This is a guest post from Ashley over at Learn Stock Market Basics. If you are interested in learning more about the stock market stop by and see what they have to offer. They are focused on helping you find the best investments for your situation.

Health insurance is one of those things that only seem to get more expensive each year. Doctor’s visits, medications, and surgical procedures can cost you a fortune if you do not have coverage. This is why every person needs to have health insurance. Here are a few of the ways that you can lower the cost of health insurance.

Compare healthcare programs

You can get the best health savings by doing some comparison shopping online. There are a number of quality health insurance companies that have the plans that you are looking for. Be sure to compare the costs of the plan with all of the benefits that the plan provides. You should take a look at the different plans offered by healthcare companies and select the one that has the best plan for you.

Get in better shape

Losing weight can save you a lot of money off of your insurance premiums. Obese people pay a lot more on a monthly basis to have health insurance. That is because they have a much higher risk of falling ill and being susceptible to diseases. Dropping a few extra pounds could save you hundreds of dollars every single month.

Drop the bad habits

Bad habits like smoking and drinking are not only bad for your body. They are bad for your wallet as well. Your insurance company will go up on your rates if they discover that you engage in these activities. Kicking a few bad habits will allow you to live a longer life and pay less money for your insurance too.

Use a network

Staying in network is one of the best ways to keep the costs of your doctor’s visit down. HMO and PPO plans require minimum out of pocket costs if you visit a doctor in the company’s network. Check to make sure that your doctor is in your network’s plan so that all of your visits will be covered.

Buy a high deductible plan

High deductible plans work well for those individuals that find that basic insurance plans are too costly. A high deductible plan allows you to get coverage for you and your kids. You just need to pay more cash out of pocket upfront. Once you have covered the full amount of the deductible, the insurance will kick in. This type of insurance is great for covering the costs of expensive procedures.

photo credit: Truthout.org

So, you’ve got auto insurance for your car, health insurance for your health, flood insurance for your property, and home insurance for your house.  Everything’s covered!  Yay!  Whoa there.  Not quite.  These days, it seems like you’ve got to insure everything if you want it covered in case of loss.  There’s pet insurance.  Celebrities are insuring their body parts.  And, while you probably don’t need to insure those killer legs, you probably want to check to make sure you have some sort of personal property insurance (or personal belongings insurance).

Despite what you may think, your home insurance doesn’t necessarily cover your personal properties.  They might have some small rider that will pay out a small amount to replace certain essentials like clothes and such, but if you’re ever in need of it, you’ll quickly find that it will fall far short of replacing much of the personal property that you owned.  Some of the things will have caps on them for value.  Got a killer gaming computer?  Not covered to it’s full value.  Many people are choosing to add a personal property policy to their list of insurance policies.

Part of getting a personal property policy is being able to identify the item, it’s value, and prove both.  Here are three ways you can use to record the property that you own, and do it easily.

• Spreadsheet — Create a spreadsheet for each room and list the items you are insuring from that room.  Be sure to record any serial numbers and model numbers that you can.  A short description can also be helpful.
• Take Pictures — Combined with a simple spreadsheet, take pictures of the items that you own in each room.  This can help identify the items, and act as proof of serial and model numbers as well as condition.
• Contents Video — Take a camcorder (or any device that records decent quality video) and walk through each room of your house, recording each item that you’ll be insuring.  Again, be sure to record serial numbers and model numbers.  You can use the ability to record voice to add in descriptions as you go.

Properly recording and keeping track of your property can make purchasing your personal property insurance a much easier task and make sure that you’re insured for the proper amounts and items so that you don’t find yourself trying to replace expensive items that you though your home insurance would cover.

photo credit: 111 Emergency

If retirement is fast approaching and you haven’t spent much time preparing for it, then you will likely find your golden years to be a little restrictive when your regular income stream ceases and you haven’t planned on how to replace it. However, you don’t need to panic just yet as you may still be able to create the life you want for yourself in retirement by dealing with a few issues you had previously put off thinking about, such as ensuring you can live comfortably in retirement, and making sure you don’t lose your home or financial independence. If you are only around five years away from ‘receiving your gold watch’ you are cutting it fine but you still have time to go through this checklist and get yourself ready for your retirement future.

1 – How and Where You Will be Living

First up of course you will need to turn your mind to how and where you will be living.  For instance will you be able to remain living where you are now or will you have to move.  In some cases, couples approaching retirement sell everything and buy a smaller apartment or sometimes even a motor home to travel around the country. Spending your retirement on the road gives you a chance to see places you have only dreamt about, or read about, while still maintaining part time work.

