Health Insurance for Uninsured Americans Survey

Health insurance is a major concern for many Americans.  When your kid or spouse is sick or injured your primary worry is how to make them better, how you’ll pay for it is a secondary concern.

The movie John Q tells a fictional tale of how a parent might respond when insurance won’t cover a medical procedure needed to save their child’s life. I think the combination of physical, emotional, and financial pain of injury or sickness is what makes health care insurance such a daunting one for the country to resolve. 

Health Insurance Survey

eHealthInsurance, an online health insurance marketplace, did a survey of people who called in with questions about individual and family health insurance policies.  They found that 38.8% of the people that called in with questions were uninsured at the time of the call.  I always hear talk during political campaigns about uninsured Americans but I don’t typically hear statistics so I thought the findings of their survey were interesting.  Of the uninsured callers:

  • 37.9% are between the ages of 18 and 34
  • 51.5% are employed full-time
  • 60.5% work for a small or medium-sized business ( < 500 employees)

The survey found that the average uninsured person researching and buying individual health insurance through the eHealthInsurance marketplace was a single woman between the ages of 25 and 44, with a college degree and a full-time job.

The also found that one third (33%) work for a small business and a little under one half (46%) earn between $30,000 and $75,000 per year.

This wasn’t a comprehensive survey of the population so it’s just a segment of citizens but I was surprised at the number of people with full time employment that are uninsured.  Of course, these were all people calling in to research health insurance, I’m sure the numbers would be much different for the people that don’t even bother calling about insurance since they know they can’t afford it.


Free Stock Trade Promotion from Zecco

Free Stock Trades Promotion

Zecco will give you 20 free stock trades if you signup for an online trading account as a new customer in the next week and a half.

You don’t have to use the trades right away, they are good for 90 days. I’m not eligible for the free trade bonus because I’m already a Zecco customer, you can read this zecco review for more about their online brokerage account. 

It used to be that you only needed a balance of $2,500 to get 10 free trades a month with Zecco.  Trades are still cheap, $4.50, but they have raised the minimum balance necessary to qualify for free trades to $25,000.

Zecco Promo Rules

  • The Zecco promo gives you 20 trades in addition to the 10 free stock trades that eligible customers already recieve a month.
  • To qualify for the free trade bonus you have to sign up for a Zecco account by Sunday, September 13. 
  • The free trades will show up in your account by September 16th and you have 90 days to use them.

If you’re not already a customer and are thinking about signing up to get the free trades, make sure you use the Zecco promo code “bonus1”.

Click Here for the free trades Promo code – bonus1


Financial Advisor Profile – Jean Keener

Jean Keener is another financial planner I had the pleasure of meeting in person after the financial advisor websites list I put together a while back. As we chatted about financial planning and blogging I was reminded of the search my wife and I went on to find a financial planner right after we were married. 

Finding a Financial Planner

I was interested in the planner’s knowledge and experience while my wife’s main concern was personality and whether she felt comfortable talking about our personal finances with them.  As I spoke with Jean I realized that she would have been a good fit for us back then.  Not only does she know her stuff, she also has a warm personality that puts you at ease.

We never did run across Jean in our search since she’s from the Dallas area. Actually Keller, Texas to be exact but she did just open a satellite office in Dallas as well.  If you’re from around there you should check out Keener Financial Planning and the various financial topics she covers on her site.

Financial Topics

One of Jean’s articles I found useful for our family was the second income analysis where she goes over the financial considerations of having a stay at home spouse go back to work. She also recently shared some tips for people debating whether to hire an expert on how to choose a financial planner.

Tips for choosing a planner was actually one of the questions that I had sent Jean so I’ll leave that one off the list below. My first question was “Why did you become a financial planner” but Jean has actually already answered that one on her website.  Here is the meat of it, you can read the other details in her advisor interview:

“I became a financial planner because I wanted to be the financial planner I wasn’t able to find when I was looking for one – someone with no products to sell, just objective, competent advice and support.  I wanted to help other women and men avoid the pitfalls I experienced in getting divorced by helping them take charge of their money.  And I wanted to help people make sense of their money and achieve their goals.”

Here are the rest of my questions and Jean’s answers. Thanks to Jean for taking the time to answer the questions; hopefully they’re useful to you.

What do you think is the biggest benefit that your clients gain from working with an advisor like you?

Knowledge, objectivity, & flexibility.

What type of people, if any, should NOT hire a financial planner?

