Your Wealth Puzzle » Insurance

Got Financial Troubles|Solve It With Puzzles

yourwealthpuzzle — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 10:00:49 +0000

Is Your Financial Puzzle Out Of Whack?

What’s A Financial Puzzle?

Everyone has a financial puzzle, most folks just don’t know it. Your financial puzzle is your financial life put together as a puzzle. Pieces of puzzles have to fit together to complete a puzzle, the same is true with your finances. To have a steady financial life, all your financial pieces have to fit together; if they are not fitting like a puzzle, you could have financial troubles.

The Top 2 Financial Puzzle Pieces

Your Insurances

Insurance is an absolute necessity. You need insurance to protect you and your family from the unknown.

You have auto and home insurance to protect yourself from liabilities and your property from physical damage. You may have an umbrella policy to extend your liability coverages.

You have life insurance to protect your family in case something were to happen to you. Some financial planners say that you can never have enough life insurance….that may be true, how do you feel about that? Do you have enough life insurance on yourself and your spouse to pay off your mortgage, all outstanding credit card debts, your auto loans and if you have children, enough to put them through college?

If you do not have enough insurance coverages, your financial puzzle will be lopsided. Work closely with your insurance agent; make sure they advise you on the proper auto, home and life insurance coverages. Your agent should also be able to help you save money on your insurance premiums.

Your Debt

Debt is ugly. It us easy to get into it but oh so difficult to get out of it. Credit card debt is the #1 reason for someone’s financial puzzle to be out of whack.

You waste so much money on credit card debt with fees and interest. Make a commitment to yourself to repair your credit card debt. This will help improve your financial puzzle.

Your Commitment

Avoid adding on additional debt. If you cannot afford to pay for something in cash, don’t buy it.

Stop missed payments; they will catch up with you when your credit score gets lowered.

Stop late pays. If you cannot afford to pay off your credit card in full every month, do not use your card.

Debt that is not attended to lowers your credit score. A low credit score will increase the cost of everything you buy. So if you thought you had financial troubles before, wait until your credit score is low.

You can do it, with a commitment to yourself you can reduce the amount of your outstanding debts.

Your Guide To The Financial Stages of Your Life

yourwealthpuzzle — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 10:29:48 +0000

Every one of us accomplishes our life’s goals at different times throughout our lives. We each use a different set of building blocks. We each face challenges and have to overcome those challenges in the development of our careers & financial lives.

Do you know your challenges and goals? Do you know what will be demanded of you at the different stages of your life? A lot of folks are not sure and need some guidance.

Sometimes having a guide to walk you through each stage can be helpful? The Financial Stages of Your Life Guide will help direct you through the financial challenges that you will face during each phase of your life. Here’s a review of what the guide can offer you:

The Financial Stages of Your Life Guide

20’s : Getting Started

Your young and wild. You can do anything, Your invincible. Now what?

You transition from education to establishing a career.
You start looking around to see what the world has to offer you.
You start working.
You start developing credit.
You start interviewing for jobs.
You start sending applications out for an apartment.

30’s – 40’s : Accumulation

You have begun to settle down. You have to be responsible now. There are people counting on you. What do you do next?

You get married.
You start families.
These are your professional years.
You develop your careers.
You start accumulating assets and building equity.
You apply for mortgages.
You start your 401k retirement accounts.
You buy some life insurance policies.

50’s : Final Working Years

Your children are becoming little adults, so now you can focus on your financial goals. Learn how.

These are the beginnings of your final working years.
You accumulate as much as possible for retirement.
You apply for student loans for your children.
If you still have outstanding balances on your own student loans you start paying extra on those loans.
You start to consolidate other outstanding debt.
You pay off as much debt as possible.

60’s : Begin Retirement

You start the transition from working years to retirement years.
You start to ask yourself some serious questions about your future.
Have you saved enough money for your retirement years?
Will you have to continue to work during your retirement years?
If you have to work part-time, what would that look like?

70’s

Ahhh - Retirement. Job well done. You have worked your entire life for these years. Relax and enjoy them, you’ve earned them.

Get your “Financial Stages of YOUR Life Guide“ for FREE!