Often the family home will become too big for you once your children have moved out and you can choose to embrace the freedom of this lifted responsibility by swapping your home for a home on wheels, or downsizing to a smaller place. While you will still have family ties and community responsibilities, you can enjoy the freedom of a smaller home which is easier to maintain, not to mention easier on your finances too.

2 – Complete All the Paperwork in Advance

Whatever you plan to do in retirement you will have to prepare yourself for the changes that will eventually take place.  You will have to complete the required documentation to allow you to receive any benefits that you may be entitled to such as Social Security, Medicare. You’ll also need to make other personal arrangements such as include superannuation and life insurance.  If you have investments, now is the time to start clearing them and sorting out the kind of portfolio you will have in retirement.

3 – Choose a Good Financial Planner

You can also seek help with this checklist from your financial planner, which can be useful if you have investments that are earmarked to provide you with a passive income when you are no longer earning in your own right. Either way, you will need a list of your assets and all the debts you will still owe when leaving paid work.  You don’t want to carry any debts over into your retirement years as your earning capacity will be reduced, and so too will your ability to repay these debts quickly, plus you want all of your retirement funds to be allocated to enjoying life.  After clearing all your debts you will then have a clearer picture of how much you will have to retire on.

4 – Don’t Forget That Medical Check Up

With all your debts paid off and a clear picture of your financial future starting to take shape, it will be time to have a thorough medical check up.  You will need to do this so that you will not be surprised if any health problems were to suddenly arise that would throw all your carefully planned financial future and retirement activities into disarray.  Remember your medical insurance cover might well change too once you have retired and you may need a current check up for your files.

Whatever the result of your medical check up, or if illness should strike in the future that was previously unforeseen, don’t let it take over your life, try to live your retirement life to the full no matter what the odds are.  If you had planned to travel, do so, medical care is widespread around the country and the continuous change of scenery might be of immense help in giving you a renewed approach to life.

5 – Rearrange Your Life Insurance

As you get older you will be approaching the business end of your life insurance – the eventuality you have taken out a policy for is closer than ever. Also look at the policies you have to protect your family because while you may have had a life insurance policy which could cover your childrens’ college expenses if you were to die when they were young, your children are probably finished their studies and pursuing their careers, so find out whether your term life insurance policy is one which has the option to convert it to a senior term life insurance.

Your main goal is still to avoid leaving behind any financial hardship for your family or friends when you finally die.  Therefore, make sure your funeral costs will be fully covered along with any debts that may remain outstanding, and don’t forget to keep your will up to date.  Many people fail to make it clear about how they want to disperse their belongings, but a will can put paid to any disagreements that may arise after you have gone.

A good approach to a successful retirement is to realise that you can’t take it with you after your life has ended, so therefore arrange matters which allow you to live comfortably within your means, do things you have not been able to do before, like travel and meeting new friends while keeping active mentally.

Kristy Ramirez writes for Life Insurance Finder where she helps people to compare life insurance quotes and select the best life insurance policy to meet their needs at the best possible price.

Home insurance cover is an essential purchase for anyone needing to protect their home and possessions from an array of damaging occurrences, including theft, fire, accidental damage and, in some cases, natural disasters. Unfortunately in a recession, many people have been obliged to seek ways to cut their outgoings and home contents insurance policies have been the first to go, unlike buildings insurance which is mandatory for any mortgaged home, as a lender’s condition. This course of action is obviously unwise, due to the risks of damaged possessions and the potential costs of replacement and happily various actions can be taken to keep policies as cost-effective as possible.

All home insurance cover policies are built and customized according to the customer’s specifications and circumstances. ‘Riskier’ customers will pay more for home contents insurance; for example, those who have previous claims histories, who have expensive possessions to insure, who live in certain postcode areas or near rivers with histories of flooding. Customers with a lower risk profile will include those with good credit histories, ‘safer’ postcodes, lower claim coverage amounts and low previous claim histories. Age, family, the condition of your home and those living at the premises will also be factors.

The first tip for getting the best home insurance cover premium is to shop around and the internet is the best place to start. These online supermarkets also tend to offer significant discounts of up to 30% for online purchases. By putting in key details into a price comparison site or supermarket, an immediate range of competitive policies will be returned for selection; according to best need and price. These sites are useful too for highlighting providers who will automatically exclude certain applicant groups (for example specialist insurances, or those for the over 50s, such as Saga). This saves consumers a great deal of time and can offer easy comparison of the best deal.

