I know I complain a lot and we have a lot of odd things happen to us. This week has been a pip.
I have a traditional Blackberry phone (not Android). It is 3G. I use it for texts, telephone calls, and checking things on the Internet. Yes, it is not the newest or coolest thing, but husband was able to make it sync with my computer Organizer software so I like it and have been happy with it. Last Thursday (a week ago) I went to look up something online and got a message that it could not connect and that if this continued I should contact my service provider. Okay, I never saw this before - but, again, it is not the latest fastest thing. I was in our house and turned on the wifi in the phone and accessed the Internet that way. No problem. Must be a glitch.
This problem continued over the weekend. Now, I don’t watch movies on the phone or use large amounts of data. I mostly use it for things such as “what else was the actress in the movie we just saw in?” Or “what does “X” mean” when we see or hear something we don’t know about.
So yesterday (Tuesday) I contacted my service provider online and had an hour and a half chat with an employee. We reset things that I did not even know my phone had. We reactivated the phone. We reset the phone. No change. Finally she told me that we had to reload the “service books”. I had no idea what the heck these were, but if we needed to reload, let’s do it. She comes back. They do not have the service books for my phone. I have to contact Blackberry. She assures me that Blackberry will have the service books. I thank her for her time and help.
I then go to Blackberry’s website (or I am guessing, one of them). I find tech support. I put in the required info from my phone - it is rejected as invalid. I try again - same result. I then try entering a hex version of the number which is on the phone - same result. I find a contact form for tech support and wrote and explained the problem.
Meanwhile on Monday husband had his email program updated - he did not update it - it did it itself. He then had major problems with his email program and accessing his calendar on the Internet which was coming in through his mail program. I don’t know all the details - there was something about the program was not recognizing his correct passwords and that he could not find some of them in his records of all his passwords - as I was barely listening to him as I was playing with my phone, hoping that it would magically start working again.
He needed to get rid of the update program and go back to an older version, but he was sure he would not be able to find one. I pointed out that I had an older version on my computer and we had reinstalled it last fall when we installed a new hard drive on mine. He installed it in his computer. Now the program and computer are downloading thousands of old emails into his computer. He has trouble with settings for the accounts - I use my computer to find how my email accounts are set.
He started looking for a new calendar program. There is one commercially available (at a reasonable price) that will not only solve his problems, but claims to also work with my old Organizer - if so, I can move on to a newer cell phone (which I don’t want to do, but it would make him happy, and there is this problem with mine right now). He downloaded a trial version of the calendar program. He has been having trouble with same and is not sure it does what is needed for either of us. Their tech support has been very accommodating in helping him to try to resolve the problems.
Today I had an email from Blackberry (at least it was quick and polite). The site I contacted was not correct and I needed to telephone “this number”. I send back a thank you.
I telephone Blackberry. I get through to tech support and it wants the same number - I know it will not work, but enter it anyway. It is rejected. I get a choice to try it again or speak to someone. I pick the latter. I explain my problem and situation. She needs the same number - I give it to her - it doesn’t work. She asks for another type of number and that works. She then asks me - twice - each of the points which I told her when our conversation started. She suggests I contact - yes - my service provider. I repeat (for the 4th time) that the provider referred me to them. She goes away and comes back.
I am not entitled to support. She does not say why, although I do have the phone for a number of years and I assume it because it is off warranty for a long time. I have, therefore, three choices. First, I can pay them “35 United States dollars”. Second, I can go to “this website” (a support website). Third (ready for this), I can contact my service provider. I elect the second choice.
I also make an unrelated telephone call to the NYC Police Department for a question that has come up with a client’s business and I have to leave a voice mail.
We go out to lunch and to run errands for a couple of hours.
I start checking email and seeing if have to pay bills, etc. Ok, I was avoiding trying to fix my phone. Husband comes up and starts his computer. He asks for the website. It is a list of problems and solutions (lot of help - right). We actually find the problem listed. We just cannot really figure out how to do what it says to do. Husband is worried that if we do it wrong I will lose the telephone and text functions and the phone will no longer be able to go on the Internet using wifi. We both poke around at stuff to try to figure out what to do.
One thing that husband is concerned about is that the company whose system my phone uses (my service provider does not have a system - depending on the phone one has, one uses one or another of the major cell phone systems) has announced that they are going to discontinue 3G service and husband is concerned that they have done so here. No one seems to have heard of this. I am presuming that since the phone says “3G” it is receiving same.
Just for fun along with all of this, my eye started hurting the night before last and still hurt when I woke. We figured out it must be a sty, so I am putting hot compresses on my eye several times a day - at least that seems to be working.
Then last night when I was washing up after dinner, my attention wandered and I cut a finger on a the lid of a soup can. Not a large cut, but it would not stop bleeding for awhile as I did the dishes. (It hurts, but is fine now.)