You Are Your Credit Score

yourwealthpuzzle — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 10:08:47 +0000

Your Credit Scores Tell All About You

Your credit scores represent you in the financial industry; hope you have good representation.

Your credit score carries a lot of weight in the financial industry because it is a number that can be measured. Whether you like it or not, you are financially evaluated by your credit scores. The financial industry uses your credit scores to determine how risky you could be. So it is in your very best interest to do whatever you can to improve your credit score.

Your Insurance

Insurance companies use your credit scores to determine your auto and home insurance premiums. If your credit score is too low, insurance companies assume that you are a bad risk and may cost them too much money in claims, so they charge you more in premium.

Your Credit Cards

Credit card companies use your credit score to determine your interest rates. If your credit score is too low, credit card companies assume you will cost them money with late pays, missed payments or collection accounts.

Your Loans

Mortgage companies, loan companies and banks review your credit score before deciding on whether or not to extend you a loan; and also what interest rates to charge you. If you have a credit score that is too low, they assume you are a risk, and may stick them with a defaulted loan.

Your Other Financials

Your landlord and utility company also uses credit scores to determine if you could be a potential risk.

Your Credit Score Is A Number

Since you are evaluated by a number, you want to know how that number is determined and what number you should strive to attain.

The 3 national credit reporting agencies distribute credit scoring models called FICO scores. These FICO credit scores range from 300 to 850. This credit score number is a prediction of your likelihood to be a high credit risk. The lower the number the greater risk you pose to creditors, lenders and insurance companies.

What’s Your Number?

Less Than 300

Credit scores below 300 are considered to be very poor and high risk. If your credit score is at 300 or less you need to improve your credit score to be removed from the high risk category.

300 to 750

You need to improve your credit score if it ranges from 300 to 750 because you are still considered a credit risk.

750 to 850

A credit score between 750 and 850 is a good credit score.

850 or higher

If your credit score is at 850 or above you are considered by lenders, creditors, landlords and everyone else in the financial world to be perfect!!!

6 Tips To Save Money On Your Insurance

yourwealthpuzzle — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:08:41 +0000

With the price of everything going up nowadays is it even possible to find ways to reduce any of your expenses?

Yes there is a way to reduce your expenses! Believe it or not there is one expense category where you can reduce your cost and not have to sacrifice quality.

That expense category is insurance.

There are ways to reduce your auto and homeowners insurance costs, you may just have to work at it a bit. Let’s review how you can keep more of your money in your pocket and less in the insurance company’s cash register.

Save Money On Your Insurance

Tip #1 - Slow Down

Change your driving habits if you have a tendency to speed. Slow down your driving.
Most insurance companies check for speeding tickets at least once a year. Most insurance companies then raise your premiums based on those speeding tickets.
To save money by lowering your auto insurance premiums, work on your driving and don’t get speeding tickets, period!

Tip #2 – Watch Your Claim Activity

Don’t file a lot of claims. Too many claims will increase your insurance premiums.
It’s very basic: claims cost insurance companies money; insurance companies need to recoup that money, so they raise your premiums.
To lower your insurance premiums, only file major claims and avoid filing frivolous, minor claims.
What’s a frivolous claim, to you all claims seem important. A minor claim would be a loss that’s just an annoyance or an inconvenience to you…(ie) you spill paint on your carpet. A major claim is when your house burns down….see the difference?

Tip #3 – Improve Credit Score

Credit scores carry a lot of weight with insurance companies. Credit scores are being used by more and more financial institutions to determine rates and pricing; insurance companies are no different.
Insurance companies are using credit scores to draw a line in the sand on premiums.
Improve credit score to keep your insurance premiums low.
To an insurance company, improve your credit score above 750 to save money on your insurance premiums.

Tip # 4 – Combine Insurance Companies

Carry all of your insurance policies with the same insurance company to get the multi-policy discount. This would include your auto, home, umbrella, motorcycle, boat, disability, and life insurance.
Ask your insurance agent about getting a discount on your auto insurance because you also carry your home insurance and a discount on your home insurance because of the auto insurance policy.
Some insurance companies also give discounts on life insurance if you insure the home and auto with them.

Tip #5 – Update Your Insurance Coverages

Raise your deductibles.
If your deductibles are high, the insurance company knows that you’re less likely to file minor claims, so they charge you less in premiums.
If you have an older car look into dropping some coverages.
Ask your insurance agent about comprehensive and collision coverages on an older car.

