Not Made Of Money

Everyone tells you that you must have homeowners insurance or renters insurance to protect your assets. After all, the property coverage in these insurance policies will replace any lost or damaged items in the event of a catastrophic loss. What everyone doesn’t talk about, however, are the steps that you need to follow to ensure that your can document your loss.

For the most part, insurance companies will give you some leeway when it comes to replacing generic items like clothing or kitchen goods. The problem comes when you own something special. Perhaps you have a state of the art Kitchen Aid mixer, rather than a standard hand mixer. Maybe you have a massive collection of CD’s that make your local radio station’s archives pale in comparison. Anytime you own something that is out of the norm, you really take the steps to document that asset.

Begin by taking pictures. Do you own a special piece of jewelry? Maybe you have an assortment of antique furniture that your grandmother gave you. Taking pictures of these items will prove that you truly possessed them and display their condition. While your camera is out, you should also take pictures of the various rooms in your house. These will help you when you have to list the more commonplace items for your insurance claim, too.

List your rare or expensive assets. Some insurance policies actually require that you name particularly expensive assets in the insurance policy. Even if you aren’t required to take that extra step, though, you should probably start your own list of assets. Write down the name of the asset, any details you can name about it (manufacturer, age, and special features), and attach the receipt if it’s available.

Store your records in a safe place. If you have a safety deposit box, you should place your asset listing and your pictures (or a CD with the picture files) in your safety deposit box. You can keep your records in your home, however, if you take the time to protect them. Place them in a fire safe to preserve them from any catastrophes they might need to endure.

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Traveling by air is expensive anytime. Traveling by air with the whole family over the holidays, however, can be ridiculously expensive. In fact, the high price of airfare can be so steep that it forces some families to stay home.

Before you cancel your family’s holiday travel plans, bear in mind that there are some things you can do to mitigate the cost of flying. None of these things will make flying cheap, but some of them will make it more reasonable.

Buy tickets early. The earlier you purchase your airline tickets, the less expensive they will be. As soon as you finalize your travel plans, start shopping for tickets. You may be able to snap us some inexpensive promotional prices that are normally sold out in a hurry.

Shop around. Be sure to check multiple sources before you purchase your airline tickets. I like to look at Travelocity or Expedia to get an idea how much my airfare should cost. Then, I visit the airline’s websites directly to see if there are any specials. Don’t forget to check out Southwest Airlines’ website (if they are flying where you need to go). Southwest usually has cheap tickets, but they don’t sell tickets through online brokers like Expedia.

Fly early. Most people fly to their destinations a day or two before the holiday. If you can leave three or four days before the holiday, you may be able to avoid some of the high prices of holiday travel. You can use the same strategy when you schedule your return trip, too.

Consolidate baggage. Now that most airlines are charging their passengers for every bag they check, you should do everything you can afford to cut your baggage down. If you carry everything on, do. If you must check a bag or two, though, try to keep it down to as few bags as possible. At $15 – $25 each, those baggage fees can add up quickly.

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Yeah the holidays are almost here! Many people are excited at the prospect of enjoying another holiday season. Other folks, though, are panic-stricken. If you haven’t been saving some extra cash to pay for your holiday celebrations, the holiday season may be terrifying for you. How will you get through the season without spending more money than you have? Can you avoid using your dreaded credit cards?

The good news is that you CAN avoid using your credit cards. You don’t need to panic yet. You just need to start laying aside some extra cash now in preparation for the holidays. Don’t worry if you don’t have a clue about how to get your hands on some holiday cash. I’ve got a few ideas that may help you.

Get a job. I know that you probably already have a job, but I’m talking about a part-time gig that will only last for a few months. Many retailers need extra help during the holiday season. You can help them and yourself at the same time by spending ten or fifteen hours each week moonlighting. Act quickly, though; retailers have already started hiring their seasonal helpers.

Sell something (or lots of things). Gather up all of the things in your house that you don’t need or want anymore. Last year’s must-have toy, the winter coat that no longer fits your child, and a few of those rarely-used kitchen gadgets are great examples of things you may be able to sell. Spend a little time taking pictures of the items and writing descriptions and list the items on Craig’s List or eBay. In less than a week you can have cleared your home of clutter and earned some cold hard cash.

Start a small business. Many people are too busy during the holidays to tend to many of the mundane tasks that are a part of everyone’s lives. You can capitalize on their busyness by taking on some of those tasks. You could clean houses, rake yards, or even baby-sit. Post flyers and list your services on neighborhood bulletin boards to get the word out about your new business.

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For the most part, I don’t usually mind when my spending habits vary from those of my friends and family members. My experience has been that everyone has different priorities when it comes to money. One person may live very frugally but be inclined to splurge on family vacations. A person who really enjoys cars might be okay with spending a disproportionately large amount of his monthly budget on car payments. I always say, “to each his own.”

I draw the line, though, when it comes to late fees. Because I hate the idea of throwing money away, late fees are particularly abhorrent to me. Think about it; late fees are one of the few things that people pay without having anything to show for their purchase. Ugh!

Before you pay one more late fee, please check out these tips to exorcise late fees from your budget. Believe me; you can find something better to spend your money on.

