Lifestyle

If you have asked about me about writing a will or have been thinking that it would be a good idea to get that legal document in place, I have great news for you! Last week I received an email from Southwest Initiative Foundation (SWIF) about a new partnership they have formed with FreeWill, an online tool to write a legal will at no personal cost. SWIF is an independent community foundation whose mission is connecting people, investing in ideas, and building communities. They support many initiatives in our region, in fact, my position at Prairie Five is funded in part with a grant from SWIF. In the email, they explain that they “believe all people and families deserve opportunities to thrive including building financial security. Planning ahead is critical to protecting who you love and what you care about, and increasing access to estate planning breaks down barriers that might stand in the way of this important task.” It goes on to say, “this resource helps you protect your families and friends, plan beneficiaries for your assets, and support the causes and communities you love. With FreeWill, you can get peace of mind and leave a lasting legacy in just 20 minutes.” The FreeWill web site is found at www.freewill.com and is very user friendly. In fact, as I was walking through the site, I decided to go ahead and create my own will. It’s easy to think that we will always have time later but in truth none of us knows what tomorrow may hold. If you would prefer to finalize your will with an attorney, the site can still be used to as a preparation tool to create a list of documented wishes beforehand.

Westberg Eischens has hired Jordan Berends to join their Granite Falls accounting office. In her role as Administrative Assistant, Berends will greet customers, answer phones, and assist with bookkeeping and other administrative duties.

Each year Medicare gives every Advantage plan, Cost plan, and Part D drug plan a rating between one and five stars. A 5-star rating is considered excellent. The stars are assigned on factors including quality and performance of the plan and come from plan details as well as feedback from customer service surveys from beneficiaries and health care providers. The star ratings for the upcoming year are assigned in the fall and are useful during the annual Open Enrollment Period when people are looking at coverage for the upcoming year and wondering if a plan they are considering is any good.

The majority of my instructors in writer graduate school were not objectively famous. One of them was, though: - major-literary-prize, in-airport-bookstores, regular-dinners-with-the-President (of the US, not the college) - famous. She was e a lovely person, but we were all terrified to sit in her presence.

April is National Fair Housing Month! Fair housing is a growing need and concern within all communities. This is especially true for the victim/survivors that WRAP works with. WoMen’s Rural Advocacy Programs, Inc. (WRAP) provides advocacy for victim/survivors of domestic abuse and sex trafficking/exploitation in Lincoln, Lyon, Redwood, and Yellow Medicine Counties. Housing is a very significant part of a victim/ survivor feeling safe. Finding this housing has become increasingly difficult, especially in our rural areas. Oftentimes, victim/survivors will have many barriers they must overcome in order to secure housing. Some of these barriers include but are not limited to rent deposit, poor or no credit history, and/or poor or no rental history. Some barriers that are common in rural areas more specifically include the reputation of victim/survivors, their abusers, or their families, limited landlords that own a large amount of property in a town, and limited cultur-al diversity within the rural communities. These barriers are often due to the domestic violence or trafficking/exploitation a victim has gone through. Imagine a relationship where the abusive partner has control of the money (even the money earned by the victim from the victim’s work), does not allow the victim to have a credit card or loan, and does not allow the victim’s name to be on any rental or mortgage documents. The victim would have very little funds, no credit history, and no documentable housing history. The barriers for the victim in this situation would be very hard to overcome.

Much of the region had some snow on Sunday as a low-pressure system pushed across the state. It was pretty to see but I think many of us are over this winter and want to see the warmer weather settle-in “for good,” or at least until next fall!