Lilac City Momma

Lynn

Mortgage Advisors in Florida Are Giving Seniors New Hope

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On January 1, 2009, the US federal government made it possible for senior citizens to move home for any reason they wanted to. This gave rise to a huge increase in demand for mortgage advisors in Florida who had an understanding of these changes in laws. This has been made possible through the HECM purchase program, but few people really understand what this means.

Mortgage Advisors in Florida on the HECM Purchase Program

In a nutshell, HCEM means that people over the age of 62 can apply for a reverse mortgage on a different property, leading to them not having to make any payments at all. That sounds too good to be true, but it actually isn’t. It does mean that you need to understand the process, however.

Before HECM, a senior citizen would have to take out a reverse mortgage if they wanted to buy a different home and didn’t have the actual cash for it. They would then have to look for a new home and buy it in cash. Then, they would need to sell their old property to pay off the reverse mortgage on that property. And then, finally, they would need to apply for another reverse mortgage on the new property, so that they would have money in their account again. Considering all the various closing fees associated with this, they would often be thousands out of pocket.

Now, however, the HECM allows those over the age of 62 to sell their home and to then use some of the proceeds towards that property, financing the rest with a reverse mortgage. How much they can get depends on how young the youngest owner is, and what the purchase price (or appraised value – whichever is lower) of the property is.

No credit checks have to be completed, seniors simply have to demonstrate that they have some funds available to put towards it. Closing costs can generally be added into the loan. This means that they can keep money in their account for their retirement fund as well. By only investing the minimum as a down payment and keeping the balance, they may also be able to avoid capital gains tax, which is up to $500,000 on primary residences if they lived there for at least two years. This means they end up with even more money in their pocket as well. The benefits, therefore, include:

Not having to pay taxes on any gains on the property up to $500,000.

Not having to use most of your money to purchase a new home.

Being able to live in a new home without any mortgage payments for life.

Being able to bargain on the price of a replacement home.

Being able to purchase a home to the value of up to $417,000.

Being able to retain a lot of tax free funds for your own retirement.

The only real downside is that the system is quite complex to understand, but that is what a professional advisor can help with.

Important Considerations to Make about Breast Reconstruction

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The WHCRA (Women’s Health and Cancer Reconstruction Act) was signed into law in 1998 by then-President Bill Clinton. The goal of the bill was to make sure that if a women had to have a mastectomy due to breast cancer, she would be able to access breast reconstruction through her insurance as well. Indeed, before the WHCRA, many insurance companies did not cover these procedures, classing them as “elective cosmetic”. Yet, despite this law now being in force for almost 20 years, the National Cancer Institute has reported that, as of 2012, still only 20% of mastectomy patients have reconstructive surgery.

Why Some Women Do Not Have Breast Reconstruction

There are numerous and very complex reasons why women do not access breast reconstruction services. One of the first reasons is that women are too busy battling cancer. Survival, at that moment, is far more important than reconstruction. As a result, it is seen as something “secondary”, rather than a full part of the overall treatment plan. Hence, although the law states it should be part of the process, the reality is that, practically, it continues to be almost elective.

Thankfully, more and more physicians now understand that part of the recovery should be for the woman to feel whole again. And, for many, this means having breast reconstruction surgery. The fact that only 20% of women access this means, however, that not enough emphasis is placed on it.

Of course, there are other considerations to make as well, including:

  • The fact that reconstruction will often require multiple surgeries, and women don’t want to go through that after already going through breast cancer.
  • The fact that there is an element of vanity associated with it, when surviving breast cancer is about being humble and thankful, not looking better.
  • The fact that many women with breast cancer are somewhat older, and they often feel they no longer “need” their breasts.

The latter is something few physicians will sign up to. However, it seems that, on a psychological level at least, many women feel that it is true. They feel that they have gone through a huge battle to survive cancer, and physical appearances simply aren’t as important anymore as what they used to be. Physicians, however, feel that recovering from cancer is about more than thankfulness, humility, and courage. It is also about feeling strong, whole, and confident, and this may mean having new breasts.

Ultimately, it should be down to what the patient wants. Sometimes, not having surgery, or delaying surgery, is the best option out there. However, never should a woman who has survived breast cancer be made to feel like she shouldn’t have surgery because it makes her vein. The procedure is there to complete and finalize the healing process, when a woman is ready for it herself. Embracing a new body is fine, but it is equally find to want to return to the previous body, or even to have somewhat of an improvement.

Why Do People Opt For New York Gender Selection?

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New York gender selection is procedure by which people get to decide whether they will have a boy or a girl. There are two types of gender selection: medical and elective. Some couples go through genetic testing and find out that they have diseases or disorders that they would pass on to an unborn child, but only of a certain gender. For instance, Tay-Sachs disease can only be passed on to one gender in most cases, which means the terrible illness could be avoided simply by not conceiving a child of that gender. This would be used in medical gender selection. Elective selection, by contrast, is for people who simply prefer to have a child of a certain gender, perhaps because they want to create a degree of balance within their family, for instance.

Different Reasons for New York Gender Selection

There are many different reasons as to why someone might want to choose the gender of their child, and all those reasons are personal. Regardless, however, they will have to choose for medical or elective procedures in order to make it so. Both have some controversies associated with them as well, however, because some people believe we should not interfere with the gender of our child.