So this has not been a productive week. Our unit did have a reenactment event last weekend, at least that went well. The weather was pleasant. We did not have huge crowds, but steady ones and people who were interested and stayed around awhile. I got a bit embroidery done and was able to talk to people (mostly women) about same. So at least we had a chance to actually relax a bit.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
No matter how upsetting things are (and I know in the greater scheme of the world these electronic problems and injuries are so minor) one has to try to go with the flow. One can only do what one can do. Magic rarely happens.
In the United States this coming Monday is Memorial Day. For those of you who are elsewhere - this is a holiday to remember those who have died in military service to our country. It started after our Civil War (1860s) as Decoration Day, when ladies would go to the graves of those who died in the War and decorate them with flowers. If you are here - I wish you a pleasant Memorial Day.
For anyone who might have had family or friends injured or worse in the incident in Manchester, UK, my greatest sympathies.
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Thursday, May 18, 2017
REMEMBERING TO DO CHORES
I have mentioned that I use my cell phone to remind me to do things. Before I had a cell phone or a computer calendar, heck, back before I had a computer or used my husband’s comptuer - I needed a way to remember to do things.
When we lived an apartment chores were a lot easier. My husband would come home exhausted at the end of the week and go to bed early on Friday nights - very early - so I would clean the apartment while he was sleeping. I changed the bedding on the weekend. At first when the laundry bag filled up - about once a week to a week and a half - I went to the laundry up and across the street and wasted time doing the laundry - it came home in the same bag which also was washed. Then someone left a lipstick in the washing machine there - the washing machine I put all our clothes, towels, and bed linens in. Most of it had to be thrown out. Even then we were “odd sized” and had trouble replacing the clothes - plus the expense of replacing same and the rest. So we looked around and bought a very small washer and a very small dryer - really small. This turned laundry into an ongoing process most of the week. On Monday I would put the first load in the washer - a week of our shirts was all it was hold in one load. The dryer was about the same and did not have an exhaust hose, it exhausted the hot air into the adjacent air in the apartment and it took about twice as long as drying a full load of clothes does now. So this was a laborious process for most of the week - and very hot in summer with the air from the dryer heating the apartment beyond the summer heat, even with an air conditioner running.
When we moved to the house I needed to find ways to remember and “force myself” to do the household chores. I found it helpful to associate the chores to things to remind me. We have garbage pickup on Monday and Thursday - so, I started changing the towels on the same days - new towels went out on Mondays and Thursdays. Eventually I decided that I needed to change the kitchen towels more often and they became Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, while bathroom towels stayed the same. (Shower towels are taken out when they will be used and used once.) Works well.
I used to change the bedding on Mondays as it was a new workweek. This worked okay until we started traveling for weekends more often as we often stayed away through Mondays. Since then Tuesdays is the day I change the bedding - unless there is a reason to do it on another day.
I started doing the laundry on Wednesday nights. Why? If we were going to take a weekend trip it definitely would not be while we were away and we would have clean and folded clothes for a trip leaving on Friday. I used to do the entire washing and drying on Wednesday nights, then husband started watching TV in the kitchen and blocking the basement door, so I could not conveniently do the laundry while he was sitting there and had to wait for him to go upstairs to his computer, so I ended up splitting the laundry between Wednesday and Thursday nights - and folding them Thursday and Friday mornings. Yes, “West Wing” changed my laundry schedule. :-)
Even this blog is tied to something, it is written on Wednesday night and posted late on same - or technically early on Thursday - as I do the laundry at the same time.
Actually cleaning and dealing with the house was easier before husband quit his job and is now with me all the time. My time is no longer my own - similar to him sitting in the way of doing the laundry on Wednesday nights. I may plan to do one thing - but he needs help warping his loom. I plan to do things during the afternoon - not even house related - and he has other plans. Today the eyeglasses he ordered came in, so everything I hoped to do was gone. We drove 45 minutes to Walmart in the next county (the only one with a vision department around here) plus the time there and then the drive back - and while driving home I remembered we needed to buy milk at Walmart and had to stop at another one and buy it.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Are there automatic reminders which you can tie your house chores to?
When we lived an apartment chores were a lot easier. My husband would come home exhausted at the end of the week and go to bed early on Friday nights - very early - so I would clean the apartment while he was sleeping. I changed the bedding on the weekend. At first when the laundry bag filled up - about once a week to a week and a half - I went to the laundry up and across the street and wasted time doing the laundry - it came home in the same bag which also was washed. Then someone left a lipstick in the washing machine there - the washing machine I put all our clothes, towels, and bed linens in. Most of it had to be thrown out. Even then we were “odd sized” and had trouble replacing the clothes - plus the expense of replacing same and the rest. So we looked around and bought a very small washer and a very small dryer - really small. This turned laundry into an ongoing process most of the week. On Monday I would put the first load in the washer - a week of our shirts was all it was hold in one load. The dryer was about the same and did not have an exhaust hose, it exhausted the hot air into the adjacent air in the apartment and it took about twice as long as drying a full load of clothes does now. So this was a laborious process for most of the week - and very hot in summer with the air from the dryer heating the apartment beyond the summer heat, even with an air conditioner running.
