Some people wary of the prohibitive costs of health insurance may prefer not to get insurance at all. But this should not be the case. Here are some pros and cons of getting cheap medical insurance:

Pros
Prompt attention. Illnesses need prompt attention or they will become full-blown. To avoid this, getting an affordable health insurance is the next best option.

Annual medical check-ups. This can help detect illnesses at its earliest stage. Blood test, cholesterol and sugar levels are checked during the check-up. Most health insurance provide annual check-ups for free.

Discounted rate. The charges are usually lower for those with insurance policy than those who don’t. Insurance firms are able to negotiate for lower rates with healthcare providers.

Peace of mind. Illnesses and accidents strike without warning. If you did not get an insurance to cover such emergency expenses, you might end up shelling more money than expected. Also, aside from the burden of the illness or injury, you also need to cope with the additional burden of securing money to pay for the medical bills. With health insurance, you need not worry about finding money to pay for the medical expenses.

Cons
High premiums. The policy holder may need to pay higher monthly premiums due to rising medical costs.

Risk of rejection. A person with preexisting medical condition may get rejected by insurance providers. If not, they may be required to pay higher-than-normal premiums. People should also consider things to not say to your insurance company.

There are a number of factors that can affect the health insurance costs. Individual or family policy may differ considerably in price. Family policy often comes out cheaper. But this may not be applicable to your case if one member of the family has a pre-existing medical condition. If such is the case, a separate individual policy for the ailing family member and a family policy for rest of the family might be the best option. Age is also a factor. This is why insurance is a ‘timing strategy’. Older people pay more in their medical insurance plans than younger people because they are more prone to illnesses.

In order to get cheaper health insurance, it will be a good idea to get a high deductible policy. This means you will pay a huge portion of the medical expense out-of-pocket if illness or accident occurs. Some can save a significant amount of money by opting to deduct more. This may mean that there will be more conditions that are included in the policy exclusions. To maintain an affordable medical insurance policy, it will be a great idea to set aside some money that can be used in case of illness.

One way is to spread the cost over the year in the run-up to Christmas – although this takes some discipline and organization. Possible benefits of Christmas shopping this way are that you can afford to buy really good presents at times of the year when you’re feeling flush and/or you find them cheap – and it can also help you to avoid getting into debt in December.

However, many people will get into debt this Christmas to pay for all those little extras that make Christmas so special. A YouGov survey on behalf of Intelligent Environments indicates that 31% of people will get into some sort of debt this Christmas – 58% of them will spend extra on their credit cards and 39% will go into their overdraft.

Credit card debt and overdrafts are fairly flexible debts because you can ‘get away’ with making small payments towards them.

However, many people don’t realize just how expensive these forms of debt can be. If you only make the minimum payments, you can pay much more interest overall than if you ‘overpaid’ that debt. It’ll also take far longer to repay debt that way – possibly many years.

One trouble with Christmas debt is that come January, you find you have all your usual bills to pay, with debt repayments on top of all your other expenses. Many personal budgets are already squeezed and additional debt repayments can, in some cases, tip the balance and leave someone with a real debt problem.

If you do find yourself with a debt problem at the start of the year, debt management might be able to help you. Debt management has quite a few advantages – for example, you could lower your monthly payments if you spread them over a longer period of time and some lenders will waive or even freeze interest and charges on money you owe them.

However, it’s not as simple as running up a huge credit card bill and turning to debt management to deal with it! Debt management is only for people who genuinely can’t afford their unsecured debts anymore. Lowering monthly payments also damages your credit record and there’s no guarantee that your lenders would agree to it, or freeze interest, anyway – and if they don’t freeze interest, repaying the money more slowly will cost more in interest.

Having said that, if you think you may have a debt problem, it’s worth speaking to an expert before things get out of hand. They could tell you about the best way out of debt for your current circumstances, so it’s well worth seeking advice.

How Do I Save Money On Taxes?

Saving money on taxes is always a concern for hard working Americans and is especially true in today’s tough economy.  What most people don’t know is that too often they are over paying taxes.

The tax advising team at The Lucrative Investor has partnered with an offensive tax firm that began in 1975 that saves clients an average of $5,800.  One of the most recent tax reviews saved a real estate agent $25,000!  This was a cold hard cash given back to the agent.

The proper tax structure is crucial in order to ensure legally following the tax guidelines designated by the IRS, while taking all of the deductions and advantages that the IRS allows.  Most CPAs do not fully understand the tax code as it is complicated and continues to adapt.

Self employed Americans are at the top of the spectrum for over paying taxes.  As mentioned, this is often a result of not having the proper tax structure and having the fear of the IRS lead them to way to the safe side, opposed to the offensive side.

The Lucrative Investor understands the concerns of investors and knows that proper accounting, business structure and cash flow are crucial to success and growth of a financial portfolio.

In order to help investors achieve their goals, The Lucrative Investor is able to offer a FREE three year tax review to see if you are paying too much in taxes!  That’s right, a FREE three year review to see how much money we can save you today.

Here are the top three steps for a successful business and the role The Lucrative Investor plays:

1.  Build a Team
-  Outsource all but your critical and core competencies
-  The Lucrative Investor becomes part of your team offering our core competency in tax structure design and implementation

2.  Demand Solutions
-  Require veri?able value-added performance from your team members
-  The Lucrative Investor is solution-driven providing services with measurable ?nanical value

3.  Operate Offensively
-  Don’t react to market forces – create market opportunities
-  The Lucrative Investor empowers your business to offensively approach the tax code generating cash?ow and maximizing tax protection

Bank of America recently announced that it was planning to get rid of its basic free checking account options for their customers. Not every larger banking entity has done so but many are expected to follow suit. This has been all brought about by a struggle between banking companies and merchants nationwide. It’s also largely due to the federal government mandating that banks can only charge fees for those who’ve signed up for overdraft protection. Banks, until now, have been able to pay for running checking accounts through charging overdraft fees. Now that the fees are going away, so is the free checking.

This all comes at a very difficult time when many people are being faced with cost hikes across the board. Everyone is struggling with their finances and taking out title loans as a way to pay of their bills. Money is tight right now and, for some individuals, this is just one step too far.