Tip #6 – Get All The Discounts

Inquire about low annual mileage discounts to lower your auto insurance premiums.
Install a burglar, fire, smoke alarms, dead-bolt locks and other security systems to lower your home insurance.
Ask your agent about additional discounts that your insurance company may offer to help keep auto insurance premiums down: these extra discounts may include: airbag discount, anti-theft discount, multi-car discount.
Quit smoking. Some insurance companies actually offer discounts on a homeowners insurance policy for non-smokers since unattended cigarettes increase the chance of a fire.

Meeting expenses can be a challenge. A few simple adjustments to your insurance policies may help you lower insurance costs and save you money.

Lower your insurance premiums by tightening up on your claim activity, avoid speeding tickets, improve your credit score, increasing your deductible, and asking your insurance agent for all possible discounts.

Credit Insurance 101

yourwealthpuzzle — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 10:53:22 +0000

If your financial planner suggested that credit insurance could be good to have but you’re not sure because you don’t know a lot about it, read this article.

The intent of this article is to help you understand what credit insurance so that you can ask your financial planner or lender the right questions.

Credit insurance is the type of insurance you don’t think you need until you can’t make the payments on your auto loan or mortgage then you’re glad you have it. Credit insurance will pay for your loans when you are unable to.

Credit insurance can be a good thing if you worry about the possibility of losing your home or auto because you can’t make the payments. It usually doesn’t cost a lot and could save you money in the long run.

Credit Insurance 101

What You Use Credit Insurance For

To make your loan payments if you are sick.
To make loan payments if you are injured.
If you lose your job and can’t make your loan payments without credit insurance picking up the payments, you may lose your home or your auto.

To pay off loans if you should die before they are completely paid off.

What You Need To Know About Credit Insurance

Credit insurance is an optional coverage when applying for a loan. A lender cannot make credit insurance a mandatory coverage, that would be illegal.
If your lender tells you that to comply with the law you must have credit insurance on your loan, they are wrong. The lender must ask you if you want credit insurance included in your loan.
The lender cannot make you purchase credit insurance without your permission. It is also against the law to include credit insurance in a loan with your knowledge.

Questions To Ask About Credit Insurance

Cost of the Loan

Ask your lender to quote you on what your monthly loan payment would be with and without credit insurance included. You must know this before you sign the application.
You want to save money not waste it, so ask up front what the costs will be.

Coverage on Full or Partial Loan

Some lenders only offer partial loans.
Ask at the time of the loan application whether the credit insurance will cover your full loan or just a portion of the loan.

Cancellation Policies

What are the lenders refund policies if you cancel the insurance.
The lender can charge a flat cancellation fee or a fee that is a percentage of the loan.
Be sure to ask up front, what the cancellation policy is.

Is Financial Fitness Possible?

yourwealthpuzzle — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:29:30 +0000

Assessing Your Financial Fitness

Financial fitness is possible. Everyone has the opportunity to be financial fit, the question is how to do it. It’s not as hard as some make it out to be. To be financial fit, you need to focus on a three key areas.

#1 – Your Insurances

You should review and shop your insurances once a year. Insurance companies change insurance rates and insurance coverages quite often; unless you stay up to date, you will not be aware of those changes.

Insurance Guideline:

Discounts, are you receiving all of the discounts available; which may include, home/care, long-term customer, good student, anti-theft, airbag, multi-car, alarms.
Clean record, are you getting credit for having a spotless driving record.
Shop your insurance if you are getting a new car; insurance companies rate features of your car differently.
Shop if you are adding a youthful driver. The way a teenage driver is rated depends upon the insurance company; some rate teenagers higher, some don’t.

#2 – Your Debt

To fight debt you need to know where your money is going. Tracking your expenses with a budget is the best way to do this. Following a budget sounds so old-fashioned but it is the simplest way to follow your money.

Debt Guideline:

Your total debt should be less than 35% of your income.
Your housing debt should be less than 25% of your income.

If you find that you have high credit card debt, be sure to pay down the credit cards with the highest interest first. You may also consider consolidating your debt. Your credit score will suffer if you continue to carry high credit card balances so if you need credit repair help, get it!

