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Metropolitan Water Newsletter February 2015
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Metropolitan Considering Limiting Supplies Because of Drought MWD is considering a range of scenarios that could require the agency to limit deliveries and prompt mandatory rationing throughout much of the region this summer. Read the press release. Read more about the Drought 2015. Delta’s Aging Levee System Could Crumble In Quake GM Kightlinger featured in television news report about threat to Southern California water supplies from collapsed levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. See the KNBC-TV report here.
Annual Report Is Here Read Metropolitan’s Annual Report for the 2013-14 fiscal year. “Responding To Drought”: SB 60 Report Filed With Legislature Metropolitan’s annual report on achievements in conservation, recycling and groundwater recharge covers the July 2013 – June 2014 period. Metropolitan Honored With American Water Works Association 2015 Public Communications Achievement Award |
5 Credit Habits to Break in 2015
Ready to win your financial resolutions?
Find out how to succeed in 2015.
If you’re identifying 2015 — or even 2016 — as the year you make a major housing change, you’ll want to confirm that your credit behaviors are at their best. Buying a house is probably the biggest expense most of us ever take on in life. Your credit plays an important role in affording you access to the best terms available from your lender.
If credit is on your list of things to improve next year, there are many options to tune up the ways you think about and interact with your credit. Knowing the smart solutions to improve your credit habits can take you far in the new year — especially with a big purchase ahead.
1. Being disconnected
Habit to break: Not checking your credit report
Resolution to make: Check your credit report regularly to know where your credit stands, and to make sure you’re prepared when it comes time to buy a home. Consider your credit report the road map to all your credit behaviors: It’s important to know how your report will look to lenders and others when they see it for the first time.
2. Overspending
Habit to break: Running up or maxing out your credit cards
Resolution to make: To show others you’re using credit responsibly, keep your spending under control and in accordance with the budget you’ve set. Keeping tabs on your spending now will also help you benchmark how changes to your budgeting will affect how you spend after your home purchase.
3. Managing balances
Habit to break: Just paying the minimum balances due on your accounts
Resolution to make: Bring down the balances you’re carrying by upping your payment amounts above the minimum — this can also save you interest over the long term. You’ll want to keep that extra money in your pocket (and hopefully earning some interest) while you look for that dream property.
4. Seeking too much
Habit to break: Applying for credit indiscriminately
Resolution to make: Seek out and accept new credit sparingly, so your credit-utilization rate won’t be seen as too high when applying for credit during your homebuying process. Lenders can be wary of applicants they feel might be trying to amass excessive credit and overspend.
5. Getting behind
Habit to break: Making late payments on your accounts
Resolution to make: Stay on top of your accounts to keep all your payments on time, every month — it’s even more important in the months you’re considering a big purchase like a home. It may be the most basic but most important way to show you’re consistently being responsible with your credit obligations.
Challenging yourself by making it your New Year’s resolution allows you to take advantage of the months before your new home search begins to kick bad credit habits to the curb for good. You’ll want the peace of mind of knowing that when you discover that perfect listing, your credit is already in tiptop shape.
By: Becky Frost, Trulia
Your Facebook Life: Less is More
Your Facebook Life: Less is More
“Less is best,” is Alexis Moore’s mantra when it comes to privacy and sharing information on Facebook.
According to Pew Research Center’s “Internet & American Life Project,” the fastest growth among social networking users has come from those who are 74 and older. If you’re among that group and you’ve started using Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends and network with people who share common interests, take some time to explore and understand the dangers the site poses for privacy and safety and understand how to protect yourself and your identity.
Though this list is far from comprehensive, here are some key safety measures to keep in mind when you’re using Facebook.
Scammers’ delight
Facebook is a scammers’ playground because they often can find a wealth of information–that you provide voluntarily–that helps them to steal your identity.
For instance, you don’t want to announce your exact birthday to the world. “It’s a key piece of information scammers and identity thieves use to harm you,” according to Moore, an expert on cyber stalking, a risk management consultant, and vice president and broker of Blackstone Realty Group in El Dorado Hills, Calif. “One of my friends is always 40 on Facebook,” she jokes.
Also be wary about revealing your mother’s maiden name because it’s a vital bit of security information used by banks and credit card companies.
Vital stats
“Facebook isn’t the government,” according to Moore that means you don’t have to put your full, legal name on Facebook. Instead, use a nickname.
You also don’t have to list your precise hometown. So if you live in a tiny community, Moweaqua, Illinois, for example, consider listing a bigger city–Decatur, Illinois or even Chicago–as your home town. That makes it harder for wrongdoers to collect vital bits of information about you that they can later use to hijack your account, steal your identity, or track you down in the virtual or physical world.
