on, and though we’re all more connected on the web, we’re less connected in person.

Review your calendar for clients who simply wandered away, and use the new year as a pretext to get back in touch via newsletter, email or phone call. Let these lost souls know you’re still eager to do business with them, and share the details of anything novel or exciting going on in your business that can benefit them.  Even if they’re not ready to hire, letting them know they can subscribe to your blog feed or connect with you on social networking sites may be just what’s needed to keep you in the forefront of their minds.

As you carry over birthdays, anniversaries and other recurring dates, note the missed connections–the crossed out parties you never attended, the coffee dates they had to cancel–and let the people who brighten your life, even if infrequently, know you’re thinking of them. To many friendships go without rekindling out of fear there will be awkward silences; the truth is, where circumstances (and not personalities) divided you, the same old silly jokes will bring you back together.

Before you (literally) close the book on 2009, review the experiences you’ve had to see what opportunities may lie ahead–at work, at home, and in your dreams.

Enjoy and celebrate!  Happy holidays and (almost) happy new year!

 

By popular request, Paper Doll is repeating (with some modifications), last December’s post on dealing with charitable giving requests. I invite you to give with an open heart, as well as a well-informed mind.

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If you traveled over Thanksgiving week (or in recent weeks), chances are good that you returned to a mailbox as fully and robustly overstuffed

as you felt on Black Friday. Even if you haven’t been traveling, I’m sure you have noticed your mail carrier struggling and your daily mail piles exhibiting a growth spurt.

Sure, you’re seeing more ads and coupons, inveigling you to spend your precious little green bits of paper, and perhaps you’ve seen greetings from those early-bird friends who address holiday cards while they watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. But the biggest contribution to all that Mail Call Clutter? Requests for charitable giving!

It’s easy to become overwhelmed by requests for charitable donations. Certainly, you want to help further the causes about which you’re concerned (children, healthcare, the environment, animals, education, poverty…and the list goes on), but you may be troubled by multiple concerns regarding the charitable-giving process:

Limited Funds
No one individual (heck–not even Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey combined, nor the 2009 list of Forbes 400 Richest Americans) possesses the funds to solve all of the world’s troubles. You may wonder if your contribution, even if it’s all you can comfortably provide, has the power to make a difference.

Competing Interests
Weighing charitable-giving options against one another can paralyze you into doing nothing, letting the piles of requests (and their associated letters and “gifts” of themed return address labels) creep across the kitchen table and overtake your office desk.

Just as you couldn’t take as much as you wanted from the Thanksgiving buffet because the elastic in your waistband could stretch no farther, your finances are finite and the number of charitable giving options, even just the non-profits actively seeking your help, are practically infinite. Responding to each request is no more suitable an answer than ignoring them all but letting the papers clutter your surroundings and the guilt of non-responsiveness clutter your heart and mind.

Frustration and Confusion with Repeated Requests
Months ago, when we talked about magazines, we noted that subscription departments start sending renewal requests almost immediately after you’ve just renewed. They count on you forgetting you’ve re-upped or your significant other being unaware that you’ve already renewed.

While non-profit organizations certainly have more lofty goals than scamming you out of your money sooner than you planned, they nonetheless present you with an onslaught of requests. If you give to Charity A in December, not only will you receive repeated requests over the ensuing months for “Special Giving Opportunities” to Charity A, but in many cases, you will receive requests from similarly-themed Charities B, C, D to double-Z because many non-profits earn revenue by selling their “lists”.

So what are the solutions to counter these frustrations?

Instead of choosing between the weight of guilt or the fear of exceeding your holiday (or monthly) budget, remember that there are better alternatives to feeling pressured into sitting down and writing a check to every cause that owns a bulk mail stamp–and none involve getting a sub-prime loan, robbing street-corner Santas or letting charitable clutter creep through your home. Instead:

• PLAN YOUR CHARITABLE GIVING BUDGET, not only for the holiday season, but for the upcoming year.

This may shock many of you who have been conditioned by the “This offer is available for a limited time only. Operators are standing by!” mentality, but non-profits are always in need of money. In fact, some receive the bulk of their donations in the Fourth Quarter and then suffer from lack of funds by the middle of the next year.

