cissado, I assume that your CC means Credit Card ... and I'm wondering if I missed something, as I didn't think that there was a reference to credit cards in the present discussion. Sparksals took her bequest cheque, drawn in Canadian dollars, to a local financial agency (in AZ?) and was rather distressed that they wanted a rather hefty fee for the exchange. It was suggested that she have the money exchanged into U.S. funds in Calgary, as they have a large number of U.S. folks up there and do that all the time. As she said, the exchange rate had the Canadian Dollar increase in value relative to the U.S. one in the meantime, so she ended up getting something better than US$22,000. for her CA$25,000., rather than better than $19,000. which she was offered originally in her area. __________________________ Sparksals, As you begin (to learn about and) investing, especially when you have small amounts, mutual funds are useful vehicles. In the meantime, I suggest that you begin to learn how the money markets work, with a view to buying your own stocks directly, later. In Canada, the managers of equity-based mutual funds usually charge more than 2% of the funds managed annually as their management fee ... in the U.S., it's usually aound 1.5 - 1.75%, I think. Still, when long-term average rate of growth runs around 8%, that means that the mutual fund managers are pocketing a substantial portion of that increase ... and they get their percentage, even in years when there is no growth. I'd suggest that you visit the business and investment section of a major library and ask the people who know that section of the library to suggest some materials for you to study. I think that the 332. section will have some useful materials. If they have the Value Line evaluation system, that gives an in-depth study of a large number of companies. There's another program of investing that is comparable to mutual funds, but the annual fee is much lower, called Exchange Traded Funds. Quite a number of mutual fund managers use them, some rather extensively You can buy one issue that includes shares of a number of major companies in, say, financial, or medical, or mining, consumer, transportation, utilities and other sectors. Or you can buy a piece of a number of shares of major companies in a number of countries or areas of the world ... look under "ishares" in the NYSE listing. As the management is much less, their annual fee is much smaller - usually about 0.5% or so. While the rates of return on your CDs remains approximately the same over a number of years, there are a number of companies that have increased their dividends annually for many years ... I think that Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) have increased theirs every year for the most recent 40. And their rates of payment usually run at a similar percentage rate, which means that, usually, the share prices have advanced, as well. If you look at any financial paper, you can see the symbol that the stock market uses to designate each stock, and the prices that each is selling at currently, plus, usually, report of their recent earnings, and the dividend that they pay. If you go to a financial section on the internet, e.g., I use Yahoo, and if you go to www.yahoo.com, near the top of the page is a box with a number of topics. Click on "Finance", and when that page comes up, it offers a substantial amount of info on the general market. There's a box that says, "Get quotes", and if you enter the symbol for a given stock (e.g. "F" is Ford, "GE" is General Electric, it will give you the range of prices that people paid today for that stock. At the right there is a chart that shows the various prices today, and below it you can click on "5d" to find a chart showing the prices over the most recent 5 days, "1y" to show the price ranges for the most recent year. Above the box there is a choice that lets you choose "Line" (which is likely the one that shows), showing the closing price of the stock over a given period. Or, you can choose, "Bar", which will show the high, low and closing prices daily for whatever period that you choose. Over at the left, near the top, is a choice, "Historical prices", and you can choose daily, weekly, etc. for what length of times that you choose. You'll get a list of open, high, low and close prices over a length of time ... and dates and amounts of dividend payments (most pay quarterly). EnCana (ECA.TO for pricing in CAD in Toronto, ECA for pricing in USD on NYSE) is, long term, a good stock, mainly involved with natural gas ... I don't know whether investing in it just now is a good idea (nor do I mean to imply that it isn't), but if your time horizon is several years, I'm pretty sure that you'd be happy with it. I hope that this gives you some ideas of how to begin your adventure of learning about your investments. Learning how money works ... an interesting hobby ... *that pays well*!! ole joyful

