Food Complaints

Where consumers can report their concerns on food, especially the raw, grocery-type ones?

• For food products: Report to FDA
• For general goods: FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection – Consumer Information which will lead you the Complaint Assistant site.
• NM Attorney General site, http://www.nmag.gov/consumer/file-a-complaint

This “Food Labeling Chaos” report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest has more in-depth information.

…. for other consumer complaint issues and avenues, you may want to be more creative. Examples:

• Call the company: They may provide a replacement for you, give you a refund, and mail you coupons.
• Talk about it: Never underestimate the impact of Word of Mouth. Besides alleviating the stress caused by the problem, talking about it to others may lead you to a fruitful solution.
• Share it via Social Media outlets: Via blog, tweet, forums, FB posting, Pinterests … . Many have use online videos to vent their frustrations and they seem to work – an example of confronting a dissatisfaction with a credit card:

… or they can be entertaining. Others suggestions?

Out of College & Out of Job

MSNBC’s Gen Y: No job, lots of loans, grim future

An interesting article about Generation Y, especially those who just graduated but are not landing jobs. They are even finding a tough time to be underemployed (employed but waaay below their qualifications). Other interesting observations from the article:

• Underemployment rate [June 2010]: overall 9.5% in June (= 15 million Americans)
  • 20-24: 15.3 % ||| 35-44: 7.8 % ||| 45-54: 7.5 % ||| 55+: 6.9%
  • “average length of unemployment now is almost like six months”
• 2008 average for college students was $23,000 – not counting credit card debt
• Some are overqualified with the jobs they are applying … “after one job application, he was told he should leave his degrees off his resume”
• If they get hired, guess who’d be first to get laid off.

I thought the more impressive part is the comments, rantings, and jabbings the article is getting. People of different generations argues on whom are being hit the most, young people lack respect, politics, job exportation, etc.

New Mexico

In New Mexico, the picture may not be as bad. Education in college is affordable with federal money is easily available.The issue is that many are not exhausting federal free money for school. These are numbers about financial aid extracted from a grant call:

• Nearly two million low- and moderate-income undergraduates do not submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to apply for Federal financial aid, even though many of them are eligible for Pell Grants, which they would not have to repay; and
• A 2009 report by The Institute for College Access and Success found that 64 percent of students who took on costly private loans had not yet exhausted their eligibility for more flexible and affordable Federal loans.

In the recent years, NM’s unemployment rate has been lower than the national average but the pay tends to be lower compared to similar jobs in other parts of US. Youths may need to come up with plans B, C, D, … .

Internet Scam – An Improved Version

…. don’t believe everything you get on the internet …. even from e-mails that you recognize.

This is why you cannot just go to websites or click on links …. they may be virus that can get information on what you type. Thus, these crooks may be able to get you login names and passwords.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/33189545#33189545

- Me -

On a lighter note (as in helium light):
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/33189545#33177513

Babysitting Business

Family child care provider (babysitting) business may be something that families in larger cities might want to look into. This is given that a home-based family child care is more flexible in terms of hours of operation. This is also a great opportunity for stay-at-home mom (or dad) to make some money.

First thing’s first, one need to consider the regulations and procedures (New Mexico’s) of having one. The regulations and procedures are there to ensure the safety on both all sides – the children, parents, and child care provider. Contact information are available on the last page of the website provided above.  Your local Cooperative Extension county office may also help you out.

The Youths in NM

How does the youths in NM compare to Americans?

Based on based on New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey (YRRS), there are disconcerting youth statistics. The 2005 numbers shows that NM ranks number one among US states in the following categories:

• % alcohol use before the age of 13 (30.7% vs. 23.8% in the US)
• Marijuana use before the afe of 13 (18.2% vs. 8.3% in the US)
• Current cigar, cigarillo, or little cigar use (18.9% vs. 13.6% in the US)

• Carried a weapon (27.5% vs. 18.0% in the US)
• Carried a gun (11.7% vs. 5.2% in the US)
• In a physical fight (37.1% vs. 35.5% in the US)
• Skipped school because unsafe reasons (9.0% vs. 5.5% in the US)

• Seriously considered attempting suicide (19.3% vs. 14.5% in the US)
• Suicide attempt (14.3% vs. 6.9% in the US)
• Suicide attempt resulting in injury treated by nurse or doctor (4.8% vs. 2.0% in the US)

On the brighter side, the youths in NM performs better than average American youths in physical activity  and body weight indicators.

