April 2015

Save Money Car Insurance Shopping for Teen Drivers

by Jeremy

If you have a new teen driver, you are probably a little bit worried for a myriad of reasons. You are concerned for your child’s safety first and foremost, but be honest.

You are also worried about your car and your premium. Unfortunately, adding an inexperienced motorist will raise your bill, but there are plenty of steps you can take to lower that monthly payment. Get ready to contact your local Marietta car insurance agent and ask a few questions about the firm’s discounts and policies.

How To Save When Car Insurance Shopping for Teen Drivers

1. Good Report Cards

Most companies offer discounts for good grades. Normally, students will receive financial breaks as long as they keep their GPA up and show an official transcript to the agent. This rule applies to high school and college students alike.

As long as the driver is a full time student, he or she should have no problem getting an academic discount. You don’t have to worry about taking a hit when your child starts taking advanced courses either. All you need is a B average.

2. Report if Your Teen Leaves for School

Especially, if your teen will be living without a car, let your local Marietta car insurance agent know when your child relocates to college or boarding school. The company will likely give a rate to reflect the fact that the young driver will be behind the wheel much less frequently.

Top 5 Tips for Saving Time and Money at Walt Disney World

by Guest Contributor

The following is a guest post by Evelyn Ramsey. If you would like to write an article for Money Q&A, please visit our Guest Posting Guidelines page.

Disney World is two times larger than Manhattan. If you’ve ever wanted to visit Orlando, now is the time. There are so many exciting things to see and do.

Here’s how to save money at Disney World, have fun, and visit the very best areas of the park.

How to Save Money at Walt Disney World

Get a Good Hotel

Staying at a hotel on property gets expensive. Some hotels in the park can be had for $70 per night, but if you’re bringing a large family, it can be more like $500 per night. So, instead of paying steep prices, check out these Orlando hotels and just drive or shuttle to the park.

Most hotels that are near Disney World also have taxis or at least a car rental agency nearby that can take you and your family. If a rental car costs you $30-$50 a day, and the hotel costs you $60 per night, it might be cheaper than staying in park if the park prices are a few hundred dollars.

Watch What and Where You Eat

How to save money at Disney World? Food in Walt Disney World is notoriously expensive, but the prices are coming down a bit. Drink water, and it’s free. Juice is $1 cheaper compared to the soft drinks.

And, the park has relaxed its rules on the whole “no outside food” rules, with a few exceptions. You can’t bring glass containers, hard-backed coolers, or alcohol or food that would need heating up. That’s how to save money at Disney World.

Some ideas for food that works well at Disney include sandwiches, snack foods that are brought in plastic bags, dried meats (jerky), and candy. Since water is free, you don’t really need to worry too much about this unless you want to bring your own filtered water bottle.

Tips for Assuring the Safety of Your Credit Card

by Guest Contributor

The following is a guest post by Brett Chatz who is a contributor to CFD trading company – Intertrader. If you would like to write an article for Money Q&A, please visit our Guest Posting Guidelines page.

Protect Your Plastic from Criminals

The widespread usage of credit cards has given way to a thriving underworld of criminal syndicates. Fraud is more prevalent today than ever before, and the technological sophistication employed by fraudsters is becoming increasingly more advanced. Protecting your credit cards is important, since they offer you all the convenience of a cashless banking system.

For the most part, credit card management is really a no-brainer – yet millions of credit card frauds are reported every week. The priority is the protection of your credit card details, and the integrity of your financial information. Once either of these has been compromised, potential fraud can ensue.

How to make your credit card safer?

Nowadays, most folks have several credit cards in their wallets. These include American Express, Diners Club International, Visa, MasterCard, Discover cards and frequent-flier credit cards etc.

However there are also many in-store credit cards offered by major retailers such as Target, Macy’s, Staples, Gap, Nordstrom and others. As you might imagine, protecting all of these cards takes some doing.

Reader Question: Tread Carefully With a New Home Refinance

by Hank Coleman

Why I Am Considering Refinancing My Mortgage

Here is the next installment in our the Reader’s Questions Series which highlight questions emailed to me by you, the readers of Money Q&A. Be sure to find out at the end of this article how you can receive a free copy of Dave Ramsey’s book, The Total Money Makeover if your money question is chosen to be featured in an upcoming week’s blog post.

