BUSINESS
Your Monday guide to managing money, work and the business of life
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Monday, February 24, 2020|Section 2One of the things that certified financial
planners like me try to do is to use the calen-
dar to our advantage as a way to write about
financial advice that is appropriate all year
long.
That’s what I would normally do in Febru-
ary and during wedding season — talk about
love and money — but a recent survey from
nonprofit insurance group Life Happens
made me wonder about my timing.
A significant chunk of Americans (61%)
report that they are delaying traditional life
milestones, like getting married and having
children, in order to become more financially
secure. There is evidence that millennials
(those born from 1981-1996) have been lead-
ing the trend, often because they are paying
off their student loans and focusing on their
careers.
One interesting upside of the delay: It
appears that it has contributed to a drop in
the U.S. divorce rate. The reason may be as
simple as when both people in the couple are
more financially secure, they fight less about
money when they tie the knot.
The Life Happens survey found that of
those who have delayed a traditional life
milestone, 74% have reported being more
financially stable as a result. Additionally,
there is a new way of thinking about finan-
cial security in general: as an act of love.
Often that act of love means sharing informa-
tion with your partner or spouse, but given
that many are delaying the official trip down
the aisle, at what point in the relationship
should people be talking about money?
As with most relationship issues, it de-
pends. As time evolves, there will be ample
opportunity for you to talk about your finan-
cial values. How interested are each of you in
financial security? What were some of the
messages your parents gave you about mon-
ey? How comfortable are you with your level
of financial know-how?
Another area of difficulty is how much of
your digital life should you share? Kaspersky
Lab research found that half of people in a
relationship give their partners the pass
codes to unlock their devices, and 26% store
intimate things on their partner’s devices.
The report says that 80% of people believe
that each person in a couple should have
some private space both online and offline,
but 70% state that relationships are more
important to them than their privacy. This
can lead to a lack of trust, arguments, spying,
breakups and even vengeful acts.
So, when and how should you draw the
line with your partner? At least until the
relationship is serious, I recommend that you
don’t share passwords to your phone, e-mail,
social media and, most crucially, any of your
financial accounts. If you want to make your
streaming subscription available to your love,
that’s fine, but draw the boundary there.
Of course, if the idea of sharing makes you
queasy, that may be a relationship red flag,
which should be discussed. Kapersky found
that 87% of those who said they are in a good
relationship also say they don’t intentionally
hide anything about their online activities.
So, if you are in a longer-term relationship
and are still worried or anxious about the
idea of sharing more, that may be a sign of
trouble brewing.
Once you decide to cohabitate or get mar-
ried, you can re-evaluate what needs to be
shared. Obviously, all joint account informa-
tion should be open and transparent, and you
need to communicate your feelings and be
honest about the boundaries that feel best for
both of you.
Jill Schlesinger, CFP, is a CBS News business
analyst. A former options trader and CIO of an
investment advisory firm, she welcomes
comments and questions at askjill@jillon
money.com. Check her website at http://www.jillon
money.com.
Jill Schlesinger
Jill on MoneyPutting off
marriage, kids to
shore up finances
F
or job seekers trying to get their resume to the top of the pile, volunteering
with a nonprofit is one thing career coaches and hiring managers recom-
mend, especially for people looking to pick up new skills, flesh out their
professional networks or become more successful leaders.“What we hear back from volunteers
is that the combination of training we
provide, as well as the muscle-building
activity that you gain through regular
volunteering, helps build really critical
skills that can be helpful for working
with other individual contributors as
part of a team or being a more effective
manager,” said Jaime-Alexis Fowler,
founder and executive director of Em-
power Work, a hotline that connects
people going through tough situations
in the workplace with trained volunteer
peer counselors.
According to Fowler, her volunteers
often report that they have received
positive performance reviews or pro-
motions thanks to the communication
and leadership skills they’ve picked up
volunteering.
For Lauren Cardenas, an Empower
Work volunteer, her experiences with
the organization helped her land a job as
the assistant director for undergraduate
career services at the University of
Southern California Marshall School of
Business, particularly by giving her
concrete examples of skills and achieve-
ments to talk about during job inter-
views.
“When folks would ask me in the
interview process about ‘What’s your
communication style?’ or ‘What role do
you play on a team?’ I would go back to
those experiences I had volunteering
and how that shaped my communica-
tion style,” Cardenas said.
According to the Corporation for
National and Community Service, one
in three American adults volunteered in
some capacity in 2018. CNCS also found
that volunteers have a 27% higher
chance of finding a job after being out ofwork than people who don’t volunteer,
and that people without a high school
diploma are 51% more likely to find
work if they have volunteer experience.
Karyn McCoy, the assistant vice
president of DePaul University’s career
center, says she encourages people to
use volunteering as a way to get experi-
ence in their field while job searching.
It’s also a great way to help others and
give yourself a mental boost.
“If you are interested in a career in
finance, if you volunteer with a non-
profit organization that is looking for
someone to help with their budgeting
and finances, that’s a great way to get
experience,” McCoy said.
