The Good Life Report - Avoiding Scams & Self-Care
“Love recognizes no barriers.”
– Maya Angelou
Be On Alert for IRS Scams
This tax season, the IRS expects an uptick in tax-related scams. In most cases, IRS “phishing” scams are bogus phone calls and emails that claim to come from the IRS.
Remember, the IRS will never:
- Call you without mailing an official notice first.
- Demand that you immediately pay your taxes over the phone.
- Take a debit or credit card number over the phone.
- Threaten to call law enforcement or immigration services to arrest you for failure to pay.
* This information is not intended to be a substitute for specific individualized tax advice. We suggest that you discuss your specific tax issues with a qualified tax professional.
Tip adapted from IRS.gov1
Loving Yourself First
February is a month that many associate with love. Romance, in particular. The rise of self-care over the past decade has brought attention to the concept of loving oneself – the basic philosophy behind it being that if we love and take care of ourselves, with intention, the happier and healthier we’ll be, and all the people in our lives will benefit, including our romantic partners.
Loving ourselves isn’t always easy. And it doesn’t mean always being overly indulgent, but rather making choices that help support our overall well-being. For some people, that may look like taking time to relax if they have a lot of stress in their lives. For others, it can be making a to-do list to organize and accomplish tasks if they tend toward procrastination. Being more self-aware and cheering ourselves on more if we’re often overly harsh or being more introspective and searching for ways to improve if we are myopic to our own shortcomings. All these things and many more not mentioned are intentional actions we can take to be our best selves.
This February, take some time to reflect on the ones you love. Just make sure you don’t forget about the one you should love the most.
Tip adapted from PsychCentral.com2
Six cups are lined up in a row. Cups 1-3 on the left are full of juice; cups 4-6 on the right are empty. How can you arrange this row so empty and full glasses alternate while moving only one cup in the process?
Last week’s riddle: It can certainly be measured, yet it has no length, width, or height. What is it? Answer: The temperature.
Sea Lions at sunset, San Diego, California.