Privacy lockdown
Lock down your privacy settings. Review the privacy settings and keep in mind Moore’s “less is best” advice when you’re responding to the most basic Facebook set-up questions, such as:
- Who can see my stuff?
- Who can see your future posts?
Pick the settings that allow only friends to see your updates and reach out to you.
“When you’re establishing your account, get someone to help you with it so you’re not setting yourself up for trouble,” comments Moore.
I’m on vacation!
Post pictures and comments about your vacation adventures only after you’ve returned home and not during your trip. Why? “You’re announcing to the world, ‘I’m not home,'” says Moore.
That means you’re potentially leaving yourself vulnerable to thieves who can figure out exactly how long they’ll have to rob your house.
The same goes for event invitations. Facebook is a convenient way to invite people to parties and celebrations, but once you say yes to a Facebook invitation, keep in mind that you’re also broadcasting that you’ll be at a certain place on a certain date.
Picture my house, expensive toys.
Get familiar with geotagging if you’re uploading photos to your Facebook page using GPS-equipped Smartphones and digital cameras. Depending on your device’s settings, you could be including the location of where the images were taken. When you upload images, that information can be embedded in the photo and miscreants can find out exactly where a picture was shot.
So that means, if you take pictures of your house and fancy electronics, thieves can find your address. Or if you’ve taken pictures of your grandchildren in their backyard, people can figure out where your little one lives. For more about geotagged photos, see www.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/technology/personaltech/12basics.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
1234 isn’t tough.
Yes, it’s hard to remember the passwords to all the sites you visit, and if you lean toward using your dog’s name combined with a couple numbers, you could be setting yourself up for trouble.
It’s pretty easy for someone trying to hijack your Facebook account by just testing out Fido1234.
Create beefy passwords that contain upper and lower case letters, punctuation marks, oddball characters (@%*^), and numbers.
Also, using the same password for multiple accounts is a no-no.
For some surprising insight on passwords, see www.npr.org/2012/09/20/161502081/your-pin-may-not-be-uncrackable-after-all. In the story, Nick Berry, president of the data mining consulting company Data Genetics, points out just how unimaginative people are when choosing passwords and how easy that makes life for identity thieves.
I don’t want to be rude.
Maybe you feel like it’s impolite to reject someone’s offer of friendship. But if you don’t know the person or don’t like the person, ignore the friend request. Ask yourself whether you’d be willing to share your personal details, opinions, and family reunion photos with the guy sitting next to you on the subway. If your answer is no, practice being rude.
In addition, if someone in your Facebook circle of friends scares you or makes you uncomfortable, you accidentally accept a friend request from a stranger, or you no longer want to keep in touch with someone, Facebook allows you to unfriend people. Here’s how: www.facebook.com/help/172936839431357. For more safety advice, see https://www.facebook.com/safety.
In addition, if there’s a stalker in your past or you want to be certain that an ex-spouse or ex-friend can’t reach you on Facebook, look into the blocking feature, which denies those people permission to reach you.
Recheck settings.
Things change, and Facebook is notorious for changing its privacy parameters. So check your settings periodically to be certain that you’re still guarding the information that you want to keep safe.
Best Employers for the Over-50 Set
You’ve likely read all the dark news about people’s thin retirement accounts and about how so many feel like they’ll never be able to retire.
If you’re among those who are over 50 years old and are hunting for a job, look to companies that will treat you best.
AARP and the Society for Human Resource Management, teamed up to assess companies and hand out awards in its “2013 Best Employers for Workers Over 50 Award.”
In determining which organizations would receive the award, they looked at an array of topics important to the over-50 set. Among them were employers’ recruiting practices; opportunities for training, education and career development; alternative work options, such as flexible scheduling, job-sharing and phased retirement; and retiree benefits.
Consider the list when you’re looking to change jobs. The top three employers were:
1. National Institutes of Health (NIH)
See the complete list here: www.aarp.org/work/on-the-job/info-06-2013/aarp-best-employers-winners-2013.html
Qualifying For a Refi
Qualifying For a Refi
If you’re a retiree and you’ve had trouble qualifying for a mortgage or refinancing a home loan because of insufficient income, you might want to try again.
A rule change at Freddie Mac allows Individual Retirement Accounts, 401(k)s, and other such income to be considered for underwriting purposes.
Though you’re not required to tap that money to qualify for a mortgage, such accounts are taken into consideration when measuring your debt-to-income ratios.
For more information, see http://articles.latimes.com/2013/may/24/business/la-fi-harney-20130526 and http://reversemortgagedaily.com/2013/05/28/mortgage-lending-eases-for-retirees-under-freddie-mac/.