Also available by county, this survey is certainly an important dataset that looks into youths behaviors and tendencies.  Other important measures include tv viewing 3+ hours per day (NM 27.9%; US 35.4%), computer use 3+ hours per day for non-school related activities (NM 18.7%; US 24.9%).,  levels of caring and supportive relationships, and plans for continuing education.

BRFSS Calling

While shopping at Lowe’s last Saturday, I received a call soliciting me to participate in the survey. Having been part of of a nationally-recognized research center which conduct survey, this is interesting because i have never been part of one.

When I first got this survey, I was ready to say “No thank you” and put the phone down. This is a message that I have been preaching to my family members. Since I was waiting for my family member to survey the store, I paid more attention to the caller and asked questions although the background in the store was a little noisy.

It turned out that it’s a BRFSS survey, which I have considered to utilize in graduate school. I passed the prerequisite and then the survey begun. The interviewer inquired about my self-reported health status, health checkup, shots, physical and mental limitation, etc.

One thing that struck me is that they are calling cellphone nowadays. From work experience, I know that cell-phone is excluded from telemarketer’s Call List* that we don’t have to place them in the Do-Not-Call list – which is one of the reasons for us not to have a land-line phone. The interview doesn’t sound fake like the one the deceit that was around years ago.

Calling people on their cell-phone on a Saturday is definitely a good tactic to obtain a better representative of American adults. Many surveys have tended to call people from their land-line number. I am not sure why but I suppose its due to sampling list in attempt to avoid getting individuals of the same household (who tend to be correlated in the behaviors).

Anyways, I aswered all the answered questions except for the Zipcode. Given some of the information that I have provided, had I provided Zipcode people could have easily identify me (although I doubt that Zipcode will be int he public database). I didn’t complete the survey but they should call me back. Perhaps then, I could jolt down the name of NM’s BRFSS Director’s mentioned earlier in the survey to check its legitimacy.

* Thinking back, some of my friends have receive calls from telemarketers at their cellphone number.

Official Lauch of New Mexico Family Resource Management!

Welcome to the official launch of this blog.

It is hoped that this blog will increase people’s capabilities in managing wide array of personal and household resources.

More Financial Responsibility for NM Youth

NM is known for being one of the poorest state in the nation. Financial capital is not the only resource for investment. I truly believe that non-financial capitals are underutilized until recently when the waves of credit crunch tsunami slammed on the US economy.

One of the areas in which NM may increase their revenues is via the maximization of tax rebate and credit revenues. This is especially true for the federal one since the tax returns tend to be larger. More importantly, this is the right of Americans and others who contribute to the US economy to pay their taxes or obtain their tax credits.

***** need citation *****

NM may increase its tax income by simply filing their tax. An effective manner, for those with relatively simple tax situation, is to have individuals fill and file their taxes online. While the computer literacy of adults in the US is not that great, this problem may be alleviated by having the youth to help out their parents in preparing taxes.

The explosion of high-tech devices among the youth is observed in the high use of computers and internet at school and libraries. Youths are mainly using internet for school work, social networking, and entertainment. An area in which the youth may be lacking is the use of internet for financial effective financial management. Besides tax issues, other potential areas related to technology and financial management are e-banking, e-bill payment, e-reminder, and coupons/discounts. With some training and assistance, the internet may be used as a boost to increase a household income by, for example, developing a website on family business on-line, advertising sales through craigslist, and getting involved in on-line works.