Just because you get dozens of requests for donations in December, your contributions will be no less valuable, life-saving or appreciated if sent three or six months down the line. Create and label a manila folder to collect all of the requests you receive for holiday donations, and during a quiet moment on New Year’s Day or soon after, sip some hot chocolate and review the requests. (Make a note on your calendar and treat this as if it were a formal appointment with the director of each of the non-profit organizations. You’ll be more inclined to keep the appointment.)

Start by picking the charities that mean the most to you. Ask yourself, “If I had only $50 (or $5, or $100…) to donate to charity, which non-profit would give me the greatest joy to help? Which would make me feel the most satisfied in my choice?”

There’s no right or wrong answer. While one person might donate to help political prisoners in an impoverished nation, another might choose to support an animal shelter two blocks away. One of you heroes might choose to donate to medical research to find a cure for a disease that afflicts millions while another might give to one neighborhood family whose home burned down in a fire.

Remember: you can’t give to everyone, but you can feel good about to whom you choose to give.

As you sort through the pile of requests, determine two things:

1) How much can you comfortably afford to give each month? (Don’t forget any charities to whom you’ve already obligated yourself with pledges, such as your house of worship’s building fund, your alma mater or public television/radio stations.)

2) How do you want to parcel your gifts out?

That is, do you want to give to 12 charities, and assign one to each month of the year (or six charities, every other month, or one per quarter)? If so, tuck the envelopes away in your tickler file or bill-paying center. In this way, you can keep the spirit of giving alive throughout the year without being overwhelmed or over budget.

Or, would you prefer to give to one or two particular charities all year long? In that case, look into setting up a recurring donation on the same day of the month through your online bill-paying system. (You could schedule payments via credit card, but that would end up costing the non-profit extra money in merchant account fees.)

Just because you receive address labels or a small gift does not obligate you to make a donation to a charity, just as receiving holiday card from a distant acquaintance does not obligate you add the individual to your card list. Don’t let them turn advertising techniques into a free ticket on the Guilt Trip Express.

• BUDGET CASH FOR AD HOC DONATIONS, such as when you encounter a Salvation Army bell-ringer or want to purchase a meal for a homeless person.

If you’ve decided you can spend $100 (for example) on charitable donations, set aside $5 or $10 in singles in a separate section of your wallet so you can make unplanned donations without breaking your budget.

• PARTNER WITH OTHERS to achieve a charitable giving goal. For example, propose that you and your networking colleagues (or you and your Pilates class buddies), donate the monetary equivalent of one networking lunch or one post-class Jumpy Java to one specific charitable goal.

Or, if you wish to keep the spirit going all year, create a charitable giving club the same way you’d start an investment club. Instead of collecting articles about stocks and mutual funds, collect the brochures and request letters from non-profits and bring them to your group meetings. (You’ll be less inclined to toss a charitable request on top of your microwave if you know a group member feels passionately about that same cause.)

• INVEST TIME IN EDUCATING YOURSELF ABOUT CHARITIES

Not all non-profits are created alike. Learn about the charities to which you are considering giving financial support. Find out what percentage of donations will be used for funding programs, research, etc., and what percentage goes towards advertising, paying staff, etc. To get you started, investigate potential recipient charities via:
GuideStar.org‘s basic level provides free access to information that lets you verify a charity’s legitimacy, learn whether your prospective contribution will be tax deductible, view a non-profit’s IRS Form 990, or find out more about a their programs, mission statement and financial activities. Their database is huge, with well over one million non-profits included.

The Better Business Bureau’s web site for charities offers Wise Giving Reports, explains charity accountability standards and provides background information on all the non-profits in their accredited charity directory.

The American Institute of Philanthropy operates CharityWatch.org. Review their A-Z (well, A-Y, from the AARP Foundation to the Youth Development Fund) listings of hundreds of charities to learn more about their operations.
CharityNavigator.org evaluates the financial health of thousands of America’s largest charities. Browse by charity name or category, and check out their blog, articles and charity ratings.

• GIVE (actual) GIFTS OF CHARITY

There are some people who have everything, need nothing, and for whom peace, tranquility and kindness are precious gifts. However, many people on your list will not be as thrilled with a gift given in their name as you might hope. Most of us like unwrapping something shiny, but there are special opportunities at the holidays to provide gifts that, while not in tangible form for the giftee, provide profound intangible meaning for them while providing something tangible to the third-party recipients (the hungry, the impoverished, the innocent, the needy) of your largess.

