Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, April 16, 2022

WHEN TO EXPECT YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY CHECKS 

Dear Savvy Senior:
I am planning to retire and apply for my Social Security benefits in July. When can I expect my first check, and 
is direct deposit my only option for receiving my monthly payment? Almost 62 

Dear Almost: 

Generally, Social Security retirement benefits, as well as 
disability and survivor benefits, are paid in the month 
after the month they are due. So, if you want to start 
receiving your Social Security benefits in July, your July 
benefits will be distributed in August. 

The day of the month you receive your benefit payment, 
however, will depend on your birthdate. Here’s 
the schedule of when you can expect to receive your 
monthly check. 


If you were born on the: 

1st through the 10th: Expect your check to be deposited on the second Wednesday of each month.
11th through the 20th: Expect your check to be deposited on the third Wednesday of each month.
21st through the 31st: Expect your check to be deposited on the fourth Wednesday of each month. 

There are, however, a few exceptions to this schedule. For example, if the day your Social Security check is 
supposed to be deposited happens to be a holiday, your check will be deposited the previous day. And, if you 
are receiving both Social Security benefits and SSI payments, your Social Security check will be deposited 
on the third day of the month. 

You should also know that for Social Security beneficiaries who started receiving benefits before 1997, their 
Social Security checks are paid on the third day of the month. 

To get a complete schedule of 2022 payment dates, visit SSA.gov/pubs/EN-05-10031-2022.pdf. 

Receiving Options 

There are two ways you can receive your Social Security benefits. Most beneficiaries choose direct deposit 
into their bank or credit union account because it’s simple, safe and secure. But if you don’t want this option, 
or you don’t have a bank account that your payments can be deposited into, you can get a Direct Express 
Debit MasterCard and have your benefits deposited into your card’s account. 

This card can then be used to get cash from ATMs, banks or credit union tellers, pay bills online and over 
the phone, make purchases at stores or locations that accept Debit MasterCard and get cash back when you 
make those purchases, and purchase money orders at the U.S. Post Office. The money you spend or withdraw 
is automatically deducted from your account. And you can check your balance any time by phone, 
online or at ATMs. 

There’s also no cost to sign up for the card, no monthly fees and no overdraft charges. There are, however, 
some small fees for optional services you need to be aware of, like multiple ATM withdrawals. Currently, 
cardholders get one free ATM withdrawal per month, but additional monthly withdrawals cost 85 cents 
each not including a surcharge if you use a non-network ATM. To learn more, visit USDirectExpress.com 
or call 800-333-1795. 

When and How to Apply 

The Social Security Administration recommends that you apply for benefits three months before you want 
to start receiving checks. This will give you enough time to make sure you have all the needed information 
to complete the application. See SSA.gov/hlp/isba/10/isba-checklist.pdf for a checklist of what you’ll need. 

You can apply for your Social Security benefits online at SSA.gov, by phone at 800-772-1213, or in person at 
your local Social Security office – call first to make an appointment. 

Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller is a 
contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book. 


FAMILY MATTERS

 By Marc Garlett 

PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN'S INHERITANCE WITH 
A LIFETIME ASSET PROTECTION TRUST 

As a parent, you’re likely 

hoping to leave your chil


dren an inheritance. In 
fact, doing so may be one of the primary factors motivating 
your life’s work. But without taking the proper 
precautions, the wealth you pass on is at serious risk 
of being accidentally lost or squandered due to common 
life events, such as divorce, serious debt, devastating 
illness, and unfortunate accidents. 

Creating a will or a revocable living trust offers some 
protection for your kid’s inheritance, but often, you’ll 
be guided to distribute assets through your will or 
trust to your children at specific ages and stages, such 
as one-third at age 25, half the balance at 30, and the 
rest at 35. 

If you’ve created an estate plan, check to see if this is 
how your will or trust leaves assets to your children. If 
so, you may not have been told about another option 
that can give your children access, control, and airtight 
asset protection for whatever assets they inherit 
from you. 

I always talk to parents about the option of creating 
a Lifetime Asset Protection Trust for their children’s 
inheritance. These unique trusts safeguard your kids’ 
inheritance from being lost to common life events, 
such as divorce, serious illness, lawsuits, or even 
bankruptcy. 

But that’s not all they do. 

