4 Home Improvements to Help You Save Money on Your Energy Bills

According to the US Department of Energy, the energy usage of each person in the United States costs them over $3,000 each year.

One-third of that bill is energy usage in the home, meaning that the yearly home energy expenditure of a family of four is about $4,000. Since much of that expenditure comprises home heating and cooling costs, taking steps to lower those costs can help your family save big during the summer and winter.

However, other home appliances can run up your energy bills even further, especially if they are old or damaged.

What can you do to save on your energy bills? Read on to learn about four home improvements that can reduce both your home heating and air-conditioning bills and save you energy in additional ways.

1. Invest in those Energy Efficient New Home Windows

You likely have windows in virtually every room of your home, and if they are old and drafty, then replacing them can be one of the best ways to save on home energy.

How much energy will you save after replacing your home windows? That varies depending on what type of windows you currently have and how drafty they are.

If you have single-pane windows with metal frames, then upgrading two double- or triple-pane windows with frames that seal more tightly, such as vinyl frames, can help reduce your home energy bills.

While it is important to choose the right windows, it is also important to choose the right installation expert. Proper installation is important to fully reap the benefits of those new windows.

2. Replace or Repair your Home Heating and Cooling Ducts

The cool air your air conditioner creates in the summer and the warm air your heater creates in the winter travel through your home duct system to reach every room in your home.

If those ducts are old and you haven't had them inspected lately, then they could have holes and/or cracks that are causing your energy bills to rise.

The EPA reports that the average homeowner loses about one-fifth of their heated and cooled air due to air duct leakage. However, you could be losing even more. Pure air duct cleaning is the perfect way to ensure your ducts are not leaking and are working energy efficiently.

Having your duct system inspected and repaired is an easy way to save home energy.

3. Have a Heat Pump Installed

Heat pumps use much less energy to heat your home in the winter than traditional home heating systems. There are four types of heat pumps: geothermal, air-to-air, absorption, and water-source pumps.

While they all differ in how they heat your home, they all have one thing in common: they shift existing heat into your home instead of creating heat. This makes them very energy efficient.

Air-source heat pumps are the most popular heat pumps today, and some models can even cool your home in the summer. They can act as the sole source of heat in milder climates, but in areas of the country with very cold winters, they can supplement your existing home-heating system and lower your energy bills drastically.

4. Replace That Old Water Heater

Along with home heating and air conditioning, your home water heater can be a big waste of energy if it is old and lacks proper insulation.

The average family spends about $270 each year on energy used by their home water heater, but if yours is old and improperly insulated, you may be spending much more. Of course, if you have a large family who takes lots of hot showers, your energy needs also naturally increase.

According to High Point Plumbing, a company of plumbers in Utah County, having a professional replace your old, uninsulated water heater with a new, energy-efficient model is the best way to stop paying more money than you have to for your hot water. 

Also, having your hot water heater wrapped in heat-proof insulation can help reduce energy wasted by an old hot water tank.

If your home energy bills are higher than you would like them to be, then there are many steps you can take to reduce your home energy bills. These four home improvements can help you begin saving energy immediately. 

If you perform all four, you may be surprised at how much energy was just going to waste and how quickly the small investments in the home improvements pay for themselves many times over.

Looking Ahead: 3 Crucial Factors When Planning Your Retirement Finances and Healthcare

Planning your retirement is a process that is going to take decades of hard work, and no one wants to find themselves struggling with financial problems or health complications that could have been avoided. 

Whether you have just graduated college or been working at the same company for years, here are a few factors that you must take into consideration when planning for your retirement.

Savings Accounts

Every extra penny that you invest while you are younger can have a major impact on your retirement. Those who begin setting up their investment accounts early can produce exponentially more wealth than those who wait until they are further along in their careers. 

As soon as you are hired by a company that offers retirement accounts, you should immediately begin investing. This is especially important if your company offers to match some or all of your contributions. 

Most of these accounts also have incentives that will reduce how much you pay in taxes once you begin withdrawing money instead of investing it. 

