Inside Marcy's Mind

Inside Marcy’s Mind: Family Updates, Money Recovery Strategies, and Life Wisdom

• Marcy • Season 1 • Episode 44

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Marcy returns with updates on her health journey, sharing the welcome news that she's been off chemotherapy for two weeks and feeling "awesome." Her vibrant energy shines through as she discusses recent travels to California where she spent meaningful time supporting her transgender son Kyle through some personal challenges—a connection that deepened their relationship in unexpected ways.

The episode weaves between personal stories about printer malfunctions, Harry Potter store visits, and future plans to look at retirement properties in Arizona. Marci's authentic voice creates an intimate atmosphere as she shares her excitement about turning 65 and finally qualifying for Medicare after years of paying $1,500 monthly for health insurance.

The heart of this episode focuses on an often-overlooked financial opportunity: finding money you didn't know you had. Marci presents a comprehensive guide to locating unclaimed assets through various resources including missingmoney.com for uncashed checks, lostandfounddol.gov for forgotten retirement accounts, and treasuryhunt.gov for unclaimed savings bonds. She expertly breaks down each site's purpose and how listeners can use them to potentially recover forgotten funds.

Following this financial treasure hunt, Marci warns about "six risky discounts" that often end up costing consumers more than they save. From subscription traps and privacy-invading apps to store credit cards with exorbitant interest rates, she offers practical advice for avoiding common financial pitfalls in today's digital marketplace. Her straightforward guidance on monitoring credit card statements and managing digital privacy reflects her no-nonsense approach to personal finance.

The episode concludes with a delightful fun fact about elephants being the only animal that cannot jump, alongside a heartfelt appeal to never ride elephants due to the harm it causes these sensitive creatures. Marci's passion for animal welfare adds yet another dimension to her multifaceted personality.

Join Marci for this blend of personal updates, practical financial advice, and warmhearted wisdom. Have questions or topic suggestions? Email insidemarci'smind@gmail.com to connect directly with Marci for future episodes.

Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to Inside Marci's Mind. My name is Marci Backus and I am your host. Well, I am recording this on Friday, may 16th. May you have a great May 16th. If you're listening today, if you're listening another day, I hope your May 16th was great.

Speaker 1:

I was in California, although not this week the week before with my oldest child going through a little bit of something and trying to be supportive. Mom Came back to being sick for Mother's Day. That was a real treat, but Craig and I are making up Mother's Day this Sunday. I was okay. The windows are open. It's a beautiful morning here in Chicago and you're going to hear sirens, because that's what happens where I live. I live across the street from Northwestern Medical Center, so occasionally you're going to hear a siren. Just ignore it. I do. I'm not closing the windows. It's a beautiful morning here. It's what time is it? 6.15 am. Hope you're sleeping. I'm not. We'll talk about that later, but yeah, so I was in California again. So two weeks in California with a week in between, or a week and a half in between, and they were cold both weeks. Thank you so much, california, for allowing me to spend thousands of dollars in the Sunshine State not to get any sunshine, I guess. Well, each time I was there I got two days of sun, but it wasn't enough. But back in Chicago here yesterday was 90 degrees. Beyonce was on stage last night at Soldier Field and it was a tornado warning. So I think eventually they got the show on. They had postponed it for a while.

Speaker 1:

Craig and I walked over to our favorite Greek place in the hospital yeah, it's in the hospital. The hospital here are very fancy and they have a huge food court and they have a great, great Greek place. So we had dinner there and on our way home we actually went into the Harry Potter store. There was no line. So we're in the couple of weeks before school's out and all the tourists are back in our city. But it's a great thing on Michigan Avenue and it's right on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Huron and I live right on Huron and Michigan, so very exciting to go down and check out that store. It's pretty cool, pretty fun If you're into that sort of thing, which you know I am, and it was fun to get in there before it got too crowded and there was a line, cause I'm not waiting in a line, I don and it was fun to get in there before it got too crowded and there was a line.

Speaker 1:

Because I'm not waiting in a line, I don't wait in the line to go into our fancy Starbucks, I don't wait. I just don't wait in lines. Only at Disneyland do I wait in lines. But California was good. Kyle and I got a lot done.