It is also possible to adjust the affecting factors that make up the resulting premium; for example, by choosing a higher excess amount, a lower overall coverage amount, or by de-selecting other criteria such as legal expenses insurance, hotel or accommodation cover in the case of house damage and other useful services. Even in a recession however, it’s very important for consumers not to cut corners when applying for home insurance cover, being adequately covered is imperative and all information given must be entirely accurate. Failure to do this may lead to automatic invalidation on a later claim, which can be very stressful and upsetting during a difficult period; if not even leading to further investigation and police fraud involvement in serious cases.

For those with specialist items to insure, such as art collections, high value jewelery or specialist business related equipment, regular home insurance cover may not be appropriate and in this case specialist insurances are required. The provider will advise of this at application and may suggest their own departments for more specialist products. It is worth noting that in some cases, loyalty to one provider can pay off, for example some offer discounts for customers who have more than one insurance policy. Equally, some customers will find that regular insurers won’t cover homes with flood histories, near cliff sides, or in areas prone to natural disasters for home contents insurance and again specialist insurers may be recommended.

Once the insurance policy has been determined, paid for and set up, it is important to keep the contact numbers and policy details at hand in case of a claim. Keep receipts and records for key purchases. It is wise to inform your insurer of any significant new purchases during an annual policy period to ensure it is still covered within the home contents insurance provisions. Be prepared too for a visit from the insurance company in the case of a claim, as they will check the circumstances for any high value claims or those affecting properties. Also, ensure that you keep your property in good condition and adhere to any other terms and conditions in the home insurance cover policy document, as these will form part of the contract.

And of course, when the annual policy expires, it’s wise to not simply accept the renewal quote which is unlikely to be competitive. Take the time to shop around, review your circumstances for any changes and ensure you are still getting the right level of home insurance cover, at the right price.

This article was provided by moneysupermarket.com, the UK’s leading price comparison site. The moneysupemarket.com home insurance service features a wide range of companies to help UK home owners find the right cover for their home and family quickly and easily.

photo credit: EivindNitter
photo credit: lrargerich

There are many ways to make sure you are getting the best price possible when you are shopping around for homeowner’s insurance. By taking these steps, you can be sure you are getting a low rate and quality protection for your home.

Do Your Homework

When looking for a new homeowner’s policy, ask around. Find out where your family and friends obtained policies and ask for recommendations. You can also do Internet searches or inquire at a few different insurance offices to compare quotes. Make sure that when you compare rates, you are looking at policies that are similar to one another.

Increase Your Deductible

You can save money on your monthly premium by choosing a plan with a higher deductible. This can take the pressure off your pocketbook when it comes to paying your monthly bill. Of course, you’ll want to make sure that you can afford the higher deductible in the unlikely event of a catastrophe.

Buy Your Other Polices From the Same Company

You can possibly save between 5 to 15 percent if you buy your other insurance policies from the same company. Ask your insurance agent how much you could save if you purchased another type of insurance such as auto, life, or health in addition to your homeowner’s policy.

Insure Your Home for the Cost of Rebuilding

You don’t want to be paying for coverage that isn’t necessary. Make sure you are insuring your home for what it would cost if you needed to rebuild it. The land is already there and immune to most disasters–if something happened, only the home itself would need to be covered.

Safeguard Your Home

Many insurance companies will offer lower rates if they know you do your best to protect your home. Make sure to have working smoke and fire alarms and sturdy locks on your windows and doors. Insurance companies also like to insure homes that have strong roofs, storm windows, indoor and outdoor sprinkler systems, and other structural improvements. It also doesn’t hurt to consider putting in a home security system to lower your home owner’s insurance rate.

Uphold a Good Credit Score

More often, insurance companies are taking a closer look at credit scores to determine rates. Always try to pay your bills on time and try to keep your credit balances low. Every year you should review your credit report to make sure that everything is accurate.

Ask for Other Types of Discounts

If you are a person over 55 and you are retired, you may qualify for a discount. This varies with different insurance companies and isn’t always the case, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. Also, check to see if you can save money by paying your yearly premium upfront versus paying it in monthly installments. You can sometimes save between 5 to 10 percent by paying your premium all at once.

Saving money on home insurance can be easy if you take the time to shop around, ask questions, and do your best to be a responsible home owner. You’ll be happy you took the time to find the right policy when you see the extra money in your bank account.

Guest post from Bailey Harris. Bailey writes about insurance and related topics for the Home Insurance Blog.