Everyone benefits from having a financial planner at certain key points in their lives … when they’re just starting their careers and developing spending and saving habits and goals that will affect them for the rest of their lives; when they’re going through a major life change like divorce, death of a spouse, birth of a child, starting a business, major career change, etc.; and when they’re planning their retirement income. 

Whether you want to work a financial planner in between those times is really a question of whether you have the time to invest in researching your options, the aptitude to analyze the information you discover, and the confidence to make a decision and move forward with it.  Financial planners help with all of those areas and many people find their financial planner to a valued partner throughout their lives.

What is the biggest challenge facing your clients today?  How do you help them with those challenges?

Balancing competing priorities is the biggest challenge.  We try to address those by getting to core values and life goals, and using that to help shape where money should be directed.

What’s the most common mistake that people make with their money and why do they make it? 

Over-spending is the most common. People make it because so many other people are making it, and they feel like it’s normal and ok.

What do you do when a client has a question you don’t know the answer to? 

If you’re doing in-depth planning work with people, this happens a lot.  Everyone’s situation is unique, and it’s very dangerous to believe you know everything. 

When I get a question that I don’t know the answer for, or that I just want to make sure I’ve considered all the options, I will research it using the various sources available to me (some publicly available web resources, some advisor subscription sources) and/or I will ask my fellow Garrett planning network members.  With over 300 Garrett members, I have access to a wealth of information and experience.

What don’t you like about the financial planning industry? 

The industry is very confusing for the public.   Marketing messages often gloss over risks and high costs or mis-lead consumers about fees and how advisors are compensated.  That’s not right, and hopefully will be changing soon.

What do you really enjoy about the financial planning industry?

I love helping people make smart decisions with their money that allow them to lead the lives they want and achieve their goals.  Hence my company motto: Plan to Live Well

What kinds of things should people expect to see on your blog in the future? 

Stay tuned for more practical personal financial planning tips.  I’m working on a series right now for teachers in Texas about their retirement plan and long-term care options.  There have been quite a few changes in this area this year.

You can follow Jean’s money tips on her blog or by following @jeankeener on Twitter.


Save Money Buying Overstock or Returned Items

power wheels

Overstock or returned goods can save you a ton of money!  I’ve written in the past how I used to buy merchandise like this, then turn around and re-sell it on eBay for a big fat profit.

However, even if you have no interest in making extra money on eBay, overstock goods and returned items can can score you some really great deals for your own use.

Getting a 64% Discount

For example, our son loves cars and trucks and used to have a blast riding in our neighbor’s Fisher Price Power Wheels car.  After they moved away I thought he’d never ride in one again because they’re pretty expensive but we just bought him one today for 64% off!

The one we found retails for $250 and we bought it for $60 cash (minus a battery charger) at a local overstock store.  Often times these types of stores will have a random assortment of various goods but this one actually had rows of power wheels and other powered kid cars.

Merchandise Brand and Quality

These are the same cars you’d find for sale at Toys R Us. Some of them are returns, some are merchandise that didn’t sell, and some are cars with small defects. For example, ours was brand new but they had lost the battery charger in shipping so I came home and ordered one online for $30. Still, buying a $250 car for only $90 is a pretty sweet discount.  I didn’t have to pay tax or shipping and it was already assembled.  I pulled it out of the back of the car when we got home and our little guy took off down the sidewalk. 

Negotiating Prices

Many times you can bargain with the store owners because they buy the stuff for pennies on the dollar and have room to negotiate.  One of my friends went to the same store last weekend and talked the guy down to $190 on a car he was selling for $250 that retailed for around $400.  Of course, there is often no return policy on goods like these so make sure you test it out well before you buy it.

Finding the Stores

Your best bet on finding stores like this is to simply ask around. I hear about most of these places through word of mouth.  You can also do a web search on the words overstock or overgoods and the name your local cities.

Happy shopping, Hopefully you’ll save a lot of money


Free Health Screenings & Healthy Lifestyle Tips

As the health care debate rages across the country, one of the things that’s often overlooked is how much money we could save with better preventative medicine.  It’s often much cheaper to invest time and money up front to help prevent, delay, or minimize expensive medical conditions, yet our insurance system is setup with the mindset of covering treatments and procedures rather than prevention.

Here are some resources you can use to screen for and help prevent some of these medical conditions, especially if they run in your family.  I also included some healthy lifestyle tips for men and women at different stages of thier lives:

Family Health History

Health Screenings & Tests

Disease Prevention

Guides to Healthy Living

Hopefully you found some of those resources useful.  Have a healthy weekend!