If you’re not familiar with Dave Ramsey’s book, you should run right out and get it. It is one of my top ten best personal finance books that everyone should read. Now….on to our reader’s question.

Tread carefully when looking to refinance your home. I recently received a question from a reader, Benjamin, about refinancing his home.

My bank is offering a “home equity refinance” which would lower my rate from 4.625% to 3.89% and drop the remaining years from 26 to 15. It also eliminates my Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). Is this is a normal usage for home equity loans, or should I be leery of this loan offer?

Tread Carefully With A New Home Refinance

Background: Benjamin also offered this information as a little more background. “I am currently 4 years into a 30-year mortgage and have paid off almost 10% of the principal. My bank is offering a “home equity refinance” which would lower my rate from 4.625% to 3.89%, and drop the remaining years from 26 to 15.

Of course, there is a higher payment, but it also eliminates my PMI of ~$180 per month, and since I’m paying extra to get the principal down faster, it come out to about the same as my current payments.

The bank manager says that even though I only have 10% equity, once the new loan pays off the first loan, I will have 100% equity (for a split second before the new loan takes it all away again). It all sounds a little too good to be true to me because I don’t have the equity on which to base the loan in the first place. I’ve been searching for a few months about how to eliminate my PMI payment sooner, and had just given up when the bank manager offered this to me out of the blue.”

While I don’t have all the facts in front of me, there are a few things to your question that are a little troubling.

It’s Hard To Avoid PMI With Low Equity

I would be very surprised if you could avoid PMI with only 10% equity. You typically need 20% and then most states require your bank to do away with PMI when you reach 22% equity.

The whole point of PMI is to protect banks from borrowers who do not have enough equity. They want people to have “skin in the game” so to speak. PMI hedges the banks’ bets.

Also, I’d be concerned about the closing costs for refinancing. They can typically be upwards of 3% or more of your new loan balance for your home mortgage which can negate a lot of your savings especially if you may move in the next few years.

Do You Process Invoices Efficiently?

by Guest Contributor

As your business grows, so do the number of tasks you need to perform. To maintain your profit level as you grow, you need to operate efficiently. If not, the additional revenue you generate will all be spent on administrative costs. Consider these tips to process invoices efficiently. An Operations Manual Many aspects of your business are complex. This article explains some critical tax reporting processes. Working with taxes and payroll can be difficult. Your entire accounting function may be easier if you create a procedures manual. As explained here, businesses should document procedures for tasks that are routine. Documenting what needs to be done creates predictability in your business. Both the manager and the employee will understand what needs … Read more

How to Cool Off Without Air Conditioning

by Guest Contributor

Summer is fast approaching, and many regions of the country are already starting to feel the heat. As the dreary days of winter start to disappear, the climbing temperatures are encouraging more and more people to reach for their thermostats — only to find that their air conditioning units have fallen to pieces during the cold weather months.

Fortunately, air conditioning isn’t the only way to stay cool. Whether your unit is dead or you are looking for a low-cost way to beat the heat, here are a handful of ways you can survive spring and summer and cool off without air conditioning.

First, Call the Repair Company, Stat

More likely than not, you don’t know anything about what it takes to get an air conditioning unit up and running again. Instead of tinkering with the complex machinery, you should call your local AC repair company and make an appointment. The earlier in the year you request their assistance, the faster they will be able to respond; when the real dog days of summer begin, everyone will be clamoring for air conditioning help, so you shouldn’t procrastinate a known issue even while the weather is good.

Rethink Your Lighting

Traditional incandescent bulbs may produce that warm, comforting glow that you’re used to, but they also waste nearly 90 percent of their energy on heat rather than light. In the summer, when indoor temperatures can pass 90 degrees, you’ll be able to feel every watt of heat your lightbulbs produce. Instead of being unbearably warm and energy inefficient, you can switch to CFL or LED bulbs; they last longer, lower your energy bill, and are cool as cucumbers fresh from the fridge.

Sunlight during the day can also warm the house through windows. To prevent your own private greenhouse effect, you should keep your windows closed and shades drawn during daylight hours. This simple solution can cool your indoor temperature about 20 degrees.