The purpose of this project is to educate the adults and youth on how the internet may help in a household’s financial managements. Adults need to be educated on computers so that they know about the potential benefits or hazards that the internet pose. People need to be informed that they are many scammers on-line who are exploring all avenues to make profit out of those who are well-versed in the internet world. Although children may not be familiar with some financial practices and jargons, their familiarity with the computers may compliment their parent’s knowledge. Children may be able to chat with an expert, call an expert, google the right phrases, and sense the reliability of a website based on its appearance (url address and design).

This preoject, in turn, is likely to push children to understand their financial conditions from various dimenstion. Children would likely know about the state of financial condition of the family. Parents and children would now talk about effective ways to improve a household’ financial conditions. With the knowledge on financial condition, it is hoped that children would be more frugal in their spending and more active in exploring other avenues to gain income. When children have a valid purchases, instead of merely asking parents for money, children of financial-challeged households may be motivated to prioritize their to-buy items, to save, and to work. The indirect effect of this is that children may talk more about healthy financial practices with their parents, their teachers, counsellors, and even their friends. In addition, having to work, may reduce their time spent in less healthy behaviors such as excessive video game playing and eating.

Ref

NM Dept of Revenue: https://ec3.state.nm.us/crs-net/logon.asp
NM Taxation and Revenue: http://www.tax.state.nm.us/trd_pubs.htm
IRS E-File Not for Everyone: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2003/01/57274
GAO-02-205 Tax Administration: Electronic Filing’s Past and Future …
GAO-07-27 Highlights, TAX ADMINISTRATION: Most Filing Season …

Give Credits to Those who Deserve Them

The hot news nowadays is how a bailed out company, AIG, passed out a $165M bonuses to its executives from more than $170M bail out money to the company. Even in these bail out and economic hardship, the richer group is taking advantage of this economic debacle, getting richer out of this situation.

Let’s do our part by passing on the credits to those who deserve them. Tax season is coming to an end. The U.S. government has provided many tax credits as a way to transfer money to those who deserve them such as the low income, hard working groups. Imagine handing $4,000 cash to those in dire need of these money to survive (e.g. buying basic food, paying rent/mortgages). We can do this by spreading out the words on different types of tax credits.

In the past, NM was estimated to lose between $74 million and $136 million in Earned Income Tax Credit. And this is only one of the many tax credit programs such as the Child Tax Credit, Federal Housing Tax Credit (for first time home buyers), Credit for the Elderly or the Disabled, Economic Stimulus Payment (ESP), and Recovery Rebate Credit (for those who missed out on previous year’s ESP).

As one of the poorest states in the nation, NM certainly needs an economic boost via these tax credit programs. Together, we can inform others about this and encourage others to share this information to those who qualify for claim their money.

Note

• Free tax help are available. Call 1-800-829-1040 for listings at your locality (call them to get these addresses). Three main types: IRS office, Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program, and AARP.
• Some centers provide Spanish translation.
• Online tax filing and/or software use saves times. Free for lower income households. State filing may have a small fee.
• NM has state (above refers mainly to federal type) Earned Income Tax Credit.

Meet the Needs

Introduction
- Mainly $$$
- Other resources

Problems

• Credit crunch & depreciation of home values
• Inflation
• Shrinking nest eggs

“But as the financial markets have ravaged retirees’ savings and investments, Laursen has put his retirement on hold. On top of a big hit to his retirement savings, his former employer just eliminated health care coverage for Laursen and his wife.”

“Despite big penalties, many are cashing in or borrowing against retirement”. A Hewitt Associates’ survey found that 6.2 percent of retirement account participants at large corporations had taken an early withdrawal as of Sept. 30, compared with 5.1 percent who reported taking early withdrawals in 2006. .. A separate October survey by the American Association of Retired Persons found that 13 percent of Americans 45 and older had tapped into their retirement investments early.
- 10%penalty if withdraw funds from your retirement account before reaching age 59½, even if you decide to retire early!
- Are there any exceptions? Yes. For example, with an IRA, you may be able to avoid the fine if you are using the money to buy a home, you are unemployed and need to pay health care premiums or you are using the money for higher education. If you have a 401(k), you may avoid the fee if you lost your job and are over age 55.
- Risks: Double whammy of losing that investment in your retirement and losing out on the chance for that investment to grow. That could mean that you have to work longer or live with less in retirement.
- What about borrowing against my retirement account? The IRS allows people to borrow against their 401(k) plans but not their IRAs. Borrowing money against your retirement funds, rather than withdrawing the funds outright, can be a better option for getting cash now and still saving for retirement. You will still likely pay interest on the loan, however. If you default on the loan, the IRS will consider that as an early withdrawal, which means you may be subject to penalties.

