If you own your home, there’s a very good chance that you have a mortgage—close to 80% of all homeowners in the U.S. have a mortgage of some sort. While a mortgage is considered “good debt” in that it’s a relatively low-interest loan that builds wealth and assets, and financial professionals sometimes argue that you should keep your mortgage active as long as possible in order to free up money for investment (and other considerations), the simple fact is if you’re getting close to paying off your mortgage you should prepare to celebrate. Whether it was for five or 30 years, it’s an achievement to clear such a big debt—and own your home outright.

In addition to planning a classic mortgage burning party, however, you need to make a bunch of other, less-fun plans: Paying off your mortgage triggers a landslide of paperwork and changes to your life that you need to be ready for. Here’s what you need to know if you’re coming up on your final mortgage payment.

Ensure documentation

The most immediate thing you need to do to prepare for a mortgage-free existence is to make sure you know what documents you’ll need, and then make sure you get those documents. This is the modern world, after all, and if there isn’t a record of something filed away then it didn’t actually happen. When you contacted your lender about a mortgage payoff statement, they should have detailed for you the documents they’ll be supplying to close out the mortgage. If they didn’t, follow up; not all lenders supply the same documents, so you’ll need to know what you should be expecting. There may be fees associated with some of these documents, but those are probably incorporated into the final payoff amount. If not, you’ll need to know that, too, so you can take care of them.

Generally, you should get the following documents when you pay off the mortgage:

• Promissory note. You signed this when you took out the mortgage—it’s essentially a legal document where you promise to pay back a loan or debt. The lender should return this to you marked “canceled” in some fashion as acknowledgment that you no longer owe them money.

• A deed of reconveyance. Your lender should generate this document to show that you have satisfied the debt and the title to your property has been transferred wholly to you. In some cases where a third party is involved in a mortgage, there will be a deed of trust as well.

• Satisfaction of mortgage document. This will be filed with your local government entities so official records of ownership and title can be updated, but you should receive a copy of it as well for your own records—just in case the government screws up.

• Final mortgage statement. It might seem superfluous in lieu of all the other paperwork you’re receiving, but make sure you get a final statement showing the loan paid off in full. When it comes to owing enormous financial institutions huge sums of money, you simply can never have too much documentation.

Finally, check your credit reports about one to two months after you pay off the mortgage to make sure they show the debt as closed, and check for an escrow refund from your lender—there’s often a small amount of money left over in the escrow account that is legally yours.

Prepare for changes

Once you have all your documents and the world has been alerted to this momentous change in your financial life, get ready. For more change. Because paying off a mortgage can have a lot of impact on your life beyond no longer cutting those big checks:

• Credit impact. Credit scores can seem irrational, and this may be one of those times. You might see a bump because your debt ratio is lower, or you might see a drop because you have a lower mix of credit types.

• Mortgage interest tax deduction. One of the bigger impacts of paying off a mortgage is the loss of this federal tax deduction, which lets you deduct your mortgage interest from your taxable income. Consult with a tax professional to get a picture of what that will mean for next year’s tax bill.

• Cancel autopayments. Did you set up autopay for your mortgage to ensure you never forgot a payment? Better cancel it, unless you want to find out how hard it is to get a multi-thousand dollar refund from a big bank.

• Reroute tax and insurance statements. Your lender was most likely managing your property taxes and insurance payments through the escrow account. If that’s the case, you’ll need to contact the insurance company and the local tax office and get everything sent to you instead. This means you also have to start paying those bills, so make a savings plan to ensure you have the funds to cover them.

Source: LifeHacker – Everything You Need to Do When You Pay Off Your Mortgage

Who doesn’t love a nice outdoor light display or a garland with red berries wrapped around the porch railing for the holidays? Outdoor decorations in the gray, dark stretch of winter when the days are short feels like a little patch of joy to come home to. But your holiday decorations can harm wildlife if you’re not careful. Designing your display so it doesn’t catch birds and other wildlife is important—here’s what to keep in mind when decorating outdoors this year.

Choose safer garlands

Using garlands outside is OK, but fake berries can fool birds and other animals into thinking they’re a good snack. On your porch or front door, some fake berry might be fine, but on trees and bushes, anything resembling a food source should be avoided. Eating plastic or styrofoam berries is obviously not good for wildlife, so you should opt for real berries (dried or fresh) on any outdoor wreaths and garlands. Using a native species is even better, because then if the local fauna decides to snack on your decor, at least they’ll be eating something likely healthy for them.