While government programs such as Social Security can be useful, retirees should not rely on them exclusively. As the senior demographic continues to grow, many of these programs have been pushed to their limits. 

At the very least, employees should try to invest some of their income into a diverse portfolio as an emergency fund.

Living Accommodations

Older adults tend to have much fewer expenses once they are no longer working or providing for a larger family. 

One of the biggest expenses for retirees is their living accommodations, and this factor should be taken into consideration well before you leave your job. Even if you own a home that you plan on living in for a short period of time, there may come a point when you need to start looking at additional living arrangements such as a retirement community. 

Many of these communities, like Sunshine Retirement Living where seniors have fun living in Texas, offer an incredible amount of freedom and are often designed specifically for retirees who would like to remain as active as possible.

Making a plan to transition to one of these communities will also allow you to use your home as an incredible asset after you retire. 

As soon as the market becomes favorable, you can sell your home as quickly as possible and seamlessly move to a community that you have already been in contact with. 

Your community will also provide you with access to ongoing support to keep you healthy, motivated, and socially active.

Insurance Policies

In addition to your living accommodations, your insurance policies will be another major expense that must be taken into consideration. 

Much like your retirement accounts, you should take full advantage of your company's insurance while you are still working. Unfortunately, you will most likely lose all of your coverage once you no longer work for that company. 

As an alternative, you should begin to look at government subsidies to help you cover some or all of the costs including your premiums and deductibles. Many of these programs are designed specifically for retirees who have different needs than younger individuals.

Life insurance is also an important aspect to keep in mind for future finances. Not only does this form of insurance protect your family's finances after you pass away, but it can also be used as one more layer of financial protection while you are still alive. 

Insurance providers often bundle life insurance policies with long-term care and disability coverage.

Your retirement will most likely be one of the biggest lifestyle changes you ever experience, and it is important that you continue to plan accordingly while you are still able to make and invest money.

Lifetime Savings: 4 Ways To Save Some Extra Cash This Winter

Winter season brings with it three-foot-thick snow and chilling winds, but with it also comes opportunities to save extra cash. 

While everyone else is busy spending more money on their AC maintenance and winter gear, read on further as we discuss four ways to save some money during the cold season.

Lower Thermostat During The Night

Before you retreat to the cozy embrace of your bed, drop the thermostat down to a low temperature. Use thick blankets and pillows to keep you warm throughout the cold night. Upon waking up, turn the thermostat back on. 

This simple technique helps to reduce your energy and consequently your electricity bills by minimizing the times when your furnace or other heating systems are switched on.

Have Your HVAC Maintained Pre-Winter

HVAC technicians know that they can get away with bumping up cost of services due to the surge in demand during winter season, not to mention the difficult weather conditions. 

Contact places like HELP Plumbing, Heating, Cooling and Electric to help with repairs and installations. That way you can make sure that your HVAC system is as ready and prepared for winder as possible.

Spend More Leisure Time Indoors

Unlike other seasons of the year where you can afford to go out with family or friends and pay full price for movie tickets or dine at five-star restaurants, the Winter season restricts your movement by unintentionally trapping you indoors with snow and, sometimes, even unabated flurries and blizzards. 

Keep yourself entertained by reading books or watching movies on Netflix or a similar subscription service. You can also work on honing your skills in cooking, scrapbook-making, or any other hobby that interests you.

Cook Meals at Home

When you stick a pot roast in the oven or steam vegetables in your stove, you're adding more heat indoors. While your kitchen isn't the perfect insulator, the heat from both the range and the food dissipates into your household, which reduces the need for your heater to be switched on. 

Cooking meals at home require you to plan and prepare for groceries in advance. To further lower costs and save more, limit your grocery trips to at least once per week.

Winter may not be the most fun time to work outdoors, but it's definitely as good a time as any to save cash. These four tips, however, are only the tip of the iceberg. 

There are countless more ways that you can do, such as increasing layers of clothing, to save cash.

Can You Get a Mortgage if You are Self Employed?

