Sometimes the world seems a dark and threatening place, full of threats and dangers. It’s tempting just to give up in the face of all the problems and walk away. Some do just that, posting the keys of their houses to the mortgage holders and camping out with friends. Others decide to fight for what is theirs. They know that every dollar they can scrape together and pay to reduce their debts saves on interest and avoids some of the penalty charges that might otherwise come their way. The difficulty, of course, is finding the extra dollars to pay. Many live from one payday to the next with nothing left over at the end of the month. Indeed, if there’s an emergency, they can be forced into the arms of the payday loan merchants who charge egregious rates of interest on short-term loans. Those who have better luck take charge of their household budgets to find those extra dollars.
The first step is running a good set of accounts, recording where you spend every cent. That means some effort, writing down or using an electronic system to capture all spending. But, once you know where it all goes, you can start asking the hard questions. Is all your money being spent wisely? Can you find any way of cutting back? If you can find places where savings can be made, where cheaper alternatives can be found or, perhaps, where you can do without, every dollar saved can build up into real savings over the weeks and months. All it takes is the will power to make it happen. But, there comes a point where all the fat has been cut out and only necessities are left. If you still owe more than you can afford to pay, now is the time to start talking to all your creditors. All it takes is for some to reduce the rate of interest being charged or to waive some of the fees already imposed. In this, you have to remember that it does not help your creditors to force you into bankruptcy where all they will get is a few cents on the dollar. Everyone benefits over the longer term if you can avoid court action.
So how do you approach the negotiations? You have been improving your payment record because of your debt management. That has shown you are responsible and deserve a helping hand. More importantly, you have reduced your spending and can produce a detailed set of accounts to show where every cent is going. Once the banks and finance companies see exactly what is possible, the best terms for debt settlement can be worked out. If you do not want to do this yourself, there are professional counselors who can advise and help. Always check out advisors before trusting them with your case. There are some unscrupulous people out there waiting to take your money, so pick a non-profit organization with a good track record to help you. If you can work your way out of debt, your financial future will be secure.
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The U.S. Census Bureau reports that an increasing number of people are now unable to afford medical insurance. Some 47 million people do not have medical insurance. When they begin to fall sick, there is nothing that can be done if money is short. When it comes to a choice between food on the table and treatment, most people decide to eat. They hope they will get better. When health does not improve, there is no improvement in the choice to be made. If treatment remains unaffordable, they have to wait until their sickness worsens to the point it can be considered an emergency. At this point, people decide to go to the emergency room at their local hospital. Federal law is very clear. Hospitals are under a positive legal obligation to treat everyone who walks in through the door. It does not matter whether the emergency is real, in the sense of a traffic accident inflicting unexpected injury, or to some extent manufactured, where the condition only becomes an emergency because of a deliberate delay. People must be given treatment.
The difficulty is that most of the uninsured cannot afford to pay their bills. The hospitals can and do issue invoices for the treatment given and drugs supplied. This is also a part of the law. People have a responsibility to pay for their treatment. But hospitals are realistic about their chances of collecting. Continued pursuit for payment usually results in bankruptcy and the creditors only get a few cents in the dollar. So, hospitals make a rational decision. They spread all the unpaid bills among all those who can pay. In other words, whether you are paying out of your own pocket or you are relying on your own health insurance to pay for your treatment, a percentage of every hospital’s bill is a provision against bad debts from the uninsured. The irony is that everyone who is insured is also insuring all the uninsured for their emergency room visits.
If you have been wondering why your own health insurance premiums have been going up so sharply of late, it’s because there is a wave of uninsured people going to the emergency rooms around the country. The health insurers are having to pay more and this additional cost gets passed on in the premiums. Is it going to get any better? No. It’s actually going to get worse. Ever more people are finding health insurance unaffordable. Even with sites like this which allow people to find the cheapest insurance around, many still find the premiums too much. That does not mean you should give up. Using this site will get you offers. Then it’s up to you to negotiate directly with the insurer or its agents to get the best actual premium for the cover. It’s not worth the risk of being uninsured. If at all possible, get some cover.
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There has been a sad trend since the turn of this century. Health insurance costs have been rising so fast that even large sections of the middle class now find it a struggle, if not impossible, to pay the premiums demanded by the insurers for private plans. The fact is that, although in the last one or two years, there have been some increases in average take-home pay, these increases have not kept pace with inflation. People today are more poor than they were ten years ago. For a time, people compensated by using their credit cards and borrowing against the positive housing equity on their homes. With the bursting of the housing bubble and the credit crunch, people must now confront the size of the debt they carry. Articles like this are not supposed to feel sorry for employers. They are the ones who take our work, pay us as little possible and buy big houses to live in. Sometimes, we only put up with this exploitation because of the health plans some offer as part of the compensation package. But they have also been feeling the strain.
The national statistics show that, in the period 2000-2007, there was an average 80% increase in the premiums payable by employers for the health plan offered to their employees. As a cost, this has increased five times faster than the cost of wages and salaries. Because consumers have come to expect that prices will not rise, it has not been possible to pass these increased costs on in the wholesale and retail prices. The result has been a reduction in the profits earned by the employers. Hence, wages have not risen fast enough to keep pace with inflation.
