Look for creative ways to get children involved in gardening. Tap into other interests or skills like art, reading, writing, insects, and birds, if you need to persuade reluctant participants into growing plants.

Include lots of colors and unique plants that kids will love. Crested celosia resembles brains, making it a good choice for the zombie fans in the group.  Eyeball plant (Acmella oleracea), balloon plant (Gomphocarpus physocarpus) with its hairy inflated seedpods, snake plant, and kangaroo paws (Anigozanthos favidus) are a few to consider.  Gardeners of all ages will appreciate the popcorn plant (Senna didymobotrya) with its buttered popcorn-scented leaves or bat-faced cuphea and the hummingbirds it will attract.

Consider adding features that make the garden a fun space to visit.  There is a reason that bean teepees, sunflower houses, and tunnels in the garden have remained popular with kids of all ages for decades. Or grow a garden shaped like a slice of pizza planted with all the key ingredients or a salsa garden. Everyone will benefit when using freshly harvested ingredients to create these dishes.

A pot or flat of grass makes a nice field for superheroes and a lawn for dolls.  A bare patch of soil is perfect for digging, driving cars and trucks, or sculpting hills and valleys. All these build skills that can be applied to future gardening efforts.

Plant some salad radishes that are ready to harvest in 25 to 30 days. This will help keep the kids interested in the garden when waiting for the tomatoes, beans, and other vegetables to ripen. Call it harvesting when you are thinning the radish planting. Use these greens as a snack or in a salad. Harvesting and eating is more fun for all of us than just thinning the excess plants.

Use rainy days to create plant labels from paint sticks or stones. Paint individual words on some of the stones and place them in the garden. Let children leave messages for each other or write poetry. Or repurpose pickle jars into garden treasure jars. Have children decorate the jars. Then you fill the jars with messages or treasures before hiding them in the garden.

Explore ways to reuse and recycle landscape trimmings. Put twigs to use creating small-scale wattle fences for a fairy, gnome, or zombie garden. This is great practice for building a larger-scale wattle fence for the garden.

Go on a bug hunt to see who is living in your garden, yard, or neighborhood. Look for good bugs like lady beetles that eat plant-damaging aphids and bees that pollinate our flowers.  Then log what you find in a backyard journal.

Gentle guidance, realistic expectations, and age-appropriate activities will help get kids excited about gardening. The gardens they create and the plants they grow are often amazing but more important, it is the experience of growing together that makes it worthwhile.

Once you’ve settled on what you want to accomplish, you can decide whether an annuity makes sense for you, realizing that different types can help you meet different financial goals.

Annuities can’t all be put into one category. But the very different types of annuities have some things in common. Savings-oriented deferred annuities are tax-advantaged and guarantee principal (except for variable annuities).  Income annuities are like a private pension. They have no cash value but instead guarantee retirement income.

Ensuring successful retirement—annuities during your accumulation phase

Social Security benefits aren’t sufficient to fund retirement for most people. And given the aging of the population and projected trust-fund shortfall, they may be less generous in the future.

That’s one of the reasons why Congress authorized annuities, which let you put away money now and have it grow without taxes until you need the money in retirement. In the accumulation stage of your life, you’re working and building wealth for retirement. Financial experts agree that during this stage, you should have diversified investments and prudently use all the tax-advantaged ways to save that you can without tying up money you need for current expenses. Annuities can be part of that mix.

Risk management as you accumulate wealth and age

In their 20s and 30s, many people are paying off student debt, raising children and saving to buy a house and thus can’t afford to put aside much for retirement. If you can salt something away, investing heavily in equities (stocks and stock funds) at this stage isn’t unwise because you have decades to ride out the ups and downs of the market. And you have less at risk.

But as you get older and have more money at stake and less time until retirement, your strategy should change. Most people should reduce their equity exposure and increase their allocation to less volatile instruments, such as bonds, certificates of deposit, and fixed annuities.  

Fixed-rate and fixed-indexed annuities build savings

To reduce your risk while getting a good interest rate, consider fixed-rate annuities, also called multi-year guaranteed annuities (MYGA). They are designed to act much like tax-deferred versions of bank CDs. They too offer a set, guaranteed rate for a set period but usually pay higher rates for the same term than CDs. A database of fixed annuity rates can be found here.

Unlike bank accounts or CDs, annuities aren’t federally insured. However, life insurers are tightly regulated by the states and have a solid track record of meeting their obligations. State annuity guaranty associations offer buyers additional protection. Check the A.M. Best rating of the issuing insurer before you buy. I recommend looking for at least a B++ rating.

Fixed-indexed annuities are another good option. Like a fixed-rate annuity, they also guarantee your principal so you’re sure of getting your money back. But the interest rate varies from year to year. It varies depending on the crediting formulas used and how the stock market index or indexes you choose to align with perform. Years when the S&P 500, for example, is up significantly, you’ll get a portion of the upside and might get, say a 10% interest credit.

When the market is down for the year, you won’t lose any money but won’t get any interest either with most products. In exchange for a fluctuating, unknown interest rate, you have the potential for greater long-term returns than with fixed-rate annuities.

Fixed-indexed annuities are complex, with various crediting formulas, so it takes some careful thought to identify a product best suited to you.

