So you want to try birdwatching, or as some of us call it, birding.

Something about our feathered friends has grabbed your attention. A great-horned owl, perhaps, hooting outside your window after dusk. Or an American robin slurping worms from your lawn. Maybe you spied a group of birdwatchers at the park across the street, hot on the trail of a rare warbler and, well, you want in on the action.

Could be you simply overheard the ongoing debate of birb, borb or floof. Translation: which bird is cute, which bird is round, which bird is fluffy? You will have opinions on this – I know I do.

Or maybe you’ve had a “spark bird,” a creature so magnificent, it sparked your interest in birding.

BirdNote, a popular radio show, provides wonderful two-minute stories on how birds capture our imaginations. When I was on the show, I told interviewer Mark Bramhill my spark bird was a Vermillion Flycatcher, a glorious ruby. It’s a shining jewel of plumage and attitude. This bird is a show-off. Within a few months of spotting my first one, I was hooked.

Soon, I was tweeting endless images of birds I’d seen. That’s how “BirdNote” found me. And that was my first lesson in the benefit of birding: Capturing our excitement about nature can help lure others into the same appreciation for birds and the discovery that they can inform your life, send you on adventures, involve you in mystery.

The thing about birding is anyone can do it. Old, young, disabled, experienced, inexperienced. And you can bird just about anywhere: a park, a city street, a forest, along a shore, deep within a nature preserve.

Tools of birding

Get yourself a copy of “The Sibley Guide to Birds: Second Edition,” which brims with wonderful drawings as well as quick reference guides for how to examine field marks and body types.

Lightweight birding “bins” — binoculars — make all the difference. The full wealth of bird colors can’t be seen without binoculars. And that bird perched 50 yards away in a tree? You won’t see every field mark, and might not be able to see if it has stripes on its tail. Bins range from a low-end $50 pair to get you in the game up to thousands of dollars.  I found my $450 Zeiss on “The Audubon Guide to Buying Binoculars.” That $50 pair is listed there too.

Let’s talk apps, too, because we’re in a birding revolution. Tech is rapidly approaching the ability to fully identify all birds within your listening range, and apps like Merlin Bird ID can help you identify birds you’re hearing and seeing. From what I’ve seen, it’s about 80 percent accurate. Your experience and common sense will help you know when any app is fooling you. That jackhammer a mile away? It’s not a Pileated Woodpecker no matter what your phone says.

Sign up for eBird or iNaturalist so you can log birds from trails and submit your checklists for approval by county moderators. Logging birds helps you keep track of your lists, your overall counts at hotspots (in your county, state, country) and life birds (bird species you’ve seen over time). You can also use your phone to record birdsong and upload your audio.

Keeping online bird lists also connects you to the greater birding collective. The data you provide helps ornithologists understand migration patterns and nesting habits and connects you to other birders.

A camera helps you capture the sights and provide proof, especially when you find a rarity. I use a Nikon P950 point-and-shoot that has a built-in super zoom. It literally has a “birding” setting. It isn’t perfect, but it’s light and it does the job. (I used to take pics through my binoculars with my iPhone, too.)

Birding adventures

You can stick to your backyard for your birdventures, if you’d like. Put out a dish of water or buy a bird bath, hang bird feeders, then peek out your windows and log all your feathered friends.

Or you can go all in, hike up mountain trails, walk boardwalks and grassland trails, hit nature preserves and state parks – with a friend or a whole group of fellow birders. Local birding groups — Audubon, MeetUps and more — organize outings, hold classes and offer field trips to local parks and preserves.

Most of my adventures are either solo or with one or two other birders. Recently, I joined Kai Mills, 23, a bird nest surveyor from Lafayette, to go birding at a nature preserve and a botanical garden along the central California coast. We were joined by Mike Bush, 70, a retired lecturer for horticulture and crop science who has been a director of botanical gardens in such places as Singapore, Bermuda and Oklahoma City. I met both of these experts while searching for birds.