When we moved to the house I needed to find ways to remember and “force myself” to do the household chores. I found it helpful to associate the chores to things to remind me. We have garbage pickup on Monday and Thursday - so, I started changing the towels on the same days - new towels went out on Mondays and Thursdays. Eventually I decided that I needed to change the kitchen towels more often and they became Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, while bathroom towels stayed the same. (Shower towels are taken out when they will be used and used once.) Works well.
I used to change the bedding on Mondays as it was a new workweek. This worked okay until we started traveling for weekends more often as we often stayed away through Mondays. Since then Tuesdays is the day I change the bedding - unless there is a reason to do it on another day.
I started doing the laundry on Wednesday nights. Why? If we were going to take a weekend trip it definitely would not be while we were away and we would have clean and folded clothes for a trip leaving on Friday. I used to do the entire washing and drying on Wednesday nights, then husband started watching TV in the kitchen and blocking the basement door, so I could not conveniently do the laundry while he was sitting there and had to wait for him to go upstairs to his computer, so I ended up splitting the laundry between Wednesday and Thursday nights - and folding them Thursday and Friday mornings. Yes, “West Wing” changed my laundry schedule. :-)
Even this blog is tied to something, it is written on Wednesday night and posted late on same - or technically early on Thursday - as I do the laundry at the same time.
Actually cleaning and dealing with the house was easier before husband quit his job and is now with me all the time. My time is no longer my own - similar to him sitting in the way of doing the laundry on Wednesday nights. I may plan to do one thing - but he needs help warping his loom. I plan to do things during the afternoon - not even house related - and he has other plans. Today the eyeglasses he ordered came in, so everything I hoped to do was gone. We drove 45 minutes to Walmart in the next county (the only one with a vision department around here) plus the time there and then the drive back - and while driving home I remembered we needed to buy milk at Walmart and had to stop at another one and buy it.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Are there automatic reminders which you can tie your house chores to?
Thursday, May 11, 2017
SHREDDING AND SCANNING
I have been very busy scanning bills and shredding papers - two separate, but slightly related projects. This has taken me only about 4 days - and by days I mean 4 sessions of a few hours each.
First the scanning - Last month I decided and posted about - 4-13-17 POST
- deciding to scan in bills as I pay them. Understand if I pay a charge card bill, I am only scanning in the statement, not every slip - even I am not that crazy - this is to make it easier if I need to view or need a copy of what I paid. Per the earlier post this is the result of needing a bill from last year and not being able to find it. I was lucky enough to have a scan of the bill and was able to use that for reference.
So I have since been scanning each bill as I pay it. For our personal checking account I am scanning them into my data drive. I set up a folder for the year with a subfolder for each month to make it all easier to find. For our business checking account I am just using a folder for the year as we write very few checks. I will go back when I have a chance shortly and scan in the bills from earlier in the year.
Once a year I empty out the oldest storage box of records - I have 9 boxes so it is the one from 9 years before - and refill it with the previous year. I cannot do this in earlier in the year as I want to include in the new year’s storage, the papers needed for income tax and our bank statements through the end of the prior year and I like to have the last statement we have at hand - some of our statements come in quarterly, so this can not be done before mid-April at the earliest and generally later than that. This year since I did not put our business return on extension I was ready to do this switch over now. I have been getting rid of 2007 records to make room for storage of 2016 records.
I was already to get rid of the 2007 records when the thought hit me - why not scan in the 2016 bills so I have them for reference before I store them away.
Second, the shredding - Before I get rid of the old records (in this case 2007) I shred them. I shred and shred and shred. I actually ended up with almost 39 gallons (3 kitchen bags) of shredded papers. Some papers I toss in the shredder without looking at, others I check first.
Which ones do I check? I look through the checking statements - personal and business - and keep any checks which paid income taxes or sales taxes (for the business). I keep these (or a scan of them - front and back) forever. I set them aside in my “to file” holder on my desk to file at the end of the week when I do filing. They will go in my tax files - personal or business - depending on what they are for. I also go quickly through our credit card statements. I look for any large amounts (over $100) and check what they are for. If they are for hotels, food, etc. I just skip them. If they are for a specific thing I look at them. This is especially true for expenditures for the house which may add to its cost (technically its “basis”) when we or our heirs one day sell the house and will lessen the profit on that sale. Anything else large I look at and sometimes discuss with my husband if we need to keep it for any reason. Almost always anything other than house related bills go into the shredder. For 2007 there were few bills that I looked at and those were large food bills or hotel bills. One bill was for a clothing item for me to wear when reenacting. I pulled that bill and made a note of the name of the company as reenacting friends have asked where I bought it and I did not remember. Now I have the name to give them.
