My Personal Finance Blog

Life’s cycles are wonderful & mysterious. Throughout each season we experience the changes that the earth brings us in all its wonderment & splendor. With great expectation we prepare our households. Gathering and storing throughout the fall to prepare for the winter. Clearing and planting in preparation for the spring & summer. The understanding of these events will determine our mode of preparation for them.

Spring is a time of renewal. As we clear the clutter in our home we should also clear the clutter in our financial lives. With tax season fast approaching, this is the opportune time to review & organize all records. Set up categories for all your expenditures & file your receipts based on these categories in a tickler file. The best approach is to automate your process. There are various programs, such as Quicken, Peachtree, & Microsoft Accounting, which are very user friendly and require minimum to no accounting knowledge. To manage the input of your receipts even further, utilize software for expense management such as Neat Receipts. This product will streamline the entire process and is easily integrated with other programs. Another important financial area to review would be insurance policies & retirement accounts. For your homeowner’s /renter’s policy, spring is a good time to take inventory, especially after the Christmas holiday purchases. If your policy does not provide a manual inventory spreadsheet, create one in Excel.

It’s a good idea to update your inventory sheet quarterly, to cover purchases made throughout the year. Let’s not forget auto insurance. With summer fast approaching, this is the time to consider major repairs, in preparation for summer travel. Check your policy to make sure you have adequate coverage. If your vehicle is financed and will be paid off this year, you may consider changing from full coverage to only liability coverage. Consider factors such as the overall condition of your vehicle, listed drivers, & total mileage. A change in your premium could have a significant impact on your monthly budget. As for your retirement investments, the best practice is to review your investments monthly for performance, but try not to make changes to your portfolio more than on a quarterly basis. However, expect an annual review from your insurance agent or financial advisor. As experts in their fields, your Advisor will determine the best possible balance of securities in their corresponding industries. Your investment style & history, which is generally gathered prior to you initiating the account, is the basis of all decisions made by your Investment Advisor. A good Advisor will operate under your discretion and comfort level.

What about your taxes? Because this subject can be very expansive, I will only mention briefly some important points to help you manage the “mayhem” during this period. Most people operate under the mindset to file their taxes in a manner to produce the largest refund. This is not necessarily a good idea. Don’t depend on your tax refund to cover living expenses. That’s what a savings account is for. The IRS does not pay you interest for the money it refunds to you. Technically, you are giving the IRS an interest free loan throughout the year. Wouldn’t you rather have those funds available to use at your discretion? Maintaining an effective budget will help to alleviate the stress of unwelcomed financial disasters. So, here are some simple guidelines to follow that can minimize your refund. Monitor your exemptions claimed on your W-4. The more exemptions you claim, the less taxes your pay into the system, and vise versa. If you decide to claim more than required exemptions for your situation, only do it for 6 months. Therefore, every six months you should be reviewing your W-4 exemptions. This may help to level the playing field a little. Also, be sure to maximize your deductions & tax credits. Most people miss out on common items such as educational deductions, capital losses on investments, retirement contributions, etc. The best way to gain a little knowledge and insight into taxes is to purchase a tax manual from your local book store, such as the “Dummies” series. These guides are an easy read, and clearly break down all categories of deductions & tax credits possibly available.

Well, now that we’ve cleaned out the ember s of our attics, let’s get to work on our financial success!

Partnering for your success
Jacqueline Williams
Financial Strategist

Many people are complaining about their health insurance costs, having a dramatic increase in rates over a short period of time. Some policyholders have noticed that their rates increased by 30% over the last two years and that definitely rings a bell, when a good portion of your income is spent on health insurance. In this time when every spare dollar counts, people are looking for ways to minimize their expenses and insurance, whether health, car or homeowners, is the first thing that comes in mind when cutting costs. Some people choose to drop health coverage altogether, ending up with astronomic bills for any medical service they get. Others are more careful with their decisions and first investigate what other types of health insurance can bring to the table. Here are some things to consider if you want to minimize your insurance costs.

Should I get individual or group health insurance plan?

There are a lot of questions about group and individual health insurance. Of course, group plans are very convenient in the sense that you can insure your entire family and pay out a single premium rather than have multiple separate policies, which only multiply the annoying paperwork. However, group health insurance usually has higher rates as it should guarantee that even high risk customers within the group have adequate coverage. This, of course, makes the healthier group members pay for the risk they share with the less healthy members. Such a situation can be acceptable if there are different health issues among different members. But if your family is healthy in general it would be more cost effective to purchase separate individual policies for each member, because the rates in individual plans are based on your particular health situation and if it’s OK then you will get much lower rates than with a group health insurance plan.

Outline your exact insurance needs and get an appropriate plan

If you are looking for cheap health insurance you first have to determine what your exact insurance needs are. Analyze your conditions, see how often you go to the doctor and what particular services you are using most frequently, and choose a plan that gives you the base rates for your exact needs. With so many different plans out there on the market you should definitely find the one that will give you cheap health insurance and will address all of your needs to the proper extent.

Finding cheap health insurance while self-employed

Those workers who are self-employed often find it hard to get adequate coverage for a low price. The group health insurance benefits that an employer can give their workers don’t apply here, and in most cases self-employed specialists have to go with independent individual health insurance plans that can sometimes be quite expensive. However, if you are leaving a workplace with good group health insurance benefits, you may fall under COBRA regulations in certain circumstances and continue receiving group health benefits while already being self-employed. If your previous employer didn’t have any group health benefits, it would be better to go independently.

To legally drive a vehicle on the road requires that you must first insure the vehicle and to do this it is necessary to buy your car insurance from the best auto insurance companies. No doubt, there is not much to buying adequate coverage for your vehicle, but it always pays to do some in depth research so that you end up dealing with a car insurance company that is better than the rest.

Unless you deal with the best auto insurance companies, it will not be possible to either get the best insurance or the best service. Given the fact that today there are numerous car insurance companies all vying with each other to get your business, you will not find it easy to know when a company is offering you the best deal. In fact, choosing from among the best auto insurance companies can be quite a daunting and difficult task.

Still, unless you deal with the best auto insurance company, you will not enjoy peace of mind knowing that you have got the best deal possible. In order to make the task of picking the best auto insurance company a little simpler, it is important to think about how you can identify these few outstanding companies.

To begin with, you must request and obtain various car insurance quotes from a handful of companies. These quotes must then be analyzed and compared, especially in regard to coverage and prices.

Next, it is important to look at the different auto insurance companies and then determine whether they are financially stable and sound. You can do this by checking insurance company ratings. These ratings will indicate whether the car insurance company is in a position to pay for any claims made by their customers.

Once you have checked the ratings and narrowed your choices down to a few car insurance companies, it is then important that you find out ratings for each insurance company according to a number of factors.

These factors include level of customer satisfaction and how well the company interacts with its clients as well as how well does the company appraises its customers. In addition, be sure to check out the way that they bill and make payments and also what kinds of policies are being offered and whether it is easy or hard to contact the car insurance company. These factors will show you how an insurance company behaves with its clients and this will give you an idea about whether they are worth dealing with or not.

Also, be sure to check how different auto insurance companies price their policies. This is one of the best ways of finding the best auto insurance companies. Without a doubt, the best auto insurance company is one that offers maximum coverage at the most affordable price.

As long as you take into account the different factors mentioned above, you will not find it hard to select the best among a handful of outstanding auto insurance companies. In the end, it is how well the auto insurance company addresses your particular needs that too can help you decide which the best auto insurance company is.