Speaker 1:

Kyle had everything planned out that we needed to do and I was there as a supportive mom and, as hard as it is to have your kids go through hard things, I don't want to get emotional, but to have my child want me there to be a support was really really good. I asked for weeks if I could come, or a couple of weeks. No, no, I'm okay, I'm okay. And then finally it was yeah, you can come, mom and uh. To spend a week with Kyle as an adult, just the two of us, was something that is long overdue and uh really helped our relationship a lot. Our relationship was in a good place, but it's in a better place now and I understand my child a lot better.

Speaker 1:

For those of you that don't know, my oldest child, kyle, was born Kyle as a girl and is a trans, is transgendering, male, and I don't have a problem with that at all. That's not the issues. Mail, and I don't have a problem with that at all. That's not the issues. There's just a lot of stuff of baggage for the person transitioning. That comes with that and a lot of stuff and some hard times. So I was there to be supportive and Kyle this week got an apartment and I'm excited about that. Kyle lives in a beautiful city, torrance. It's an old beach city in California and it's really an awesome place and I'm glad that Kyle's found that to be the home that Kyle wants in California. Kyle works for the city of Torrance, so it works out great. So that I got that done. I'm feeling good about that. We got the news about the apartment yesterday, so that's exciting. It's hard to find a place in California that's affordable. It's really, really hard and Kyle will not have roommates and that's something that Kyle's always had a roommate so I think it's good for Kyle to have some time with Kyle and figuring out life. So there you have it. That's what's been going on in my life. I always try to share with you.

Speaker 1:

I have been off chemo now two weeks. I am feeling awesome. The thought I go, I got it. I can't think about it, but I am going supposed to go back on in July after I finished radiation. I don't start radiation for a few weeks, so I'm free right now and I am living large and loving it. I feel really good. This week I'm going to make it to the gym five days, which is always my goal, but I cut it back to three during chemo and I made it. I never when I was in town. I never. Well, I was in town most of the time, except for one week during chemo, but I never missed more than I always made it three days. I never missed that. So, um, I'm very proud of myself for that.

Speaker 1:

Let's see I you know what I was going to tell you about this fabulous um, it's a grain and celery salad with apple cider vinegar dressing. At Costco you can find it in the prepared food section. It's full of protein and fiber. It is the best salad. It's got cranberries best salad. It's got cranberries, garbanzo beans, thinly sliced kale, celery, quinoa, almonds, you name it. It's the kitchen sink and it lasts the whole week. So I have it for lunch every day and it's just delicious. So if you're looking for something filling, not fattening the grain and celery salad at Costco. I'm going to give it two thumbs up. So that was my newest.

Speaker 1:

Craig and I went to Costco. Of course, when I went to California the printer and coffee maker broke. You got to love that, right. So we went home, but of course there wasn't any coffee maker printer that we liked at Costco, so I ordered everything on Amazon. But yeah, you know, the sad thing about electronics is you just can't find someone to fix them and if you do, it's going to cost you more Excuse me, had a hiccup there Cost you more than buy a new one. So got a new coffee maker, got a new printer Excuse me. I got the Hicks this morning and got those all set up and then I had to train Craig. That's the hard part, but he was trained very quickly on the coffee maker. I was very pleased. I haven't had any questions this week. I don't know if he's used the printer yet, but I did set up his computer to use it. So that's what's been going on in our house. We've got beautiful weather again today and then it's supposed to go right back down into the 50s and 60s, but we are leaving. Ah, this is what's happening. We are leaving again.

Speaker 1:

On Tuesday, craig and I together, we are headed to Arizona for our great nephew, christopher Johnson. The amazing Christopher Johnson is graduating from high school. I, christopher Johnson, the amazing Christopher Johnson, is graduating from high school. I can't believe it. I remember the day he was born. This is my great nephew, chris, and very proud of Chris going to the school of mine in and you have to be really really, really, really, really, really, really smart to get into that college in Colorado and he's going to be going to school just a few blocks away from Alec, my son's work. So that's kind of exciting. And he's going to be in Colorado where Alec and Sharon are, and I'm hoping they can show him a good time and show him some of the great things of Colorado.

