Book Board Chat

A very, very early Good Morning from Penn's Woods where yesterday afternoon was free of thunderstorms. One of those evenings where I fell asleep very early and am now up working.

Last week I applied for my SS retirement benefits. Taking them early because who knows I might be dead by 66 1/2 or 70. DH and I have the same attitude about not waiting. We need the money now, not down the road when we may or may not still be around to collect. We know that all the 'financial planners' advise waiting as long as possible but it makes no sense to us. Even if you don't need the money at 62 or 66 1/2, wouldn't you do better taking the money and investing it yourself? Strange how when people talk about doing away with SS and letting people invest the money themselves (as if the people making little would have the spare cash or some would have the know-how) are often the same ones telling people to wait as long as possible to take the benefits. My grandfathers made out like bandits with SS. Paid in only part of their lives and then one lived to be 94 and the other 100! For those who don't know, SS DOES NOT send you any notification that you are eligible to apply. The earliest you can apply is 3 months before your 62nd birthday, but you won't get a check until more than a month after that birthday and it seems they are getting later and later in the dates that the checks are deposited. For example, my MIL check is promptly deposited on the first of the month whereas DH's is the 2nd Wed of the month. Hope mine is the same as his. We will be rich for one day! LOL! But who knows, mine could be pushed back even more than his.

Applying for SS was quick and easy. When DH applied he did have to go to the SS office with his paperwork since he was born in another country, but given that he has been here since he was two he does have a long work history! LOL Even his parents who came in their mid-20s had a very long work history. Funniest part of filling out the form on-line was when it came to the part asking for the town where I was married. We were married in a small church in the middle of corn fields out in the boondocks. We had no idea where we were even then! hahaha! Our college chaplin married us and it was the church he had moved on to after his stint at the college. Even through DH had filled his out last year, he didn't remember so it was down to the safe to get the marriage license.

David Sorry to hear about your oldest DD, but very glad that she is ok. Well, those temps are too hot for me to handle! I don't care what they say about "dry heat." I have been in the desert when temps soared. It is hot! Even here the other day we had very, very low humdidty but it was 99 degrees and too hot to be outside.

I have been meaning to ask for the longest time about Karen. What has she been up to since her return from Africa?

Helen I didn't check if you have an ebay store, but the Markdown Manager is for store owners. I don't know if your "My ebay" page is set up the same as mine, but here is how it works for me. First I go to "My ebay" page and then on the right hand side down near the bottom is "Manage My Store" and under that is "Markdown Manager". Click on that link and it will take you to "Markdown Manager: Create your sale." There is where you enter all the info such as how long, the percent, the title of your sale, etc. There is a drop down box that has a list of YOUR store categories and you select which ONE you want. You can click the box that says put them all on sale in that one category or not. If not, there is a page you then select which ones you want on sale. You can either offer a percentage off the original price or discount the original price by a set amount.

We did do a sale last year for 25% off. DH went in and selected not according to category but selected individual books that had been sitting on the shelf for years.

I put at least one category on sale each week, but now that summer is here and things are slow I have been doing two. One on Tuesday and one on Thursday or Friday. I always put a category on sale at the latter part of the week since not only do I think it stirs things up but the sale entices the weekend shoppers.

Took me forever to find the link to the tutorial.

http://tinyurl.com/cn42t2f

http://pages.ebay.com/stores/markdown-manager/tutorial/index.html

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. I'll do my best to help.