Indeed, the best part of these trusts is that they offer 
your kids the best of both worlds: 1) airtight asset 
protection and 2) the ability to use and control their 
inheritance. You can even provide your heirs with a 
unique educational opportunity in which they gain 
valuable experience managing and growing their inheritance. 
More on all of this below. 

Not Only for The Super Rich

Contrary to what you might think, Lifetime Asset 
Protection Trusts are not just for those with massive 
wealth. In fact, these trusts are even more useful if 
you’re leaving a relatively modest inheritance because 
they can be used to educate your children about how 
to grow your family wealth, instead of quickly blowing 
through it. 

Not to mention, the smaller the inheritance, the more 
at risk it is of getting wiped out by a single unfortunate 
event like a medical emergency, lawsuit, or serious 
accident. 

Don’t Take Any Chances

Regardless of how much financial wealth you have (or 
don’t have), if you plan to leave your kids anything 
at all, you should do everything you can to make it 
more likely that they grow what’s left behind, instead 
of losing it. This way, your resources can have a truly 
beneficial effect on their lives—and even the lives of 
future generations. 

A Lifetime Asset Protection Trust can achieve each of 
those goals and so much more. 

Not All Trusts Are Created Equal

When it comes to leaving an inheritance, most lawyers 
will advise you to place the money in a revocable 
living trust, which is the right thing to do. However, 
many of those lawyers would have you distribute the 
trust assets outright to your loved ones at specific 
ages, such as one-third at 25, half of the balance at 35, 
and the rest at 40. Check your own trust now to see if 
it does this or something similar. 

Rather than risking their inheritance by leaving it 
outright to your children at certain ages or following 

certain life events, such as graduating college, you can 
gift your assets to your children at the time of your 
death using a Lifetime Asset Protection Trust. When 
you gift the inheritance to your kids via a Lifetime Asset 
Protection Trust, the Trustee of the trust owns the 
assets, not your children. 

Therefore, if your kids ever get divorced, file bankruptcy, 
have a major medical issue, or are ordered to 
pay damages in a lawsuit, they can’t lose their inheritance 
because they never owned it in the first place. 

Here’s how it works: A Trustee of your choice holds 
the trust assets upon your death for the benefit of your 
child or children. Because a Lifetime Asset Protection 
Trust is discretionary, the Trustee has the power to 
distribute the assets at their own discretion, instead 
of being required to release them in a rigid structure. 
This discretionary power enables the Trustee to 
control when and how your kids can access their inheritance, 
so they’re not only protected from outside 
threats like ex-spouses and creditors, but from their 
own poor judgment as well. 

A Lifetime of Guidance & Support

Given that distributions from a Lifetime Asset Protection 
Trust are 100% up to the Trustee, you may be 
concerned about the Trustee’s ability to know when to 
make distributions to your child and when to withhold 
them. To address this issue, you can write up 
guidelines to the Trustee, providing the Trustee with 
direction about how you’d like the trust assets to be 
used for your beneficiaries. 

For example, many of our clients add guidelines describing 
how they’d choose to make distributions in 
different scenarios. These scenarios might involve 
higher education, the purchase of a home, a wedding, 
the start of a business, and/or travel. 

An Educational Opportunity

Beyond these benefits, a Lifetime Asset Protection 
Trust can also be set up to give your child hands-on 
experience managing financial matters, like investing, 
running a business, and charitable giving. And he or 
she will learn how to do these things with support 
from the Trustee you’ve chosen to guide them. 

This is accomplished by adding provisions to the 
trust that allow your child to become a Co-Trustee at 
a predetermined age. Serving alongside the original 
Trustee, your child will have the opportunity to invest 
and manage the trust assets under the supervision 
and tutelage of a trusted mentor. 

You can even allow your child to become Sole Trustee 
later in life, once he or she has gained enough experience 
and is ready to take full control. As Sole Trustee, 
your child would be able to resign and replace themselves 
with an independent trustee, if necessary, for 
continued asset protection. 

A Lifetime Asset Protection Trust gives you the opportunity 
to turn your child’s inheritance into a valuable 
teaching tool. Do you want to give your child the 
ability to leave trust assets to a surviving spouse or a 
charity upon their death? Or would you prefer that 
the assets are only distributed to his or her biological 
or adopted children? You might even want your child 
to create their own Lifetime Asset Protection Trust 
for their heirs. 

