Today is the beginning of America Saves Week, and Connecticut groups are hosting events all week.
Each day is correlated to a different aspect of spending – whether it’s paying down debt, saving at any age, or preparing for the unexpected.
Faye Griffiths-Smith – a family economics and resource management educator for at the University of Connecticut Extension – said she often hears people feel they don’t have enough money to save.
She said creating a budget is one way to see where your money goes.
“You may find that there is opportunity to reallocate some money,” said Griffiths-Smith, “if you look at the way you spend money anew, and consider changes that you might be able to make because life changes.”
This year’s events include a Financial Expo from the Connecticut Department of Banking and two passport-style Financial Action Fairs.
Events will also be held at the U Conn Hartford Campus, and at the Hartford Job Corps Center.
Griffiths-Smith said she hopes young people take away strong financial literacy techniques and a better understanding of what it means to save money.
More information can be found online at americasavesweek.org.
Along with financial literacy, some partners will talk about being sensible with that money.
Michelle Bourdeau, education foundation director with Better Business Bureau Serving Connecticut, said people can remain financially savvy by watching out for scams.
“When we’re investing, we’re doing our research,” said Bourdeau. “We’re making sure that we are investing it with people who are authorized to take that money, who have good reputations, good business practices so that we don’t get taken advantage of.”
She added that imposter scams are common for people looking to buy a new car or become a homeowner.
But, investment and cryptocurrency scams are the most common in Connecticut, costing victims more than $8,000 on average. Bordeau said doing research can alert you to who you’re dealing with.
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Connecticut’s Insurance and Real Estate Committee failed to advance any bills by its legislative deadline. Almost 40 bills were brought before the committee this session, but last-minute disagreements cost them a chance to vote on any of them.
Some of this legislation could have provided relief for residents, since insurance rates increased this year.
Tom Swan, executive director of Connecticut Citizen Action Group, called the situation unprecedented and said it speaks to a certain level of dysfunction among committee members.
“There were any number of bills before the committee this year, ranging from health-care affordability to mental health parity, that could have really improved people’s lives. And I would argue that, because of the stubbornness of one co-chair, nothing happened,” he contended.
With elections being held for both chambers this year, the committee will look quite different when it reconvenes next year. Swan feels this will serve as a learning experience for state lawmakers, and that next year, there could be a better understanding of what both caucus’ priorities are, and move forward with a better knowledge of what bills will be raised.
Some bills before the committee would have been key to implementing reforms in certain insurance sectors. One would have approved a study to see how well companies abide by the state’s Mental Health Parity Law. Despite vast support, this bill will wait until next year to be revisited.
Swan said if the same House co-chair returns to the committee in 2025, certain provisions need to be made.
“When the chairs meet, it probably would make sense for a representative of leadership’s offices to be in the room, to make sure that what is agreed to actually happens when it comes up,” he explained.
Some health-care increases were brought on by the pandemic, with Medicare and Medicaid’s percentage of growth in cost expenditures barely growing 5% in 2021. But in the same year, commercial insurance’s growth skyrocketed to almost 20%, with Connecticut spending $34 billion on health care and insurance costs.
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A new report from the Arizona PIRG Education Fund finds that Arizonans are getting hit with what are known as facility fees, leading to higher costs for medical care.
Maribeth Guarino, health-care advocate with PIRG, said facility fees can be thought of as a flat charge, added to a patient’s bill only for stepping through the door of a doctor’s office to seek care. She said facility fees are arbitrary and cost anywhere between a few dollars and thousands of dollars.
“We’re seeing them more because hospitals are buying up independent clinics, physician’s offices and other independent provider care settings and then charging these fees as though they’re hospital locations, even though nothing has changed except the logo and the letterhead,” she explained.
According to Guarino, 15 states around the country, including Florida and Texas, have laws on the books relating to facility fees, but Arizona isn’t one of them. She noted states could better prioritize patient protections by ensuring they’re informed about the fee before receiving care. And while several federal proposals have been introduced to address the issue, none has made it to the president’s desk.
Guarino said the Federal Trade Commission has issued a rule to prohibit what she terms “junk” fees, and hopes the Federal Trade Commission will apply that rule to items such as facility fees. And for patients, she recommends reviewing your bill after you have received care.
“And do your best to shop around, if you can, before you get services,” she advised, “because even though there aren’t always laws in place to protect patients, sometimes you’ll be surprised how much information is out there if you just ask directly.”
Guarino added there is no guarantee you’ll get that answer, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. She said patients should only pay for the services they receive, and providers need to be transparent about the fees they charge.
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This year Californians can file simple tax forms for free and save time to boot, thanks to a new pilot project from the Internal Revenue Service called IRS Direct File.
Californians spend an average of 9 hours and $150 a year to file their taxes.
Adam Ruben, vice president of campaigns and political strategy for the nonprofit advocacy organization the Economic Security Project, said now they can just go to Directfile.IRS.gov.
“It’s an interview-based questionnaire,” Ruben explained. “It’s something that people can use on their phones on their computers available in English and Spanish that asks people questions and pretty much plain language, and you fill in the answers. And it fills in the tax form for you.”
The program then funnels users into the CalFile site to do their own state taxes. IRS Direct File is being piloted in 12 states but if it were to expand nationwide and be available to all taxpayers, Ruben estimated within five years it would save Americans $8 billion in tax preparation fees and another $3 billion worth of time annually.
Teri Olle, director of Economic Security California, said the software is especially helpful to the millions of Californians who make too little money to be required to file taxes because it connects them to things like the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit.
“Those folks who don’t file are often disproportionately Black, Latino, Indigenous, headed by single parents,” Olle outlined. “Those are the households that often stand to benefit thousands of dollars in tax credits.”
Private tax preparation companies like TurboTax and H&R Block fought the idea for years but the Biden Administration pressed on, using funds from the Inflation Reduction Act. Advocates are hoping in future years the program will be able to pre-fill the return with financial data from W2 forms.
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