In a report that appeared on NPR, one woman talked about how she did away with all of her accounts and now uses a prepaid account card to pay her bills. It wasn’t that she couldn’t afford the extra few dollars a month, but, as she saw it, it was just one step too far. It seems that many people are feeling this strain as they’re being hit at every turn. This latest move by the country’s largest banks might actually have some pretty serious side effects.

The vast majority of banks are smaller institutions that operate locally and without the nationwide coverage. Many small banks are thinking about advertising their services and offering free checking accounts to its patrons. This is seen as one way that could get more customers but the only way that it would work is if people signed up en-mass. Free checking isn’t really free. It costs the merchant and the bank. When it comes to single purchases, we’re talking about small amounts of money. But added up, that a lot. Smaller banking institutions are hoping to offer free checking and increase their profile.

So, the end of free checking isn’t really here. You can still get a free checking account with many smaller institutions. If this is something that’s interesting to you, check with your local banks and see if they’ll offer you something similar. Many feel, though, that this will eventually kill off free checking. People want their checking accounts and check cards to be usable anywhere they go. That’s why these larger banks are charging now. They’re big and people want their service and, for the most part, they’re willing to pay for it. Are you?

I have a love hate (but mostly hate) relationship with my land line. I really don’t want to get rid of it because I don’t always have cell phone service in my house and I don’t want to miss any important calls (and with my luck, the day I turned off the land line, I would get one of those important calls).

To help with my problem, I started looking into VoIP services. I’m sure that everyone has heard of Vonage. If you have cable, I’m sure at one point in time the company has tried to sell you on its digital telephone package (which is simply VoIP). There are many more providers than just this handful though.

After a brief Google search for VoIP providers, I found some really good deals out there. Most were cheaper than Vonage’s $24.95 a month.

You can choose what provider you want by the features you want. If you have friends or family outside the United States, then make sure you pick a plan that offers free calling to international numbers. Sometimes you can find services that offer calling for free to the UK and Europe.  Most providers offer free calling to Canada and Mexico.

There are also some providers that offer a reduced price for service, but it requires you to leave your computer on all the time. The Magic Jack is the most popular form of that. I wouldn’t use one because I don’t want to have to leave my computer on for days and days at a time, and like I said before, the one time I have to restart my computer, I’m sure I’d miss the call I was waiting for.

I just feel like no matter what you pick, if you have a high speed internet connection, you can definitely save money with a VoIP service versus a traditional phone line. You just have to make sure that your connection is reliable and always on. Also, don’t forget, if you have DSL you may not be able to get rid of your land line.

The industries where jobs can be found include: Accounting, Information Technology, and even food service. This is all according to government data.

There are several surveys out now that are indicating that many companies won’t be hiring anytime soon, but a lot of the companies in the industries listed above will be looking for new recruits and are already out there actively seeking employees.

After shrinking for an entire year, four quarters in a row, the economy is expected to pick up a bit for the July through September quarter; this could lead employers to take away hiring freezes and start hiring people again. However, even with the new unemployment numbers out and showing a decrease in the total number of those who are unemployed, unemployment is expected to increase to 10% by the end of the year. Total job openings stayed steady through June according to the Labor Department.

Of course there are plenty of accounting jobs out there. The college I graduated from often boasts their 100% placement rate for accounting graduates. That number just seems crazy to me. After all, they just took a lot of the same classes I took to get through business school, yet most of them end up working in their field within weeks of getting their diplomas.

The United States and Canada came out on top with the highest levels of contamination of cocaine on paper money with between 85% and 90%. China and Japan ranked the lowest with only between 12 and 20% of their money being contaminated.

A similar study was conducted two years ago, and the new results prove that there is an increase of 20% from the previous study. Scientists have been aware of the contamination on banknotes. Paper money is used during drug deals and also when people are rolling it to snort cocaine. Then the money ends back up at the bank where it contaminates non-illicit drug money.

The levels of cocaine that showed up on the bills fell between .006 micrograms and 1,240 micrograms. As a reference, .006 micrograms is several thousands of times smaller than one grain of sand and 1,240 micrograms equals about 50 grains of sand. The scientists also noted that some of the cities tested definitely had higher contamination levels than others. Baltimore, Detroit, and Boston ranked among the highest contamination levels. Salt Lake City had the lowest in the United States.

If you were expecting to get something out of this you should probably move along. You’re not going to get high off a few dollars from your local bank. You won’t even have any health problems stemming from handling paper money.

It is also unlikely for any trace amounts of drugs that were on a bank note to end up messing up your drug test at work.

This map basically means that the lighter color, the more equally the wealth in the country is distributed. You can tell where the most people suffer due to the darker shades of green seen throughout the  map.

The countries with the biggest gap between poverty and wealth are the South American nations and some central to southern African nations.

Canada, Australia, much of Europe, and even some African countries all have fairly good wealth distribution throughout.

The United States falls into the same category as Russia, India, Italy, England, Portugal, and Uzbekistan to name a few.

Source

Most of the states across the country have come to a conclusion: They have to raise taxes to help with the budget deficits.

The five states hit hardest by new taxes as written by SmartMoney are:

1) California – This state has a HUGE deficit. It has gotten so bad in California that they the state is starting to pay for things with IOUs. The state deficit estimate for 2010 is almost $25 billion with the state and local tax burden being 10.5%. Voters in the state voted against sales and income tax increases, and with unemployment there nearing 12% and the worst housing market in the country, anyone could understand their unwillingness to vote FOR higher taxes. One of the things on the table now for the state to start raising some extra tax money? Legalize marijuana…

2) New York – With a state deficit estimate for 2010 at $17.6 billion and the state and local tax burden of 11.7%, this state ranks number two in SmartMoney’s poll. The governor of New York, David Paterson has unsuccessfully tried to pass an 18% tax on soft drinks, however he was able to raise taxes on cigarettes and wine. New Yorkers have the second highest tax burden due to the income tax rate of 7.85% for those earning more than $200K a year.