Income annuities can turn cash into lifetime income

Unlike fixed-rate or fixed-index annuities, income annuities (deferred or immediate) typically don’t have cash surrender value. You’re buying a contract, a promise the insurer is legally obliged to fulfill.

In return for your single premium deposit, this type of annuity guarantees an income for a certain number of years or your lifetime. Lifetime annuities are by far more popular because they provide a set, guaranteed income that will go on for your entire life. They provide “longevity insurance.”

You can choose an immediate income annuity for immediate income or a deferred income annuity for future income.  With the latter, you’ll choose the start date.

What age is best for buying annuities?

There are tax penalties for withdrawing money from an annuity before age 59½, so most people won’t consider putting money in one until their early to mid-50s or older. But it depends on the individual. When you buy a nonqualified annuity at an earlier age, you give tax-deferred compounding more time to work.

But there’s an important exception. With a standard IRA or Roth IRA, you won’t normally take out money until you’re retired, so the pre-59½ penalties for annuities aren’t a drawback. A fixed-rate or fixed-indexed annuity can be a valuable player in your IRA allocation.

A Roth IRA annuity, like other Roth accounts, is tax-free. Both savings and income annuities work well as a Roth IRA.

Finally, there’s a special income annuity for standard IRAs: the qualified longevity annuity contract (QLAC). You now can place up to $200,000 of your IRA balance in a QLAC, up from $145,000 previously. The money in one is excluded from assets on which your future RMDs are calculated. You can defer income distributions until as late as age 85.

Annuities don’t address all financial problems and aren’t appropriate for everyone.  But like a Swiss Army knife, they offer a powerful and flexible set of tools. 

Ken Nuss is the founder and CEO of AnnuityAdvantage, a leading online provider of fixed-rate, fixed-indexed, and lifetime income annuities. Ken is a nationally recognized annuity expert and widely published author. A free rate comparison service with interest rates from dozens of insurers is available at https://www.annuityadvantage.com or by calling (800) 239-0356.

Congress recently passed the SECURE 2.0 Act to help people save more for retirement by boosting tax breaks. It builds on the original SECURE Act. Three provisions will affect the most people.

Required minimum distributions (RMDs) from traditional IRAs, SEPs, 401(k)s and other retirement accounts now must begin at age 73, up from age 72 previously.

Retirees who don’t need the income thus get an extra year for their retirement-account money to grow without taxes. Just one more year of tax deferral can make a modest but real difference in how much money you’ll have for retirement later on. RMDs show up as taxable income on your 1040 form and are also taxed by many states.

To take advantage of this, you’ll need other sources of income until you turn 73. Fortunately, interest rates are up, and today you can earn more on money-market accounts, bank certificates of deposit, and fixed-rate annuities, which are issued by insurers and typically pay higher rates than bank CDs of the same term.

Retirees can now defer taxes on more of their money thanks to more generous rules on qualified longevity annuity contracts (QLACs). An IRA owner can now place up to $200,000 of his or her IRA balance in a QLAC, up from $145,000 previously. The previous restriction that limited contributions to 25% of the account balances in IRAs has been lifted.

Here’s why it’s valuable. A QLAC is a type of deferred income annuity designed to meet IRS requirements that’s only available for retirement plans. The money in one is excluded from assets on which your future RMDs are calculated. For instance, if you’ve placed $200,000 in a QLAC and turn 75 this year, you’ll reduce your 2023 RMD by $8,130, according to www.investor.gov.

You pay a single premium and then choose when to start receiving a stream of guaranteed lifetime income by age 85 at the latest. Deferring RMDs lets you keep more of your retirement plan assets intact and tax-deferred. But the biggest benefit is creating a guaranteed lifetime stream of income that will never decrease no matter how long you live.  It’s essentially a private pension that you control.

You can choose an individual or a joint lifetime payout, with the latter paying out income until the second spouse dies. The joint payee must be a spouse, which satisfies IRS death-transfer rules. There’s also a cash-refund option, in which beneficiaries can get a lump-sum payout for any of the initial deposit premiums not yet paid out at the death of the annuitant(s).

Each spouse can now allocate up to $200,000 to a QLAC

The IRA catch-up provision, which lets people 50 or older add up to $1,000 beyond the normal contribution limit, will be indexed for inflation starting in 2024. Additionally, (though not part of the SECURE Act), the maximum you can contribute to your standard and/or Roth IRAs this year is $6,500 if you’re under 50 and $7,500 if you’re 50 or older. That’s a $500 increase.

The SECURE 2.0 Act gives you the chance to defer taxes on more of your retirement money via the extra year of deferral and more generous limits on QLACs. If you have the cash flow or savings that let you take advantage of these opportunities, you can benefit.

Annuity expert Ken Nuss is the founder and CEO of AnnuityAdvantage, a leading online provider of fixed-rate, fixed-indexed, and immediate-income annuities. He launched the AnnuityAdvantage website in 1999 to help people looking for their best options in principal-protected annuities. One of America’s top experts on annuities, he writes on retirement income and annuities regularly.

A free quote comparison service with intere

But LTCI isn’t cheap. And there’s a big drawback. If you buy it and never collect any benefits, you’ll have spent a big sum of money and not gotten anything in return except peace of mind.