Now here is where I took a big chance on being able to do two things at once. I had the large plastic box of 2007 records and a cardboard box (that originally held large manila envelopes) which was holding our 2016 bills. Two tasks to do - which to do?
Both of course. I would put a bill from 2016 in the scanner and hit the scan buttons. I would then take a handful of papers from the 2007 box and shred them - setting aside the bank and credit card statements. I did this for 3 days - working in checking the statements and shredding them also. I managed to not shred any of the 2016 records and not scan any of the 2007 records.
As of tonight I have finished shredding all of 2016 and the 3 white kitchen size bags of same have been put into a large black garbage bag - so that one cannot see what is in the bags through the white plastic - and the large black garbage bag is out at the curb for pickup tomorrow morning by the Town sanitation department (the garbagemen).
I have also finished scanning of our personal bills from 2016. I have maybe 30 bills for our business which I will scan tomorrow. The box from 2007 has been refilled with bank statements from 2016 and the personal bills from same - the business bills will be added. The information used to do our and the business’s income taxes are also in the box (but not the copies of the returns - they are in my accounting file drawer for my accounting practice - although they are also scanned into the computer as I also do with clients’s returns.
Right now my office is a mess. I end up emptying the shredded papers into our garbage pail in the office as the shredder fills. While I have a fairly heavy duty shredder, it can fill our 13 gallon garbage pail at least 3 times. Pouring this into the larger pail invariably ends up with shreds of paper all over - they have a good deal of static electricity and stick to things. I have promised husband now that I am finished I will vacuum the office tomorrow to clean it up - okay, they followed me out of the office door (it is a spare upstairs bedroom) into the hall and partially down the stairs and that will also need to be vacuumed.
After I scan the 2016 business records into the computer I will add them to the box. I have already gone through our personal and our business file drawers and pulled any records which are not needed at hand for last year and put them in the box. Before putting the box back into the closet I will take a folder in our file drawer marked “last year to file” and add some papers to the 2015 box. These are papers which for whatever reason were not stored or were not able to be stored away when I did this last year for 2015 (which replaced 2006 in a box). I know that something will always turn up which is why I have this file.
I also have a file called “this year”. It is the place I throw anything I want/need to keep and don’t know where to file - it is gone through when I do this switch over and the papers will either go into the 2016 box, be tossed or in some cases left in the folder. To give an example - we receive in the mail a card each from our election board each year with voting information for the year - where to vote, what votes there are and when they will be. I keep this card so when we go to vote we can figure out which of the, constantly changing in location, tables is the one for us to vote at. I keep it until the next year’s cards arrive. Last year we did not receive the cards when they were mailed for the primary (I telephoned and was told we should have received them and confirmed where we should go to vote) and we brought the one from the year before to help us figure out where to go in the room. (Mysteriously they did arrive, several months late, before the actual election.) Normally when we get the new cards I shred the old ones and throw them out - but they “reside” in this folder.
In past years in going through the records to be shed from the older year, I have found interesting items such as paper items from our 25th anniversary stay at a Colonial Williamsburg restored tavern - I did not keep any longer, but it was nice to remember the stay. (Yes, one can stay in restored houses and taverns on streets within the restoration as part of their hotels. It is rather pricey by our standards and this was the only time we did so - and even then, we stayed there for 3 nights during a reenacting weekend and stayed at a regular - much cheaper - hotel the rest of the stay.) This time I could tell by various papers and checks I found that this was the year husband quit his job (which is when I thought he did). Hard to believe that 10 years has passed.
Oh - you may wonder why 9 years in boxes - why not an even 10? Two reasons. The boxes were sold in packages of 3 boxes. Also I can fit 9 boxes on top of the closet in our office, but not 10. I figure that with the current year I have 10 years of records for taxes - and with scanning - even more.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
How do your store your old records? Presuming that you are in the U.S. you need to keep at a bare minimum 3 years of records for income taxes. Ten are generally recommended. IRS and states can generally audit you or say that there is an error for 3 years after you file a tax return, 7 years if after the due date if you do not file a return. (General rule - states can always have their own laws.)
I know that in the past our state has had “amnesty” periods when one can file a tax return which one has not filed and/or pay any taxes owed and apply to have any penalties on that amount waived so that one only pays the tax and interest (and sometimes one does not even have to pay the interest). I know that clients, as well as us, have received notices during these amnesty periods for return which were filed and paid. When I contacted the state about it being too long after the returns were filed and paid as no notices were receive before and it was past the 3 or even the 7 years I always got the same response - “We mailed you notices and we do not know why you did not get them so the action was started within the required 3 years.”