Wildlife-friendly holiday decor:

• Rope lights ($21.59)

• Colored flood lights ($22.49)

• Candy cane pathway lights ($19.97)

• Laser projection displays ($39.99)

Avoid netting and small wires

Decorations that are made with netting and small wires are also a bad idea because of their tendency to snag birds. Especially fine netting that’s hard for birds to see is a problem. Larger gauge wire that’s less flexible and thus less likely to get wrapped around a creature coming into contact with it is a better choice. You can also choose decorations that are on stiff backing like wood or metal framing instead of mesh to protect local wildlife.

Use string lights safely

String lights are a big part of holiday decor, but they can be deadly for birds in the wrong circumstances: If you string lights in trees without securing them, birds can get tangled up. If you have a lighted tree or shrub as a part of your display, you should check on it once a day to make sure the lights remain secure and you haven’t caught any wildlife.

Avoid stringy fake snow

Batting and other fibers used as fake snow are another thing to avoid in outdoor displays: Because stringy materials can get stuck to paws and claws, these materials can trap animals. Instead, use painted snow or textured surfaces made to look like snow if you enjoy the look of a wintery blanket, but avoid anything that is stringy or has long fibers in it.

Things to use instead

You don’t need to limit your merriment to protect wildlife. Anything that doesn’t resemble a food source to wild birds or have wires, strings, or netting for them to get stuck in is fair game—all the light-up snowmen and giant globes can stay. Even your garlands are OK if they’re decorated carefully. When in doubt, think big. The larger the gauge of wire or the bigger the fake berry is, the less likely it will be to harm a bird. Trade out string lights for rope lights so wires are encased in a tube and are unable to snag a passing bird. Use colored flood lights, holiday themed pathway lights, or laser projection displays as an alternative to lighted netting or tangles of wired string lights, and opt for real plants like mistletoe, which is perfectly safe for birds to eat and has the added benefit of helping birds that overwinter in place to stay fed during the winter months.

Source: LifeHacker – These Holiday Decorations Aren’t Safe for Local Wildlife (and What to Use Instead)

Most parents of a certain age, myself included, had to learn to be independent growing up. Many households needed two incomes to sustain themselves, leaving children alone to fend for themselves when school wasn’t in session. It was far from ideal, but it gave me some confidence that I could take care of myself when necessary.

Something has changed in many caregivers in the decades since. Guardians often became highly involved, removing all obstacles from their child’s path. Instead of letting children develop their own coping muscles, parents give them what they want with a phone call to a school administrator or a friend’s parent. 

“We’re not giving [kids] the space to develop really important life skills because we’re so protective and heavily involved,” says Emily Edlynn, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist and author of Autonomy-Supportive Parenting.

What is “autonomy-supportive” parenting?

Think about your day as a parent. From what they wear to school to what they eat for dinner or watch on TV, how often do you let your child decide things for themselves? It might be more often than you think.

Instead of handling nearly every aspect of their day, caregivers who follow autonomy-supportive parenting let children take the initiative. Parents guide a kid’s decisions instead of controlling them. 

“It’s an approach that focuses on building a child’s sense of agency in the world as well as a strong sense of self,” says Edlynn. “It’s trying to understand their experience of what’s going on right now and recognizing they have a different perspective or experience than we’re coming at.”

Instead of pushing our way of thinking on children, Edlynn suggests we let them do their own critical thinking and solve problems themselves, which will help them trust their abilities and give them self-confidence as they grow older. 

Guide kids to find their own solution

As any parent with more than one child can tell you, kids develop differently, which can mean we have to support them in different ways. While one child may find it easy to start their homework independently, the other might not be a self-starter.

Edlynn recommends nudging our kids to the next level by knowing their skill level and meeting them there, a process known as scaffolding. To help motivate the second child to do their homework, list everything they want and need to do. This will structure their afternoon. They’ll also get a self-esteem boost whenever they complete a task and check something off their list. 

“Part of the framework is asking a lot of these questions of your kid: What do you think? When is the best time for you to do homework? They may not know yet, but it’s good for them to think about it,” Edlynn explains. 

Let kids find their own fun

In the age of smartphones and tablets, children and parents have become conditioned to believe we never have to be bored. And when the blahs actually do hit our kids, we charge ourselves with giving them something to do instead of letting them make their own fun. 

“Our kids don’t know how to manage boredom, which really is a disservice to them,” says Edlynn. “It also sets us up to be their cruise directors at all times. That’s a huge burden on us!”

Letting children find their own thing to do when boredom strikes allows them to become self-sufficient and use their imagination to find fun on their own.

“It is amazing what creativity they can express, and it’s a really important life skill for them to figure out how to entertain themselves,” says Edlynn.