To get around the problem, insurance companies developed the long-term-care annuity. This combines a deferred fixed annuity (a tax-deferred savings vehicle) with LTCI. The insurance is provided via a long-term-care rider, a policy add-on that lets the annuity pay benefits for long-term care.

If you don’t ever use the LTCI benefit, or not much of it, you or your heirs will have the remaining annuity value to use.

But LTCI annuities are complex and can have lots of moving parts, so they have both pros and cons. While the concept isn’t new, insurers are always looking to improve their products and offer more flexibility and features.

Because the products are varied, a brief article like this can’t be comprehensive. But there are pros and cons that are pretty much common to all these products.

Some advantages:  easier acceptance, tax-deferred savings and guarantees

One key advantage is more liberal underwriting. Traditional LTCI insurers are pretty strict about who they’ll insure. If you have any significant health issues, you may be declined coverage.

LTCI annuity insurers aren’t as stringent. They’re usually much more willing to accept people with health problems. Some will even take everyone. However, if you do have a medical condition, you’ll probably be placed in a lower underwriting class and eligible for lower LTCI benefits. But you’ll still be insured.

Tax deferral is another big plus. The money you place in the annuity will grow free of taxes until you withdraw some of the interest earnings.

Normally, if you take out interest from an annuity, it counts as taxable income. However, LTCI benefits paid by the policy are not taxable.

Another plus: fixed annuities are guaranteed. The issuing insurer guarantees your principal, interest and benefits. Though insurers have an excellent record of keeping their promises and are strictly regulated by their state of domicile, consider the company’s A.M. Best rating for financial strength before you buy an annuity.

Some cons: less immediate LTC coverage and possibly a bigger upfront payment (but not always)

With a traditional LTCI policy, you typically have full coverage from the time you pay your first premium. With an LTCI annuity, the LTCI coverage may be vested over time. You will usually have some LTCI coverage right away, with the amount becoming fully vested after a few years.

Most deferred fixed annuities are single-premium policies. You buy them with a lump sum. Some LTCI annuities are single-premium too. The advantage is that once you’ve paid it, you’re paid up for life. The disadvantage is that you have to come up with a large sum to secure a reasonable level of LTCI.

Traditional LTCI premiums are tax-deductible, up to certain limits, for self-employed people and owners of partnerships, subchapter S corporations, and LLCs. Upfront deposits to fund LTCI annuities are not tax-deductible.

The LTC rider has a cost, so your annuity value will grow more slowly over time when compared to a similar annuity without the rider. If the annuity pays out substantial LTC benefits, the cash value of the annuity will eventually decline to zero.

Insurers pioneer flexibility, features and programs

Recently, some insurers have introduced flexible-premium policies. After you’ve paid the initial deposit, you may make additional deposits, up to a certain limit, to get more LTCI coverage and boost the amount you’re accumulating in the annuity. This makes the policy more affordable for people who don’t have a big lump sum to deposit but can afford to buy additional coverage over time.

Traditionally, these hybrid annuities have been fixed-rate annuities, which act much like a bank certificate of deposit, by paying a set rate of interest for a set term.

Insurers, however, are innovating. At least one company, for instance, yokes a fixed-index annuity with LTCI. The fixed-index annuity provides growth potential linked to a stock-market index without any downside risk.

Some insurers may even offer a wellness program to go along with the hybrid product.  

Financing future long-term care expenses is always a challenge. But with the continued development of LTCI annuities, people have more options now. The product is well worth considering sooner than later. The older you are, the more expensive LTCI coverage becomes and the greater the odds that you’ll have a medical condition that limits your options.

Annuity expert Ken Nuss is the founder and CEO of AnnuityAdvantage, a leading online provider of fixed-rate, fixed-indexed, and immediate-income annuities. He launched the AnnuityAdvantage website in 1999 to help people looking for their best options in principal-protected annuities. One of America’s top experts on annuities, he writes on retirement income and annuities regularly.

A free quote comparison service with interest rates from dozens of insurers is available at https://www.annuityadvantage.com or by calling (80

“Often, people use fillers because they want to restore their confidence,” said board-certified dermatologist Elizabeth Tanzi MD, FAAD, associate clinical professor of dermatology at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. “Fillers are a minimally invasive procedure that can help patients feel better about their skin as they age, so I recommend them for people who want to enhance their facial features.”

Fillers can restore fullness to the face, decrease fine lines, plump lips, diminish scars, and give nearly immediate results, according to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD).

If you are considering fillers, Tanzi recommends the following tips to get the best results and avoid complications:

Choose a licensed physician. To get optimal results and protect your health, it’s important to have this procedure performed in a medical office by a licensed physician. Board-certified dermatologists have the education, training, and experience to inject fillers safely and effectively into targeted areas of the skin to create a smoother, more youthful appearance.

You can find a board-certified dermatologist who offers fillers in your area using the AAD’s “Find a Dermatologist” tool.  When searching, select “Fillers” in the “Procedure” drop-down filter menu.

To avoid complications, you should never get fillers injected in a non-medical setting, such as a party or someone’s home.

Ask to see before-and-after photos of past filler patients. You might find these on your dermatologist’s website.

Gather your medical information. Before getting a filler, it is essential that you tell your dermatologist about your medical conditions, the medicines and supplements you take, any allergies, whether you have a history of cold sores, and any previous cosmetic treatments.

