Recently, I spent a rather large sum of money taking my dog to the veterinarian on a Sunday evening, only to discover he had an allergy attack which was simply and quickly cured by a dose of Benadryl. Granted we love our dog and seeing him with a swollen snout and hearing him breathe with obvious effort scared us. Even though we forked over $90 to get the diagnosis, we were grateful he was okay. This wasn’t the case for some other pets that shared the waiting room with us that night.

Many people consider their pets to be a member of the family. In that regard, pets are often spoiled and enjoy the same comforts as their human counterparts. Pet owners have been known to take it to the extreme in some cases. We’ve already read a story or two about the billionaire who left everything to Fluffy the cat or the millionaire dog that now lives alone in a palatial estate. I used to think people who purchased pet insurance were in the same category. However, realistically those who are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure their pet is healthy, may find pet insurance a good policy to have if they otherwise could not afford a large bill in emergency situations. It is relatively inexpensive, costing on average between $15 and $28 a month, depending on the type, age, and breed of the animal. Coverage is generally divided between basic and premium.

When shopping for a plan, you should pay attention to what it will cover, such as which illnesses, injuries, and treatment options are included in the plan. Pre-existing conditions are usually not covered. Most plans will carry a deductible of $50 or more and require a co-payment. Typically, most plans will obligate you to pay the amount in full at the time of service and then file a claim for which you will be reimbursed at a later time. Owners, who wish to insure more than one pet, may be able to get a discount on the insurance plan.  There also may be discounted programs available through animal-related organizations.

Purchasing insurance for your pet is really no different than buying it for yourself or your family. You need to shop around and compare plan benefits to get the best policy for you. Make sure the monthly premium payments are within your budget and before signing any agreements, be sure the company is legitimate and you are confident you are clear on what benefits are included.

A lot of us have prized possessions, collectables, and other items that we would like to protect and keep safe as long as possible. This might be a favorite baseball card from growing up, movie memorabilia from the early 19^th century, or a precious family heirloom. These items may have made it around for a few decades, but you want to make sure that they’ll be around for the next few decades as well.

There are several options for you to protect precious possessions. The first thing that you should do is get some sort of protective case if you can. With baseball cards, you can put them in protective plastic sleeves which will prevent them from being damaged. With three dimensional objects, you can consider getting a transparent plastic case which will hold the item in place and give it a protected outer-coating. This will help minimize its exposure to oxygen and protect it from the elements.

If you have a piece of art that you want to protect, consider letting a museum take care of it for you. Individuals often loan museums famous works of art to keep on displayed, and if your piece of art is in a museum, you know that it’s climate controlled and well-gauged. One of my extended family members has a piece of Charles Schultz art at a local museum and it’s been there for years. It’s in great condition too.

You can also consider getting a fire-proof safe for whatever it is that you want to protect. You never know when you’ll be the victim of a house-fire or another natural disaster. You’ll want to protect your financial documents and precious heirlooms in this event. By keeping the item stored in a fire-proof, sealed case, you will ensure that your collectables are protected from these types of disasters.

Finally, you should also consider whether or not the object of your affection is really worth protecting. You might have an autograph of someone famous that you think is worth a lot of money, but after researching and see the sheer number of autographs for sale from the same person, you might decide that it’s really not that valuable after all.

The common hue and cry from across our nation has to do with the multitude of bankruptcies and loan defaults.  However, joining this chorus are the voices of those in other nations who find themselves in similar circumstances.  Evidence of this fallout is all around us as seen in this report from our friends in the UK: UK Report.

Rather than focusing on pointing fingers and laying blame, our time would be better spent talking about how to work ourselves out of our dire circumstances.

Dark Times.  We do not need to be reminded of how badly things are becoming.  Most of us are already well aware even though we are regaled every day from media outlets.  It appears that we are nowhere near the end of this process (believing that it is a process and not a permanent state).  The sad truth lies in the numbers of those who have already succumbed to financial collapse and are hurting because of it.  But, there are still others who are fighting for survival.  This process of keeping our heads above water and making things work provides a challenge all its own.  The work place opportunities that have shrunk in certain sectors like manufacturing have caused an increase of major proportions in others marked by the increase in applications of those who have been let go.

