Texas Homestead Exemption Property Taxes for Senior Citizens over 65

Be a Hawk About Your Money

Texas Property Taxes for Seniors 

Once you arrive at the wise old age of 65, you get a break in Texas on property taxes if you own your residence and are living in it. This is not the same as the homestead exemption that you claim for your residence at any age.

You can also pay your taxes in 4 installments if you choose, once you reach 65. You must pay at least 1/4 of the tax amount before February 1 of the following year, and additional payments by April 1, June 1 and August 1. The penalty is 6 percent plus 1 percent a month if you're late, so if you might forget to make the payment, you're risking extra fees.

Hubby and I turned 65 this year, and we had our birthdates listed with the homestead exemption. When we got our tax notice (arriving about October 15 each year), the discount should have been calculated automatically. We did not see any discount on the form. Of course this prompted me to take the information to the Tax Appraisal District to see what was up. 

Trip number 1: 

The gal indicated that we qualified for a discount and a freeze if we completed an application and proved that the property was our homestead. Proof was to be the remainder of the form for our automobile registration sticker for the current year -- you know, the one everyone throws away as soon as they peel off the sticker. 

Trip number 2: 

I returned to the Tax Appraisal office with auto registration form for my vehicle that I had miraculously saved. (It's good they didn't ask for Hubby's vehicle, too. I didn't locate that one.) The gal made a copy of this and a copy of my driver's license. Now, I was all set to pay the reduced amount. However, she said I would need to pay the entire amount and get a refund in a couple of months.

Waiting for a refund from a government office is one of those things I've probably cautioned you about, so you know I wasn't agreeable to that. The alternative was to turn our "case" in to have the taxes recalculated, and she couldn't guarantee me that it could be done by the end of October. Of course, the end of October is a magic date, since Texans who pay early get a little discount. I decided to take my chances. She took the form, gave me nothing in return and said it would be a week or so. I could come back then. I asked for a copy of the paperwork before leaving the office. You know the importance of having a copy.

Trip number 3:  

Back to the Tax Appraisal office to see if I could pay the newly-calculated property taxes. Well, I couldn't, because they hadn't been calculated yet -- but I could pay the full amount and get a refund.  Ha ha. 

Trip number 4: 

I stopped by the Tax office to pay, since the October window of opportunity is closing fast. She pulled the information up on the computer and it had just been recalculated that day. Of course, the recalculation is done by someone sitting two desks away from the front desk, and when I realized that, I waved to the gal and thanked her for recalculating my taxes before the end of the month. 

Was It Worth It?

Yes, seniors, it's worth it. I drove 12 miles 4 times, so that's 48 miles in gas and about 3 hours of my time. Where else can you make $100 an hour? You must apply the year you're 65 to get the benefit for that first year.

It looks as if the savings is about $300 on $2,000 in property taxes in our area. Plus, it should trigger the freeze on your taxes for the future. You get the advantage of freezing your taxes at the rate you pay when you're 65 so long as you live in the house. Since taxes are high in Texas, this makes living here affordable for senior citizens. If taxes decrease, you get the advantage of the reduction as well. If your spouse dies, you may have to prove your homestead entitlement again under 9.415 of the property tax rules. You can read the Texas property tax rules here: http://window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/proptax/proptaxrules.pdf 

Of course, the recalculated form didn't show that our taxes are frozen for next year, so we'll have to check again next year to make certain we get our taxes frozen. Maybe I'll get to see these nice people at the Tax Appraisal Office again next year.

Take care of little paperwork issues as they come up; call and ask questions. You may surprise yourself at the savings you can get from being a savvy consumer. Taxes, banking and insurance are three areas you can understand and make a difference in your annual expenses.

See you next time!

Linda

cajunC

UUGREGP4WTH4

Understanding Automobile Insurance -- Removing Comprehensive and Collision

Automobile insurance is an unknown for some people who are otherwise savvy with handling money. If you have to rely on your agent to decide what car insurance to buy, you just need a short review to make your own decisions. 

Is it time to remove your comprehensive and collision coverage from your automobile insurance policy? My car is 16 years old, so you might think it's time. I finally got around to having the comp and collision cut, but I was hesitant. Here's what you need to know.

When you get car insurance, you get liability coverage for sure -- that's what every state requires in some form or another. That's to cover the other driver and his car. 

If you want insurance to cover YOUR car and to pay if you have an accident that's your fault, you'll need comprehensive and collision coverage in addition to liability. Collision coverage pays for your car if you hit something; comprehensive insurance pays if a tree falls on your car or if someone steals it. The policy usually says "fire, windstorm, hail, vandalism, theft" etc.