Bring photos of yourself to your appointment. Showing your dermatologist pictures of yourself from a time you were happy with your appearance helps them know what you want and plan for the procedure.

Follow your dermatologist’s instructions. Your dermatologist will give you tips to follow after your appointment to help your skin heal and get the best results, along with signs you need to see your dermatologist for follow-up care.

“One of the most important things I tell patients who are interested in fillers is to remember that getting a filler is a medical procedure,” said Tanzi. “While it can be easy for patients to get caught up in the excitement of getting a cosmetic procedure, they need to remember that choosing who will perform the treatment is the most important decision in the process. I recommend that patients consult with a board-certified dermatologist as we have the skills and experience to perform the treatment safely and effectively.”

In truth, I saw this coming. My twin brother is a diabetic and so is my sister. It is in the cards. The good news is that apparently a pre-diabetic does not have to get diabetes. If I add walking or regular exercise 20 minutes a day and change my diet, I can ward off this all too common devil.

The walking or exercise seems easy enough. I love to be outside in all kinds of weather. I love a good snow storm or rainy day. Not too fond of sleet down my neck, but I have skied in worse. In fact, I may take up skiing again since the tickets are 50% off if you are over 70.

It is the diet part that is the uphill battle. Especially around the Holidays. Any Holiday. And with a Birthday in January that is every dang month in the Calendar. My Birthday, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Fourth of July, August *, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas.

* August is a virtual goldmine of Holidays. Besides week-end Bar-B-Qs there is: August 4^th – National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, August 8 – International Cat Day, August 9^th is National Book Lovers Day, August 10^th is Lazy Day, August 12^th is Vinyl Record Day, August 15 is National Relaxation Day (not sure how this differs from August 10^th), August 16th is both National Bratwurst Day and Tell a Joke Day, which seems redundant. August 18^th is National Fajita Day, August 19^th is National Potato Day, August 20^th is National Chocolate Pecan Pie Day, August 23^rd is National Sponge Cake Day, August 26 is Women’s Equality Day, all which certainly call for cake.

With so much to celebrate I would be remiss if all I did was light a lone sparkler. These occasions call for food. And food with cream, butter, salt, sugar and carbs. FYI: I once heard that fat, salt and sugar was the chemical equivalent to crack. Certainly, adding flour brings it to lethal levels.  No wonder just the thought of giving up goodies makes me break into a cold sweat. Not to make light of diabetes, I should mention that as a child I had an uncle who had both legs amputated and eventually died from Diabetes. So, I know this can be serious as um, a heart attack. (Yup, both my birth and step-father died of heart disease).

The thing is I am the Queen of rationalization in the moment. “Just this once, okay and once more and just this last time, I swear it.” Ends up with a raging sugar rush and then crash. I deny myself for just so long and then boom! I binge and imbibe umbrella drinks and gloppy goodies galore.

I once read a Weight Watcher’s recipe for coconut cream pie which started by bleaching sauerkraut and adding coconut flavoring. Um, no. At that point just eat the dang pie. Thus, I am looking for alternatives that don’t use faux sugar or canola oil. And I won’t eat store bought sugar-free desserts because I fear they have wicked bad chemicals in them. As do diet drinks (yeah, cancer runs in the family too). I need real food that won’t kill me. Too much to ask?

So far, I have found that you can make pie shells from crushed pecans, oats and oil. Jury is still out on what to fill it with. Even unsweetened fruit is too sweet unless you have a 1/32nd of a pie slice. For now, I’m dipping fresh celery stalks into cheddar-sour cream dip. I am eating peanut butter from a soup spoon.  I’m shooting 2 T of whipped cream from a can into my mouth for dessert. Carbs only 0.9 grams.

Ken Nuss is the Founder and CEO of AnnuityAdvantage. Ken entered the financial services industry in 1986 and obtained a Series 7 securities license in 1992, becoming an investment representative with a full-service brokerage firm. In 1999, he launched the AnnuityAdvantage website to help people looking for their best options in principal protected annuities. Today, AnnuityAdvantage is a leading online provider of fixed-rate, fixed-indexed and immediate income annuities.

But you don’t have to choose the lifetime option. Instead, you may want to choose a set income term from five to 20 years. Sometimes it makes perfect sense to choose this option, called a period certain income annuity.

For instance, you may need extra income to fund early retirement until Social Security and/or a company pension kicks in. Or you may wish to delay taking Social Security until age 70 to max out your income benefits. Or you may want to prefund a loan or large life insurance policy that requires installments over a fixed period of time.

Period certain annuity provides high guaranteed income

An immediate annuity is bought with a lump sum, which is why it’s called a single premium immediate annuity (SPIA). Whether lifetime or period certain, it usually has no cash surrender value after purchase. You’ve turned over your money to an insurance company in exchange for a stream of guaranteed income.

With a lifetime income SPIA, an optional cash-refund feature guarantees that your premium payment will not be lost in the event of early death. If you die before your monthly income payments equal the full amount of your annuity purchase price, your beneficiary will receive the difference.

You may also opt to add your spouse, so he or she will continue to receive income after your death, assuming you predecease him or her. This option typically lowers your payments slightly.

With a period certain annuity, depending on your age at issue and payment term selected, you’ll usually get larger monthly payments than with a lifetime variety because the insurance company is guaranteeing income for a set period, not for your life. The shorter the period, the greater the annual or monthly income.