As a result of this I tell clients to keep all payments for taxes forever. This is the checks which pay estimated taxes or the final payment, W2 forms with withholding. 1099 forms of any type which have taxes withheld (these are the forms you receive in January for interest, dividends, stocks etc sold, amounts you received from pensions IRAs or 401k plans etc), Forms K1 from partnerships, small business corporations or LLCs, etc. You can scan in them into your computer to keep them or keep them as paper copies or both. I keep copies of same of ours.
First the scanning - Last month I decided and posted about - 4-13-17 POST
- deciding to scan in bills as I pay them. Understand if I pay a charge card bill, I am only scanning in the statement, not every slip - even I am not that crazy - this is to make it easier if I need to view or need a copy of what I paid. Per the earlier post this is the result of needing a bill from last year and not being able to find it. I was lucky enough to have a scan of the bill and was able to use that for reference.
So I have since been scanning each bill as I pay it. For our personal checking account I am scanning them into my data drive. I set up a folder for the year with a subfolder for each month to make it all easier to find. For our business checking account I am just using a folder for the year as we write very few checks. I will go back when I have a chance shortly and scan in the bills from earlier in the year.
Once a year I empty out the oldest storage box of records - I have 9 boxes so it is the one from 9 years before - and refill it with the previous year. I cannot do this in earlier in the year as I want to include in the new year’s storage, the papers needed for income tax and our bank statements through the end of the prior year and I like to have the last statement we have at hand - some of our statements come in quarterly, so this can not be done before mid-April at the earliest and generally later than that. This year since I did not put our business return on extension I was ready to do this switch over now. I have been getting rid of 2007 records to make room for storage of 2016 records.
I was already to get rid of the 2007 records when the thought hit me - why not scan in the 2016 bills so I have them for reference before I store them away.
Second, the shredding - Before I get rid of the old records (in this case 2007) I shred them. I shred and shred and shred. I actually ended up with almost 39 gallons (3 kitchen bags) of shredded papers. Some papers I toss in the shredder without looking at, others I check first.
Which ones do I check? I look through the checking statements - personal and business - and keep any checks which paid income taxes or sales taxes (for the business). I keep these (or a scan of them - front and back) forever. I set them aside in my “to file” holder on my desk to file at the end of the week when I do filing. They will go in my tax files - personal or business - depending on what they are for. I also go quickly through our credit card statements. I look for any large amounts (over $100) and check what they are for. If they are for hotels, food, etc. I just skip them. If they are for a specific thing I look at them. This is especially true for expenditures for the house which may add to its cost (technically its “basis”) when we or our heirs one day sell the house and will lessen the profit on that sale. Anything else large I look at and sometimes discuss with my husband if we need to keep it for any reason. Almost always anything other than house related bills go into the shredder. For 2007 there were few bills that I looked at and those were large food bills or hotel bills. One bill was for a clothing item for me to wear when reenacting. I pulled that bill and made a note of the name of the company as reenacting friends have asked where I bought it and I did not remember. Now I have the name to give them.
Now here is where I took a big chance on being able to do two things at once. I had the large plastic box of 2007 records and a cardboard box (that originally held large manila envelopes) which was holding our 2016 bills. Two tasks to do - which to do?
Both of course. I would put a bill from 2016 in the scanner and hit the scan buttons. I would then take a handful of papers from the 2007 box and shred them - setting aside the bank and credit card statements. I did this for 3 days - working in checking the statements and shredding them also. I managed to not shred any of the 2016 records and not scan any of the 2007 records.
As of tonight I have finished shredding all of 2016 and the 3 white kitchen size bags of same have been put into a large black garbage bag - so that one cannot see what is in the bags through the white plastic - and the large black garbage bag is out at the curb for pickup tomorrow morning by the Town sanitation department (the garbagemen).
I have also finished scanning of our personal bills from 2016. I have maybe 30 bills for our business which I will scan tomorrow. The box from 2007 has been refilled with bank statements from 2016 and the personal bills from same - the business bills will be added. The information used to do our and the business’s income taxes are also in the box (but not the copies of the returns - they are in my accounting file drawer for my accounting practice - although they are also scanned into the computer as I also do with clients’s returns.
Right now my office is a mess. I end up emptying the shredded papers into our garbage pail in the office as the shredder fills. While I have a fairly heavy duty shredder, it can fill our 13 gallon garbage pail at least 3 times. Pouring this into the larger pail invariably ends up with shreds of paper all over - they have a good deal of static electricity and stick to things. I have promised husband now that I am finished I will vacuum the office tomorrow to clean it up - okay, they followed me out of the office door (it is a spare upstairs bedroom) into the hall and partially down the stairs and that will also need to be vacuumed.