In the scheme of things, comprehensive and collision aren't worth a lot to you because of deductibles and value. Your comprehensive and collision may have a $500 deductible. That means you pay the first $500 before the insurer pays anything. Then, the value of your car is determined by mileage and Kelley Blue Book or Edmunds.com value guides. Undoubtedly, your car is worth more to you than it shows in the book, but insurers work from the blue book value to pay if your car is totaled. They also get the salvage value of your car if you accept the figure offered.

So, if you have $25,000 in liability coverage, that's a significant amount, but if your car was worth $20,000 new and blue book price is $8,000 now, the insurer subtracts your deductible and offers you the blue book value. You might get $7,500 if your car is totaled.

What happens if you remove the comprehensive and collision coverage? First, if you have a loan on the car, you probably can't remove comprehensive and collision until the loan is paid in full. That's because the loan company wants to protect its interest in the vehicle. If you can remove the comprehensive and collision coverage and do so, you probably will also remove the towing and labor and rental reimbursement coverage, if you had those. 

Some insurers will let you keep towing and labor if you have other vehicles on the same policy (Geico, maybe) but you won't be able to keep the rental reimbursement coverage. Rental reimbursement pays for a rental car if your car is damaged and in the shop for repairs. This is helpful but not essential.

If the other guy follows the law and has liability insurance, his policy covers YOU if he's at fault. If he doesn't have insurance or has the minimum limits for your state -- and you have no way of knowing until you have an accident -- you may need uninsured motorist coverage.

If you have uninsured motorist and underinsured motorist coverage with your auto policy, that pays medical bills if someone uninsured or without enough insurance injures YOU. If you can't work, you may also get coverage from the uninsured motorist provisions.  This can really make a difference, particularly if you don't have good health insurance. Your policy may have medical payments coverage or PIP -- personal injury protection -- but those coverages are usually $5,000 or less for medical. You need more.

Uninsured motorist coverage usually can't equal more than your liability coverage, so if you have low limits on your liability insurance, you may not be able to get as much uninsured motorist coverage as you really need.  Increasing your liability coverage may cost less than you imagined. If you remove the comp and collision from your policy, ask your agent about increasing your uninsured motorist coverage with the money you save. If you have to increase your liability, that's ok, too, particularly if you own your home or have assets that could be taken if you have an accident and are sued. Use your insurance money where it works for you.

See you next time!

Linda

cajunC

The cardinals are in Texas all year.

Corning Develops Willow Glass

New Willow Glass from Corning is Bendable, Ultra-Thin and Flexible 

When Corning sold Steuben, I thought the best of Corning was behind us. New developments have proved me wrong. Corning is on the cutting edge of research and technology for you, the consumer.

Corning developed Gorilla glass a few years ago, and it is used for thousands of consumer products, including some Samsung smartphones and Apple iPhones. Corning has a new kind of glass in the works that will affect the consumer products we buy.

The new glass from Corning is called Willow glass, according to "Barron's" June 11, 2012 issue and the Corning website. This new glass is thin and bendable and can be wrapped around products. Corning calls it ultra-slim and flexible. Your smartphone or tablet may be thinner in just a couple of years, thanks to Willow glass.

Willow glass is made with a fusion process with a thinness as slight as100 microns or about like a sheet of copy paper. It can seal electrical components and still provide good optical quality. You can read about it here. 

Corning News Release on Willow Glass 

Watch for new uses for this bendable glass as technology picks up on the possibilities!

See you soon! 

Linda

cajunC

Appliances With Electronic Controls Can't Be Left Running

New Appliances Have Electronic Controls 

If you have any new appliance, it probably has an electronic control panel that keeps it functioning. The control panel is the brain to the appliance, so we found out with our Whirlpool electric range. With no brains, the appliance has no sense. 

We returned from a two-mile walk and decided we'd cook a frozen pizza for supper. I turned on the oven and pushed the temperature panel to stop at 400 degrees. When the preheat had less than a minute to go, I popped the pizza in the oven and went to watch television for 15 minutes while the pizza cooked. I heard the buzzer when the preheat completed.

Don't Use Your Appliances When You're Out
 

I was just in the next room, but smelled something strange. Got up to check on the pizza and saw that the oven no longer showed 400 degrees, but had something that looked like F-3 on the panel. The pizza smelled like it was burning and there was an electrical smell in the air.
 

I pulled on the oven door. It wouldn't open. I peeped through the glass and could see the coils were hot and continuing to heat. I called Hubby. He ran to the garage to turn the breaker off while the house was filling with smoke and burned-pizza odor. We opened the doors, trying to prevent the smoke alarm from attracting the neighbors.
 