You’ll get a much higher guaranteed income than from other alternatives. Part of the reason is that with a period certain annuity, if nonqualified, most of the income you will receive is tax-free return of your principal, and the rest is taxable interest. (When the annuity is held in a qualified retirement plan such as a traditional IRA or a 401(k), payments are fully taxable.)  Bank certificates of deposit, for instance, don’t provide a similar amount of income because you can only take out interest unless you’re willing to pay a significant penalty to the bank. Otherwise, you must wait till maturity to get your principal back.

The other reason they produce more income is that annuities usually pay substantially higher underlying interest rates than bond funds, CDs, and money market accounts.

Furthermore, you don’t get similar guarantees. Money market rates fluctuate; bond-fund prices vary.

Let’s look at some possible uses.

Income for early retirement

For instance, suppose you want to retire now but delay taking Social Security for eight years. You could buy an eight-year period certain annuity to fill your income gap.

Here’s an example. Joe, age 60, retires and invests $200,000 in an eight-year period certain immediate annuity and lists his wife as joint annuitant so that she will be protected and continue to receive any remaining payments if he dies before the eight years are up. With this type of annuity, he can accurately calculate his annual return.

Joe will receive $2,471.21 per month, including $2,083.33 in return of principal and $387.88 of taxable interest. After eight years, he’ll start collecting Social Security and won’t need the additional income.

Pre-funding installment payments for a big life insurance policy or loan

Suppose you decide to purchase a large life insurance policy. Rather than funding the policy with a single premium payment, you could buy a 10-year period certain annuity with annual payments you’ll use to make the premium payments over time. That way, you can avoid the life policy being categorized as a modified endowment contract (MEC), which can be disadvantageous from a tax perspective.

Or let’s say you have a substantial loan that has a pre-payment penalty. Rather than paying off the loan and taking the prepayment hit, you could purchase a period certain annuity to prefund the remaining payments.

Yoking immediate and deferred annuities for better after-tax income

Here’s an interesting income strategy that combines two types of annuities.

Let’s say you have $100,000 to deposit and that your combined federal/state income tax bracket is 28%. How can you maximize your guaranteed after-tax income?

You could simply buy a 10-year fixed-rate annuity yielding 5.20%. A fixed-rate annuity acts much like a bank CD: you deposit a lump sum and the insurer agrees to pay a set guaranteed rate of interest for the term.

You could then take annual interest withdrawals of $5,200. These withdrawals are fully taxable, resulting in $1,456 in additional taxes, giving you a net after-tax income of $3,744.

Here’s an alternative. Instead, you’d place $60,234 in the fixed-rate annuity, and the balance, $39,766 in a 10-year period certain immediate annuity paying annual income of $5,010. Of that amount, $1,032 is taxable and $3,978 is nontaxable

The $60,234 allocated to the fixed rate annuity grows tax-deferred so that it will equal your original $100,000 at the end of 10 years.

At first glance, it would appear that putting all the money in a fixed-rate annuity generates more income than the split-annuity strategy. However, with the split strategy, only $1,032 of the annual income payment is taxable because the rest of the payment is a return of your premium deposit. As a result, only $289 in annual taxes are owed, leaving net after-tax income of $4,721, which is $977 more than if you placed all the money in a fixed-rate annuity.

In retirement, most people rely on a combination of Social Security, retirement plans, and personal savings for income. A split-annuity strategy can help supplement those sources, add stability and help ensure that you don’t outlive your assets.

The vast majority of immediate annuities bought include some type of lifetime payout configuration. But they’re not the only good income solution. Consider your situation and talk to an experienced annuity advisor. You may find that a period certain annuity fills the bill.

Ken Nuss is the founder and CEO of AnnuityAdvantage, a leading online provider of fixed-rate, fixed-indexed, and lifetime income annuities. Ken is a nationally recognized annuity expert and widely published author. A free rate comparison service with interest rates from dozens of insurers is available at https://www.annuityadvantage.com  or by calling (800) 239-0356.

 Poinsettias are available in a variety of colors including white, pink, hot pink, yellow, peach, marbled and speckled. These colorful parts of the plant, often referred to as flowers, are actually modified leaves called bracts. The real flowers are small, yellow and appear at the tip of the stem surrounded by the bract.

 Look for new places to display your poinsettia. Place a plant on a side or serving table. Remove the foil and set the plant in a decorative container. Try a hot pink poinsettia in a white pot or several different colors set in a serving tray, basket, or unique container. Add a table runner, candlestick, bowl of colorful fruit or other decorative touches.

 Dress up an individual plant or a group of poinsettias. White poinsettias donned with colorful berries, Chinese lantern pods and bobbles may be all you need for an eye-catching display.

Use poinsettias as a centerpiece for your holiday meals. Place several potted poinsettias in the middle of the table. Cover the plastic pots with greens. Then add some colorful pepper berries, cranberries, apples, or ornaments. Compact poinsettias like the Princettia® poinsettia with its abundant vibrant flowers work well for this application.  Your guests will be able to see across the table as they visit over dinner, enjoying the holiday ambience created by these beautiful plants.