3) Florida – Florida’s deficit estimate for 2010 is $6 billion and the state and local tax burden is 7.4%. In May, Florida passed next year’s budget and included a $1 per pack increase on cigarettes as well as new and higher fees to renew a driver’s license or register a vehicle. While Florida does have the third lowest tax burden in the nation, the state has been hit hard by decreasing home values and huge budget deficit as a result. The deficit could mean more taxes in the future.

4) Massachusetts – Massachusetts has a state deficit estimate for 2010 of $3 billion and a state and local tax burden of 9.5%. While right now, it is middle of the road when it comes to it’s tax burden ranking (23rd in the nation), it is getting ready for some hefty tax increases. When the budget was passed last week, it included new taxes including a 1.25% increase in the sales tax from 5% to 6.25%. Satellite television subscribers will also be tinged with a 5% tax on satellite services.

5) Nevada – With a deficit of $1.2 billion and a state and local tax burden of 6.6%, it doesn’t seem like Nevada is doing that badly, but it had the same major problem that California did: rapidly decreasing property values. It also had a history of low taxes, there was no personal income tax and it imposed some of the lowest taxes on businesses in the country. It once got the majority of its revenue from tourism, so it wouldn’t have to tax residents as heavily. In Nevada, the sales tax is going up along with hotel taxes. It also has the highest deficit to budget ratio of 32%.

Not every little thing is caught by spell check on Word. Sometimes it won’t catch a word that is spelled right but used in a way that will ensure you don’t get a job. Here are a few examples of some misspelled phrases that have ended up on resumes in the past:

* “Hope to hear from you, shorty.”
* “Have a keen eye for derail.”
* Dear Sir or Madman.”
* “I’m attacking my resume for you to review.”
* “I’m a rabid typist.”
* “My work ethics are impeachable.”
* “Nervous of steel.”
* “Following is a grief overview of my skills.”
* “GPA: 34.0″
* “Graphic designer seeking no-profit career.”
* EDUCATION: Attended collage courses.

The first thing I thought when I read those was “wow.” However, when you really start to think about it, it’s not hard to make some of those mistakes, especially when you’re a “rabid” typist. People often think that they don’t have enough time to read over something that they’ve typed either, even when it’s something as important as a resume.

I know I have made plenty of typing errors while I’ve been writing for this site; they happen quite frequently and I usually don’t change them until I have published them and everyone else has seen the mistake too.

Some things you can do to help avoid such an embarassing situation is to:

1. Of course, use spell check, but make sure you also do some of the other steps.

2. Read over every word you type to make sure you have made coherent sentences.

3. Print it and read it again.

4. Have someone else read it.

You can check out a list of really amusing resume bloopers here:

Source

Did you know that your credit card may be hiding some quite interesting and beneficial perks that you might be missing out on?

The following perks are from Citi:

- You have dedicated “concierge” staff to assist you. – There is a 24 hour personal concierge service that is around to make dinner reservations for you, get tickets to events, locate hard to find items, and even coordinate business arrangements worldwide. They can also assist you with gift selections and other requests that are said to “simplify your life.”

- You also have extra car rental insurance. Citi provides up to $50,000 in secondary coverage against collision or theft when you get a rental car and charge it on the card and decline the rental company’s insurance.

- There is also retail price protection. – This protects your stuff if it gets stolen or is accidentally broken up to $500 for the first 90 days of purchase when it’s put on the card.

- You have a price protection. If you purchase something with your card, except for online purchases and some excluded items, you have 60 days to find the same item for a lesser price you will get refunded up to $250 of the difference.

- You are not liable for unauthorized purchases online or offline.

- If an airline looses your luggage, you are eligible for up to $3,000 in lost luggage coverage for not only you, but also your dependents, when you charge your fare.

- You also have roadside assistance.

If you want to know what kind of perks your card has, just pick up the phone and give them a call!

For the firm believer that an investor should follow the trends to see real success in investing, it is important to know what the winners are doing right now. To understand that one needs to understand what they are looking at in the market. The first two things you must watch are real estate and unemployment. These are the absolute keys to a real recovery in the market and the economy. Until losing jobs is a thing of the past and until real estate prices stop going down, there will be pressure on our economy, end of story.

The current market is creating one of the greatest opportunities for building permanent real wealth if an investor can see the bargains. It is important to continually look for bargain-basement opportunities in the form of rock bottom prices. In addition to your own screening and research, it is important to pay attention to what those successful long-term investors are doing with their money.

Securities regulations make this very easy to do. Most finance managers are required to publicly release their holdings at the end of each quarter. By tracking portfolio changes and holdings in correlation with locations of investments, you effectively establish a makeshift research department composed of the best minds in the market. You should always do additional investigation of your own, but good research of what investors are already succeeding with is a good meeting of the minds, so to speak.

Just as an example, let’s look at Third Point LLC, the distressed and activist fund managed by Daniel Loeb. It is reported to have earned 16% or so annually without the use of much leverage, if any, just since its beginning in 1996. In his recent letter to shareholders, Loeb said he was less pessimistic about where the economy would be at the end of the quarter. The firm is letting go of what Loeb referred to as “doomsday positions” such as gold, the investments that will not stand as firm as they have once the economy moves forward. As we have established before, there is a relatively negative correlation between gold and Wall Street, simply because when Wall Street is doing poorly, gold has become the industry hiding place. When Wall Street bounces back, people bail from gold and ride the stock market back up, reducing the price of gold once again. (This explains why places like Cash4Gold are advertising the best ever prices of gold. Every active investor has bought some recently.) He said the fund is also finding long positions that offer what he called attractive opportunities.

Third Point established a new position in the home health and hospice company Amedisys in the quarter. As baby boomers age, this is going to be high-growth industry for years to come. Earnings and stock trades are up. Third Point also opened a position in Life Partners Holdings, a life insurance settlement business. Basically, it buys life insurance contracts at a discount from policyholders who are in need of funds. Life Partners then resells these contracts to retail and institutional investors. The company acts as an agent and receives a fee for its services. Earnings and stock trades are up for this company too, because death is truly recession-proof. It does appear that Third Point is leaning toward an aging population. In the last quarter it bought Wyeth, Schering-Plough and Pfizer with Pfizer coincidentally as one of the top investments right now.