(Some of Paper Doll‘s favorite charities are listed right here on the Doing Well By Doing Good blogroll on the right side of the page.)

Be sure to make a notation on the request letter to show how much you sent, on what date, using what method (check, credit card, etc.). File the letter in the tax prep section of your family files until you receive an official confirmation of your donation from the non-profit.

In the meantime, feel good. You did a good deed for someone else, and you halted the charitable clutter creep.

In lieu of sugar plums, many of you have visions of turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce dancing in your heads. For other readers, Thanksgiving is about far-flung family members coming together to play a Kennedy-esque game of touch football on the front lawn (or, more likely, mom doing a semester’s worth of her college freshman’s laundry).

But for one subset of readers, this Thanksgiving week is the culmination of 51 weeks of intensive training. For such intrepid souls, Thursday’s big meal merely provides sustenance for the grueling work of conquering doorbusters and early bird sales.  For these people, it’s all about Black Friday!

No professional organizer worth her salt (and Paper Doll considers herself sufficiently salty) would neglect, at this point, to illustrate the value of purchasing gifts of experiences (restaurant and movie gift certificates, theater tickets, zoo and museum memberships, etc.) and knowledge rather than tangible presents that will likely turn into must-dust, must-dryclean clutter within a matter of weeks. That said, for those insistent upon getting up early (or not sleeping at all), standing in freezing rain until the doors burst open (please, please be careful out there!) and shopping until you drop, there’s one last paper trail report you should know about:  The Retail Equation!

If you like to pick up a pile of goodies and head straight for the cashier, figuring that you (and the kids, and your gift recipients) can try things on later and return them if they don’t fit (bodies or personalities), this is definitely a topic for you. You may have noticed recently that when you return or exchange an item, you’re likely to be asked to whip out your driver’s license. (No, you don’t have to prove you’re young enough to be seen in that mini-skirt in public or old enough to play Candyland.) It’s all part of a vast network to keep track of returns and exchanges in hopes of preventing fraud.

Retailers outsource their risk analysis (just like the insurance companies and lenders we’ve been discussing for weeks) to The Retail Equation (formerly The Return Exchange).  This company maintains a database of consumer behavioral patterns, including frequency of returns or exchanges, the dollar amounts of what is being returned (or exchanged) and the elapsed time since the original purchase (and how that time frame compares with the store’s stated return/exchange policies). 

Even if you’ve done nothing wrong, if you tend to make a lot of returns or exchanges, you may find that more and more retailers will be refusing to accept the returns. That’s a big “Yikes!” to shoppers who have a habit of bypassing the dressing rooms to make sure clothes fit, or who shop for their growing children without the kids in tow.

Retailers tend to disallow returns if they fall into one of two categories:

• Returns that break the retailer’s return policy, such as a return without a receipt, after the allowed return period or too many returns in any given period.

Depending on the state in which a retailer operates, it may or may not be required by law that the company post the policy, so it’s a good thing to look around the cashier area or back of your receipt to find a stated policy. If you don’t see a written policy, ask the cashier what the requirements are. Some stores require returns within 14, 30 or 60 days while others have no stated limits. Other stores limit the dollar value of items or number of purchases that can be returned in any given period (usually one business day). And most stores require a receipt with any return.

• Return behavior that could be construed to be abuse of retail policies

This category includes purchasing big ticket items and returning them immediately after a specific event, like buying a big screen TV the day before the Super Bowl and returning it the day after, or purchasing a prom dress and returning it in mid-June. In the retail industry, this is called renting or wardrobing…and Paper Doll would like to go on the record to say that it’s just really tacky.

The Retail Equation’s patented Verification-1 software system is designed to identify fraud and abuse related to returns, a $15.5 billion problem in the United States. The system is formulated to deter the less than 1% of shoppers (i.e., not you, dear readers) whose behaviors “mimic return fraud or abuse”.  The biggest concern is merchandise that is stolen, then “returned” or exchanged, and indeed, some thieves will retrieve the receipt you throw in the trash, steal that exact item and then use your receipt to make a return.