 Dress up each place setting with a cut poinsettia bloom. Simply cut the flowers off a potted poinsettia plant to the desired length. Place it in a floral water pick, the water-filled tubes used for cut flowers. Tuck the bloom into a napkin, set it in a small bud vase or add a ribbon to dress it up. They make great party favors for your guests.

Look for other ways to include these in your holiday décor.  Even one cut poinsettia flower set among a bowl of silver, gold or white ornaments adds a nice holiday touch. Set a few cut flowers aside to use as unique package adornments. Just secure the flower, floral pick and all, with a colorful ribbon to the gift.

 Use cut poinsettia flowers in a vase like you would other blooms.  Even one of these large blossoms puts on quite the display and is sure to brighten even the smallest of rooms.

Combine your poinsettia with a few greens and other flowers. Quickly sear the cut end of the poinsettia stems to prevent the sticky sap from leaking into the water. (The sap of the plant is mildly toxic to cats and dogs, so be sure to keep your furry friends away from them.) Dress up your arrangement by filling the vase with cranberries, small ornaments, or other colorful adornments.

 While enjoying your holidays, a discussion on the proper pronunciation of the plant’s name may arise. Some say Poinsett-a and don’t pronounce the second i. Others include it and say Poinsett-e-a? You will find both pronunciations in various dictionaries. In other words, either one is considered correct, so no one loses this debate.

Change requires a series of decisions you must make in the moment, ones that might not seem all that consequential at the time. You might tell yourself you’ll watch just one more episode of an entertainment series or wait one more weekend before you get serious about a project you say you want to tackle. You might tell yourself, “I’ll have just one bite” or “just one glass of wine tonight,” but do you find yourself saying, “I’ll break my rule, just this once?” and doing it again and again?One good habit can lead to another, but one bad habit can lead you into the woods and away from your goal to make a big change.

Open yourself to new habits.

To reach your goals, identify some new habits, however small, that will help you get there. It could be setting up Saturday morning as a time to spend the first three hours after breakfast working on a creative project that’s important to you. It could be shutting off all electronic devices by 9 p.m. and going to sleep 15 minutes earlier than you usually do. If you aren’t in the habit of walking, you might want to start doing it for just ten minutes a day. Make it a simple, well-defined, achievable goal.

Break out of your rut.

Try a simple activity that gets you out of a habitual, robotic way of being. Brush your teeth, write, or draw with your nondominant hand. If you regularly work out on an exercise machine, do a different activity—or work with the machine in a new way, such as changing the weight or resistance settings. Break out of your rut to awaken your enthusiasm for making a big change one small decision at a time. Then choose a goal to aim for and identify any actions you can take to get there.

Make it easy to establish the new habit by making it convenient.

Our minds like to work on autopilot. It’s easier to make the small choice that leads to your goal if it’s convenient to do so. Keep your gym bag packed and in your car, don’t buy wine to keep at home, or find some other way make the new habit very easy to follow through on.

Hook a habit onto a habit.

Use your existing habits to your advantage. Every morning, you get out of bed. Every time you sit down for a meal, you pull out a chair. Those are just two examples of habits you probably have already. Identify some of your existing habits and then figure out which ones you can most easily hook your new habit onto. For example, you could choose to do a light stretching routine every morning when you get out of bed—and before you take your seat at your table, you can take a moment to silently acknowledge your gratitude for having food to eat.

Hold yourself accountable to your plan.

Check in with yourself to make sure you’re not making wrong small decisions in brief moments or neglecting to make choices you’ve vowed to make. You might set a timer to go off when you’re supposed to engage in your new habit or note on your calendar that you’ve successfully made a small choice that can be one in a series of them that leads to a big change. You also might ask someone to be your accountability partner, checking in with you at regular intervals to make sure you’re on track or reminding you in small moments of the decision you said you want to make.

And if your willpower is wavering…

Pause and practice mindfulness.

If you find yourself tempted to make a one-time decision to ignore your opportunity to establish and reinforce a new habit, pause briefly to practice mindfulness. Focus your attention on your breathing for thirty seconds as you close your eyes, or do a series of three or four 4-7-8 breaths to relax your body and nervous system (inhale to a count of four, hold for seven, and exhale for eight). In this short period of time, you can have a reset that helps you get in touch with why you’re tempted to say no “just this once.” Simply experiencing a little relaxation and identifying why you’re resistant can help you find the willpower to say to yourself, “This time, I’m going with the small choice I said I would.”

Reward yourself.

Have a plan for rewarding yourself, not just for reaching big goals but small ones. If you can tackle your project four Saturdays in a row or alter your bedtime or mealtime routine every day for two weeks, have a reward in mind. But also stop to reward yourself after making the small choice that takes you toward a larger goal. Spend a moment feeling good about your choice—and remind yourself of the progress you’ve made. Keep a chart or checklist and let yourself pause to enjoy a sense of accomplishment each time you mark it and each time you gaze at the evidence that you are on your way to the big change you want to experience.

Review your decisions.

Sometimes, we make the “wrong” small decision again and again because we aren’t truly dedicated to the goal we set. Maybe it’s not big change you seek but “good enough” change. Maybe when you achieve your “good enough” change, you’ll set a new, even bigger goal—but maybe you’ll be satisfied with the decision you made to stop when you hit your mark. Either way, the more consciously you approach big changes, the more dedicated you are to making the series of small changes you need to make to bring about transformation, the more satisfied you will be.