Of course, you don’t have to make a trip to the coffee shop to buy your morning pick me up. This may seem so obvious, but you can save a ton of money every month by skipping the coffee to go. You can easily, and cheaply, make your own lattes and cappuccinos at home.

There are so many recipe sites on the internet with “copycat” recipes that can help you replicate those sweet tastes you crave from Starbucks or any other chain.

As a busy mom, I have become an expert in making my own coffee at home. I’m not just talking about straight drip-coffee either. I have been able to snag a free Senseo machine as well as free coffee for the machine. It makes fairly good coffee, but I like to have some flavor to my coffee when I drink it in the morning or throughout the day.

At the grocery store, you can find creamers that come in flavors such as caramel, french vanilla, and hazelnut now. If you go down the coffee aisle, you can even find syrups that have the same flavors. These are great to make lattes with. While the latte you make at home may not have the foam, it will have the flavor. Not to mention, at home you can ice it with as much or as little as you want.

You can even make your own frozen, blended coffees at home. It may take a bit more time and effort than jumping in the car and running to the coffee house for your craving, they can be just as tasty and far cheaper.

When it comes to coffee, I really think that $3 or more for a cup is too much. I really like knowing that I only spend about $.10 on a cup of coffee (give or take $.05 depending on whether or not I add syrup).

Now it is easy to make a custom mug online.

Have you seen the Wal-Mart ads on television that say how much you can save if you buy something at Wal-Mart versus going out to get it like saving so much by making breakfast at home versus going out to buy it? There is truth to that, but you have to remember that many of us don’t end up needing to go out for breakfast and in most multi-child households, cereal is the norm.

We all have to decipher between needs and wants in order to save money at the grocery store. Deciding to buy a box of cereal or going out every morning to buy breakfast is easy to decipher between.

Then there are times when we have to try really hard to decipher between the two. The easiest way to separate the two is to make a list to take to the store. This way you can see what you need and you can sit back and look at the list and get rid of anything that you might not need or that you can tell you simply want.

Sometimes we turn wants into needs at the grocery store and we can’t fall into that budget busting habit. If you go without a grocery list and say you want cookies, then you’ll need milk to go with them (This isn’t the best example, but you can understand what I mean). When you end up turning wants into needs, you will always leave the store paying more than you ever intended.

The only person who can tell you what is a need and what is a want is ultimately up to you. You can’t expect anyone else to tell you what you need, as we all have different needs with the exception of basics like water, food and shelter.

None of this means that you have to give up the things you want to save money, just cut back.

Over the past year, unemployment has been on the near-constant rise. Every time I turn around it seems as though some other company is cutting 20% of its work force. Many of the larger companies, however, are doing something to try to ease the layoffs before actually being forced to simply fire the workers.

They’re offering buyouts.

These buyouts, depending on the company, are typically a few thousand dollars ($10,000-$25,000) and are a one time payment. With the payout, the employee is immediately terminated and he or she is free from any contract that they might have with the company.

However, even when GM decided to offer buyouts to some of its employees that included a free car, employees weren’t taking the offer and instead were opting for the risk of not knowing whether they would be fired without a buyout or not. Many GM workers who could have taken the buyouts were fired with no money to help cushion the blow.

Most recently, the United States Postal Service has decided to offer a $15,000 buyout to anyone who wants to quit willingly. The offer extends to those seeking retirement or early retirement, a total of about 30,000 employees. They would get $10,000 now and the other $5,000 in October 2010. I’m sure that many of these people will not end up taking the buyout.

The problem is, many of these people know that their job is worth more than the buyout being offered. There aren’t enough jobs to go around right now and if they decide to quit and take the buyout, then they are much less likely to be able to find work again especially because these are the people who are eligible for retirement. They are the ones who will end up scrimping and saving because they can’t keep their electricity on if they burn through their savings.

In some ways, I don’t blame the people who decide to not take the buyout, but on the other hand, many of these people will be terminated without any financial compensation of any kind. The buyouts do leave a bitter taste in your mouth, don’t they?

Even though the recession has hit all our wallets, most would agree that shopping is something that is on a list of enjoyable activities. Shopping for great buys definitely hits somewhere near the top of the list.

I believe that most people will look for bargains whenever and wherever they can. If I learned anything through working in a retail environment today it’s that people love to save money. They love it so much that they’ll get mean if something comes in between them and their ability to save a few dollars.

This is where the newest craze (maybe it isn’t so new?) of designer replicas and replacements have come to play. Once a designer has spent all their design dollars on something that becomes trendy, there will always be some kind of knock off that pops up with the same exact design. This is why you see so many purses out there with huge G’s on them (they’re trying to mimic the Coach ‘C’).

Premium jeans haven’t missed this craze. There was once a huge market for jeans that cost $200 a pair. Seven for all Mankind, Citizen, True Religion all were very expensive jeans. You have to remember that jeans were originally meant to be something that people would wear to rugged jobs, and now they’re on the cutting edge of fashion.

These premium lines is partially why stores like Plato’s Closet have become so popular. After all, those stores sell premium jeans at bargain basement prices.

However, brands like Ann Taylor Loft and the Gap are starting to come up with new types of jeans to combat some of the prices. For under $60 a pair, you can get what these brands are promising to be “premium” fit. By premium fit, they mean they lift your tush and make your legs look long.

The Gap is bragging about the new styles of jeans that it has calling them Premium denim and saying how great the fit is, but I’m not sure that I buy it considering that the Gap owns Old Navy and I have never tried on or purchased a pair of Old Navy jeans that looked amazing on me. Perhaps there are plenty of people out there who have, but I am not one of them.

I’ve found a better fit with Nine West and Calvin Klein jeans from Sam’s Club…seriously. And they only cost $15.

When you contact your insurance company to file a claim there are a few things that you shouldn’t say if you want to make sure that your policy will cover the incident. Now, do not fraud the insurance company, just make sure what you’re telling them is the truth.

1. Never start a sentence with “I think” or any other term that indicates that you’re not sure as to why something happened. If you don’t know say “I don’t know.” Giving information that can be proven wrong later can really hurt your claim and can damage your credibility.

Particularly beware of speculating on blame or causation. For example, if you suggest that a water leak is due to a construction defect, you could give the insurer an out if that’s a policy exclusion.