#3 – Your Credit Scores

Your credit scores are one of the most important factors in getting financially fit. If you have a low credit score you need to work on improving credit scores. With a low credit score, you pay more for goods and services. Creditors, landlords, loan companies, insurance companies and utility companies will charge you more when you have a low credit score.

Credit Score Guideline:

850 is a perfect credit score.
750 to 850 is a good credit score
300 to 750 is a poor credit score.

To know if you need to improve credit scores, you need to monitor your credit report. The best way to monitor your credit report is to order your free credit score once a year. Each of the 3 national credit reporting agencies are required to provide you a free credit score on an annual basis.

Retirement Ready Takes More Than Emotional Ready

yourwealthpuzzle — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 09:40:45 +0000

How To Get Ready For Retirement

If you want to get ready for your retirement, the question you need to ask yourself is whether you will be financially ready to retire when you are mentally and emotionally ready? It takes money to be able to retire, not just desire.

Prior generations retired based on age, future generations will be retiring based on their financial situations. In the past once you hit age 65, you retired regardless of how much money you may have put aside, because social security was a strong source of income. In the future, that will not be the case.

You will need to be able to generate your own stream of income to replace the money from your pay check before you can retire. Financial experts say that you will need at least 85% of your pre-retirement income at retirement. Unless you plan to continue working during retirement, where will your retirement money come from?

Sources Of Retirement Money

You have 3 sources of retirement income. You may get some money from social security, but you are better off focusing your efforts on your personal retirement investments.

1) Social Security.

Social security will be a weak source of retirement income. You should build up your other sources of retirement income and not rely too heavily on social security; it may not be available in the future.

2) Retirement Investments.

Your most reliable source of retirement income will be your 401k account or Individual Retirement Account. These investment accounts are the most reliable because you control them. You control the contributions and the investment choices. You need to stay diligent on making your 401k contribution limits

3) Your Other Investments

You can supplement your retirement stream of income with annuities, savings accounts, real estate and life insurance accounts.

How To Save Enough To Retire

So now that you know the sources of retirement income, how do you generate enough money to replace your paychecks? Keep in mind that we are living longer than previous generations so we will need more retirement income.

Pay Now Or Pay Later

You have a choice, either spend your money now or save it for later. You only make so much money so how you spend that money will determine if you have to keep working or not.

Do you really need a cafe latte every morning? Do you have to eat lunch out every day or can you bag your lunch a few times a week? If you stop smoking you not only save money but you also will improve your health.

If you saved the money from those luxury items you will be surprised on how it all adds up. If you don’t believe it, try it for a month.

How Did Your Credit Score Get So Bad?

yourwealthpuzzle — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 11:54:11 +0000

You didn’t do anything wrong, so why is the financial industry telling you that your credit score is lousy?

Why is the mortgage banker telling you that due to your credit score you are being denied a mortgage loan?
Why is the interest on your credit card statement more than your monthly payment and the credit card company tells you that this due to your credit score?
Why is your insurance agent telling you that your premiums are high because of your credit score?

So many financial questions with only one answer, your financial habits.

Whether you want to believe it or not, your financial habits determine your credit score and then your credit score determines how much you pay for services rendered by businesses in the financial industry. If you improve your credit score, you will have more control.

Take Control Of Your Credit Score

Do not feel discourage because you have “almost” complete control over your credit score. You “almost” have complete control because you do not control all factors. You do however control the major factors that make up your credit score.

Here’s What You Control|Your Financial Habits

How much you spend.
How many credit cards you have.
Whether or not you make your payments on time.
How often you miss payments.

Your spending habits, missed payments, the number of credit cards and payment history are all factors that determine your credit score. You do control all those factors:

If you cannot pay it off on a monthly basis, don’t buy it.
If you cannot make your payment on time, set your account up on automatic payments.
You only need 1 maybe 2 credit cards; you do not need 4 or 5 credit cards.

Here’s What You Do Not Control|Financial Information

To a certain point you control the errors in your credit report since you have the authority to check your credit reports for errors. You can check your reports for errors by ordering a free credit report every year.