In general, you shouldn’t have to worry as long as you follow some basic rules:

• Keep your receipts for items that you’ll have a likelihood of returning (and get gift receipts for presents to make it easier for your recipients to return a too-snug sweater or duplicate DVD).
• Note the return periods for the items you buy. Consider making a notation on your calendar for the Saturday prior to the close of a return period for the things you’ve made during a big shopping trip.
• Avoid those questionable return behaviors, like “renting” big ticket purchases for one-time events and then returning the gently-used items.  (I’m sure no Paper Doll reader would even consider such behavior.)

Unlike all the other reports we’ve been discussing over the last month, The Retail Equation is not categorized as a credit reporting agency (CRA) according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, so consumers do not have a legal right to annual copies of their reports or a dispute policy requiring speedy investigation.

However, if an identity thief has stolen your good name (and checkbook) and is buying up goodies and making returns for quick cash, you do have a means of regress.  If you’ve had a return rejected (or are just concerned about the paper trail The Retail Equation has been keeping on you):

Send an email to returnactivityreport@theretailequation.com with your name and phone number.

A representative will return your call and ask you to provide some identifying information, including your driver’s license number and state, and the transaction ID from your attempted return. (If you didn’t make a return and are just checking your report, simply say so.)

It’s not a particularly speedy or automated process, but it does give you insight on your shopping and return habits. And, perhaps, if you’re returning so many purchases, it could mean that you don’t really need that kind of clutter in your life and that shopping isn’t the most fulfilling hobby for you. Just a thought.

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Over the past month, we’ve been looking at all the data being collected about us as we go about our daily lives as consumers. Our credit reports, our banking habits, our homeowner and auto insurance claims, the medical tests we undergo and the prescriptions we fill–all of this information is collected by third parties and distributed to lending institutions and insurance providers, so they can determine whether we’re shiny pennies worthy of their trust or too risky for them to serve (or serve inexpensively).

The good news is that these reports, if accurate, can reflect the hard work and dedication we’ve put in to building solid personal paper trails of responsible spending and banking, safe driving, and good, clean living.

The bad news is that an identity thief, whether purloining our financial or medical identities, can wreak havoc on the information in these consumer reports. Almost as bad (if not as intentional), keystroke errors by data entry workers can link the financial histories of a Junior with a Senior or a John Q. Public with a Jon Q. Public, or exchange the information of two unrelated people with similar names or Social Security numbers differing by one digit. 

All of this can cause us to pay double-digit interest rates for mortgages and credit cards, and increase our insurance rates (for homeowners and auto to health, life, disability and long-term care policies) beyond the reach of affordability. Unnoticed, such fraud or errors might even keep us from obtaining credit, bank accounts or insurance of which our true histories would deem us worthy.

The final good news (everything cycles around again) is that the Fair Credit Reporting Act ensures that for all of the reports we’ve discussed (with the exception of The Retail Equation), consumers have the right to free annual reports, free reports whenever an adverse action is taken against them (such as denial of service), the opportunity to dispute errors and have them investigated and corrected in a speedy manner, and the chance to have your side of events be included in your file if the reporting agency refuses to make the requested correction.

To recap our Who Knows Your Secrets series, we’ve covered:

From Little Sister to Big Brother (Your credit reports and who can access them)
Checking Up On Your Checking History (Safeguarding Your Bank Accounts)
Get A CLUE About Insurance Reports (Get the Insurance…and Rates…You Deserve)
Someone’s Snooping In Your Medicine Cabinet (Your Health History)
Employers & Landlords & Yentas: Oh, My (Everyone Else Who’s Up In Your Business)

While the topic of your consumer paper trail isn’t exactly turkeylicious, Thanksgiving is the unofficial start of a holiday season in which we need be ever more vigilant about our expenses and our financial lives. Please let this series of posts stand as mile markers as you traverse your paper trails…over the river and through the woods.

Readers, Paper Doll wishes you all a happy, healthy Thanksgiving.

Supreme Court justices and reality show contestants aren’t the only folks subject to background checks, and government and corporate vetting committees aren’t the only ones digging for dirt. Employers, dating services, landlords, wealthy parents of celebutantes–all have an interest in checking out somebody’s background.

EMPLOYERS

In our increasingly litigious society, many employers feel they must perform background checks to protect themselves against negligent hiring lawsuits. With an eye to prevent child abuse or abduction, the background of anyone who works in childcare or teaching will be investigated for past criminal activity. School and organizational athletic leagues must check out their volunteers and coaches to maximize the safety of the children–even the CDC has guidelines for screening such applicants.