Carl Greer, PhD, PsyD, is a retired clinical psychologist and Jungian analyst, a businessman, and a shamanic practitioner, author, and philanthropist, funding over 60 charities and more than 1,250 past and current Greer scholars. He has taught at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago and been on staff at the Replogle Center for Counseling and Well-Being. Learn more at CarlGreer.com. 

If you’re shopping for a five-year guarantee, available rates range from 2.60% to 4.65%, according to AnnuityAdvantage’s database of annuity rates.

Rates on annuities with the same term vary hugely. If you don’t shop around, you’ll almost certainly earn far less interest than you could. Unfortunately, many local annuity agents represent only a few annuity companies, sometimes just one.

Before I offer tips on how to shop around, here’s some background:

A fixed-rate deferred annuity (also called a multiyear guarantee annuity, or MYGA) resembles a bank certificate of deposit. It also pays a guaranteed rate of interest for a set term. Unlike CDs, annuities are tax-deferred. Issued by insurance companies, annuities aren’t federally insured like CDs, but state-mandated guaranty associations offer a level of protection.

While the rate isn’t the only factor in choosing an annuity, it is the single most important thing when other factors are equal. Here are the key considerations.

How long will your money be committed?

The term is the length of the annuity guarantee period. Most multiyear annuities go from two to 10 years.

Longer-term annuities usually pay more than shorter-term ones. But today, rate differences are not large. For instance, the top three-year annuity in our database now guarantees 4.25%. At seven years, you can get up to 4.72%, and at 10 years, 4.75%.

Is it worth tying up your money longer for a slight bump in the rate? It all depends on your situation and view of future interest rates. One solution is to put part of your money in a three-year annuity, for instance, and part in a five-, seven-, or 10-year contract. This is sometimes referred to as an annuity ladder.

How much can you take out while the policy is in force?

When the term ends, you’ll have the option of getting your principal plus all your accumulated interest back if you’ve reinvested interest. You can then take the proceeds in cash and pay taxes on the accumulated interest (assuming it’s a nonqualified annuity). However, you can continue to defer all taxes by rolling the money over into a new annuity at the same insurer or transferring it to a different insurer via a 1035 exchange.

What if you want or need some or all of your money back before the term ends? If it’s some of your money, you may not have a problem, since most annuities permit penalty-free partial withdrawals. Many let you withdraw up to 10% of the contract value annually, penalty-free. However, some annuities don’t have that provision and, in return, may pay a higher rate than a comparable annuity that offers more liquidity.

If you take out more than the contract allows during the penalty period, the insurer will levy a penalty. These surrender charges, and how they are applied, differ widely from company to company. However, they often start at 7% to 10% of the excessive withdrawal amount during the first year and decrease annually.

Some annuities let you surrender without penalty if you become totally disabled, are diagnosed with a terminal illness or are admitted to a nursing home for an extended period during the term.

Understanding the financial strength of life insurers

Life insurers issuing annuities are rated by AM Best for financial strength and ability to pay claims. Letter grades range from F to A++.

A lower-rated insurer may sometimes pay a higher rate. For example, in the examples at the start of this article, the insurer rated A- pays the lower rate, while the one with a B++ rating pays the higher rate. But sometimes a company with a higher rating will pay more or the same as a lower-rated carrier.

It’s a matter of personal comfort to some degree. Some people feel comfortable only with insurers that get at least an A or A- rating. Others may feel comfortable with lower-rated carriers. I recommend choosing companies rated B++ as the minimum and avoiding those rated B+ or lower.

Lesser-known (but first-rate) insurers often (but don’t always) pay higher rates than the biggest brand-name companies with more overhead and expensive advertising campaigns.

How to shop for the best deal

If you go to a local financial adviser or independent agent, he or she will probably show you products from a few insurers at most, maybe only one. You usually see only the annuity product(s) that he or she is used to presenting and wants you to buy.

If you are working with a bank or broker-dealer, the product selection will usually be even smaller. Their agents can sell only the limited number of annuity products the bank or broker-dealer makes available to them.

In other words, buying an annuity from a local, in-person salesperson dramatically reduces the odds you’ll get the best interest rate.

Shopping online lets you compare annuities from dozens of insurers and make apples-to-apples comparisons on rates and other features. There are several reputable sites in addition to my company, AnnuityAdvantage.

With a rate-comparison site, you can easily avoid poor deals and secure the best rate from a sound insurer. There are a few words of caution, though. Just because an annuity agent has a website doesn’t mean they are experienced or equipped to do business in all states. Look for a site where the agency is licensed in all states and represents a large number of insurance companies.

Once you’ve looked at rates and done some initial comparisons, you can speak to an agent, articulate your goals and see how available products would fit your needs. Ask, too, about ongoing service after you’ve bought the annuity. Long-term relationships matter.

Your services should not end with the annuity sale. A good agent should do annual reviews; inform clients of any AM Best ratings changes with the issuing insurance company; assist with beneficiary changes, death claims and annuitization if desired; and consult with the client before the end of the initial guarantee term regarding renewal opportunities with the current insurance company or better rates with other companies. And you should be able to reach a live person on the phone anytime you call with questions.

If you’re looking for a haven for your money, with a three-year fixed-rate annuity, you can choose one paying 2.00% annually or one paying 4.25%! Other than the rate, the two products are quite similar.