At Sweet Springs Nature Preserve in Los Osos, I began telling Mills about a bird seen at the preserve, a real mystery. It was a half dark-eyed junco, half white-crowned sparrow – an intergeneric hybrid so rare there was no way to log it except as a generic sparrow species. Doing so loses this bird in eBird’s system. It becomes a nothing, an anomaly. Just as I mentioned the bird, Mills spotted it foraging at the base of a tree. Slightly larger than a junco, it shared field marks of both species. Even its song was a strange, junco-like trill that ended in “zeet zeet zeet.”

It felt like a victory to even find this bird — and that sense of discovery is half the appeal of birding.

Mills started birding when he was 12, back in Lafayette, where he’d visit a rare swamp sparrow every weekend. “I re-spotted it after it was originally found,” he said. “After that I was the first to find it every year for five winters.” He told me how he watched it join a sparrow flock, forage along reeds. “I knew its habits, where it would be at different times of the day.”

He said it was rewarding showing other birders that sparrow. He said it helped form his birding habits, and it’s why he stresses the importance of frequenting your local spaces.

“Find a local birding spot you really love,” he said when we discussed advice for new birders. “You can familiarize yourself with common birds and their songs that way. Do that before you start chasing other species.”

I took that advice to heart. I regularly visit a park near my home, and last year, found a golden-winged warbler, a bird so rare, it has been logged less than a hundred times in California. It’s only because I know that park so well, all its birds and birdsong, that I was able to be in position to spot this little bird foraging in a lemon tree.

Ask yourself: What might I discover?

Here’s the thing: birding can be consuming. You might aim for a Big Year – that’s what birders call a challenge to identify as many species as possible within a single calendar year and within a specific geographic area like a county, state, maybe even a five-mile radius from where you live – but it’s not really a game.

So make your birdventures count. Make them fun. Fill them with knowledge and wonder.

Resources

Audubon Society: Find Audubon guides to birding binoculars and other resources, including local chapters and some tongue-in-cheek explanations on the difference between borbs and floofs, at audubon.org.

eBird: Managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, eBird helps passionate birders and newbies alike find birding hotspots, track their finds and share their discoveries with fellow birders and the scientific community; ebird.org.

iNaturalist: This digital tool, a joint effort from the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society, lets you document not only Bay Area birds but flora and fauna of all kinds and share it with others; inaturalist.org.

Merlin Bird ID: This free app from the Cornell Lab helps you identify birds and bird songs, save birds to your life list and explore lists of birds near you; merlin.allaboutbirds.org.

BirdNote: These two-minute daily radio shows are broadcast on 250 NPR stations and via podcast. Listen at www.birdnote.org.

This story was originally published by Southern California News Group on July 28, 2022.

By Liz Weston | NerdWallet

The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet, Inc. does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.

Many companies try to help their workers to save for retirement. Employers often offer 401(k)s, company matches and automatic enrollment to encourage saving.

Much of that effort goes to waste, though, when employees leave. A study published last year in Marketing Science, a peer-reviewed research journal, found more than 40% of departing workers cashed out at least part of their 401(k)s, and most of those drained every dime.

What’s more, employers may bear at least some of the blame, according to researchers Yanwen Wang of the University of British Columbia, Muxin Zhai of Texas State University and John Lynch Jr. of the University of Colorado.

The study, titled “Cashing Out Retirement Savings at Job Separation,” suggests generous company matches can make cashing out more tempting.

Cash-outs drain future retirement security

The researchers examined records of 162,360 employees who left jobs at 28 employers between 2014 and 2016. Of the 41.4% who cashed out retirement savings, about 64% took all the money out in one transaction, while 21% emptied their accounts with two or more withdrawals.

The people who took money out had smaller balances — $15,271 on average — compared with those who left their accounts in the employer plan ($69,546) or who rolled their savings into an IRA or a new employer plan ($67,353).