Large corporations with major financial or corporate secrets feel the need to make sure there are no bits of grit on the squeaky clean reputations of their executives that might leave them open to blackmail or extortion. And of course, in light of modern terrorism of all sorts, background checks can bring to light histories of violence or other aspects that might make a particular person an inappropriate candidate.

Some of the reasons behind employer-driven background checks need not be as serious–sometimes they just want to make sure you are who and what you say you are. In promos for the new NBC series Community, attorney Joel McHale shares that he’s in trouble because of his undergraduate degree. “I thought you went to Columbia?” queries the friend. Joel replies, “And now I have to get a degree from America.” (Yes, the play on Columbia vs. Columbia doesn’t work as well in print.) Governments, universities, hospitals and corporations need to be sure that the lofty claims on applicant resumes are checked out in detail.

Sure, some employers are satisfied to call references, Google your name and make sure you don’t look too embarrassingly drunk in your Facebook page, but most responsible companies will perform more than cursory background checks, and there’s quite of bit of data that can come into play:

• Employment–social security data, Workers’ Compensation records, state licensing records (for medical, dental, legal, financial and other professionals, as well as for workers who care for children, the elderly and the disabled)
• Legal–court records (which may include criminal cases as well as a plethora of civil-litigation information), prison records, parole records, sexual offender lists, drug testing records, property ownership data
• Education–grades, academic probation records, honor code violations, student employment records, student housing and university police records
• Military–honorable or other discharges, records of service, dates of service
• Financial–credit reports, banking reports, bankruptcy records
• Auto-Related–driving records, vehicle registration records
• Character references from former employers, supervisors, co-workers, educators, neighbors, vendors, employees and others
• Medical records

(The Fair Credit Reporting Act disallows inclusion of the following in background checks: records of civil suits or judgments, paid tax liens, accounts placed for collection, and records of arrests, after 7 years; bankruptcies cannot be reported after ten years.)

Most employers would be hard-pressed to investigate all of these resources on their own, so they turn to Lexis-Nexis and ChoicePoint. Both companies are categorized as credit reporting agencies (CRAs) under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, meaning that you should have access to a free report annually and whenever you suffer an adverse action, and that you have the right to dispute errors and have them investigated and corrected.  And, as with the insurance and medical reports we’ve discussed previously, you do have to provide written permission for a prospective employer to obtain many of these reports about you, including education, medical, and military records.

If you know you’ll be undergoing a background check for employment, there are many things you can do to check–and even hose off the mud from–your paper trail. While you’re waiting to receive your Lexis-Nexis and ChoicePoint consumer reports, which can sometimes take 30 to 60 days, check out the reputation-enhancing suggestions offered by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

Don’t don’t forget to clean up the dirt on your digital paper trail, as well. The e-Justice blog has a great post on “Who Knows What About You?  25 Free Tools To Find Out”. (And take those Spring Break photos off your Facebook page!)

To get your consumer reports and find out what prospective employers will see:

Lexis-Nexis

1.  Go to Lexis-Nexis. (Navigation to this link can be difficult. If you are ever unable to click directly, use the site map for http://www.lexisnexis.com to find the privacy section and then locate the “For Consumers” button.)

2.  Click on Personal Information Request.

3.  Review the two lists of items you may use to validate your identity via your Social Security number, name and current address. 

–From the first list, you may select to send a photocopy of any of the following: your Social Security card, W2 form, military identification, a current pay stub (if your SSN is listed) or any other document containing your SSN. 

–From the second list, to prove your address, select a photocopy of your driver’s license (front and back) or a recent (within the past two months) utility, phone or credit card bill.

4.  Print the Lexis-Nexis “Request for a Accurint Report” form.

5.  Submit your form with photocopies of your identification to:

Accurint Consumer Inquiry Department
P.O. Box 105610
Atlanta, GA  30348-5610

ChoicePoint

ChoicePoint is a Lexis-Nexis partner, so don’t be surprised to see Lexis-Nexis logos on their pages, as well.