Speaker 1:

In our segment today we're going to talk about your money lost then found. A lot of people have all kinds of places where they have money and they don't remember that it's there. I know that sounds weird, but as we go through some of the things you're going to realize you just might have some money that's lost and then found. I tried to find money for me, didn't find any, tried some of these things, but you never know. It's worth a try and you might just find some money you didn't even know you had. Wouldn't that be exciting? Well, with that that's what's going on with me Feeling good.

Speaker 1:

I can't say looking good. I look old. I am old, I'm 64, almost 65. I can't wait for 65 because, let me tell you people, I pay for my health insurance $1,500 a month. I am so looking forward to Medicare. I can't tell you, craig has had great, great, great results here with Medicare in the city of Chicago, so I'm excited about that.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I know the last thing when we go to Arizona, craig and I are going to be looking at some places in a place called Sun Lakes. I are going to be looking at some places in a place called Sun Lakes. I'm pushing very hard to buy a home in Arizona. That's really where I want to end up. I love Chicago, I love my friends here, I love my life here. I just don't see us sustaining that through retirement. It's not a cheap place to live. I don't know, maybe we'll keep both places, I don't know. But I am going to be looking at some places in Arizona and I'm very excited. So, with that being said, let's get into our segment.

Speaker 1:

Your money lost and found. All right, your money lost and found. There's a new federal database that is designed to reunite people with old 401ks pension plans. It's only one of several sites where you can find your wayward wealth. So the first one is Uncashed Checks and Dormant Accounts. You can go to missingmoneycom. Write that down, missingmoneycom, or re-listen to this podcast. Give me another listen.

Speaker 1:

Missingmoneycom to search 49 states, washington DC and Puerto Rico for unclaimed property. I'm sorry, let me say that again 49 states and Washington and Puerto Rico for unclaimed property that might be due to you. Search for any of your assets in Hawaii by using the site's link to Hawaii's registry. I don't know how many of you have stuff in Hawaii, but I do have friends in Hawaii, provided by the National Association of State Treasurers and the site catalog's assets. Such an uncashed check from corporations, financial institutions, banks, insurance companies and municipalities. How many times do you get some weird check? I got one the other day for like 29 cents, excuse me, and I put it in my account, but how many times have you maybe forgotten to do that? That might be a great way to look up some money. Missing money dot com. Missing money dot com. So that's our first one.

Speaker 1:

Pensions in 401ks. Search for lost or missing retirement funds at lostandfounddolgov. That's lostandfounddol like doll, but with one L dot gov, the US Department of Labor's new retirement savings lost and found database, up and running since the beginning of the year. The nonprofit Pension Rights Center at PensionRightsorg can connect you with free help if you, your company or your pension plan is located in one of the 30 states served by the US Administration for Community Living's Pension. So you can go to this lostandfounddolgov and look for missing pensions or 401ks. And you know, when you're younger and you kind of go through some jobs, you might have 401ks that you forgot about. Don't discount this. You know we think we remember everything. I don't think we necessarily do, so that's one way.

Speaker 1:

Back wages In the Department of Labor. Oh, that's the pennies that I got. I worked at Kohl's for a hot second before when I came out of like being a mom, before I went to work for the city of Irvine, and it was something for I don't know, making people stand too long, I have no idea, but it was like 29 cents. I got out of that one. So back wages. If the Department of Labor can't find you after recovering unpaid wages you're due. You have three years to get in touch with the DOL and request your money To see if you're owed any back pay. Visit the Workers' Ode Wages site and this is a longer one D-O-L. Dot gov. Slash agencies, slash W-H-D. Slash wow. You can also find this information, in which this is AARP is where I'm getting this and I don't know what month. It's the one with handsome Rob Lowe on the cover. So that's got all of these websites in it.

Speaker 1:

Orphaned bank accounts For the money left at an FDIC-insured bank and you might have one from when you were a kid. Remember when you had a savings book and stuff. Did you ever get that money out? Or is it just sitting there, you never know For money left at an FDIC-insured bank that has since failed? Visit closedbanksfdicgov. Slash funds for search unclaimed deposits at the National Credit Union Administration's ncuagov for accounts at failed credit unions. So that's for failed funds.