Embryonic gender selection is by far the most controversial. In this procedure, a number of eggs are fertilized using in-vitro (test tube) technology. These embryos, once deemed viable, are tested to determine whether they are healthy, and to determine their gender. Any unhealthy embryos are discarded, and any unwanted ones are as well. The remaining embryos, which are the gender desired by the prospective parents, are then implanted into the mother. This is not yet a common procedure, and few clinics and doctors offer it. Those who do offer it tend to not do so if someone simply “wants” to have a boy or a girl. Rather, it has to be done due to real medical reasons.

The second option is to use sperm sex selection. Here, a male sperm sample is provided, and all x-chromosome sperms are separated from any y-chromosome sperms. They do this by using a DNA sensitive laser. A couple indicates whether they want a boy or a girl, and only that sperm is then enriched and inserted into the woman. This greatly increases her chances of conceiving that particular gender.

Last but not least, there is natural gender selection. This means that people try things such as measuring their basal temperature, having intercourse around ovulation, eating certain foods such as different fruits and veggies, trying certain positions, changing the acidity levels of woman’s vagina, and so on. All of these things are said to have an impact on the likelihood of conceiving either a boy or a girl, but offer no guarantee. This is also the type of gender selection that anyone can take part in, without it costing them any money. However, it is the least likely to succeed and people do have to be realistic about that.

How to Stop Cold Callers Once and for All

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It’s one of the pet hates of modern-day life. Nowadays, your phone isn’t constantly buzzing because of your popularity (we wish), but rather the immense number of cold callers that somehow find their way to it.

Annoying would be an understatement – it’s something that can rile even the best of us.

The above is the reason we have pieced together today’s post. Let’s now take a look at some of the best ways to halt cold callers in their tracks, and make life more what it used to be in relation to your cell phone.

Method #1 – Make sure call screening is set up

Hopefully, this is the case for most of you. In short, if you don’t have call screening set up, you are just asking for all of these companies to start with their barrage of cold calls.

Most people have this set up, before tapping into a phone number lookup service to see who is calling them. If it’s clear that it’s someone unwanted, the call can be ignored (and placed on your own block list, if your device supports such a feature).

Method #2 – Exclude yourself from sales call lists

This sounds so obvious in principle, but one might be surprised at the number of people who have their name and number listed on a sales list. Usually, these come in the form of directories. Small businesses like to trawl through these directories and call everyone that comes into their sight as it’s a cheap and potentially efficient way of marketing for them.

Following on from this, always make sure you “opt out” of such directories. Additionally, if you find that you are being regularly contacted, simply ask the companies themselves to be removed from the call list. This is something they should legally oblige by, although to make sure they carry it out you could ask them in writing.

Method #3 – Turn to call blocking devices

If the problem surrounds your home phone, there are devices out there which can help you out. These devices are marketed as call blockers and will simply plug into the phone, allowing for easy screening.

These devices don’t tend to be needed for cell phones, with many of the modern models having this sort of feature built-in (as we spoke about previously).

Method #4 – Report offenders

Finally, there’s only so much cold calling anyone can take. It’s also worth mentioning that many people are tired of dealing with these companies, and this is the time in which you should report them.

The authorities are now more open than ever before to complaints in relation to cold calling. In other words, whatever you do report will be taken seriously and in some cases, if proven, large fines can be issued. Unfortunately, it’s only when a lot of people become accustomed to such tactics that the country as a whole is going to see a reduction in cold callers.

Why Online Coupons Could Be A Great Way to Save More in 2018

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We’d all like to get more for our money, but it can feel like clipping coupons is a fairly time-consuming thing to have to do just to save a small amount on a product. A lot of people also don’t really enjoy having to present coupons to people in-store, feeling like they could be holding up the line.

Happily, while printed coupons are still a promotional tool businesses use to offer customers discounts and encourage them to try or choose their brand, online coupons are becoming a far more prevalent way of doing this, and online coupons can be far quicker to find and use than their paper counterparts – as well as allowing you to claim discounts when you shop on the web.

Starting to Use Online Coupons

The best way to start saving with online coupons is to use sites that compile active online vouchers and offers from different companies and make them easy to find. A good example is ecouponshub.com. Many of these websites allow you to filter offers by type, so you can look for coupons for your grocery shop, online codes to help you save on clothing or even coupons and deals with your favorite restaurants and takeouts.

You can also often find that you can register with coupon sites and receive news straight to your email when new deals relevant to your interests are made available.

How Do You Redeem The Offers?

How you claim the discounts offered on your favorite coupon sites depends on the nature of the discount. Sometimes, offers are applied as standard. For instance, if you see a pizza delivery company offers a certain deal every Tuesday this month, you’ll be able to claim it just by making an order with them that fits the criteria to activate the deal.

In other cases, you may need to enter a code the coupon will give you when shopping online to activate the discount. It only takes a second to click on the deal and get the code you need. This is how things are normally done for deals that apply to online stores, and you’ll usually find a field on the online payment form that is for promotional codes.

The third kind of e-voucher is one that you need to print out and scan like a conventional coupon, and these will have a barcode.

What Can You Save on?

Aside from normal shopping, you will also find some good discounts on things like travel and hotels, cinema tickets and days out, and you can find discounts on subscription services too. For instance, you may find coupons that let you save on a gym membership, a magazine subscription, or using a TV streaming service or piece of software for a limited amount of time. Imagine all the money you can save by using coupons and finding those awesome deals and discounts!

If you want to shop smarter this year, check out coupon sites, and also consider running a quick search for active deals before making any new purchases!