After I scan the 2016 business records into the computer I will add them to the box. I have already gone through our personal and our business file drawers and pulled any records which are not needed at hand for last year and put them in the box. Before putting the box back into the closet I will take a folder in our file drawer marked “last year to file” and add some papers to the 2015 box. These are papers which for whatever reason were not stored or were not able to be stored away when I did this last year for 2015 (which replaced 2006 in a box). I know that something will always turn up which is why I have this file.
I also have a file called “this year”. It is the place I throw anything I want/need to keep and don’t know where to file - it is gone through when I do this switch over and the papers will either go into the 2016 box, be tossed or in some cases left in the folder. To give an example - we receive in the mail a card each from our election board each year with voting information for the year - where to vote, what votes there are and when they will be. I keep this card so when we go to vote we can figure out which of the, constantly changing in location, tables is the one for us to vote at. I keep it until the next year’s cards arrive. Last year we did not receive the cards when they were mailed for the primary (I telephoned and was told we should have received them and confirmed where we should go to vote) and we brought the one from the year before to help us figure out where to go in the room. (Mysteriously they did arrive, several months late, before the actual election.) Normally when we get the new cards I shred the old ones and throw them out - but they “reside” in this folder.
In past years in going through the records to be shed from the older year, I have found interesting items such as paper items from our 25th anniversary stay at a Colonial Williamsburg restored tavern - I did not keep any longer, but it was nice to remember the stay. (Yes, one can stay in restored houses and taverns on streets within the restoration as part of their hotels. It is rather pricey by our standards and this was the only time we did so - and even then, we stayed there for 3 nights during a reenacting weekend and stayed at a regular - much cheaper - hotel the rest of the stay.) This time I could tell by various papers and checks I found that this was the year husband quit his job (which is when I thought he did). Hard to believe that 10 years has passed.
Oh - you may wonder why 9 years in boxes - why not an even 10? Two reasons. The boxes were sold in packages of 3 boxes. Also I can fit 9 boxes on top of the closet in our office, but not 10. I figure that with the current year I have 10 years of records for taxes - and with scanning - even more.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
How do your store your old records? Presuming that you are in the U.S. you need to keep at a bare minimum 3 years of records for income taxes. Ten are generally recommended. IRS and states can generally audit you or say that there is an error for 3 years after you file a tax return, 7 years if after the due date if you do not file a return. (General rule - states can always have their own laws.)
I know that in the past our state has had “amnesty” periods when one can file a tax return which one has not filed and/or pay any taxes owed and apply to have any penalties on that amount waived so that one only pays the tax and interest (and sometimes one does not even have to pay the interest). I know that clients, as well as us, have received notices during these amnesty periods for return which were filed and paid. When I contacted the state about it being too long after the returns were filed and paid as no notices were receive before and it was past the 3 or even the 7 years I always got the same response - “We mailed you notices and we do not know why you did not get them so the action was started within the required 3 years.”
As a result of this I tell clients to keep all payments for taxes forever. This is the checks which pay estimated taxes or the final payment, W2 forms with withholding. 1099 forms of any type which have taxes withheld (these are the forms you receive in January for interest, dividends, stocks etc sold, amounts you received from pensions IRAs or 401k plans etc), Forms K1 from partnerships, small business corporations or LLCs, etc. You can scan in them into your computer to keep them or keep them as paper copies or both. I keep copies of same of ours.
Thursday, May 4, 2017
BACKING UP COMPUTER FILES SO YOU DON'T USE THEM
I have written before about my regular daily back up of my data and my archiving it at the end of the year. There is other backing up that I do that I thought I would tell you about.
I was very careful about backing up - day after day - and then I realized I had problem with the data to my organizer. There was a problem (I forget what by now) and unfortunately both my daily backups (A and B) were bad - for over a week. Now I had to go and try to figure out what went wrong and when and come up with replacement info about what I had done. (Remember I use my organizer for appointments, to dos, anniversary/birthdays, my contacts directory and memos - things to buy, info I need, etc.) I managed to get it corrected. I was lucky that I make a monthly backup on an exterior hard drive.
Once a month I run software to copy my computers to an external hard drive. The idea is that if my computer hard drive crashes I can restore it quickly and easily. Of course this sometimes goes awry since one does not know if the backup worked unless and until one needs to use it. I also copy my data and organizer separately at the same time to the same external hard drive. So lucky me, I had organizer data from less than a month before to help me catch back up.
To prevent the loss of data backup from overwriting the backup daily - even with A and B alternating backups - I came up with the idea of - yes - another backup. I took a flash drive (you can see I love these things) and made a folder - “Backup” and another “Calendar” (meaning everything from the organizer), and another one “client name” for each client. On a Friday I backed all my data from these assorted sources to this drive. I call it my weekly drive. The following Friday I went and added the date of the first backup to the names of the backup files I had made and made new “backup”, “calendar”, and “client’s name” files. I ran the backups again. Now I have a backup as of the end of “this” week and one from the end of last week. If I overwrite the data and backups with the same error - I have a backup from only a week ago. I kept doing this for 4 weeks. At then end of 4 weeks I had the latest weekly backups which just had the names of the backups and 3 backups from the prior 3 weeks - each labeled with the date they were backed up. What then? Well, I again added the date to last Friday’s backups, but this time I removed the date from the oldest backups - putting them back with their original names and ran an update backup. This is what I do each week now - add the date to last week’s backups and remove the date from the oldest backups - and update them.
