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Wednesday, December 26, 2012
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Coweta’s Local Daily Newspaper, Published 5 Days A Week Thank you for picking up MyConnection. Look for your copy delivered free to your home from The Newnan Times-Herald each Wednesday. You’ll find entertainment and travel news, as well as upcoming events, easy-to-make recipes, and things that matter to you and your family.
Family Features
O Good Luck Soup
Ham and Cranberry Monte Cristo
Potato-Crusted Ham Quiche
nce the feast is over, many home cooks are left with a plethora of leftovers and a challenge: how to make the most of what remains. While it’s hard to live up to that original holiday meal, there’s a lot more that you can do with leftover ham rather than just reheating. This year, give leftovers new life with a week’s worth of versatile meals that can be enjoyed throughout the day. Start with a fully-cooked, naturally hickory smoked ham, and follow the simple steps listed on page 4 to turn it into a potato-crusted ham quiche for brunch, a Monte Cristo sand wich for lunch, and a savory soup for dinner. You’ll leave friends and family asking for leftovers more often.
9 Things to Do When the New Year Arrives
Many statements and financial documents can be thrown out once their accuracy has been confirmed.
Know Which Financial Papers to Toss and Which to Keep METRO GRAPHICS
Enjoy post-holiday sales and pick up some things for yourself or the household. METRO GRAPHICS
People across the globe anxiously await the arrival of the new year. Different cultures and religions celebrate their own new year at different times, but for much of the world, January 1 marks the date for change and renewal. With so much emphasis placed on what people will be doing for the last day of the year, little thought may be given to what to do after the clock strikes 12. Each minute afterward opens up the possibilities to begin fresh with new goals and tasks. For those wondering how to commence the new year, there are many ways to tackle the first day and thereafter — after you have recovered from the New Year’s Eve celebration, that is.
Take down holiday decorations. While there are some people who prefer to leave up their Christmas decorations until after the celebration of the Epiphany, or Three Kings Day, by January 1 many are ready to say goodbye to the holiday season for another year. Having the day off of work and school enables you to spend time removing decorations from the house and taking down the tree, especially before dried-out pine needles become more than you can handle. Shop post-holiday sales. After spending several months buying for
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Many homeowners recognize that they have quite a number of things around the house that serve no practical purpose. Paperwork can accumulate seemingly overnight, turning a once-organized home into a messy monument to clutter. Oftentimes, uncertainty about which financial documents to keep and which to discard causes homeowners to keep everything, which can lead to unnecessary clutter. According to financial expert David Bach, author of the book, “Start Over, Finish Rich,” many people keep too much information for too long. Even though a greater portion of transactions are taking place online, you still may feel more secure keeping paperwork in hard copy. But older bills and documents can likely be thrown away. As you begin your organizing detail, keep these pointers in mind. What to Keep Purchase receipts, credit card statements and any other paperwork pertinent for filing taxes should be kept for a full year until taxes are filed. Experts disagree as to what is the best period of time for keeping doc-
uments related to taxes after your return has been filed. Many people can safely shred tax documents within three years of filing. This is the end of the normal audit period for “good-faith” errors. If you do not have any reason to believe information on the returns is fraudulent, you can probably safely toss out these older returns once the three years is up. If you are self-employed or if you want to be extra cautious, you can save tax returns for seven years. You should keep certain important documents in a fire-resistant safe in the home rather than in a regular filing cabinet. These include warranty documents, insurance policies, copies of will and trust documents, medical history forms, copies of diplomas and school transcripts and an inventory of home items. Also keep important documents that pertain to your home purchase or rental agreement. These include leases, home title, home survey, and mortgage documents. Many people opt to keep other essential items that need a bit more protection in a safety deposit box or a burglar-proof safe at home. Items inside should include a list of bank
account and credit card account numbers, copies of identification cards, passports, social security cards, stock and bond certificates, IRA contribution records, certificates of deposit, and military documents, as well as divorce, marriage, adoption or any other important certificates. What to Toss Most experts agree, including sources from Good Housekeeping, Consumer Reports and Kiplinger’s, that many receipts can be discarded shortly after purchase. ATM receipts can be thrown away as soon as they are reconciled against your bank statement. Bank and credit card statements can be shredded after they have been confirmed unless you need them for any specific tax-filing reasons. After a year, it is generally safe to do a thorough clean-out of pay stubs, especially after you have received your tax-filing forms and have submitted tax information. Many people file away paid bills and keep them far longer than
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