… comments:
- The good news is that Obama is trying to set up a universal health coverage that is supposed to cover 95% Americans. However, with the inherited national debt of $10.5 Trillion (and growing by about $3.8 billion every day) and other problems, we are uncertain on whether this program will take precedence over other programs. Consumer’s view: The government isn’t alone in borrowing too much money. American consumers have borrowed $11.5 trillion in mortgages and another $2.5 trillion in credit card, car loans and other debts. Banks and Wall Street investment firms borrowed tens of trillions of dollars more to create complex investments that now are worth a lot less than everyone thought.
- For the youth nowadays, they have to inherit this national debt. Later, when this generation grows up, they have to support the baby boomers’ Social Security & Medicare benefits, a new scenario in public financial transfer … GAO’s estimate: another $40 trillion. With the current health trends and longevity, it doesn’t look good – living longer while sicker. … So far, it hasn’t come up with a solution.
- Free Lunch!!!

• Increased unemployment rate

• NM-specific: State budget shortfall due to declining in the energy prices and weakened economy.

- National
- NM-specific

Solutions

1. Education
a. Motivation: Make them see the problem – the two situations.
b. The extend to which we educate depend of the costs and benefits (could be perceived)
i. For some, it may be beneficial
ii. For others, they may be better off following an expert opinion almost blatantly.
1. Consistent with human capital theory!!!
c. Family finance management, retirement planning, time management, technological use, family-own business.
i. Bureau of Business and Economic Research
ii. http://www.unm.edu/~bber/
iii. Consistent with Vision 2040 – downtown revitalization project

2. Marketing techniques.
a. Current extension programs have produced so many useful literatures related to family resource management.
b. The concern is that whether the targeted population got the intended messages, utilize them, and continue to take advantage of these programs and information.
i. An ideal extension route is to have these people to be our extension agents by promoting our programs, sharing the information … .
c. Youth are special groups. They are not like us when we were younger. In general, they are more tech-savvy and quick to make decisions (short attention span).
i. Use facebook, utilizes i-phone, you-tubing, like to feel in-control, and like interactive sessions.
ii. Idea: Utilize the youths interest in Fantasy Football or Poker for fantasy investment … updated in facebook or myspace.
iii. Unique ads: Table outside movie shows, viral marketing, product placement (ask athletes to wear clothes with our website),
d. Take advantage of latest findings in the field of marketing – to youth, elderly – to our advantage.
e. Map studies with GIS – People with same socioeconomic background tend to live together
3. Corporation with other departments or programs. Many programs are related to financial management. For instance, the decision to get involved in health prevention and treatments programs may be affected by the main family resources: education, time, and financial resources, as reflected in Gary Becker’s Household Time Allocation Model, an extension of Human Capital Model.

We may also take advantage of other programs that might be able to obtain more findings. Obesity prevention programs, for instance, may be easily funded.

4. Ask them what they really want. Ask them directly (interview, focus group) or social immersion. For instance, money may not be the primary resource concern for Navajo people. Perhaps, they are more concerned of regaining their land.