Being empathetic doesn’t mean giving in

Recently, my youngest son didn’t like the movie I picked for our family’s weekly movie night because it differed from what he would have chosen. 

I explained that I understood his disappointment and we would watch what he wanted next week. He could play in his room if he didn’t want to watch the movie we were watching. Rather than giving in, I tried to meet him where he was as best as I could, show him empathy, and then give him an option.

“Having empathy does not mean giving them what they want,” says Edlynn. “You’re not trying to make them happy. You’re just reflecting back that you’re understanding what’s going on.”

Trust your child to act in their best interest (or fake it)

Another characteristic of autonomy-supportive parenting is being open, curious, and flexible. Trusting children to be accountable to themselves (or acting like it) is the only way you will know if your child will be a responsible, independent adult. 

For example, if you ask your child when they think is the best time to do their homework, and they tell you it’s in the morning before school begins, support them and let them try it, no matter how odd it sounds. It may work.

“We may not really trust our kids, but we have to pretend,” says Edlynn. “This is low stakes. Nothing terrible is going to happen. Sometimes, we just have to listen to them.”

Don’t forget to support yourself

Edlynn says once you grasp autonomy-supportive parenting, you’ll see opportunities to put it into practice, even when they’re in preschool. (Her book breaks things down into age groups.) But no matter how old your kid is, adopting this style will not be easy, so forgive yourself if things don’t go right on a particular day.

“Give yourself grace,” Edlynn says. “The more you do that, the more likely you will have the energy to keep up with doing this. If you get hard on yourself because you’re not measuring up, you’re more likely to revert to the controlling practices. Some days are just going to be more autonomy-supportive than others.”

Source: LifeHacker – Help Your Kid Develop Independence With ‘Autonomy-Supportive’ Parenting

So you go to use your debit card to make a purchase or withdraw cash, or you try to pay a bill from your checking account, only to find out that your card has been declined, your transaction denied, and your access to your money cut off. The New York Times recently reported that banks are increasingly closing customer accounts without warning or authorization—and for no apparent reason. They’re not even required to notify you if this happens, which means some people find out only when they can’t use their cards or withdraw funds. While suspicious activity and fraud are considered one possible explanation, there’s also no data source to confirm exactly how many accounts are being shut down and why.

How to protect your bank account from closure

The Times reporting suggests several possible scenarios that would raise red flags for a bank’s fraud department. One is related to how much you deposit and withdraw, and in what pattern. Under federal law, customers have to fill out a form for any transaction of more than $10,000, and choosing to reduce the amount rather than complete said paperwork is likely to be suspicious. Similarly, large cash deposits at ATMs or a series of high-value deposits and withdrawals in a short period of time may also be tagged as fraudulent. While this may be innocuous—you work in an industry that has cash tips, for example—the bank doesn’t see it that way.

Banks may also tag accounts for closure when there’s no activity for a period of time, or when there are frequent negative balances or overdrafts. Using checks can also put you on a bank’s radar due to the increase in check fraud in recent years, as can violating account terms and conditions (such as using a personal account for business purposes).

Given these possibilities, there are a few things you can do to head off account closure:

• Overcommunicate with your bank. If you are making uncharacteristic deposits or withdrawals, moving large sums of money around, or going through any major financial transition (such as a move, a home purchase or renovations, or extended travel), give your bank a heads-up.

• Check all bank messages. Don’t toss notices without opening them, and look into all messages you receive. Note that you shouldn’t respond uncritically to texts, calls, or emails, which may themselves be fraudulent. But if you are contacted by anyone claiming to be from your bank, call the number or send a secure message on the website or your client portal to make sure you don’t miss anything important.

• Monitor your account activity. Set up transaction and low balance alerts, and check statements, deposits, and withdrawals regularly.

• Limit your check usage. If possible, stop sending checks in the mail to reduce the risk of washing, or at least take steps to protect your checks from fraud.

What to do if your account shuts down unexpectedly

If you take precautions and your bank closes your account anyway, contact them ASAP and ask what steps you need to take to get access to your money. If your bank has a local branch, it may be effective to go in person. Communicate calmly but firmly. In some cases, such as a dormant account, you may need to go to your state’s unclaimed property office to obtain your funds.

Next, make sure you halt direct deposits and automatic withdrawals (such as bill pay) and switch these transactions to a different account that you can still access. If the bank will allow it, try to reopen the account or ask about other options, after which you can also consider switching to a different bank.

Finally, you can file a complaint with the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency if you believe your account has been closed without cause.

Source: LifeHacker – How to Prevent Your Bank from Closing Your Accounts Without Notice