Speaker 1:

There is and I should have I didn't write it down so it doesn't really matter savings bonds at treasurerhuntgov operate, operated by the us department of the treasury. You can find out if you or your loved one has died. Have a us savings bond or other us treasury securities for which proceeds have not been paid. You can also use this to track down missing interest payments on Treasury securities. You'll need the relevant social security number or a full name and state, and that's at treasuryhuntgov. So those are some places where you just might find some money. Isn't that exciting?

Speaker 1:

I have some other things to talk about, too. We're going to talk about six risky discounts. Sometimes trying to save money can backfire on you. I hate it when you go to the checkout and they're like you can save 10% today if you open. Well, you're not going to save 10%. Let me tell you something If you hold a balance on that credit card because the interest is probably 30% At this point in our life, I'm very blessed to say and I feel it very truly that Craig and I have no debt, no credit card debt, no debt, and. But you got to be careful with some of these things. So let's talk about some of these six, these six risky discounts.

Speaker 1:

So the first one is bank account busters. I was recently offered a discount for a monthly service, but only if I shared my bank account info to set up automatic payments. I decided against it. With that, data, thieves can steal funds right out of your account, make counterfeit checks. Thieves can steal funds right out of your account, make counterfeit checks or commit ID theft, and even security conscious companies have data breaches. We've had a record setting year last year and it's not slowing down. Yeah, I mean, I ended up. I had one credit card and I rarely use my credit cards for anything. I always use my Apple Pay because, I'm going to tell you, apple Pay is safer. Apple Pay creates a unique number every time you use it. But two of my my one credit card got hacked twice. I had to get it. You know a new one.

Speaker 1:

I'm I am very careful at looking at our accounts. It's so easy to get into your accounts now, like on your phone, and just if you have a few minutes, I breeze through things and if I see a charge or something, I immediately text Craig, did you make this? If not, I immediately report it, and I've had it happen a couple times now. And until our restaurants start using handhelds at the table, you are at risk every time you go to a restaurant and you pay with a credit card, because they walk away with your credit card. You don't think they can't write down all that information. That's why in Europe they're all handhelds, right at the table. Nobody walks away with your credit card. Have you ever gone through a drive-thru and you give them their credit card and it's gone a little too long, you know it's. I'm just telling you keep an eye on your credit cards.

Speaker 1:

Debt traps. Just about everything is sold via automatic renewal nowadays, especially subscriptions. I just had to go through. I had a subscription for Conva, which is a creative website, and I paid it yearly and all of a sudden I kept seeing they were taking out automatic payments and I'm like why? I had two accounts. One was charging me monthly and I paid a yearly fee, and so it took me quite a while with them, but they were very helpful and they got the other account shut down and that debt. But you oh, these days, I'm telling you it is so true, with these subscriptions, auto-renew can be very convenient, but it can also I also did have. I was using Grammarly when I worked and it renewed for a year and I couldn't get them to stop it and that's my own fault and I don't use it anymore because there's so much other AI out there and I don't do that much writing. So you want to be careful with that.

Speaker 1:

They're supposed to have a click and cancel button. It's supposed to be easy to cancel. If you have subscriptions on your iPhone, I'm going to tell you how to find them. Go to settings. Your name is at the top Marcy Backus. Click on Marcy Backus or your name, obviously. Scroll down, look. You'll see subscriptions. Click on that and all your subscriptions that you're paying with your iCloud will come through. It'll tell you when they're renewed. You can. You can cancel them right there. It'll tell you what's active and what's inactive. So I hope that's helpful to you. You can see whatever you signed up with online and I see there's one there that I did. That I did for a year and I want to make sure it doesn't automatically renew, so I'm checking on that fake freebie. Sometimes return and cancellation policies on free trials are so strict they're nearly impossible to cancel. So be really careful with we're going to give you three days free, three weeks, whatever. They end up stocking you with bigger fees and bigger charges.