Deciding on the amount of coverage you need is confusing during times of financial stress. So how do you approach your auto insurance when you need the coverage but have only so much to offer for monthly premium.

The first thing you should determine is the amount of coverage you need. Do you go with the lowest amount of coverage allowed by your state. If you do you may able to slowly use the extra money you save to pull yourself out of other debt. However, this becomes a gamble. You want enough coverage but you can never be sure how much enough is. You have no idea what will happen tomorrow. If you purchase the minimum liability limit you’ll be covered enough to satisfy your state’s requirements. However, if you become negligent in an auto accident where the loss exceeds you coverage limits, the result may increase you total debt.

Determining Your Risk:

Are you a parent of a teen driver? Is your spouse a bad driver? If a higher than average risk exists, it’s best to buy more coverage and look for other ways to reduce your monthly spending. If you hardly drive or there are no other drivers in your household, the state minimum liability requirement just may be the best choice. It all comes down to the amount of risk you’re willing to retain.

A Few Ways To Reduce The Cost of Auto Insurance:

There are several ways you can reduce your auto insurance without buying a low limit policy.
Paying for your auto policy in full is a great way to reduce the overall cost of your auto insurance. When pulling out of debt, paying for an auto policy up front isn’t always the popular choice. You want the low car insurance rates without having to pay a high down payment. You may want to consider planning to pay in full, 6 months before your renewal date. The savings is worth it which can be as much as $100-$150 on a policy.

Revisit Your Personal Insurance Needs – Compare Insurance Quotes

My father was in his mid 50s when we took a look at his auto home policy. His prior company was insuring him with a low limit policy for much more than he should have been paying. He mentioned he hadn’t shopped for car insurance since he was in his 20s. We comparison shopped several major insurance companies and came across two companies offering much more coverage for much less premium. The Hartford being the best choice, covered him with nearly 4 times the liability coverage with a lower deductible. This switch also saving him $300 a year.

Rule of Thumb When Switching Auto Insurance Companies

One mistake so many make when trying to save money on car insurance is making the decision to compare quotes a day or two before their expiration date. Some shop on or after their policy lapses which is the biggest mistake if you would like to see lower insurance rates. Several insurance companies offer a future effective discount. Make your first payment on a new policy 7 or more days before the policy goes effective. Insurance companies dread working with those who make late payments. On the reverse side they often reward those who pay for their policy in full or make a payment before the policy becomes effective.

Escaping debt takes time and finding an affordable auto policy that will protect you is the best move you can make for saving money now and protecting yourself tomorrow from financial loss tomorrow.

Bio:
Cole Sileven has previously worked in the insurance industry and now manages Low Insurance & Security’s online resource. This service was built to help shoppers compare insurance quotes from leading companies.

As I’ve covered before, shortly after my wife quit her job, she joined a couple of her previous coworkers in starting a business of their own.  As anyone who has started a business of their own knows, there are many, many unexpected things that can come up.  With proper planning, many of those things can become less of a shock when they happen.  One way to do that, and one that the accountant that was helping my wife and her partners get started required, is business insurance.

What is business insurance?

It can come in many small variations, but in general terms, it is insurance that helps protect you and your company against liability and litigation.  It also can act as insurance against interruptions in business.  If your store floods, and you have to close for a few days, it will help defray those costs.  Your coffee burns someones tongue off?  It’ll help with that as well.

With the particular type of business that my wife and her partners were building, liability insurance was the most important part of their business insurance package.  They work daily with clients in a variety of locations and scenarios and as such, need an insurance that will cover them for liability if someone were to get injured while at one of the locations or in transport to the location.  That part of the insurance was much more important than having insurance for a office location (at least right away since they didn’t have an office for several months.).

Where do I get business insurance?

Getting business insurance isn’t as difficult as it may seem.  In fact, it might be as easy as getting a referral, like my wife and her partners did.  A quick look through your local phone book will likely get you some prospects as well.  And in many cases, if the agent you talk to doesn’t offer business insurance, they’ll happily refer you to someone who does.  Much like any other type of insurance, there are plenty of websites that offer quotes and services.  And, much like any other type of insurance website, it’s difficult to weed out the ones that are really there to help and which are there to make themselves a quick buck.  One that is trusted is Premier Line Business Insurance*.  Premier Line is UK based, however, so if you’re outside of Mainland Britain, you’re probably just as well off to search locally.