What you do not control is the accuracy of the information reported to the 3 national credit reporting agencies. These agencies are not responsible for checking the accuracy of financial information they receive; they are only responsible for reporting it. Therefore, you need to be responsible for checking the accuracy of the information received by the credit reporting agencies.

If you take control of your financial habits you will have control over how much you pay for goods and services. You will improve your credit score by improving your financial habits.

How Important Is It To Improve Credit Scores

yourwealthpuzzle — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 15:20:48 +0000

Improve Credit Score|Depends On What You Want

Your credit score is only important to you if you want a mortgage, a credit card or an auto loan. If you want low insurance premiums, low-interest rates on loans and credit cards your credit score is also important.

Now, if you aren’t looking for any of those financial products or programs, than your credit score is not important. However, in today’s financial world, since when can you get by without insurance, a mortgage, a car loan or a credit card?

Your credit report and credit score are the first two things the financial industry looks at when evaluating you as a potential customer. If your credit score is too low, you will either be charged higher fees for services rendered or you will be denied services. Based on that actuality, if your credit score did not seem important before, it should seem quite important now.

How You Are Evaluated By The Financial Industry

Your Perfect Credit Score

If your credit score is 850 you do not need to improve your credit score because your score is perfect. The financial industry will be falling all over themselves to do business with you. You will get low-interest rates, you will receive many credit card offers. Just be aware though, to keep your perfect 850, avoid opening lots of new credit cards because that will lower your score.

A Good Credit Score

If your credit score is between 750 and 850, you have a good score. Your auto and home insurance company will charge you the lower premiums, your mortgage company will offer you the lower interest rates and your auto loan or student loan should also qualify for lower interest rates.

You should strive to improve your credit score to an 850 if your score is hovering around 750. The closer you get your credit score up to 850, the more you will save money on interest rates, premiums and fees.

Needs Credit Score Improvement

A credit score between 350 and 750 needs improvement, that is if you want to save money on fees and interest rates. The closer your credit score is to 350, the worse you look as a client to financial vendors such as mortgage companies loan companies and insurance companies.

A low credit score of 350 tells the financial industry that you could be financially unstable and they do not want to do business or extend you credit if you are in that financial position.

It is in your best interest to take the time to improve your credit score, you will save money in the long run.

Learn Your Credit Score Basics, One, Two Three

yourwealthpuzzle — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 17:16:58 +0000

If you don’t like the interest your mortgage company quoted you because it seems a bit high; or the interest rate you are carrying on your auto loan is too high, you should find out what your credit score is. You could be overpaying on interest because of your credit score.

Improving credit scores is not hard to do, everyone can improve credit score; you just need to know the steps. Improving credit scores are basic, learn the steps and follow through is all it takes.

Financial experts suggest that a credit score above 750 will qualify you for lower interest rates, better insurance premiums and even lower cell phone bills. A credit score of 850 is considered by the financial industry as a perfect score.

Steps To Credit Repair

Step #1 – Check Your Credit Report.

Your credit score is very valuable to you. Your credit score is a 3 digit number on your credit report that creditors, lenders, insurance companies, cell phone companies and landlords use to evaluate your creditworthiness. Based on that credit score, these financial institutions decide whether or not to do business with you or to extend credit to you.

Financial institutions know your credit score and so should you. You can get a free credit report once a year from each of the 3 national credit reporting agencies. Order your free credit report as soon as you possible can so that you know where you stand and whether or not you need credit repair help.

Step #2 – Know What Determines Your Credit Score.

Your credit score is determined by several factors; all of which you control, directly or indirectly. Learn the factors and work to improve these factors. You may only need to adjust a few of the factors. If you need additional credit repair help there are many credit repair services available.

Your credit score is determined by:

Your payment history. Do you make your payments late?
The amount of money you owe. Do you carry credit card balances?
Length of your credit score. Are you just starting out?
Types of credit you use. Do you have revolving credit cards, mortgage loans, auto loans?
New credit you apply for. Have you applied for several new credit cards?

Step #3 – Improve Credit Score|Improve Weak Areas.

Set up automatic payments so that you are never late with your payments.
Keep your credit use to less than 30% of your credit limits.
Pay your credit card bill in full every month.
Avoid opening a slew of credit cards all at one time.
Avoid carrying credit card balances.