The damage from any 401(k) withdrawal is significant, however. Cash-outs trigger taxes and penalties that often equal 30% or more of the withdrawal, plus the loss of future tax-deferred compounded returns. Every $1,000 withdrawn at age 35 can mean about $8,000 less in retirement funds at age 65, assuming 7% average annual returns. So a $15,000 withdrawal could mean $120,000 less at retirement age. (The younger you are, the greater the damage; the same $15,000 withdrawal at age 25 could mean $240,000 less at retirement.)

Cashing out once is bad enough, but multiple job changes could lead to workers repeatedly draining their accounts, Wang says. The median job tenure, or time employees typically remain with an employer, is about five years, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. That can give workers many opportunities over a working lifetime to raid their retirement savings.

“Ultimately, you might be only left with the very last pile of money you accumulated from your job,” Wang says.

Necessity doesn’t drive most retirement plan cash-outs

Sometimes a premature withdrawal is the best of bad options. People may have pressing expenses and no other savings.

But relatively few workers cash out savings while they’re working, whether through hardship withdrawals or 401(k) loans that aren’t paid back, Wang says. And previous research shows that most people who cash out when they leave a job don’t need the money for emergencies or other pressing expenses, she says.

Wang’s team hypothesized that the composition of account balances might help explain why people cash out. Thanks to a behavioral quirk known as mental accounting, people tend to treat different pots of money differently, depending on the source. So we may be more likely to spend a $20 bill found on the street versus one that we earned on our own.

The researchers wondered if something similar happens when more of an account balance comes from employer matches versus employee contributions. Would people be more likely to see their 401(k) money as a windfall to be tapped rather than a resource to be protected? The researchers found that yes, bigger matches did influence cash-outs: A 50% increase in a company match raised the probability of a cash-out by 6.3%.

That’s not the only way our mental biases get us in trouble, Wang says. When people leave jobs, they’re typically told their retirement plan options — leave the money in the plan, roll it into an IRA or a new employer’s plan, or cash out. Often, though, they’re not given much guidance about the best course to take. Simply mentioning the cash-out option may make people more likely to see the money as a windfall, Wang says. Plus, cashing out may seem like the easiest course if people aren’t warned about the cumulative impact of withdrawing retirement money and aren’t sure whether or how to roll the money over.

How employers can counteract the temptation to cash out

The answer to reducing 401(k) “leakage” isn’t to discourage rich company matches but to encourage employers to understand and counteract the temptation to cash out, Wang says. Companies could provide financial education to departing employees, explaining the long-term impact of withdrawing retirement money prematurely.

“If they really care about their employees, they should provide more information,” she says.

Another option could be for the employer to offer separate emergency savings accounts in addition to retirement plans. That would give departing workers a source of funds to tap without penalty if they needed money. Having distinct accounts labeled for different purposes — “emergencies” versus “retirement” — could help people view their retirement savings as a resource for the future rather than a windfall to be spent today, Wang says.

This article was written by NerdWallet and was originally published by The Associated Press.

 

The article Does a 401(k) Employer Match Tempt You to Cash Out? originally appeared on NerdWallet.

Voters on Tuesday morning headed to the polls, where races for city council and school board were being decided in St. Paul and throughout the east metro. The off-year election ballots also feature a question about raising sales taxes in St. Paul to pay for roads and parks, a $175 million bond referendum for school construction and safety improvements in the Stillwater Area School District, and other key property tax levies throughout the suburbs.

By the end of day Monday, nearly 5,000 St. Paul residents had already voted early by returning absentee ballots to Ramsey County Elections.

There were especially strong showings in Ward 3, which spans Highland Park, Mac-Groveland and part of West Seventh Street, followed by Ward 1, which spans Frogtown, Summit-University and swathes of the North End and surrounding neighborhoods. Open seats on the St. Paul City Council in both those races have drawn a sizable and racially-diverse mix of candidates, energizing corners of the Black, Hmong and East African electorate.