The door wouldn't open even after the breaker was turned off. The pizza continued to burn because the oven was at a high temperature.
 

I went to the Internet to check to see if this happened to other people. It appears that it is fairly common, but I couldn't get the oven door open to locate the serial number or style of the oven. Even the 800 number is inside the oven. 
 

I rifled through the warranty files to locate the owner's manual and installation booklet. There is no information about this problem in the literature.
 

How the Electronic Controls Work 

After an hour or so, the oven door could be opened and we took the black pizza out and threw it away. The next day, I called Whirlpool and reported the dangers of what happened. They said that was normal and "the way the oven was intended to work." I suggested that the pizza could have caught fire if we hadn't been watching and that serious damage could have resulted.

The repairman replaced the control panel and assured me that it was made to work the way it did. When the control panel goes out, the temperature is uncontrolled and goes up like it does in self-cleaning mode. The oven door locks to avoid human burns -- to heck with the pizza or whatever you have inside. I suggested that a fuse could prevent this and was told that there is a fuse that would probably blow if the pizza had ignited.

The lesson we learned here is not to leave an appliance with an electronic control panel operating while we're out. This goes for the washer, dryer, oven, range or whatever. If the control panel fails, the appliance runs uncontrolled.

We hope our experience helps others realize the perils of electronic controls.  We had never used the self-cleaning feature on the oven and joked that the oven decided it was time for a cleaning -- but this is not a joking matter. A house full of smoke, a pizza in the oven that can't be rescued and an appliance with a locked door creates a scary situation. I'm still a little reluctant to use the oven when I'm home alone.

See you soon!

Linda

cajunC

PS:  On a fun note, we've been seeing the yellow-crowned night heron in Central Texas since we've had some rain.

Spring Cleaning with Natural Products -- Baking Soda, Rubbing Alcohol and White Vinegar

Naturally, You'll Do Spring Cleaning in All the High Places.

Natural products work as well or better around the house than expensive brands you use because they have "in your face" advertising. When you go to the grocery or drugstore, buy only the basics to enjoy safe and practical cleaning at an affordable price. 

Baking Soda

Baking soda is a cheap alternative to spray cleaners to use in almost every room of the house. Baking soda cleans the tub, the sink and the commode in your bathroom. Just sprinkle the powder in areas where you use sprays. Wipe with a wet sponge or brush and rinse with clear water.

Baking soda works in the laundry as well. Sprinkle some baking soda in your wash to eliminate odors such as perfume and body odors. It also gets your clothes cleaner, assisting the detergent. 

Baking soda is useful in the kitchen. It cleans the sink and the pots without scratching. It's also good for odor absorption in the refrigerator. If your ice cubes have a taste, they may be old, or they may have absorbed refrigerator odors. Cover all open containers in your refrigerator with a plastic wrap and place an open box of baking soda in the refrigerator to absorb odors.

White Vinegar

Use white vinegar to clean stubborn stains. It works well in the bathroom to clean around the faucets. Wet a cloth with white vinegar and wrap the area around the faucets. Come back in an hour and scrub the area with an old toothbrush to remove the sediment. Rinse the faucets with clear water. 

White vinegar cleans residue from glass, pottery or porcelain that's caused from standing water. Fill the container with white vinegar and let it sit over night. Scrub with a toothbrush and rinse with clear water. Use white vinegar in the kitchen when you have a stubborn stain or baked-on food. Leave the white vinegar in the item to soak, and rinse with clear water in an hour or so. 

Caution: don't leave vinegar in an aluminum pot or it may eat through the metal.

Rubbing Alcohol

Use rubbing alcohol throughout the house as a disinfectant. You can clean your countertops with rubbing alcohol on a paper towel to remove ballpoint pen ink and sanitize the countertops for cooking or emptying the dishwasher. Rubbing alcohol cleans granite countertops and laminates. Don't get alcohol in the seams as it may dissolve the glue or sealants.

Isopropyl or rubbing alcohol is a good glass cleaner, and cleans mirrors better than purchased spray products. Place a little rubbing alcohol on a paper towel and use it to wipe the bathroom mirrors, fixtures and countertops. Use rubbing alcohol as a prewash to remove ballpoint ink spots on your washable clothing. 

Alcohol is flammable, so don't use it near an open flame.

These three products can help you do most of your spring cleaning. We also use hydrogen peroxide as a mild bleach. It's a disinfectant for countertops and sinks, and is safe enough to use as a disinfectant on your hands, a cleaner for cuts or wounds and a fungicide for plants. 

Inexpensive natural green products that don't harm the environment and don't require a propellant can work for you. At about $1 each, you can get all the cleaning products you need on a $5-dollar bill. 

See you soon!

Linda