Light at the End.  Fortunately, history tells us that, as sure as the rising and setting of the sun, we will come out of this.  No better example of this exists than in the years following the stock market crash and depression of the late 1920s.  Indeed it was World War II which jump-started our economy and began a steady growth pattern that continued for decades.  While we look for another agent of change to begin the process, we pray that it will not be another world war.  Our main question is “when will it begin to improve?”

Starting Over.  Once the engines of finance are roaring again we will see many opportunities from which we can rebuild and profit.  In the private sector, demand for products and services on a global level will lead the way.  Government’s role in this process will be to make the process easier and shorter by reducing taxes and laws that hold us back.

Whatever your outlook is, you need to do what it takes to survive in the short term, discover ways to save money for important things, and be cognizant of changing fortunes that help you make wise decisions when it comes to insuring your valued assets.

One of the most feared situations in which one can be found is to be in a position of not being able to make mortgage payments.  That goes for anyone in any country around the world. Given the economic unrest around the world, other nations like the UK find themselves in a similar predicament as evidence by this report:  UK Mortgage Crisis

If you are looking for practical advice, this will serve you well no matter of which country you are a citizen:

Talk About It.  Inaction is your enemy.  You need to pick up the phone and call your mortgage company.  Do not wait until you are months behind.  Rather, take action as soon as you think that you might be missing your first mortgage payment.  The mortgage companies have already anticipated these issues and have created programs to help those in your situation.  Not only do you stand to lose your home if you do not talk about this and confront it, but they are next in line to lose money.  This is because they will not get what the house is worth on a foreclosure and the expenses that they have in executing this action will eat any profits they might otherwise realize.

Do Something.  Not only do you need to avoid inaction, but you also need to take additional actions beyond contacting your mortgage company.  Your family needs to get involved and understand the serious nature of what you are facing.  A foreclosure not only puts a mark on your credit, but it also leaves emotional scars as well.  It is imperative that you speak openly to your family and then, make a plan to gather money to help meet your financial obligations.  Start with a part-time job to bring in extra income.  Work extra hours at your existing job.  Look for items in your house that you no longer need and sell them.  And way that you can uncover in helping you make extra money will help.

Cut Back.  Some consumers are having difficulty paying their credit card and other high-interest debt.  We see them choosing a debt consolidation program in order to help them.  The best advice here is to find a reputable company in which you can trust.  There are many unethical and down-right unscrupulous companies that would love to take your money with very little to show in terms of progress in paying down your debt.

This bit of advice has more to do with examining your expenses for areas in which you can make reductions.  There are a lot of unnecessary expenses in most households.  One example of this might be your cable tv channels.  Or you might look at that extra cell phone that really is not all that important.  You will be surprised at how little you miss these expenses and how much, in turn you add back to your income by cutting them out.  View all of your expenses in this manner.

The time for ease and inaction is gone.  Effort and hard work are needed to help you through these times.  You will be amazed at the amount of results you will begin to see from your efforts, however.

Renting a car can often be an expensive proposition. If you’re on vacation, or your car is stuck in the shop getting repaired, you can get stuck paying quite a bit of money renting a car. Fortunately with some due diligence, there’s ways that you can make renting a car much less expensive. Here are some tips to save money on car rentals.

Broken Car? – If your vehicle is at the dealership or in the shop getting fixed, ask if they have a courtesy car that you can borrow. Quite often the place fixing your car will let you borrow one of theirs while your vehicle is getting fixed. When my 95 intrepid was in the shop, the local dealership lent me an ’04 Alero to drive around, and didn’t’ even charge me for it! Not every dealership will be this nice, but it doesn’t hurt to ask, and it sure beats paying for a rental car!

Weekly Rate – In most cases, you won’t be able to borrow a car for free, so if you do have to rent a car, ask about getting a weekly rate. The discount often makes renting a vehicle for a week cheaper than renting a car for five or six days. It might make sense to hold onto the vehicle for an extra day to save some money.

Discounts – Ask the car rental place what sort of discounts they have. A lot of rental companies offer discounts to AAA members and members of other organizations such as the AARP.

Corporate Rates – A lot of larger companies can get a corporate discount. Check with your HR or travel department and see if you’re allowed to get the corporate rate for personal rentals. Be sure to check what it would cost you normally though, sometimes the corporate rate is higher than what you or I would normally pay.