The St. Paul mayor’s office is backing a proposal to increase the city’s sales tax by a percentage point to 9.875%, which would be the highest sales tax in the state, to raise nearly $1 billion over 20 years for some 24 arterial road reconstructions, as well as high-priority park maintenance and four designated parks projects.

Potholes, taxes

Fed up with driving over potholes, Sarah Cooke went to the polls and cast a “yes” vote.

“I live on this side of town and we need better streets,” said Cooke, a longtime homeowner in Ward 6, shortly before polls closed for early voting on Monday afternoon at the Arlington Hills Community Center on Payne Avenue. “The street conditions are not great. A lot of them need repaving.”

Equally fed up with property tax increases and the general state of city services, Robbie Smith cast a “no” vote on the same question moments before her. “I’m really disappointed,” said Smith, a Ward 5 resident who said the city has fumbled core services from trash collection and tree trimming to public safety. The city council, she said, “has been doing things that are not helpful for the city of St. Paul. They’ve been raising our taxes like crazy. Just let our voice be heard.”

“I’ve lived all over the world,” she added, noting the loss of small businesses near Allianz Field in the Midway, “and this is truly a nice place to live, but we’re going downhill.”

Will Hyland voted early at the Ramsey County Elections office on Plato Boulevard, where he cast a vote for St. Paul City Council intended to protect the city’s rent control ordinance and “ensure that the rent cap stays in place,” he said. “There’s a lot of people trying to dismantle that.”

30 candidates for St. Paul City Council

In all, 30 candidates filed for seven seats on the St. Paul City Council, and seven candidates filed for four seats on the St. Paul School Board. Results in some city council races may not be available before Friday, given the city’s ranked-choice election system, which involves hand-tallying races where no candidate breaks 50% of the vote on Election Day.

Meanwhile, there are numerous city council and school board races n Dakota, Ramsey and Washngton counties as well as ballot questions for voters ot decide.

To learn more about local races across the east metro, including how to register to vote on Election Day, visit twincities.com/news/politics/elections.

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What you need to know for Election Day

Voter turnout and how long it may take to get results in St. Paul races

A referendum on abortion rights in Ohio that will test whether the end of Roe is still potent. A tight battle for control of the Virginia legislature that will send early signals about the suburban vote. Gubernatorial contests in Kentucky and Mississippi that will challenge Democrats’ ability to win despite the unpopular Joe Biden.

It’s election night Tuesday in only a handful of states — but the results in those headline contests, and in hundreds of local races, will send strong signals about voter enthusiasm heading into 2024. They’ll also give important clues about the battle for Congress — and inform the way President Joe Biden and his most likely Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, approach the coming months.

Here are five big questions we’ll be watching tonight:

Is abortion still a big winner for Democrats?

The Supreme Court overturning Roe last summer galvanized voters and fueled a series of wins for Democrats in the midterms and special elections over the last year and a half.

Tuesday’s elections will test whether that trend continues to hold. Ohio is the most direct example, where many expect the proposed constitutional amendment to codify abortion rights to pass — the only question is by how big of a margin.

Democrats in just about every race elsewhere have run campaigns focused on abortion, from blue-ish Virginia to battleground Pennsylvania and even red Kentucky.

In the Virginia legislative races, it has been the dominant issue. Democratic television ads mentioned abortion about 2.5 times as frequently as the party’s second most talked about issue, education, according to data from the advertising tracking firm AdImpact. It has similarly been central to the Democratic candidate in the Pennsylvania state Supreme Court race.

But perhaps more surprising has been Kentucky. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and his allies released a series of ads targeting his opponent, state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, for his defense of the state’s near-total ban on abortion, which doesn’t include exemptions for cases of rape or incest. While it wasn’t his main theme in TV ads, it was a notable part of his messaging mix — statewide, not just in urban Kentucky — and should Beshear win on Tuesday, it will only further embolden Democrats to run on abortion next year.

There is one notable counterpunch from Republicans. Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin has rallied candidates there around a 15-week ban with exceptions such as for situations of rape and incest. While stricter than the current state law, Youngkin’s aides believe that their message — Republicans are reasonable, Democrats are the extremists — could at least neutralize the issue.