Much like anything else involving your business, business insurance really needs to fit your business.  Your responsibility as the business owner is to check and double check to make sure that the coverage fits your business and will cover all the necessary situations.  Getting a sub-standard insurance just because it was the cheapest could cost you money, or worse, your business.

insurance by alancleaver_2000, on Flickr

*Disclaimer: I was paid by Premier Line Business Insurance to post a link to their site.  I was given full editorial control over where and in what manner it would appear.  (In fact, I demand that.)  The entirety of this post is honest discussion of the topic with the added benefit to me of providing a contextual and related place to place the link.  The payment in no way swayed the post.

Way back in March, I mentioned that I was beginning to look into making some adjustments and doing some price checking.  Somewhere in between there and here, life got in the way and I wasn’t able to get it done as quickly as I would have liked.  I’ve finally caught up to it though and I’m glad that I did.

This story should be proof for the rest of you who don’t regularly compare prices on things.  Never assume that you’re getting the best rate.

Our car insurance had been with State Farm.  I have been a customer of theirs for close to a decade.  As of August (when the home owners insurance renews) I will no longer be a customer.  Why?  Because, what I found in my checking is that they were tied for most expensive auto insurance.  And the home owners wasn’t much better.  Of course, your results may vary and the insurance company for us isn’t necessarily going to be the company for you.  I know that when I originally signed up with State Farm, it was because the price comparison tool at Progressives website pointed to them as being the cheapest.

I find it ironic that the insurance company that we’re moving to is Progressive.  We’ll be moving our Home Owners policy to someone else.  Progressive was almost exactly 50% cheaper than State Farm.  50%!!!  In fact, the total for 6 months for all three vehicles that we insure was just barely more than it was for just one of them at State Farm.  That’s pretty incredible.  A bit of trivium; our new ins. agent mentioned that he’s moved 11 clients from State Farm to Progressive in the last month or so, and that about 6 Progressive clients have moved to State Farm.  I mention that to concrete the idea that the right insurance company for one person isn’t necessarily the right insurance company for another.  With all the variables that they take into account, it’s hard to say which will be better unless you do some shopping.

Another interesting note from the adventure.  Previously, I went to a State Farm agent and got my insurance.  This time, I went to an insurance agency.  They’re independent for the most part and have access to several insurance companies to quote from.  That makes it much easier to shop around, as they will do most of the footwork for you.  All you’ve got to do is check any companies that you’d like quotes from that the agency doesn’t have a relationship with. In our case, Allstate was probably the biggest one that the agency didn’t have to quote from.  I used Allstate’s online quote tool and found it to be on par with State Farm.

So, lesson learned.  Shopping around is good.  It can help you find the best deal when you’re buying just about anything.  But, if you’re buying a service, remember to shop around periodically and compare the service that used to be the best deal to make sure it still is.  You just might do like we did and save 50%.

It struck me the other night, as I was reading a book and came upon a section on Ponzi Schemes, that insurance companies are borderline ponzi’s themselves.  The definition of a ponzi scheme is when the broker/banker/agent takes money and promises a unusually high return and then pays said return from the incoming money from other investors.  Eventually, when the incoming investors dry up, the agent can no longer pay the returns and the scheme comes crashing down.

Now, let’s look at insurance companies.  We, as the insured, pay the insurance company our premiums in return for insurance against some sort of event.  With health insurance it’s against some sort of health event.  With car insurance, it’s against some sort of accident.  In any case, it’s a payment.  Or a return on the premium.  Very seldom will you actually come out with your entire investment.  What would happen if the premium payers dried up?  It would get more difficult for the insurance companies to pay any claims.

Where the key difference lies is that if you stop paying your premiums, they stop paying any claims for you.  Also, as a premium payer, you never really expect your money back unless you have a claim.  You’re paying for the “in case”, if it were to happen.  In a Ponzi, you’re investing your money specifically for the return.  You’re not going to stop investing as long as the returns are stable.  And a Ponzi only really dies when the new investors stop coming.  If new insured stopped coming to the insurance company, they would still have their current insured to collect premiums from.

So, no.  Insurance companies are not Ponzi Schemes.  But, it sure feels that way sometimes.

Photo Credit: Showmeone @ Flickr

No matter what your point of view on the health care reform bill, there’s a pretty good chance that it will be law for at least a little while.  So, it makes sense to try and digest all the stuff that is in it.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t intend to read a 2000 page document.  Especially since I have little to no chance of understanding about 90% of the legal language involved.  So, it was nice to find this Health Care Reform graphic.  It’s got a nice timeline of the important dates and the important changes that happen on each date.