Sorry - a little more info to be added: (IÂm a believer itÂs best to get a private policy before one turns 50 [most carriers will not write an LTC policy on anyone younger than 45] as the premiums start to rise substantially after that age. As the first article states, the premiums for the CLASS program are not much cheaper than a Preferred risk would pay for a much better private LTC policy if purchased at age 50 or younger. Our own policies (purchased thru DH's employer 10 yrs ago) are miles better than the CLASS program offers, but if we tried to obtain these same policies now, weÂd either get turned down or have to pay three or four times more than what we currently pay.) Further info: Article: With Health Reform, Long-Term-Care Option Becomes Law CLASS Act enacted with health care reform 3/24/2010 By Stephen Miller Under the CLASS Act program, all premium costs can be charged to employees. Employers who chose to participate in the CLASS program wil be required to permit employees to make contributions by means of a payroll deduction, once the CLASS Independence Benefit Plan is designated by U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is to be no later than Oct. 1, 2012. Employers either would create automatic enrollment procedures that allow workers to opt out, or allow workers to choose to enroll and pay premiums. Participants must pay monthly premiums for at least five years before they could receive benefits. Seniors (over age 65 years old) who have paid premiums for at least 20 years and are not actively employed are exempt from paying any premium increase. Premium payments will be placed in a "Life Independence Account" on behalf of each eligible beneficiary and managed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a new insurance program. As the CLASS program is developed, participating employers will need to coordinate with their payroll services providers to facilitate these deductions and contributions. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the monthly insurance premium will average about $123 in 2011. Premiums vary with age and will not increase once employees signed up, but they would increase for those signing up later. After five years of paying into the program, enrollees who continue to pay monthly premiums would become eligible for assistance if they experience limitations in two or more so-called activities of daily living, including eating, bathing, dressing and taking medications. This assistance would take the form of a modest daily cash benefit, estimated at $50 per day for impaired enrollees living in the community, for services such as respite care, home care aides and accessible transportation, and up to $75 a day for enrollees who become institutionalized. These amounts would increase with inflation. Here is a link that might be useful: Earlier info on CLASS program

"I'd say it's well worth looking into, by asking someone who is a certified accountant (skip the employees of that highly advertised store front tax chain--they only get a few weeks course in tax prep, and the returns they prepare have a very high percentage of being audited)." Azzalea Please remember that not all CPAs are good tax preparers. There are many who are. Most CPAs donÂt actually prepare the returns themselves. They have a "back room" that does the tax prep. The CPA may review the return in detail or may not even look at it. What Azzalea says about the chain tax prep firms is a common misconception. There are tax preparers at those chains that have been doing taxes for over 10 or more years. I know several that have been doing tax returns for over 20 years with those big chains. IÂd like to know where azzalea got the information that leads azzalea to believe that the chains have a very high percentage of audits. I have never seen a statistic published by the IRS that shows this. The key to finding a tax person is to ask about their experience with returns similar to yours. Ask about the guarantee that your return is done correctly. Ask if they will go to an audit for no additional fee if you audited. Back to the original question, whether or not you have enough medical expenses depends on your situation, your income, your medical expenses and how many other itemized deductions you have.

I know. I just didn't want anyone to get the impression that WM didn't contribute to mandated payroll taxes. Now, the senior employees who are already on SS & Medicare are usually parttime employees who do not qualify for the WM medical plan because of that. But, in all honesty, I don't know how many of them really want to work full time anyway as the usual jobs available are standing on your feet all day and much better suited to PT or younger employees. (Don't get all het up folks. I'm not saying all seniors lack the stamina, just that most probably would not want to do that.) Most employers medical policies stipulate that only full time employees qualify for coverage. Now, having said that. Younger employees who are restricted to PT and not allowed coverage on the company plan would have to provide their own insurance or use the public health facilities which are covered by medicaid. Most of those facilities require a payment of some amount based on ability to pay but I'm sure if you're homeless and have no income you would not be denied services. At least I would hope that this is true.