Fill Up The Tank – When you’re done using the vehicle, make sure to fill up the tank to where it was when you got it. Most rental companies charge upwards of a $4.00 per gallon fee to refill the tank! Don’t over fill it though, otherwise you’ll end up paying too much that way too.

Insurance – Make sure that your car insurance covers your usage of a rental car before going. If you think that you’re covered and end up not being covered, you’re exposing yourself to huge amounts of risk and liability. Make sure that your insurance is in order to avoid some very costly bills if you were to get in an accident.

Last Minute Rentals – Quite often car rental companies will lie to try to boost their sales. Sometimes they’ll say they only have full-sized vehicles when they have plenty of less expensive vehicles to go around. If you go in the store, they might lie to you, but their website will be honest.

Take Pictures When Returning – When you return your vehicle, use your cell-phone camera, a digital camera, or a disposable camera and take a few quick pictures of the exterior of the vehicle. This way you’ll have proof that you returned the car in good condition. Car rental companies will take a quick look at the car when you return it, but the contract will say that they have the right to go back later and say it doesn’t. If you have proof that you returned it in good condition, they can’t come back later and try to extort money from you.

It’s time to mark your calendar, whether it’s made out of card stock and hangs on the walls or if it’s a fancy web calendar, because it’s a new year, and it’s time to make sure that you have the right types of insurance once again. If you have a type of insurance that you don’t need or haven’t re-shopped your insurance policies, you could be wasting a lot of money. If you don’t have insurance that you do need, you could be putting yourself at a lot of risk.

Here are some steps to make sure that your insurance is ready to go for 2009 and beyond:

Check Up on Your Life Insurance - If you’re in relatively good health, mark a date on your online calendar to re-shop your life insurance quotes online. If you have whole-life, consider switching to more affordable term insurance. If you don’t have any children or have adult children that aren’t dependent on your income, ask yourself if you really need life insurance at all. If you have a wife and kids and don’t have any life insurance, you should beat yourself up, get a quality term insurance policy so that your family is protected.

Reconsider Your Car Insurance - If you have a vehicle and are paying for collision and comprehensive insurance, make sure that it actually makes sense to do so. If your vehicle is worth less than $5000, and you’re paying for these extra insurances, you should probably not be wasting your money by insuring something of such little value. If you’ve bought a new car and are only carrying minimal insurance, consider upping it.

Review Your Health Insurance – If you’re getting employer provided health care, you’re probably stuck where you are, but if you buy your own health insurance, you should probably go out and check and make sure you’re with a good company. Not all health insurance companies are the same and there are some that are notorious for turning down claims, and there are others that provide great customer service, so make sure you’re with a good company by reading reviews of it online.

Eliminate Wasteful Policies – If you are paying for pet insurance, mortgage-life insurance, cancer insurance, or any other policy that most people don’t have, you might be insuring something that’s really un-necessary. If you get cancer, your health insurance will pay for the bill, you don’t need a separate policy that will pay your bills if you get cancer. It’s kind of like signing up for both Flickr and Facebook for photo sharing, they do exactly the same thing, so there’s not much need to do both.

Finally, you should check up on your
home insurance
policy. Make sure that it will cover the current value of your home. Although the market is down a bit, some have still appreciated significantly in the last 5 years, so make sure the dollar amount on your policy matches the value of your home.

Credit cards are great.  You swipe them through the convenient little readers at the checkout and you don’t even have to worry about how much you’ve spent – until the bills start rolling in, that is!  Most people get their first credit card right out of high school, and use it with the intention of building a credit history.  Before long though, the purchasing power goes straight to many people’s heads and suddenly there is a few hundred or thousand dollars in credit card debt to deal with.

 As you begin making credit card payments, you might send a few dollars over the minimum payment required.  Then as you charge more and the minimum payment increases, you start sending just the minimum, because it seems to be all you can afford.  Even when you pay the minimum amount before the due date, the credit card interest can cripple you.  Considering that many credit cards are charging 15% or more, you can bet that most (or all) of your minimum payment is only going towards the interest, so despite making a monthly payment your total debt is actually growing larger month after month. Here’s how to end the cycle and get out of credit card debt:

 Stop Spending: First thing you need to do is stop using your credit card(s).  This can be very difficult if you’ve gotten into the habit.  Cut it up into tiny pieces, put it in water and freeze it – do whatever it takes to stop using it. 