So now I am backing up my data and calendar daily to flash stick drives (A and B) and then backing up my data weekly to a different flash stick drive, and monthly to an external hard drive, when I back up my computers to same.
I think, but I am not sure, that I have mentioned I do a backup once a month to still another flash stick drive (and yes, they are very well labeled so I know which is which and what is on them) that also has a copy of my annual archive on it, which I bring to my bank safe deposit box for “offsite” storage. I used to send this drive to work with husband when he worked in an office which was not in our house. He would take the drive to work and bring back the one he already had there. Now I take the one I just updated to the bank box and bring home the one from last time. The one from last time will be updated just before it goes back to the bank box.
One would think this was enough backups - right?
My external hard drive was getting a bit old (and therefore is rather small). It suddenly dawned on me that if the external hard drive went bad, I would lose the data and if the computer crashed, well I would be stuck (sort of like when we bought a new internal hard drive due to problems with my old one and the backup had not worked).
So - I bought a new larger drive (the storage was a lot larger, the physical drive only a bit larger). So now I back up my computer and assorted data onto this drive monthly - and I have new software so hopefully if I need to use it, it will work. I then backup to the old external hard drive quarterly - just as, well, a backup of the backup. I work on the idea that more backups make it harder to lose data or computer hard drive.
Now, I know I am backing up way more than anyone short of a major corporation does, but I don’t want to lose my data or my hard drive again.
Do you back up? You really need to. I lose business type data - if you have your photos on the computer you could lose the photos if you lost your drive. At least get a couple of fairly inexpensive flash drives and make copies in an alternating pattern .
Oh, another advantage to my keeping my data on flash drives is that they are small. I can take them from once computer to another - very easily. I can also put all of my flash drives in the pocket of my jeans - at the same time - if I needed to take them - which leads to -
I have mentioned that I have a grab and go folder for financial stuff - last bank statements, insurance policies, copies of deed, mortgage payoff and car titles, duplicate birth and wedding certificates and such. I also have a copy of the latest archive on DVD. If we need to leave the house in an emergency we can grab this folder (actually a sectioned “file wallet” with a top that closes) drop in the lastest data drive and run in an emergency and have as much info with us as we can. If you have precious photos you can keep a copy of them in there also - DVDs are more definite than flash drives (another reason I keep a lot of backups - flash drives can go bad) and you will not have lost info you need plus personal photos and infos you would miss. (Remember you can scan in your child’s art work, etc. also.)
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
It is May. While I know the weather is odd this year, we are over a quarter of the way through the year and well onto halfway through the year. Don’t wait any longer. Do something towards getting rid of clutter and beginning to organize and clean up.
Today I had my embroidery chapter meeting. We have the room until 2 pm. Most, sometimes all, the other members leave at the end of the program- between noon and 1 pm generally. I always have some embroidery project (or two) with me. Today two other members were staying and working on their needlework after the others had left. I took out one of the projects from my bag and started stitching. I did not get a lot done as this particular project is a slow one with tiny stitches and one strand of cotton embroidery floss at a time, but I am now that much further along on the project - not even a ful petal of a flower - but I am that tiny bit closer to finishing it.
Each step you take towards getting organized - throwing even one item out or otherwise getting it out of your house - is a bit less that needs to be done. Small amounts add to large ones. There is a quote (I think from Patrick Henry) “I have never seen a man devour an entire bunch of grapes at one time, but I have seen a man accomplish the same thing, by plucking the grapes and eating them one at a time.” In the same way we cannot accomplish everything needed to declutter, organize, and clean everything at once - but we can do this a bit at a time - so do something as the first step and then tomorrow do something else, and so on.
I was very careful about backing up - day after day - and then I realized I had problem with the data to my organizer. There was a problem (I forget what by now) and unfortunately both my daily backups (A and B) were bad - for over a week. Now I had to go and try to figure out what went wrong and when and come up with replacement info about what I had done. (Remember I use my organizer for appointments, to dos, anniversary/birthdays, my contacts directory and memos - things to buy, info I need, etc.) I managed to get it corrected. I was lucky that I make a monthly backup on an exterior hard drive.
Once a month I run software to copy my computers to an external hard drive. The idea is that if my computer hard drive crashes I can restore it quickly and easily. Of course this sometimes goes awry since one does not know if the backup worked unless and until one needs to use it. I also copy my data and organizer separately at the same time to the same external hard drive. So lucky me, I had organizer data from less than a month before to help me catch back up.