Is Joe Biden an electoral drag for Democrats?

Biden’s approval rating continues to sink. But will voters punish Democrats for it?

Republicans in Kentucky and Mississippi — where Republican Gov. Tate Reeves is looking to hold off Democrat Brandon Presley, a state public service commissioner and distant cousin of the famous late singer with the same last name — have relentlessly looked to tie the Democratic candidates to the president, who is particularly unpopular in the deep-red states.

The contests are a test of the nationalization of politics — will Biden be a drag to races he isn’t talking about? — and a gut-check on whether Biden’s bad approval ratings are as dangerous for Democrats as they seem on paper, or more of an electoral mirage that suggests some voters are still open to pulling the lever for him, even if they aren’t necessarily happy about it.

Virginia, too, will be a place to watch. Biden is under water there in a state he won by 10 points in 2020, and many of the suburban battleground districts this year are ones Democrats have carried in recent elections — with the notable exception of Youngkin’s 2021 upset.

Will Black voters turn out?

Black voters will be central to the Democratic coalition in 2024. But are they excited to vote?

There have been early warning signs for Democrats that this crucial constituency may not give Biden the support he needs next year. Republicans flipped Louisiana’s governorship in an open-seat race earlier this year, when Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry won a surprise outright victory in October instead of having to duke it out in a runoff.

Even acknowledging the fact that the Democratic candidate, Shawn Wilson — who is Black — didn’t get much national support, the loss suggested some level of diminished Black turnout.

Tuesday’s contests will test whether that was an aberration — or Democrats need to hit the panic button.

One particularly important race to watch is the Mississippi governor’s contest. The Magnolia State has the highest proportion of Black residents of any state — roughly 38 percent — and that bloc has historically supported Democrats in statewide contests in a state where voting is very racially polarized.

This, however, is the first gubernatorial election in which a Jim Crow-era system that required candidates to win both the popular vote and a majority of legislative districts — effectively precluding Black voters from being able to elect a governor — won’t be in use.

Presley, who is white, has poured campaign resources into energizing Black voters under the new system, and their response could be telling of the broader political environment, especially for Biden.

Are Republicans actually voting early?

Trump chased Republican voters away from voting early, whether in-person or by mail, by falsely claiming that anything other than Election Day voting was a vector for fraud.

Most GOP campaign operatives agree that was a major tactical blunder. Republicans running this year have changed their tune, but can they actually alter the way Republican voters see it?

Youngkin tried mightily to get Virginia Republicans to reverse course and “secure your vote” — by voting early. With bus tours and targeted advertising, Youngkin pushed Republicans to vote before Election Day.

Preliminary data showed that a larger share of Republicans were voting early in Old Dominion than in past elections. But we won’t know until after the election whether the campaign was successful in expanding the GOP electorate — or merely getting Republicans who were going to vote on Election Day anyway to do so just a bit earlier.

Pennsylvania, too, is worth keeping an eye on. National and local Republicans pushed a “bank your vote” campaign, with the 2023 judicial contest serving as a dry run for 2024.

Are the suburbs still swinging?

Suburbs across America have been the deciding factor for nearly a decade now. What will that look like Tuesday?

Many of the battleground Virginia races are happening in some of its biggest suburbs — outside of Richmond in Henrico County, or Loudoun County in the greater Washington area. Those areas revolted against Trump and other Republicans during his presidency. And while Youngkin won neither in 2021, closing the gap was a big reason he’s in the governor’s mansion now.

Now, seats in those key suburbs will determine whether Youngkin has unified control of government for the last two years of his term — or Democrats are able to claw back power.

Elsewhere, Kentucky’s Beshear needs to maintain the suburban margins that he saw four years ago to have a chance. One place to look: Kenton County, a suburban Cincinnati county that was the largest Trump/Beshear county.

And at the same time, many Democrats are watching Beshear and Presley to see whether they can