2. Don’t use the “whiplash” excuse unless your doctor actually says you have it. This is one of the most fraudulent claims every year that insurance companies have to deal with. In some cases, according to Amy Danise from Insure.com, mentioning whiplash in your claim is likely to get it flagged for further investigation.

3. Don’t admit to a doctor’s test as being experimental when it isn’t. There is a difference between an actual experimental drug/procedure and one that is proven (and accepted by the FDA for use) but your doctor wants to try it out in your case. You may want to make sure that your doctor can prove that it will be covered by insurance before getting it done and fighting with the insurance company later.

4. The word “flood” triggers some kind of nervous, shaking, fear in insurers; so don’t use it. When it comes to homeowner’s insurance, floods aren’t covered. A flood is weather related too, not if your pipe bursts and you find yourself with a basement full of water.

5. Don’t act like the only thing you care about is the money. When an insurance company sees that you care more about getting a check rather than fixing your damaged property, they will likely put your claim on hold while they go and check further into it.

When it comes to insurance, it’s all about what the insurance company thinks. If they feel that you’re trying to make a fraudulent claim, for any reason, they can simply put the brakes on your claim altogether. It is rather frustrating to pick and choose your words when you talk to the insurance company, but it is important. Too many people, every single year, decide that having insurance is a good way to try to make a bit of money, when in reality that is not what insurance is for.

I can’t tell anyone what to do with their money, but if an insurance company sends a check out, then fix whatever is broken.

Not only in the United States is the cost of education increasing, but all over the world it is going on as well. In the United Kingdom, the amount of money that students have to borrow to go to college is increasing every year. It has increased so much that the average student debt was 3,100 pounds in 1994 and it skyrocketed to 14,700 pounds in 2004.

A study that was conducted in 2007 by Push.co.uk said that a student that finished college in 2008 would have an average debt of 21,500 pounds. Then female graduates are having a harder time paying off their debts there as well; it takes an average of 11 years to pay off for males but 16 years for females.

People everywhere are questioning whether or not it is worth the cost to go to college anymore. In the study in the United Kingdom, as many as 82% of the people who were questioned for the 2007/2008 year think that an education is worth the cost, however the figure was once 86%; showing that people are losing faith in higher education at a very slow rate.

Another issue that many students are facing as they are going into college is the issue that many families aren’t able to afford the higher education. I can speak from experience with this; my parents never saved any money for me to go to college. I had to pay for the whole thing. I worked and took out loans to help pay for school. Sometimes when students are faced with these decisions, they choose one or the other.

The debt that a student faces gets even worse when it comes time to pay back the loans that they took out throughout their time in college and they can’t find a job. This is a particularly current issue because of the high unemployment rate. In the United States the unemployment rate for those between the ages of 18 and 24 is higher than any other age group and it continues to grow with the overall unemployment rate. When someone is not able to find any work, especially work that will pay off the mountain of debt that a student accumulates, then it does become quite a daunting task to be able to pay the student loan bill every month.

If anyone were to ask me if I would or would not go through college all over again, I think I would. I enjoyed some of the time I spent there, and someday I know that going will eventually pay off. Right now, like many graduates, I am just a bit discouraged by the level of unemployment and my lack of job prospects at all. Perhaps something along the lines of graduate school is in my future somewhere. I’m not sure about that right now, especially with the mountain of debt I actually graduated with.

My freshman year in college in 2004, when I went to the bookstore, my books totaled just over $640 for 15 credit hours plus two labs. This is not including calculators, paper, pencils, etc. Without a credit card to put it all on from my parents or wherever some other students get their money from, I had to get creative with how I spent my money.

I started looking around the internet for ways to get the books cheaper; and while it may sound like a cheapskate thing to do, I wrote down the ISBN’s of all the books I needed and searched for them on CampusBooks.com.

Over the past few years in college here are the main things I learned from the book/supply buying experience:

1. Never EVER pay retail. This means don’t go to the college bookstore and just buy whatever they have. At least try to price compare on the internet. If you’re strapped for time, you may have to buy the book from the bookstore, but usually you can either wait or find a friend in the class to share with for awhile.

2. Don’t buy your books before class starts. This is not applicable to Math classes or Labs (you will ALWAYS need those books). The thing is I noticed that a lot of teachers would require books for their classes but never use them, or end up doing lectures with PowerPoint presentations that covered everything that would be on the test. After the first year, I couldn’t figure out why I was paying $100 for a book that I never used, so I stopped buying them before the semester started.

3. Ok, so you’ve ordered your book too late, now what? Ask your professor for copies of the problems. I came across this problem when I ordered an economics book from an international seller (by the way I really recommend international books because they’re much cheaper and you can sell them back on the internet for what you paid for them) and I didn’t get the book for the first week of a summer school class. I asked the professor if he could copy the problems out of the book for me because of the situation and he did. It seems like professors are really willing to help when they can, all you have to do is ask.

4. IChapters.com can be your best friend if you have a class that uses a book and you only need a few chapters from it.

5. At the end of the semester, sell your book back on the internet.

6.  Save more money through lower tuition costs by attending Albertus Magnus College.

Paper documents and marketing materials are important for small businesses, particularly for local, brick and mortar businesses. Often your customers will have no idea what your business is or what it has to offer, but if you have brochures to hand out, they can take the brochures home and see exactly what your company has to offer. If they are able to take the time to read over the offerings, the chances they will come back to your store increase.

Word of mouth is talked about in marketing as one of the best (or worst) ways to market your company (I say worst because there are negative ways to effect your business through word of mouth as well). If someone has something good to say about your company then their friends, coworkers, and acquaintances will be far more likely to visit your store or business. Now, imagine if that person had a brochure and could actually show their friends what your business had to offer and all the up sides of it. Then, you could potentially get well informed customers in your door just by word of mouth, for only the cost of a brochure or some other printed marketing materials. It’s also widely known that people who are sent to a business via word of mouth are more likely to actually purchase something than those who come in all on their own.

Brochures don’t have to be a huge deal to print either. There are so many sites that offer discount printing where you can design the brochure on your computer and they will ship out the finished product to your home or business for a low price.