5. Outcome studies to help understand the impact of our programs on the betterment of society. Input-output or Cost-benefit analysis.
a. Experiments, variables, data-based, survey.
b. For our benefits and publications.
c. Look into marketing research and child development where the money tends to be.
6. Others:
a. Translations – blunders
b. Make the extension futuristic: Greener, internet, YouTube, Facebook, blogs, less cheesy, social gathering, public libraries
i. Get the younger people involved, .e.g. Big Brothers Big Sisters
ii. Especially those who are interested in extension work even from different departments.
c. Consumer protection: Advertisement directed towards kids, Free Lunch.
d. Anticipation: Look into other nations to see possible FRM-related problems.
i. Be the first to come out with solutions.
ii. E.g.: Cell-phone boom

Conclusion

***********

Focus:
- Research-based findings
- High percentage of workforce in the federal jobs. Better benefits.
- Spanish-speaking population: 44%
- High percentage of Native Americans: One cannot assume that they are highly concerned about financial issues.
- Youth
- Marketing

Native Indians have many issues with finances since much of their income comes from gov’t subsidies and also from Indian/reservation casinos. You might like to check out USA.gov’s tribal pages to see if there’s information there specifically about NM tribes. I know they’re listed alphabetically but I don’t know if there’s a way to find tribes in a specific state. There’s somewhat of a push to get Native Americans to start their own businesses so there might be some implications there for money management and ways to go about helping them get startup capital, how to manage the money once they start making it. It seems to me that there’s a link between this and how farm families manage their resources – balancing between the farm and the family. Regarding the federal employees – they are probably most like the “every day person” who needs to worry about budgeting, saving for retirement, getting the most out of their health care benefits, long term planning. Also, since the federal workforce is aging so dramatically they probably have a need for information about spending down their retirement savings, reverse mortgages, estate planning, and other aging issues. Military folks are pretty different from the typical federal worker since there are a lot of special programs that target them. Check out USA.gov’s page for Active Military Personnel to get an idea of them. NM might also have a lot of soldiers returning from war so they might need information about finding a job and getting by without any income, if you’re disabled, etc.

Reference

Resource Management for Daily Life, U of MN
http://www.extension.umn.edu/ResourceManagement/

Benefits of Federal jobs
Government Employee Benefits – Federal workers enjoy top-flight benefits
http://usgovinfo.about.com/blbenefits.htm

Working for the Federal Government – Benefits
http://media.newjobs.com/opm/www/usajobs/pdf/ei-61.pdf

For Federal Employees
http://www.usa.gov/Federal_Employees/Federal_Employees_Gateway.shtml

Resources in NM
http://ehe.nmsu.edu/financial-management.html
Family Resource Management
Management is using what you have (resources) to achieve what you want (goals and objectives). Family resources are all the resources the individual or family has available to help them reach their goals. These include human resources such as knowledge, skills, health, time and energy; material resources such as housing, money and investments; and community resources such as the library, Cooperative Extension Service and various agencies. Through educational programming, we can help individuals and families recognize resources they may be unaware of, and increase their skills in managing all resources available.
Objectives
• Provide basic financial education for limited resource audiences and general audiences including credit management and debt reduction
• Encourage financial planning for retirement and increased savings and investments
• Promote the use of all family resources including time, energy, skills and money to improve the quality of life management including organization
• Support money management skills for youth audience

Martin 2007 Justin Smith Morrill Lecturer
Michael V. Martin, president of New Mexico State University (NMSU) delivered the Morrill Lecture, “Induced Innovation: The Story of Land-Grant Universities,” on November 11 in New York City at the annual meeting of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.
The Morrill lecture honors Justin Smith Morrill, the father of the 1862 Morrill Act. Signed by Abraham Lincoln, the act established federal funding for higher education in every state of the country; it is also known as the Land-Grant Colleges Act.
Martin is a recognized leader in New Mexico, being named a powerbroker by the New Mexico Business Weekly in 2006. He has written numerous book chapters and articles for academic journals, trade publications, and the popular press. Named the Outstanding Alumnus of Minnesota State University Mankato in 2006, Martin also received the NMSU Social Justice Award in 2005. Martin completed a bachelor’s degree in business and economics and a master’s degree in economics at Mankato State College (Minnesota State University). He received his Ph.D. in applied economics from the University of Minnesota in 1977.
Complete lecture text is available on the CSREES Web site.
From Sommer

LOGIC MODEL
http://www.uwex.edu/ces/pdande/evaluation/evallogicmodel.html

The Logic Model
http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/extension/LogicModel.pdf

Financial Security – CREES
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/financialsecurity.cfm