Pay Twice a Month: Figure out how much you can afford to send to the credit card company each month, and then schedule your payments so you are paying half the total amount every 14 days.  If you send $120 a month, you send $60 first, followed by $60 in 14 days.  This allows you to make two extra payments per year without really planning it.  The extra payments go towards the principal balance.

Transfer the Balance:  If you are eligible, you should look for a balance transfer offer on a credit card with 0% interest for the life of the balance.  These are harder to come by these days, but great if you can get one.  If not 0% interest, an interest rate that is fixed and lower than the rate you are currently paying can save you hundreds of dollars and make it easier to pay off your bill since more of your monthly payment is going toward the current balance.

If you’ve ever applied for a credit card or have one in your wallet, you’ve probably been asked (more than once!) if you want to purchase credit card disability insurance.  The insurance is typically a few cents per $100 of your card balance, and is supposed to cover your minimum monthly payments in the event you become medically disabled and can’t work.  There is normally a limit of how many months the insurance will make your minimum payment, and if you make purchases on the card after you are disabled, they will not be covered by the insurance plan.

So the question is, does the credit card disability insurance help you or the credit card company?

It is kind of a toss up!  As with all kinds of insurance, you pay for it in the hopes that you will never have to use it.  So you could pay a few dollars a month for as long as you have your credit card account with a balance and never have any reason to use the disability insurance.  Some people consider that a waste of money. 

On the other hand, if you are in an accident or somehow become unable to work due to a disability, you will benefit for a specific period of time as your disability insurance will make the minimum monthly payments on the card while you get back on your feet.  Meanwhile, the card will continue to accrue interest.

The thing to consider is if you have other forms of insurance, including most life insurance policies, or traditional forms of disability policies- you may already be covered.  Also- if you have multiple credit cards that you plan to get disability insurance coverage on each individual card- it may actually be more beneficial to you to get a traditional disability or life insurance policy to cover everything rather than having the multiple policies.

Keep in mind that the credit card company is the beneficiary of a disability insurance plan that you obtain through their insurance providers; where as you can designate whoever you want as your beneficiary of your regular insurance policies.  Which means that if there is any money left over after you credit card was paid, your beneficiaries would get the remaining balance.

If you do decide to get disability insurance for your credit card – make sure you fully understand what is covered and what isn’t.  Most policies have an unemployment coverage option- but if you are self employed or unemployed, that coverage usually doesn’t apply to you and therefore you shouldn’t pay for it.  Always find out before you sign up if you are able to cancel the policy should your circumstances change.

Last year, my front tooth lost a noticeable chunk for what seemed like no reason at all. Over $1,200 later for just one tooth and a fifteen minute procedure, I discovered the culprit was bruxism, what is more commonly known as teeth grinding. People who have this issue often do not even realize it is a problem. They clench their jaws and grind their teeth often in their sleep or during the day without being aware. However, bruxism can be a very expensive problem as it often causes teeth to chip or break off leading to some expensive dental management. Teeth get worn down quickly and other problems with the jaw develop, such as TMJ. Dental procedures are no cheap adventure. Even with insurance, the cost of dental implants, crowns, and the like can become astronomical.

Beyond brushing and flossing, there is much more involved in maintaining healthy teeth and gums. It costs less money to proactively care for your teeth than it does to repair the consequences. A dentist will be able to determine if you suffer from bruxism. Generally, you will be recommended to purchase a mouth guard to protect your teeth from the grinding actions. Mouth guards can be custom created by a dentist or purchased over the counter. However, the guards that can be found at a store are more likely to cause you discomfort as the sizes may not suit your mouth which causes the guard to move out of place. They also do not tend to last as long as a customized piece. While a custom-fitted guard may be more expensive, it is less likely that you will have to replace it as often and it will fit exactly right inside your mouth, providing you with better protection.

Both children and adults are susceptible to teeth grinding. Often, children will outgrow the tendency to grind their teeth. For adults, the cause may be related to stress factors and, along with a mouth guard, patients will be advised to work on reducing the levels of daily life stresses to help decrease the unconscious teeth grinding actions.

If you tend to have headaches and pains in your jaw, you may suffer from bruxism. Schedule an appointment with your dentist as soon as possible and get an evaluation. The cost of a mouth guard will be very small compared to the thousands of dollars you will spend reconstructing what you could have saved in the first place.