Money Tips Network

Are you protected if your insurance company shuts its doors? Photo: Matthew Hurst

What do you do when you’ve entrusted a company to insure your most valuable possessions — your car, your home, your life — and that company goes belly-up just when you need them most? Of course, no one expects the company holding their policy to go bankrupt. But still, every once in a while, it happens.

When you buy insurance of any kind, you’re entering into a contract that spells out the responsibilities of both you and the insurance company. Both of you accept as a matter of good faith that you are able to meet your contractual obligations.

For most of us, travel is something we do when we're going on vacation or visiting friends and relatives. But other people, they get to travel all the time; once a month, or maybe even once or twice a week. Not only that, but it's all paid for.

Have you ever wondered why your next-door neighbor must have a new car in his driveway every model year?

And not just a new car, but a new car with all the bells and whistles, like that 18-valve, turbo-charged, dyno-flex, hydroponic 4000 engine, 57-speaker audio system with Sistine Chapel acoustics and the buttery soft leathers imported from recently-discovered islands off the Madagascar coast?

It turns out he is just giving in to the inclinations that characterize too many American big spenders, who gain their greatest joy from acts of overspending.

That’s right, many humans are simply pre-programmed to overspend, an action that illuminates the pleasure centers of their brains. To these people, saving lacks sex appeal. It is spending, not saving, that is sexy.

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You have selected and begun to execute your plan for getting out of debt – and you have just paid off that first credit card debt.

You are awesome!

Paying off that first account is an important milestone.  There’s a tremendous feeling of satisfaction which accompanies the completion of any worthy goal.  Take a while to enjoy the success – and then get pumped to move on to the next step in your plan.

Before you move too fast, however, check one thing – the next monthly statement from your credit card company.  You may be in for a surprise.

Even though you paid your balance – in full – you may still owe some residual interest.

Pressed for cash? Have feet? Then you, my ambulatory friend, should read about how to set up a thriving dog-walking business in nine simple steps. (See also: Earn Extra Income With These 15 Creative Side Gigs)
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A few days ago, we received our first measurable snowfall of the year, bringing us a two-inch blanket of snow that covered the world in white. It was a stark reminder that, although the calendar doesn’t quite say so (yet), winter has arrived.

As anyone who has ever had to pay an energy bill north of the tropics knows, cold weather can mean a spike in energy costs. It costs money to heat a home – serious money. Our energy bills tend to go up by about 50% in the winter – and that’s after doing almost everything we can think of to keep things under control. Before that? Our bills would often double compared to the fall.

So, what exactly are we doing to slice 25% off of our energy bill? For many people, that’s $50 or $100 a month in savings, so it’s well worth looking into. Here are 20 strategies we’ve employed over the last several years to grind down our winter energy costs.

Pantry staples like vinegar, baking soda, and salt make house cleaning easier and cheaper. Photo: Perry Goh

The last time I went shopping for cleaning supplies, there were so many items to choose from I quickly got overwhelmed, grabbed a few things off my list, and made a dash for the exit. Of course, I was missing a few items when it was time to start cleaning, but I made it work.

Why the initial shock? Well, it had been several years since I’d actually shopped for cleaning supplies. During my couponing days, I only purchased the items that were practically free and found creative ways to put them to use; sometimes, the results weren’t so favorable. Anyhow, I eventually created a stockpile so large that I didn’t have to shop for cleaning supplies for quite some time.

This article is by staff writer Kristin Wong.

At another site, I recently wrote about a tool that shows you online prices in terms of hours worked. I used a random item — a fancy coffee maker that costs $116 — as an example. It would take someone who earned $38 an hour approximately three hours of work to pay for that item. A reader replied that, if they made $38 an hour, they wouldn’t waste their time thinking about whether or not the purchase was worth it.

To me, this was a spot-on definition of lifestyle inflation, summed up perfectly in one simple comment.