Bank online. You can cut the processing time of most payments down to a day or two by paying your bills online. Those extra days can make a huge difference when you’re on a tight budget. Some online bill paying programs also allow you to set up reminders to tell you when a particular bill is due.
Set up payment reminders. Even if bank online, I would still suggest setting up some payment reminders that exist outside of your bank’s website. If you use Microsoft’s Outlook for your email program, you can set up reminders for each due date in the calendar function. If you’re more old-school, you can write notes on a traditional calendar. Just do something that will tickle your memory when a payment is due.
Grovel a little. Okay, I don’t really mean that you have to grovel. I do think, though, that you shouldn’t feel ashamed about asking your creditors to remove a late fee from your account. If you typically pay your bill on time and an accident causes your payment to process late, don’t be bashful about calling your creditor’s customer service folks and asking for a little forgiveness. Many times, if you ask nicely, they can remove those fees as a courtesy.

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Being in debt stinks. I’ve always felt that owing the bank (or some finance company) money is like having something hanging over your head. If anything goes wrong and causes you to miss your monthly payment, your whole world could quickly come crashing in around you.

I do understand, though, that debt is a necessary tool for many families. Let’s face it; many of us can’t afford to pay cash for a car. And how many of us can pay with cash for a house? Debt it just a part of life for many people.

All of that said, debts or loans should always be repaid as quickly as possible. The sooner you can pay that loan off, the sooner you can remove that weight hanging over your head. To help you along, I’ve come up with these five tips to help you pay your loan off early.

Round up. The easiest way to pay off a loan early is to pay a little extra towards your principal amount every month. If your monthly payment is $192, you could simply pay $200. You won’t notice the extra $8, and you’ll accelerate your payment plan.

Keep steady payments even if your loan isn’t. Sometimes mortgage payments change. Your escrow amount might vary, for instance, from year to year. When your payment goes down, don’t adjust down to it. Instead, keep paying the payment you already budgeted for. The extra will just go towards paying your loan off early.

Earmark extra money for your debts. When you receive an unexpected windfall like a bonus at work, you should send those in directly to your lender. You can direct the extra payment to be applied to your principal balance. Since you weren’t expecting the money, the extra money won’t be missed from your budget.

Make biweekly payments. Many lenders will set you up on an accelerated payment system like making biweekly payments instead of monthly payments. Each year, you’ll end up making an extra payment.

Take the money from your savings. Although I would never suggest emptying your savings account to pay off a debt (that’s a whole different kind of thing hanging over your head), there’s nothing wrong with removing some money from your savings to pay off a loan. You can quickly rebuild your savings account after you don’t have to make those debt payments anymore.

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When I think of winter and the holiday season, I have to admit that my mind usually turns to holiday celebrations and cozy nights with the family. Practical, financial matters are often the farthest things from my mind. I should, however, make a little time to think about our family’s insurance needs.

You see, in our household (like many households) our medical insurance features an open enrollment period for a few weeks each year. This open enrollment time gives us the option to change our plan (between an HMO and PPO option), change our contribution to a flexible spending plan, and to add or drop dependent coverage. Since we have to live with our choices for an entire year, we have to give the matter careful thought each year.

We usually begin our evaluation by looking back over the previous year and thinking about what worked and didn’t work in our healthcare needs. Did we contribute too much or too little money to our flex-spending plan? Did we visit a doctor that wasn’t in our HMO plan and get hit with a big medical bill? This open enrollment opportunity gives us the chance to change our plan to fit these types of situations.

Next, we try to think about upcoming changes in our family. Do we see large medical or dental bills coming this year? Maybe one the kids will need braces. If so, we should increase our flex-spending contributions to cover these increased costs. Will one of us be traveling a great deal this year? In this situation, coverage in a PPO plan may be a better option in case that person gets injured while away from our HMO’s coverage area.

Spending a little time evaluating your insurance needs before your open enrollment period begins allows you to get the most out of your insurance coverage. Rather than sticking with the status quo because the deadline is looming and you don’t know what to do, you can take advantage of your head start and investigate your options. Asking a few questions and spending some time thinking about the answers you get could save you a lot of money over the next year.

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We love to entertain. Nothing makes us happier than having our home filled with friends and family members. Some days I think the only reason my husband wanted to buy a house was so that he would have a place to entertain.

Since entertaining is so important to us, we have always known that we would need to make room in our budget for entertaining costs. A budget that didn’t include these costs would just be unrealistic for us.

We also knew, though, that we would have to set some limits to our entertaining budget. We didn’t want our entertainment spending to be out of proportion with the rest of our expenses, so we started hunting for ways to save on entertaining costs.

Go potluck. The real fun of entertaining doesn’t come from physically preparing meals for all of your friends and family. The fun comes from interacting with the people you care about. Rather than spending the whole day in the kitchen, why shouldn’t you share the work of entertaining? If everyone contributes a little something, no one will feel a pinch in their wallets.

Plan some type of entertainment. What types of things do you and your friends like to do? Are you board game people? Ask everyone to bring their favorite game so that you have a wide selection of games to choose from. Do you like sports? A game of touch football in the backyard may be the perfect way to spend an afternoon. Just be sure to plan entertainment ahead of time so that you are not tempted to run out and buy something at the last minute to entertain your guests with.

Skip excessive decorations. With the exception of Christmas parties (and possibly Halloween parties) most adult gatherings don’t need a lot of décor. Don’t spend a lot of money of cheesy extras. Instead, focus your energy on cleaning and preparing your home for the big day.

Forget paper invitations. Most family gatherings don’t require you to send out formal invitations. (There are a few exceptions, of course.) Rather than spending money on invitations and postage, why not invest a little time and call or email all of your prospective guests.

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