Nonprofits have volunteer opportu-
nities in a variety of skills and career
paths. A quick search on a volunteer job
board like VolunteerMatch will turn up
opportunities for people interested in
all sorts of vocations, such as marketing,
design, event planning, counseling/
social work, teaching and coding.
“It’s a good way to learn new skills,”
said Anita Jenke, executive director of
the Career Transitions Center of Chi-
cago. “Let’s say you have a background
in marketing but you’re not that familiar
with, say, Google Analytics. Maybe
there’s a nonprofit that knows a little
bit, and you could learn from them
about Google Analytics and teach them
about marketing strategies.”
For people looking to work in the
nonprofit sector, volunteering can sig-
nal to organizations that a candidate’s
values are aligned with their mission,
and that they understand the challenges
that nonprofits face.
“When I do hiring as a nonprofit
manager, if I don’t see that somebodyhas done some volunteer work, I’m
thinking ‘Why do you want to work
here if you’ve never even volunteered at
a nonprofit?’ ” said Jenke, who makes
hiring decisions at CTC Chicago.
“To me it signals alliance around
values,” said Fowler, who is involved in
hiring for Empower Work. Volunteering
“to me, is an important signal of what
they value, how they show up and what
they think about, and it really resonates
with me.”
For Erica Braverman, volunteering
with Knowbility — a nonprofit that
works to make the internet more acces-
sible to people with disabilities —
helped her land a job there. Soon after
completing a certificate program in user
experience design at the University of
California San Diego, she began volun-
teering a couple days a week with
Knowbility, leveraging her skills in UX
design and learning about accessibility
until they were able to put together a job
for her in community engagement.
“It was a very good real world experi-
ence of what I was just starting to touch
on in my classes,” Braverman said.
For Megan DeBrabander, her volun-
teer experience with A Voice for the
Innocent — a nonprofit that creates a
safe space for victims of sexual violence
to share their stories — helped her land
a research assistant job at Sam Houston
State University while she pursues a
masters in clinical psychology.
“I work with people who experience
trauma every week, so coming into this
job I would be able to handle if someone
else were to tell me about their trauma-
tic experience,” DeBrabander said.
Volunteering is also a great way to
meet people who may be professional
assets, said Kate Solis Silva, a career
coach who, herself, has leveraged volun-
teer experience into professional ad-
vancement.
“You just never know whose path
you’re going to cross, but to already have
the cause as a connection point is just
another easy way to start and easy con-
versation,” Solis Silva said.
To find a volunteer opportunity that
matches your goals, check out sites like
VolunteerMatch.org or Idealist.org, or
reach out to a nonprofit in your area.DREAMSTIMERaise your hand
Volunteering can sharpen skills,
improve chances of landing a job
By Tyler R. Davis |Tribune Content AgencyFiling taxes this year as a retiree? There
are some advantages, such as a larger
standard deduction than what younger
taxpayers receive. But if you’re filing a tax
return for the first time as a retiree, you
could be in for some unpleasant surprises.
Consider: The money you’ve scrupu-
lously saved in your 401(k) or traditional
IRA will be taxed when you withdraw it.
As is the case for non-retirees, you’ll also
owe taxes on dividends, interest and capital
gains in your taxable accounts.
A portion of your Social Security ben-
efits may be taxable, too. (If all of your
income comes from Social Security, your
benefits likely won’t be taxed. But if you
have income from other sources, such as a
part-time job and withdrawals from an
IRA or a pension, up to 85% of your ben-
efits could be taxed.)
That means it’s critical to take advantage
of all the tax breaks available to you. To
start with, you’re eligible for a larger stand-
ard deduction once you turn 65. For 2019,
your standard deduction if you’re un-
married and not a surviving spouse is
$13,850. If you and your spouse are both 65
or older, your standard deduction is
$27,000. (For younger taxpayers, the stand-ard deduction is $12,200 for singles and
$24,400 for married joint filers.)
If you reached age 70^1 ⁄ 2 by the end of
2019, you’ll have to take required minimum
distributions from your tax-deferred ac-
counts and pay taxes on that money. It’s toolate to do anything about that now, but it’s
not too soon to look for ways to lower your
tax bill in 2020.
You can transfer up to $100,000 a year
from your traditional IRAs directly to
charity. (If you’re married, your spouse can
transfer an additional $100,000 to charity
from his or her IRAs.) The transfer counts
toward your required minimum distribu-
tion and is excluded from taxable income.
Depending on your income, you may
also be able to avoid paying taxes on capital
gains from your taxable accounts. If you’re
a single filer and your 2019 taxable income
was less than $39,375 (or $78,750 if you’re
married and file jointly), you won’t owe
taxes on gains from stocks or mutual funds
you owned for more than a year.Sandra Block is a senior editor at Kiplinger’s
Personal Finance magazine. Send your
questions and comments to moneypower
@kiplinger.com.Retiree tax tips
It’s important to take advantage of available breaks
By Sandra Block
Kiplinger
JON ANDERS WIKEN/DREAMSTIME