These days it seems like everyone has gotten rid of their “home” phone service to pick up cell phone service. Well, not everyone is able to have a cell phone as their main source of telephone service because of the lack of service in their house.

So, how do people save money on their home telephone bills?

If you have a high speed internet connection, you can save money through a VoIP service like Vonage or Packet8. Both services stand alone from your computer and hook directly up to your router. For a monthly fee (usually around $30 a month) you can get unlimited long distance to the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. On Vonage, you’re able to call land lines in Italy, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Ireland also.

So, perhaps you’ve seen some of those ads on TV for the Magic Jack and are thinking that it could replace your home telephone service, well, as much as I love saving money (and it is only $20 a year), the service is sub-par in my opinion and will not be able to replace a home telephone service. Often when I talk to a family member who has a Magic Jack, their phone cuts out and since it is directly connected to a computer rather than the router, if someone is surfing the internet or downloading something, then the signal is weak or breaks up all the time. It has gotten so bad that I try not to call my family that uses the Magic Jack just because it is so difficult to understand what they’re saying when we’re on the phone.

As far as cell phone bills go, there are corporate discounts that the phone companies won’t tell you about unless you ask. AT&T wireless, Sprint, and Verizon all offer corporate discounts. All you have to do is a little digging on the internet to see if you qualify through your employer for a discount. There is a website for AT&T wireless Premier to see if you are eligible for a discount. If you do a little digging around, I’m sure you can find some e-mail addresses to get the discounts, but I won’t list them on this website. Sprint has a program where you can get discounts for knowing someone in the company, they offer some of their most popular plans for a discounted price, they also offer a corporate discount program. Verizon has a similar program to AT&T’s and HowardForums has a WIKI article with the companies that give discounts that can be found here.

No matter which carrier that you’re looking at, check around the internet to see if you can find a discount! Sometimes you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

It looks like one of the things that has always been seen as a “sure thing” could be coming back to bite investors. Life insurance companies have been offering policies to people for years and premiums often go up as the insured begins to age.

An investment scheme that has popped up in the last few years is when someone who is insured can no longer afford the premiums or is looking to “cash out” a life insurance policy that he or she has been paying on, someone will come along and buy it for a fraction of the payout and sell it off to investors who will pay the premiums until the original insured person dies.

There have been over a dozen life-settlement scams to come under investigation since 2008. Life settlements get capital by promising high returns. The business also gains the attention of other senior citizens who have empathy for the policy holders that have looked to cash out. And so, there have been a lot of companies ready to take advantage of those people.

Like when the market for securities became bloated and backed by homes created the subprime mortgage mess, the market for life settlements has created a surge in fake insurance policies called STOLI’s or stranger-originated life insurance. These STOLIs are illegal and begin with a life insurance agent who is also a life-settlement broker. The agent talks a senior citizen into taking out a big life insurance policy and wines and dines them. Then the agent agrees to pay the premiums and the ownership of the policy is transferred to investors.

Again, the problem with these STOLIs is that they are illegal and could endanger the policyholder from being able to collect any insurance in the future. Some scary statistics are that more than 50% of life settlements right now were on policies that were less than 4 years old. The reason for the increase and the large amount of settlements on policies that are less than 4 years old is the STOLIs. These policies equal out to huge losses for the insurance companies also and could potentially hurt the insurance companies to the point where they are unable to pay out real insurance claims.

It appears as though the government is taking note. Last month Senator Herb Kohl led up a special committee on the problems associated with life settlements. The committee meeting ended with the IRS and SEC being contacted to talk about gaps that are left in legislation in life settlement procedures. The SEC has agreed to look into the issues facing the industry. Due to this activity, it seems as though the market has cooled down a bit.

There are lots of new marketing schemes that are being used by advertisers to reach their customers. One of the newest, and in my opinion the most effective, could be text message messaging. You see it all the time on TV telling you to text “a word” to “a number” and you receive some kind of information. The most recent example I can think of is during episodes of Desperate Housewives you can text “Housewives” to a number and you will get a free little video from a mini series thing that Sprint is doing.

Of course, this marketing method can easily be applied to other aspects of advertising. Websites are beginning to pop up that offer the same marketing technique. The website 84444.com offers advertisers the ability to market through a text message service. One of the sites that it has working with it is a discount glasses retailer; if you text LENS to 84444 you will be directed to the glasses website. The company also offers other text message services such as text voting and contests.

I believe with this new type of marketing plenty of businesses, including our own, could benefit. For one thing, we could send out up to date, real time information to anyone who sent a text message to us. It would also give us the ability to add the subscriber to a database and we could easily tell where our customers were and give us a bit more demographic information. Of course, demographics are extremely valuable information when it comes to marketing. This all has to be within your (or our) company’s marketing budget, but it looks as though this is all very budget friendly for the type of information you are gathering (with a service like this you aren’t going after cold leads, these are all people who are already interested in your products or services).

The stock market has been doing better as compared to the same time last year, which was just a month or two after the biggest financial disaster of the decade. However, there have been some bumps along the way. If you look at something that has unfolded over just the past two or three weeks. Dubai was going bankrupt and there looked to be no one to save the country. That is, until today when Abu Dhabi surprised the country with it’s own $10 billion bailout.

With the country accepting a payment like that, it is easy to see why the stock market has kind of shot up today. Investors of the oil rich nation have had their fears calmed regarding the longevity of the emirate.

That is not the only financial news that has helped out the markets today. Citigroup has also announced this morning that it would be paying back $20 billion of bailout money that it has received from the United States government. The move will help put Citi back in control of its own company and will help out the government, which just passed a huge spending bill.

Financial news over the past two weeks has really been overshadowed by the whole “Tiger Woods” debacle. His story has completely caused a media frenzy and no one has mentioned that the Dow Jones has been over 10,000 for a while now. While there is plenty of good financial news to report on, there aren’t many news organizations that are doing so right now (that is, unless you watch cable news which has to report on several different things to fill up the time).

Do you remember when shopping on the internet was scary and mostly a really sketchy thing to do? I do. But now, shopping for just about anything on the internet has become not only acceptable and safe but (for the most part) much less expensive than shopping for things in stores.