How Much Money are You Hiding in Your Swiss Bank Account?

The Bank Secrecy Act requires United States citizens holding a financial interest in, or signature or other authority over, a bank, securities or other financial account in a foreign country to report these accounts to the government.

Of course just because there’s a law requiring you to report the money doesn’t mean that people have abided by it.  The Obama administration is cracking down on United States’ citizens and residents with foreign bank accounts that haven’t followed the rules.  If you’ve been hiding money in your Swiss bank account, or any foreign accounts, and not properly reporting it to the IRS your chances of being hit with penalties and even jail time has gone up.

The good news is that if you’ve owned a foreign bank account in the past six years and have not disclosed it to the IRS their voluntary disclosure/amnesty program may help you out of a sticky situation. The IRS website is full of more information than you’d ever want to know about the voluntary disclosure but the amnesty only lasts another few weeks so check it out while you still can.

On a brighter note, here are some money tips from around the web that don’t involve the IRS : )

– Generation X Finance lists 8 Ways to Save on Auto Insurance.

– The Digerati Life takes a look at the California Unemployment Rate History: A Visual Guide.

– My Dollar Plan offers up some Budget Travel Tips.

– Frugal Dad has an intereresting post on how – Happiness For Others Comes From Contentment With Yourself.

– Lazy Man and Money goes over Budgeting with the Envelope System.

– Million Dollar Journey writes about Life Style Inflation.

– Sun is no longer offering cash back for Selling His House.

– Brip Blap talks about the Myth of Stable Employment.

– Consumerism Commentary ponders consumer confidence and whether We’re Out of the Woods.

– Bargaineering lists Four Money Lessons from Nature.

– Five Cent Nickel goes into detail on a Mortgage Escrow Account.

– Get Rich Slowly guest writer digs into a Home Appraisal.

– Free Money Finance looks at an example of How to Become Rich.

– No Credit Needed explains what he likes about Combining Finances.

– Mighty Bargain Hunter asks your opinion on Honesty and Negotiation.


Quicken Discounts Thanks to Microsoft Money

Quicken discounts of $20 off Quicken Deluxe and Quicken Premier are available for the next two weeks. Intuit is running the special offer since the personal finance software Microsoft Money is no longer available for sale.

Microsoft Money Discountinued

Although Microsoft Money will be supported through the end of 2010 many long time Money users are up in the air since they’ve been entering their financial data into the personal finance software package for many years.  Being able to go back and look at reports on past financial data is one of the benefits of using a software package for analysis and planning.

Since people want to be able to look back at their personal finance history over time, they’re concerned that they won’t have those years worth of financial data they entered in Money alongside new personal finance information they enter in the future in a new package.

In a recent email, Intuit gave an update on their ability to help out former Microsoft Money users.  According to the email, Quicken is able to transfer up to 10,000 transactions from Microsoft Money and they are working on making it easier for people to transfer more of their data into Quicken.

Quicken Discounts

Intuit is also offering a Quicken discount of $20 off the following products for the next two weeks:

You don’t need any special Quicken coupon codes, the discounted offer is available to anyone who wants to start using Quicken or upgrade Quicken versions.


Preventing College Student Identity Theft

Identity theft probably isn’t the primary concern of most college students heading off to school this fall, however, college campuses can be big targets of identity theft.  With so many people living together in such close quarters it can be a hot spot for thieves and dishonest students to take advantage of other unsuspecting students.

If you’re going away to school for the first time or returning for another year, it’s extremely important to take certain precautions to keep your identity and money safe. Here are a few tips to help you avoid identify theft.

Set a password on your computer, lock your computer when away from it.

This is easy to do, and it will deflect most common computer users. Although, if your computer is stolen by a decent computer hacker, they’ll be able to get past the screen saver password so don’t store passords to your online bank accounts or other sensitive information on your computer. Make sure that you never leave your computer unattended in public such as the library, student union, or cafeteria. When you leave your laptop in your dorm room you could even stash it out of plain site.

Avoid revealing too much personal detail on social networking sites.

Every piece of information that identity thieves can gather about you is another clue to stealing your identity.  Seemingly harmless pieces of information individually (birthday, address, phone number, etc) can add up over time and eventually make you a victim of identity theft.

Not only is this good for your security, but can also protect your future career. Remember, everything you post on Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace could end up being seen by the wrong people at the wrong time. Use social networking wisely, and don’t post pictures that might compromise your reputation or give off the wrong idea about you.