This has real significance for the future health of the nation. Slightly more than 30% of the workforce is less than 30 years old and the majority of them are not insured. This because more employers have given up the unequal struggle to keep up a health plan for new employees, and more younger people who still have their health do not see it as a priority to use more and more of their take-home pay to fund private health insurance. They feel they are paying against the risk of sickness that might never come. This has an unfortunate knock-on effect. Health insurance distributes the risk so that the fit and health subsidize those who fall sick. If too many of the healthy refuse cover, the cost must be born by the older population more likely to make claims. This forces the premiums to rise. It would be better if everyone had a policy because this spreads the costs and keeps everyone’s payments low. You can make a start by using sites like this to find the cheapest possible policy, but nothing will change unless government policy changes.
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In the days when credit was cheap, anyone with a secure job paying a check every month could borrow. There were still millions on or below the poverty line, but the majority in the US could buy what they needed and then some. People did still get into trouble. But, mostly, banks and finance companies were forgiving. They just added a penalty or two, and increased the interest on what was owing. Life was only rarely interrupted by bankruptcy. Today, people live from paycheck to paycheck. Unemployment threatens everyone, even the middle class. Foreclosures and evictions mean that people are no longer secure in their homes, and bankruptcies are more routine. Some will get too deep into debt and it’s not their fault. There are accidents and illnesses. With the recession, millions have been thrown out of work. Their problems are not of their own making.
The recession is more than a year old and anyone who has not changed their ways is either seriously rich or deluding themselves. Looking around the bookstores still in business, there are new books and magazines offering helpful advice on how to cope. There are radio and television programs with experts talking good common sense solutions. There’s even the internet with useful articles like this. People no longer have ignorance as an excuse. Those Chicken Littles whose problems are self-inflicted will get no sympathy when the sky falls on them. But those who have used the internet or professional counselors to get guidance on how to manage and consolidate their debts are far more likely to get a constructive response from lenders. So where should you start? There are a wide range of Consumer Credit Counseling Services, legal aid and other non-profit groups prepared to offer advice and help to reduce indebtedness. But a word of warning – many dishonest people have been setting up in the counseling business to take the fees and leave the “suckers” deeper in debt. Before you approach anyone for help and advice, check them out. Make sure they are members of a reputable regulatory body before you sign up for their programs.
Debt management is difficult, but everything is possible if take a responsible and disciplined approach. At this point, you run into a distinction between personal management and the renegotiation of liabilities with your creditors. There are many things you can do to save money on your household budgets and make it easier to keep your payments up-to-date. But there comes a point when you cannot manage your own way out of the problem. A professional counselor will always look at the big picture, and aim to consolidate and simplify all your liabilities into a package that’s easier to manage. But one basic rule always applies. Unless you are literally penniless, always pay something to your creditors. Even if you have a counselor trying to negotiate a solution, pay something. It shows good will and a responsible attitude to your liabilities. That, more than anything else, is going to get you through to a successful conclusion and is our debt settlement tip of the day.
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It’s easy to see all the big ticket items and make sacrifices but, more often than not, it’s all the little things that add up to take us over our budgets. So everyone sees the car sitting out front and decides not to trade in or downsize to something cheaper to run. Days may be spent searching round the local dealerships to find just the right set of wheels to last through the next year or more. Yet is the same time devoted to finding the best value auto insurance to go with it? Sadly, the majority spend only a few minutes to renew a policy with the current insurance company or use one of the online search engines to find a “cheap” policy. Shopping around to find the best value insurance is guaranteed to save money. Even if you do nothing more than raise the deductible, this has started the process. Now you should be looking at maximizing the discounts and bundling several policies together with the same company. Savings start around 10% when you place both auto and home cover with the same insurer.
Similarly, it’s easy to say that food on the table meets a need and you spend what it takes to keep the family from starvation. Except, of course, that’s an exaggeration. The majority of us eat a lot, and eating smaller portions is not only saving dollars, it’s also avoiding diabetes and heart disease. So the first question is where do we shop? Habit can take us to the same store every time. This can be costing us a lot of extra dollars. Shopping at local stores can save on gas but how do the prices compare? Look for stores where the grocery bill is always going to be cheaper overall. Then plan so that you can buy in quantity. If you prefer national brands, look for clip-out coupons or buy store brands or generics which are always cheaper. Never buy sale items unless you can store them or use them quickly.
It’s the same with clothes. It’s no longer cost-effective to work on a throwaway basis. Give up following fashion. Buy clothes of sufficient quality that will last and mix-and-match. You want a versatile wardrobe that makes a little go a long way. The other given is to avoid “false economies”. Often, you can buy something cheap only to find it falls to pieces after a week or so of everyday use. Buying quality is the best money saving tip for clothes. Now apply this general rule across the board. Plan ahead so you can always make the best value-for-money buy. That means spending a little time on the internet, searching out which brands give the biggest bang for the buck. Whatever you need to buy, there’s usually something of reasonable quality at a good price at a store near you. If you have to buy sight-unseen over the internet, always check the terms and conditions to make sure you can return the goods if they prove defective. Money saving through comparison shopping is the answer to budget control.
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