Speaker 1:

As a matter of fact, I was helping Kyle get set up with car insurance. Kyle sold the car while I was there and only had one car and we were changing insurance and I came in and we were changing insurance and they I came in and we, we did the first month's payment. It tripled the next month. So I went and looked for insurance, found it on Geico for a third of that back to what we were paying that original month and changed insurance. Insurances are another. Just you got to watch them. They up, up, up, up, up up your insurance so fast you can't your head spins. I don't understand how it's even legal to triple your insurance. There was no accident, no ticket, they just tripled it and that's not what we were quoted. So keep an eye on things. I changed recently through AARP to Hartford insurance for our homeowners insurance and our car insurance bundled. That saved myself a third every month. Also two thirds every month. Also, fake freebies sometimes return. Oh, I already did that one, sorry.

Speaker 1:

The fourth one is private privacy invading apps. Mobile apps collect all kinds of personal information. We know that. I'm just going to tell you. You know either you're going to be in the electronic world or you're not. And if you choose not to, that's great. Don't have a digital footprint. But the minute you have any digital footprint, somebody's gathering your information and if that really bothers you, then you should not have a digital footprint. But be aware Timu is one of the ones that collects so much data that one state attorney general deemed it spyware. I shop at Timu, don't care. Go ahead and spy on me.

Speaker 1:

China, what do I? What do I have here in Chicago that China wants anyways, but I get it. Be careful in Chicago that China wants anyways, but I get it, be careful. I have so many things in my home that monitor me that I I have given up on worrying about who's listening. But if you do worry, cancel your digital footprint.

Speaker 1:

Deals with interest, like store credit cards Okay, buy now, pay later. You got to be careful with that there. So many buy now. Every time I put something on my even on my um debit card. You can split this into four payments. I don't want to split it into four payments. I went out to dinner like it's crazy. But be careful with all that. That can get you into a trap. And the last thing is cheap tricks. Fraudulent deals are common among social media sellers.

Speaker 1:

I think this whole article buy now, pay later. This, that and the other thing just be careful. Monitor your credit cards. I will tell you the credit card companies I've dealt with with my fraud in the last year have been great, but I find it right away and a lot of times they they held a charge because they thought it was fraud. It wasn't. I didn't get mad. Why should you get mad? They're trying to help you, you know. But anyways, I hope those are some ways I hope somebody finds.

Speaker 1:

If somebody finds some money on one of those websites, please email me at inside Marcy's mind at gmailcom. That's inside Marcy's mind. Anything you want to ask me, anything you. If you want me to cover something, um on my show, please let me know. Um, I know my friend Katie one time asked me to cover um photo scanning apps or photo scanning things, cause she needed to do that and she ended up scanning all their family photos. And so if there's anything you want me to cover or look up or find out, let me know.

Speaker 1:

Next not next week, but the week after I'm going to start my aging aim for sissies up again and that web, that podcast, is going to handle all my aging stuff and this one will just be tips and tricks and ideas and thoughts and anything that comes into Marcy's mind. That's why it's called Inside Marcy's Mind, got it? Anyways, hang in there and I'll have a fun fact for you this morning, this afternoon or evening, whenever you're listening. But hang in there and we'll get into that in there and we'll get into that. Okay, so my fun fact for you today is what is the one animal that cannot jump? It's highly intelligent, it's one of the most sensitive creatures, but it cannot jump. Think about it. What animal couldn't jump? Well, I'm going to tell you. It's one of my favorite creatures the elephant. Elephants are amazing, but they can't jump. Think about it. Look at their body structure Mine's very similar and I can't jump anymore. So I totally get it. Elephants, anyways, that's your fun fact today. Now you know that elephants can't jump. You can share that fact with a friend or family member, but I do love elephants.

Speaker 1:

I follow a um elephant rescue on uh Instagram and they get these elephants. First of all, don't ever ride an elephant. Elephants hate it. They don't like things on their back. It's torture for them. So if you go to a zoo, you go to a carnival, you go anywhere. Do not ride an elephant. But this rescue rescues elephants that are used for hauling wood bamboo out of the forest and may have been doing it in chains for 40 years. They get rescued Elephants that are ridden, they buy them and, uh, it's very wonderful to see these elephants that have been in bondage their whole life be set free. So an elephant can't jump. There's your fun fact for the day. Well, as I always say, go out and do something positive. Talk to you next week.

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Marcy Backhus

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