Don’t let anyone borrow your credit or debit cards.

This might not sound like something you’d ever think about doing, but you’ll be running across dozens of “mooches” at school. They might ask you, “Hey man, can I just borrow your card to order a pizza, I’ll give you the cash”, but don’t trust them unless you are really close to them. Don’t give out your credit card number or debit card number to anyone, write it anywhere, or store it anywhere on your computer.

Don’t open a tab on your credit card and forget it.

I’ve never done this, but I’ve come close! You never know who might be working behind the bar and if they’ll abuse your card if you leave it there overnight. Make sure your designated driver reminds everyone to close out their tabs. If you’re walking home or taking public transportation, write a note on your hand to remind yourself.

Call right away if credit card stolen or lost.

Do not wait until the next morning if you think you lost or had your credit card stolen. Credit card companies have 24 hour customer service, and it will be much easier on yourself and the credit card company if you report it right away. Even if you end up finding it a couple of days later, it’s better safe than sorry, and you’ll receive a new card usually within a week.

You aren’t personally responsible for an unauthorized credit or debit transaction, but you can make a much stronger case that it wasn’t you if you report it as soon as you think it’s been lost or stolen.

Don’t keep cash in your dorm room, use debit card instead

Identity theives take your identity so they can steal money.  If you just leave your money lying around, they can just skip the identity part and go right after your cash. It’s not that you don’t trust your roommate (or maybe you don’t), but when you aren’t there, your roommate could be bringing in all kinds of people to the room that you’ve never met before. It’s always a good idea to keep your cash on you or better yet, use a debit card for most transactions.

If you’ve never had your identity or credit card stolen in the past, let me assure you it can drain a lot of your time and money trying to get the situation straightened out. Here are some more identity theft tips to help protect your money and your credit.


Budget Travel Book Winners

The budget travel tips are in and the random number generator has selected some winners!   David is giving away two copies of his book in the contest and since we had so many useful entries I’m going to ship copies to two more readers.

Here are the winners as chosen by Random.org along with their budget travel tips:

Megan

When we travel, I like to look for coupons online for attractions or museums. I’ve always been able to find coupons for a few dollars off, and sometimes you come across some really cool places to visit that you might not have seen otherwise.

Also, if you’re a AAA member, check if your hotel gives a discount and look for the AAA discount at places you visit. When we went to Niagara Falls, many of the attractions (like the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum) offered a discount to AAA members.

Erica

When flying internationally (and domestic in some cases), we always look to see if we can fly in one place and fly out of another, so that we can see as many places as possible. Sometimes it doesn’t cost anymore to do that and you get to see more.

Angela

If you’re traveling with a family (or a group for that matter), consider renting a house or apartment instead of staying in a hotel. The base price per person is often cheaper, plus you’ll have cooking (and probably laundry) facilities available.

We have rented homes on the Eastern seabord, in the UK and in France and have had great and moneysaving experiences everywhere. You can find info. on rentals from tourist boards, real estate brokers, books (there are books just about rentals in Europe) and the internet.

Dee

Pack “just in case” clothes, but not too many.

Just in case it’s cold.
Just in case it rains.
Just in case I need to go somewhere nice.

Make sure these are versatile pieces, like the “nice” outfit should be something that can be dressed up or down.

If you don’t have these just in case pieces, you’ll end up spending money to buy items you already have at home when the event arises for them.

Thanks to everyone who offered up their tips! Maybe David will need a second edition of the book to work them all in : )


Best Financial Advice You Wish You’d Taken

What’s the best financial advice that you’ve heard, but then ignored?  Can you think of a piece of advice that you wish you had followed?

Of course, you may have more than one but what’s the discarded advice that really sticks out in your mind, or that would have had the biggest financial impact?

Here are some good questions to ask:

  • Why didn’t you take the advice?
  • Do you see now why it was valuable?
  • Will you ever heed the advice?

I can think of more than one for myself but the prinicple that sticks in my head most is one that I totally ignored about 10 years ago.  I knew I was supposed to diversify my investments but the tech market was going gangbusters.  As a new college graduate with a good computer programming job and few expenses I opened an online brokerage account and plowed a lot of my salary into tech companies.

Of course you all know how that story ended.  After the tech buble burst and my hard earned money evaporated with it I learned my lesson, diversify dummy!

What about you? What’s the best financial advice you wish you’d taken?



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