If you’re shopping for a five-year guarantee, available rates range from 2.60% to 4.65%, according to AnnuityAdvantage’s database of annuity rates.

Rates on annuities with the same term vary hugely. If you don’t shop around, you’ll almost certainly earn far less interest than you could. Unfortunately, many local annuity agents represent only a few annuity companies, sometimes just one.

Before I offer tips on how to shop around, here’s some background:

A fixed-rate deferred annuity (also called a multiyear guarantee annuity, or MYGA) resembles a bank certificate of deposit. It also pays a guaranteed rate of interest for a set term. Unlike CDs, annuities are tax-deferred. Issued by insurance companies, annuities aren’t federally insured like CDs, but state-mandated guaranty associations offer a level of protection.

While the rate isn’t the only factor in choosing an annuity, it is the single most important thing when other factors are equal. Here are the key considerations.

How long will your money be committed?

The term is the length of the annuity guarantee period. Most multiyear annuities go from two to 10 years.

Longer-term annuities usually pay more than shorter-term ones. But today, rate differences are not large. For instance, the top three-year annuity in our database now guarantees 4.25%. At seven years, you can get up to 4.72%, and at 10 years, 4.75%.

Is it worth tying up your money longer for a slight bump in the rate? It all depends on your situation and view of future interest rates. One solution is to put part of your money in a three-year annuity, for instance, and part in a five-, seven-, or 10-year contract. This is sometimes referred to as an annuity ladder.

How much can you take out while the policy is in force?

When the term ends, you’ll have the option of getting your principal plus all your accumulated interest back if you’ve reinvested interest. You can then take the proceeds in cash and pay taxes on the accumulated interest (assuming it’s a nonqualified annuity). However, you can continue to defer all taxes by rolling the money over into a new annuity at the same insurer or transferring it to a different insurer via a 1035 exchange.

What if you want or need some or all of your money back before the term ends? If it’s some of your money, you may not have a problem, since most annuities permit penalty-free partial withdrawals. Many let you withdraw up to 10% of the contract value annually, penalty-free. However, some annuities don’t have that provision and, in return, may pay a higher rate than a comparable annuity that offers more liquidity.

If you take out more than the contract allows during the penalty period, the insurer will levy a penalty. These surrender charges, and how they are applied, differ widely from company to company. However, they often start at 7% to 10% of the excessive withdrawal amount during the first year and decrease annually.

Some annuities let you surrender without penalty if you become totally disabled, are diagnosed with a terminal illness or are admitted to a nursing home for an extended period during the term.

Understanding the financial strength of life insurers

Life insurers issuing annuities are rated by AM Best for financial strength and ability to pay claims. Letter grades range from F to A++.

A lower-rated insurer may sometimes pay a higher rate. For example, in the examples at the start of this article, the insurer rated A- pays the lower rate, while the one with a B++ rating pays the higher rate. But sometimes a company with a higher rating will pay more or the same as a lower-rated carrier.

It’s a matter of personal comfort to some degree. Some people feel comfortable only with insurers that get at least an A or A- rating. Others may feel comfortable with lower-rated carriers. I recommend choosing companies rated B++ as the minimum and avoiding those rated B+ or lower.

Lesser-known (but first-rate) insurers often (but don’t always) pay higher rates than the biggest brand-name companies with more overhead and expensive advertising campaigns.

How to shop for the best deal

If you go to a local financial adviser or independent agent, he or she will probably show you products from a few insurers at most, maybe only one. You usually see only the annuity product(s) that he or she is used to presenting and wants you to buy.

If you are working with a bank or broker-dealer, the product selection will usually be even smaller. Their agents can sell only the limited number of annuity products the bank or broker-dealer makes available to them.

In other words, buying an annuity from a local, in-person salesperson dramatically reduces the odds you’ll get the best interest rate.

Shopping online lets you compare annuities from dozens of insurers and make apples-to-apples comparisons on rates and other features. There are several reputable sites in addition to my company, AnnuityAdvantage.

With a rate-comparison site, you can easily avoid poor deals and secure the best rate from a sound insurer. There are a few words of caution, though. Just because an annuity agent has a website doesn’t mean they are experienced or equipped to do business in all states. Look for a site where the agency is licensed in all states and represents a large number of insurance companies.

Once you’ve looked at rates and done some initial comparisons, you can speak to an agent, articulate your goals and see how available products would fit your needs. Ask, too, about ongoing service after you’ve bought the annuity. Long-term relationships matter.

Your services should not end with the annuity sale. A good agent should do annual reviews; inform clients of any AM Best ratings changes with the issuing insurance company; assist with beneficiary changes, death claims and annuitization if desired; and consult with the client before the end of the initial guarantee term regarding renewal opportunities with the current insurance company or better rates with other companies. And you should be able to reach a live person on the phone anytime you call with questions.

Ken Nuss is the founder and CEO of AnnuityAdvantage, a leading online provider of fixed-rate, fixed-indexed, and lifetime income annuities. Ken is a nationally recognized annuity expert and widely published author. A free rate comparison service with interest rates from dozens of insurers is available at https://www.annuityadvantage.com  or by calling (800) 239-0356.  There are no fees or charges for the firm’s services; 100% of the client’s money goes to work for them in their annuity.