To prevent the loss of data backup from overwriting the backup daily - even with A and B alternating backups - I came up with the idea of - yes - another backup. I took a flash drive (you can see I love these things) and made a folder - “Backup” and another “Calendar” (meaning everything from the organizer), and another one “client name” for each client. On a Friday I backed all my data from these assorted sources to this drive. I call it my weekly drive. The following Friday I went and added the date of the first backup to the names of the backup files I had made and made new “backup”, “calendar”, and “client’s name” files. I ran the backups again. Now I have a backup as of the end of “this” week and one from the end of last week. If I overwrite the data and backups with the same error - I have a backup from only a week ago. I kept doing this for 4 weeks. At then end of 4 weeks I had the latest weekly backups which just had the names of the backups and 3 backups from the prior 3 weeks - each labeled with the date they were backed up. What then? Well, I again added the date to last Friday’s backups, but this time I removed the date from the oldest backups - putting them back with their original names and ran an update backup. This is what I do each week now - add the date to last week’s backups and remove the date from the oldest backups - and update them.
So now I am backing up my data and calendar daily to flash stick drives (A and B) and then backing up my data weekly to a different flash stick drive, and monthly to an external hard drive, when I back up my computers to same.
I think, but I am not sure, that I have mentioned I do a backup once a month to still another flash stick drive (and yes, they are very well labeled so I know which is which and what is on them) that also has a copy of my annual archive on it, which I bring to my bank safe deposit box for “offsite” storage. I used to send this drive to work with husband when he worked in an office which was not in our house. He would take the drive to work and bring back the one he already had there. Now I take the one I just updated to the bank box and bring home the one from last time. The one from last time will be updated just before it goes back to the bank box.
One would think this was enough backups - right?
My external hard drive was getting a bit old (and therefore is rather small). It suddenly dawned on me that if the external hard drive went bad, I would lose the data and if the computer crashed, well I would be stuck (sort of like when we bought a new internal hard drive due to problems with my old one and the backup had not worked).
So - I bought a new larger drive (the storage was a lot larger, the physical drive only a bit larger). So now I back up my computer and assorted data onto this drive monthly - and I have new software so hopefully if I need to use it, it will work. I then backup to the old external hard drive quarterly - just as, well, a backup of the backup. I work on the idea that more backups make it harder to lose data or computer hard drive.
Now, I know I am backing up way more than anyone short of a major corporation does, but I don’t want to lose my data or my hard drive again.
Do you back up? You really need to. I lose business type data - if you have your photos on the computer you could lose the photos if you lost your drive. At least get a couple of fairly inexpensive flash drives and make copies in an alternating pattern .
Oh, another advantage to my keeping my data on flash drives is that they are small. I can take them from once computer to another - very easily. I can also put all of my flash drives in the pocket of my jeans - at the same time - if I needed to take them - which leads to -
I have mentioned that I have a grab and go folder for financial stuff - last bank statements, insurance policies, copies of deed, mortgage payoff and car titles, duplicate birth and wedding certificates and such. I also have a copy of the latest archive on DVD. If we need to leave the house in an emergency we can grab this folder (actually a sectioned “file wallet” with a top that closes) drop in the lastest data drive and run in an emergency and have as much info with us as we can. If you have precious photos you can keep a copy of them in there also - DVDs are more definite than flash drives (another reason I keep a lot of backups - flash drives can go bad) and you will not have lost info you need plus personal photos and infos you would miss. (Remember you can scan in your child’s art work, etc. also.)
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
It is May. While I know the weather is odd this year, we are over a quarter of the way through the year and well onto halfway through the year. Don’t wait any longer. Do something towards getting rid of clutter and beginning to organize and clean up.
Today I had my embroidery chapter meeting. We have the room until 2 pm. Most, sometimes all, the other members leave at the end of the program- between noon and 1 pm generally. I always have some embroidery project (or two) with me. Today two other members were staying and working on their needlework after the others had left. I took out one of the projects from my bag and started stitching. I did not get a lot done as this particular project is a slow one with tiny stitches and one strand of cotton embroidery floss at a time, but I am now that much further along on the project - not even a ful petal of a flower - but I am that tiny bit closer to finishing it.
Each step you take towards getting organized - throwing even one item out or otherwise getting it out of your house - is a bit less that needs to be done. Small amounts add to large ones. There is a quote (I think from Patrick Henry) “I have never seen a man devour an entire bunch of grapes at one time, but I have seen a man accomplish the same thing, by plucking the grapes and eating them one at a time.” In the same way we cannot accomplish everything needed to declutter, organize, and clean everything at once - but we can do this a bit at a time - so do something as the first step and then tomorrow do something else, and so on.
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