I’ll give a good example for clothing purchases. I recently stopped into a store, that I typically shop at on the internet, but was with a friend of mine at a mall, and saw a pair of blue jeans that I had to have. Well, instead of buying them on site, I went to the retailer’s website on my cell phone, only to find out the jeans were discounted on the website and were only 2/3 of the price the store wanted. I was amazed.

This kind of thing happens all the time. You don’t have to be at a store in the mall to notice price difference between a retailer and its website. For example, if you want an item from Wal-Mart that isn’t food or things like toothpaste, they are typically cheaper on the Walmart.com website and the store offers free site-to-store shipping. One thing that kind of irritates me though is that the store will not accept the internet price in store.

There is also a lot more selection when it comes to shopping on the internet. Sometimes Bryce and I shop at Old Navy for our clothes because they are stylish and inexpensive, not to mention our kids like the clothes too. The problem is when we go to the store, it usually looks like it has been hit by a train. Everything is scattered all over the place, and the clearance section is particularly bad. But because Old Navy’s sizes are usually the same no matter what style you’re getting, we can shop for the clothes on the internet now. We usually save a bit of money there too because we’re actually able to find clothes that fit and we like in the clearance section.

When we’re shopping online, we don’t have to make the journey all the way across town to get to the store either, so we can save that money and save it, or spend it on something that we need like groceries.

These days, you can buy anything on the internet (and usually for cheaper too). While I wouldn’t buy it right now, Amazon sells groceries on its website. If you look, it is kind of like Costco.

Hundreds of thousands of previously full time workers who have been laid off have sought part-time work to pay the bills. In fact, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are almost two million more part time workers in the United States now than there were a year ago. Many of these people have been forced to trade the security of a hefty benefits package for a spatula and a hair net. However, if you know where to look, you may not have to trade those benefits.

“If you’re going to work part time, it’s best to work at places that consider part-time workers as integral to their success. For example, at Starbucks part-time workers hit the core of their organization, and because of that they’re going to be taken care of.” says Bob Nelson, president of Nelson Motivation, a benefits consulting firm.

Grocery stores tend to provide decent benefits packages. Some offer medical benefits, a 401(k) matching, profit-sharing and paid time off even to part time workers. These stores are also relatively recession proof so many are hiring and in some cases even expanding. If you are not into the food business, there are so many other places to go like:

1. Barnes & Noble: Part-time workers not only get a discount on purchases, but they also get transportation benefits to help them pay for getting to and from work. You only need at least 20 hours a week to qualify after only one year of employment. Benefits include: medical, dental, flexible spending, 401k matching (after 1,000 hours worked), transit benefits, paid sick days and a 30% employee discount on purchases.

2. IKEA: They are expanding their presence in America and bringing the European employee pride along for the ride. Once you get a job working 20 hours a week at IKEA, you automatically qualify for benefits without any waited time (except for the 401k). Benefits include: medical, dental, vision; 401k after six months of work. Depending on the hours worked, you may receive paid vacations.

3. Lowe’s: It looks like they want you to apply for a job there so you can “build something together.” They have flexible scheduling and there are no minimum hours per week or limitations required for collecting benefits. Benefits include: medical, dental, vision; life and short-term disability insurance; 401(k) plan with company match; prorated paid vacation, employee discounts.

4. REI: You can discounts on great gear and other products. Part-time and seasonal employees are eligible for medical coverage after just 30 days of work and they require you work at least 20 hours a week. REI covers 60%. Benefits include: medical, dental, incentive pay, retirement and profit sharing (depending on length of employment), tuition reimbursement, up to 12 weeks unpaid leave, 50% discount on REI products, 30% off miscellaneous alternate vendor products and 30% discount on trips with REI’s travel company.

5. Starbucks: This author has a close friend who almost got a job at Starbucks in the morning before her business started for the day just to receive cheap health insurance, and that was before the recession. Workers receive free beverages while at work, a 30% discount on merchandise and a free pound of coffee or box of tea to take home each week. You need three months of continuous work and at least 20 hours per week to qualify. Benefits include: medical, dental, vision; 401(k) plan with company match; paid vacation (after 12 months of employment), 30% employee discount, gym membership discounts, tuition reimbursement after 12 months of employment and free beverages while working.

6. Trader Joe’s: They won’t disclose much about their qualifications for benefits but will comment that in addition to a 10% employee discount, workers get free signature Trader Joe’s Hawaiian shirts and paid time off. We do not know how long you need to work there to get benefits, but part time workers can get up to 35 hours per week. Benefits include: medical, dental, vision; company paid retirement plan, 10% employee discount and disability insurance.

7. Wegmans: This grocery store chain is expanding throughout the Northeast now. For employees who want to take advantage of the colleges nearby, the company offers scholarships for college or continuing education. You only need 20 to 24 hours per week for one year of continuous employment to qualify for benefits. Benefits include: medical, pharmacy; 401(k) matching, paid vacations (varies by state), an option for profit sharing, employee discounts on purchases, flexible spending, scholarships, smoking cessation programs and discounted gym memberships.

8. Whole Foods: This store that prides itself in health really goes all the way. Whole Foods covers 100% of employees’ health-insurance premiums after they’ve worked 800 total hours. All employees and their spouses or eligible domestic partners also get a 20% discount on groceries. You must work 20 hours each week until you have accumulated 400 hours of tenure to qualify for benefits. Benefits include: medical, dental, vision, flexible spending, life and disability insurance, 401k, prorated paid time off, and a 20% in-store discount for employees and their spouses or eligible domestic partners. Sidenote: If you work at a Whole Foods in Los Angeles County, it is likely you will meet celebrities like Hayden Panettiere, Carrie Underwood, Hilary Duff, and Jamie Pressly. They are photographed coming out of Whole Foods by the paps a few days a week. If you do work at an LA County store, just remember to show up for work early so you can find a spot and get in. The photogs know how to crowd up a parking lot.

Charge cards let holders use them to make purchases, then at the end of the statement period, they are required to pay the balance, which is typically done on a monthly basis. There is no revolving credit (a balance can’t be carried from month to month and must be paid in full), there is also no pre-set limit.

