Phillips: AARP alliances save money, help job search

Continuing with last week’s savings via AARP, let’s visit programs and events, health, and the ways we can help those perhaps less fortunate than us.

1 Fitness and Wellness Program

• Get discounts for gym memberships, professional training programs, and walking DVDs from providers such as Gold’s Gym, the American Council on Exercise, and the Leslie Sansone Walk at Home Fitness Program.

• AARPHealthcare.com offers savings on eyewear, hearing aids, prescriptions, health products, and so forth.

• Vision discounts for frames and styles from such companies as LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sears Optical, Target Optical, JC Penny Optical can save some bucks.

• Walgreens offers goodies when you show your membership card. (New offers pop up each week.)

2 Programs and events

• Job searches are a great new help from AARP and consists of millions of job sites, newspapers associations

and company career sites for workers age 50 and up.

• Assistance with tax preparation and filing from state-by-state volunteers to help low and moderate income people is really beneficial.

• Walgreens and AARP have teamed to offer six free screening tests from the Wellness Tour that visits cities nationally and in Puerto Rico.

• CarFit, an AARP program that helps drivers with safety questions, includes correct individual seat belt usage and seat adjustment, as well as the safe operation of a vehicle.

3 Volunteer programs:

• The AARP driver safety program teaches and promotes safe driving in our nation’s communities.

• The AARP money management program helps its members who have limited incomes and those with disabilities to budget, to pay routine bills, and to keep track of all financial affairs.

• CreatetheGood.org affords members community service opportunities, regardless of time limitations or areas of interest.

Tax Tip: IRS Code Section 280 (A)(g) states you can rent out your house for up to 14 days in a calendar year to a qualified charity or church and all the income comes to you tax-free.

Beyond the two weeks, everything becomes taxable. For more details, check out www.irs.gov.