1.  Go to ChoicePoint.com

2.  Select “Access to Your Personal Information” from under the Reports About You section.

3.  Read the Instructions for Requesting Your ChoicePoint Full File Disclosure. You’ll see the proof of identity and name/address submissions are largely identical to those listed for the Accurint/Lexis-Nexis report.

4.  Print the Full File Disclosure Request Form and fill it out accurately.

5.  Send copies of your identity validation documents and completed form to:

ChoicePoint Consumer Center
Attn:  Full File Disclosure
P.O. Box 105108
Atlanta, GA  30348-5108

(Note:  this is NOT the same address as listed for Lexis-Nexis, though they are similar.)

LANDLORDS

When you go to rent a new apartment or house, the owner has a vested interest in making sure you’ll pay your rent on time and not turn his little loft or cottage into a crack den. Under most circumstances, a prospective landlord will pull your credit report; less often, depending on whether it’s one duplex or a corporate-owned complex of hundreds or thousands of apartments, a landlord or leasing office may pull a complete background check.

However, another set of resources is available specifically for mid-sized (or “multi-family”) property management offices. SafeRent and Rent Bureau collect and distribute a wide variety of rental application and personal data, including rent payment histories, references, credit ratings, and criminal record reports. They even have scores designed to predict the relative risk of a tenant turning rock-star and trashing the apartment, disappearing in the dark of night without paying owed rent, bouncing checks or otherwise acting in such a way that landlords will be inclined to start eviction proceedings.

Before you rent, be sure you know what your paper trail says about you:

SafeRent is the big player in rental records, operating a database of over 34 million records based on reported landlord-tenant histories.

1.  Go to FirstAdvantage SafeRent.

2.  Click on Consumer Relations.

3.  Read through the explanations of the different types of files, then click on Consumer Disclosure Request Form in the body of the first paragraph.

4.  Read through the requirements carefully. Note the circumstances under item #2 wherein you can receive a free annual report even if you have not received an adverse action notice (i.e., even if you haven’t been denied housing).

5.  Complete the form and make photocopies of your proof(s) of identification. As explained on the form, you may send a copy of your current driver’s license or government issued ID, or copies of any two of the following: your Social Security Card, a non-government issued ID (like an employee or student ID), or a recent utility bill.  Paper Doll advises against mailing copies of your Social Security Card whenever avoidable.

6.  Send the form and proof(s) of identification to

FirstAdvantage SafeRent, Inc.
Consumer Relations Department
7300 Westmore Road, Suite 3
Rockville, MD  20850-5223

SafeRent should mail your report within three days of receiving your request.

If you have further questions, you can call 800-815-8664.

Rent Bureau maintains a database of approximately six million lessee records.

1.  Go to RentBureau.com/Consumers.

2.  Click on Credit File Request form to get a copy of your Rent Bureau Rental File.

3.  Fill out the basic information and mail it to:

Rent Bureau, LLC
P.O. Box 18706
Atlanta, GA  31126

There is also a fax number listed, but Paper Doll advises against faxing personal information, particularly Social Security numbers, whenever possible. It’s just too easy to mistype a number and send your private information where it does not need to go.
 

YENTAS (Matchmakers) and OTHERS

While it may seem that matchmakers have gone the way of the dodo in this generation of eHarmony, Match.com and OK Cupid, there are still a great number of personalized introduction services out there, and one of the reasons they can charge the high rates they do is because they purport to do a complete background check on every applicant.

Earlier this year, the NFL Players’ Association, a union of professional football players, chose not to select former NFLPA President Troy Vincent for the position of Executive Director after the Associated Press completed an exhaustive investigation into Vincent’s business dealings based on public records, financial statements and personal interviews. While finding no wrongdoing, per se, the NFLPA opted to go with a candidate not weighed down by controversial business dealings which some members felt could expose Vincent to lawsuits and distract him from important NFLPA work.

More and more, our lives are led in public, and very little can remain hidden or private. Paper Doll believes that in some ways, sunshine is the best (figurative) disinfectant, but in other ways, discretion is the better part of valor. Either way, our employment and financial futures will increasingly depend on the information about us that is collected and distributed by third parties. The best we can do is make sure our paper trails are accurate (and hopefully, squeaky clean).

Next week, we’ll complete the “Who Knows Your Secrets?” series with important information just in time for you to head out for post-Thanksgiving Day shopping (and the inevitable returns).