With a charge card, you get all the security and convenience of a credit card, but without the risk of going into debt and without having to pay finance charges.

Charge cards also give some features that give consumers a bit of financial discipline when they are new to credit.

While late payments incur fees and charges, since there is no revolving credit, with a charge card, you don’t have to worry about APRs or finance charges. Business owners are also given extra rewards such as American Express’s “extended payment option” for equipment purchases or travel expenses. With this “reward”, finance charges are applied to balances associated with these transactions. They can also defer payment for 2 months.

So, why bother with a charge card? Being required to pay balances is a great incentive to keep spending in check while enjoying the convenience of plastic. But consider all features and your planned purposes before signing up for a new card.

Charge Card Summary

Essential features:

* No finance charges
* Balances must be paid monthly or every statement cycle
* No funds are automatically taken from bank account*

Typical features:

* No pre-defined spending limit
* Late charges billed for late payments*

Possible features

* No annual fee*
* Discounts on certain products or services*
* Specialized insurance (such as travel insurance)*

*These features may also be found in a credit card.

Source

Everywhere you look you’ll see prices falling on some of the things that you’ll need in the next few months, I’m talking about school supplies of course.

Now is the time to start stocking up on paper and pencils. It is never wasteful to stock up on those 10 cent spiral notebooks or, if you’re lucky, 25 cent packages of paper. When I have done school shopping in the past, I have also always kept my eye out for those ever-elusive 3 prong notebooks. It seems like teachers always ask for those, but the stores are always sold out.

Right now, school supplies are cheap. The reason you should go stock up now is because, in December when you’re children come up to you and say that they’re out of pencils or paper, you will have to go to the store and will realize that the prices for those items are easily double what you paid for them in August. So get out there while there is plenty of supply and you’ll end up having plenty to last your kids throughout the school year.

The best part is that school supplies don’t expire, so if you buy too much, you can just use it next year.

Also, now is the time to be stocking up on summer apparel for next year. You can get swimsuits for usually half the price that you would have had to pay for them just a month ago. Short and tank tops are on sale also as all the stores are trying to make space for fall and winter clothes. I have always thought that they get rid of the summer stock too soon because it stays warm where I live until well into September and sometimes into October. If I buy clearance summer clothes in August, then I can continue to wear them into the rest of the warm season.

Stores that are trying to get rid of summer items are also trying to get rid of things like patio furniture. This is the best time to buy it because you can not only get it on clearance, but you can also get use out of it this year. I’m sure that many of us won’t be sitting on our patios in December, but there are plenty of nice cool Autumn nights when we all would like to have a nice patio set where we can sit outside and have dinner. I like my patio furniture so I can sit with my husband and watch the kids play in the yard.

Speaking of watching the kids play, now is the time to buy outdoor toys. Things like pools and jungle gyms are now on sale, so if you’ve had your eye on one it would be a good time to go and purchase it!

I know all the time I’m bragging about the quality of foreign cars versus domestic ones, but so is everyone else. In an article from MSNBC, you can find the best cars for under $15,000 which are cheap to maintain and they get great gas mileage so you won’t be blowing your gas budget when you fill up.

At the top of the list was the Toyota Yaris, Nissan Versa, and Scion xD (I love that the name of that looks like a really happy emoticon). The cars all cost around $15,000 and because they are small and inexpensive, they are fairly cheap to insure as well as maintain. Oh, by the way, they also get at least 30 mpg in combined fuel efficiency. These cars will obviously use less gas and you won’t have to be putting in the expensive grades either. These cars call for regular 87 unleaded.

If you’re really looking for a domestic car, then look no further than the Chevrolet Cobalt or the Pontiac G3. They are basically the same car and only cost around $16,000 and get a combined 31 mpg.

Right now they aren’t selling as well as they were a year ago, but you also have to remember that gas prices are far cheaper right now than a year ago too. People will go back to buying these cars once gas starts creeping up again.

The cars on the MSNBC list are all gas powered vehicles. There were no hybrids on the list due to the fact that they are more expensive to maintain, insure, and they actually cost more too.

From the article:
“The best way to a cheap ride? Choose something small, light, and more often than not foreign.”
Source

When you contact your insurance company to file a claim there are a few things that you shouldn’t say if you want to make sure that your policy will cover the incident. Now, do not fraud the insurance company, just make sure what you’re telling them is the truth.

1. Never start a sentence with “I think” or any other term that indicates that you’re not sure as to why something happened. If you don’t know say “I don’t know.” Giving information that can be proven wrong later can really hurt your claim and can damage your credibility.

Particularly beware of speculating on blame or causation. For example, if you suggest that a water leak is due to a construction defect, you could give the insurer an out if that’s a policy exclusion.

2. Don’t use the “whiplash” excuse unless your doctor actually says you have it. This is one of the most fraudulent claims every year that insurance companies have to deal with. In some cases, according to Amy Danise from Insure.com, mentioning whiplash in your claim is likely to get it flagged for further investigation.

3. Don’t admit to a doctor’s test as being experimental when it isn’t. There is a difference between an actual experimental drug/procedure and one that is proven (and accepted by the FDA for use) but your doctor wants to try it out in your case. You may want to make sure that your doctor can prove that it will be covered by insurance before getting it done and fighting with the insurance company later.

4. The word “flood” triggers some kind of nervous, shaking, fear in insurers; so don’t use it. When it comes to homeowner’s insurance, floods aren’t covered. A flood is weather related too, not if your pipe bursts and you find yourself with a basement full of water.

5. Don’t act like the only thing you care about is the money. When an insurance company sees that you care more about getting a check rather than fixing your damaged property, they will likely put your claim on hold while they go and check further into it.

When it comes to insurance, it’s all about what the insurance company thinks. If they feel that you’re trying to make a fraudulent claim, for any reason, they can simply put the brakes on your claim altogether. It is rather frustrating to pick and choose your words when you talk to the insurance company, but it is important. Too many people, every single year, decide that having insurance is a good way to try to make a bit of money, when in reality that is not what insurance is for.

I can’t tell anyone what to do with their money, but if an insurance company sends a check out, then fix whatever is broken.