Lifetime Asset Protection Trusts offer you a wide variety 
of options that can be tailored to fit your values 
and family dynamics. Be sure to check your trust for 
these provisions if this is something that interests you. 

Mountain View News Saturday, April 16, 2022 

SENIOR HAPPENINGS 


HAPPY BIRTHDAY! …APRIL Birthdays* 

Howard Rubin, Anita Hardy, Hattie Harris, Wendy Senou, Mary Harley, Bette 
White, Doris Behrens, Freda Bernard, Beth Copti, Terri Cummings, Marilyn 
Diaz, Virginia Elliott, Elma Flores, Betty Jo Gregg, Barbara Lampman, Betty 
Mackie, Elizabeth Rassmusen, Maria Reyes, Marian DeMars, Anne Schryver, 
Chrisine Bachwansky, Colleen McKernan, Sandy Swanson, Hank Landsberg, 

Ken Anhalt, Shannon Vandevelde

* To add your name to this distinguished list, please call the paper at 626.355.2737. 
YEAR of birth not required 
THE HART PARK HOUSE SENIOR CENTER IS OPEN!!!! 
SIERRA MADRE SENIOR CLUB Every Saturday from 11:30am-3:30 pm in the 
Hart Park House Senior Center. Join us as we celebrate birthdays, holidays and pay 
BINGO. Must be 50+ to join. For more information call Mark at 626-355-3951. 

DOMINOES TRAIN GAME Wednesday, 4/6 & 4/20 11:00 am— 12:30 pm Hart 
Park House The object of the game is for a player to play all the tiles from their hand 
onto one or more trains, emanating from a central hub or “station”. Call Lawren with 
questions that you may have. 

PAINT PALS 

Tuesday, 4/12 & 4/26,, 10:30 am—Hart Park House If you enjoy painting, sketching, 
water color, or making some other form of artistic creation please join our new 
program, PAINT PALS!!! Bring a project that you are working on to the HPH and 
enjoy some quality art time with other artists looking to paint with a new pal. 

TEA AND TALK SENIOR BOOK CLUB Tuesday, 4/6 & 4/20— 9:00 am Staff has 
launched a new book club series, Tea and Talk, which meets twice a month to discuss 
the fun, suspense, intrigue, love and so much more that each selection will have in 
store! 

FIBER FRIENDS Tuesday, 4/5 & 4/19 —10:00 am If you enjoy knitting, crocheting, 
embroidery, needlepoint, bunka, huck, tatting or cross stitch then we have a 
group for you! Bring your current project, a nonalcoholic beverage, then sit and chat 
with likeminded fiber friends. We meet in the Hart Park House 

BINGO Tuesday 4/12 and 4/16 1:00 pm- 2:00 pm Come on down to enjoy this 
time with friends. We are trying a new spin on BINGO fun so please bring your good 
luck charms and BINGO markers! 

TAX ASSISTANCE WEDNESDAYS 1:00 -2:00PM LAST DAY APRIL 6TH Don 
Brunner is available for income tax consultation. Please call 626-355-5278 x 704 

CHAIR YOGA Every Monday and Wednesday, 10-10:45 am Please join us for some 
gentle stretching, yoga, balance exercise and overall relaxation with Paul. Classes are 
ongoing and held in the Memorial Park Covered Pavilion or the Hart Park House.. 

HULA AND POLYNESIAN DANCE Every Friday, 10-10:45 am Bring a lei, your 
flower skirt or just your desire to dance! Hula in the Park is back and waiting for you 
to join in on all the fun! Memorial Park Pavilion. 

SENIOR CINEMA WEDNESDAY, 4/13 1:00 PM 
EASTER PARADE PG 1H 43M 

Don Hewes and Nadine Hale are a dancing team, but she 
decides to start a career on her own. So he takes the next 
dancer he meets, Hannah Brown, as a new partner. After a 
while, this new team is so successful that Florenz Ziegfeld 
is interested in them, but due to the fact that Nadine Hale 
also dances (and stars) in the Ziegfeld Follies, Don says no. 
Despite the fact that he is in love with Hannah, he keeps the 
relation with her strictly business. So Hannah is of the opinion that he is still in love with 
Nadine, and her suspicion grows when he dances with Nadine in a Night Club Floor Show. 


OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder 

JUST WHEN I THINK I GOT EVERYTHING COVERED 


I like to have an organized 
life. I must confess 
that my idea of organization 
is not The Gracious 

Mistress of the Parsonage’s idea. We may 
share many things, but not planning and 
organization. 

When she begins a project, it is well 
planned and organized down to the tiniest 
detail, and she never stops until it is finished. 
(I think she is still working on me.) 

On the other side of the parsonage, there 
is a different attitude about planning and 
organization. 

I get an idea and think about it for a long 
time. Then when I feel the time is right, I 
begin the project. It makes no difference if 
I’m at the beginning of the project or the 
end. The only thing that matters is that I 
am working on “The Project.” So I jump in 
and begin working on that project. 

One afternoon while in the middle of 
a project, The Gracious Mistress of the 
Parsonage came into my office and said, 
“What are you doing?” 

This was rather sudden and caught me off 
guard, and I had to stop and think a little 
bit and ask myself the question, “What am 
I doing?” After thinking for a little while, 
I look up at her and say, “I’m working on 
one of my projects.” I thought that would 
settle the matter. 

But it did not satisfy her, and she asked, 
“What specific project are you working 
on right now? And, when will you be 
finished?” 

I never know why she needs to know such 
personal information. At the time, I had 
to come up with some response to her 
question, and it may not be exactly what 
I’m doing. 

I have a bunch of projects I work on 
throughout the week. For example, I have 
a sermon, a weekly newspaper column, 
a magazine article and a book that I am 
working on. 

I must confess there are times I mix them 
up and get a little bit confused, and my 
whole week is spent trying to un-confuse 
my organizational catastrophe. 

Once I went back to my wife’s craft room, 
which I stay away from as much as possible, 
and saw she was working. I smiled 
and asked her bluntly, “What are you doing?” 
I was hoping to catch her off guard. 

I wasn’t quite prepared for the answer 
because, for the next 30 minutes, she explained 
to me her project from beginning 
to end, and when she was done, I had no 
idea what she was doing. So I don’t ask her 
that question ever again. 

I’m not into crafts like she is. I would not 
know one craft from another, but she is 
quite an expert on that. 

Looking into her craft room one time 
when she was away, I noticed how well organized 
it was. Everything was in its place 
and a place for everything. It would take 
me many years to get my office as well organized 
as hers. 

One thing I have to deal with in my office 
is when I think I got everything covered, 
and I realize everything is wrong. So looking 
at a project that I’m working on, you 
would think I had half a dozen projects on 
the table. 

One of my problems is concentration. I 
may be working on one project, but suddenly 
something happens, and I’m thinking 
about another project I have coming 
up. Unfortunately, I will stop what I’m doing, 
jump to that project, and make some 
notes. 

I like to have music in my office while I’m 
working, and there are times I hear a song 
that reminds me of something, and I have 
no projects in the works associated with 
that, so I’m developing now a new project. 
Whether that project gets finished or not, 
it’s tough to tell. 

I could stop having new ideas today and 
continue working on what’s on the table 
for the next ten years. 

As I said, I like to finish everything that I 
start, but it doesn’t always work out that 
way. 

On the stand next to my bed are a notebook 
and pen. Many times in a week, I 
wake up in the middle of the night with a 
thought just buzzing in my head; I quickly 
jot down some notes before going back 
to sleep. When I get up in the morning, I 
look at those notes and have no idea what 
they are about. 

Sometimes those notes look as though 
they are written in Chinese. Wouldn’t it be 
something if they were? 

At the end of the week, I like to sit on my 
easy chair with a cup of coffee and think 
over my projects for the week. How many 
did I finish? What did I accomplish? 

Sometimes that Saturday night draws a 
blank, and I don’t know how to fill it in. 

Once in a while, as I’m thinking about the 
past week, I remember a project I started 
Monday and never finished and forgot all 
about it. Well, that’s on the list for next 
week. 

I thought of a verse of Scripture along this 
line. “Let all things be done decently and 
in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40). 

This is something to think about, and I 
have tried to apply it to my life, particularly 
my spiritual life. When I think I have 
everything covered in my spiritual life, I 
discover something I haven’t done. 

Dr. James L. Snyder lives in Ocala, FL with the Gracious 
Mistress of the Parsonage. 

Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 
Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com