There are now a larger number of self-employed individuals than ever before – more than 5 million in the UK – and the amount of independent workers could soon over take those employed in the public sector. No matter how successful or financially secure you may be, it can still be very difficult to secure a mortgage if you have your own business.

Although hard to secure, it is not impossible to get a mortgage if you are self-employed. The key is preparing in advance.

Does Business Set-Up Affect Your Application?

Businesses fall into three main structural categories: sole traders, partnerships and limited companies. Which of the three your business falls into can have a big impact on how lenders view the safety of your income.

Sole Traders – When applying for a mortgage as a sole trader, your lender will usually request proof of two years' worth of income. If you complete your own tax self assessment, you may need to provide your total income earned and tax paid via an SA302 form.

Partnerships – Similarly to sole traders, when you own a business with someone else, you will need to prove your portion of taxable income. However, make sure to keep accurate and up-to-date accounts, as you need to be able to show how you split net profits.

Limited Companies – As the director of a limited company, your income probably consists of a basic salary and additional dividend payments. Lenders usually consider both components when assessing a mortgage application, though they may be judged differently based on ownership share.

How Will Your Mortgage be Calculated?

The way a lender calculates rates and amounts varies wildly. While one lender may base your borrowing limit over several years worth of income, another may ask you to include projections of future earnings, but others may calculate using earnings over the last twelve months.

To get the best mortgage, speak to different lenders, shop around and make sure to look into companies such as Saffron Building Society, who offer mortgages catered to the self-employed.

How Can You Maximise Your Chances?

• Make sure you have your SA302 tax form ready as they can take time to arrive in the post
• Increase your deposit to decrease your borrowing amount
• Lenders want to know that you are stable, so aim to increase profits on a yearly basis
• Delay altering the structure of your business as this could hurt your application

When you are self employed you enjoy the benefits of being your own boss. You get to run your own business and determine your own destiny. But when applying for a mortgage you are in the hands of someone else and they are going to decide if you get one or not. As stated before the key is to prepare in advance.

Is Your Company Health Insurance Enough for You?

Does your employer provide health insurance? If the answer is yes - that’s great, but there are a few things you may want to consider in order to determine if your corporate health insurance plan is adequate enough to cover most or all of your healthcare related expenses. 

Health insurance is often offered by companies as an additional perk, and as such, rarely do we really look into what’s actually covered by our plan, or compare it with other plans.

While company-sponsored health insurance does provide us with access to superior care offered in private facilities (e.g. shorter waiting times and additional privacy), some group policies may offer only basic benefits with low limits or coverage elements, meaning that you may end up having to pay a large and completely unexpected out-of-pocket medical bill! 

This article by global insurance advisor Pacific Prime Singapore highlights the things you may want to consider in order to find out if your company health insurance is enough for you.

How protected are you?

Let’s face it, most people don’t apply the same degree of due diligence on health plans provided by their employers as they would on other plans. It’s a good idea to firstly find out what coverage levels are provided, these include:

Inpatient only: This is the most basic (and usually the cheapest) form of health insurance, and will cover hospitalization costs only. Any other expenses (e.g. visiting the GP) are not covered.

Inpatient and outpatient: With this type of plan, you’ll enjoy coverage for both inpatient and outpatient expenses.

Full coverage plans: If you’re lucky enough to be given a full coverage company health insurance plan, additional benefits such as coverage for dental care or mental health will also be included, on top of your inpatient and outpatient coverage benefits.

Coverage limits

To save on costs, companies will typically purchase group plans with low coverage maximums, meaning that once this limit has been reached, the patient could end up spending hundreds and thousands on treatment. 

For further peace of mind and to reduce financial risk, a top-up insurance plan is recommended for taking away that financial liability and adding additional coverage elements that your company health insurance may not have provided.

What about copayments and deductibles?

Employers may shift some of the company health insurance costs onto their employees by providing plans with high copayments and deductibles. This is because premiums on plans will tend to be lower when copayments and deductibles are higher.

Copayments are a fixed amount you agree to pay for every claim, and a deductible is an amount you will need to pay each year or for each claim. 

If your company health insurance copayment or deductible is too high, you may want to offset these risks with a top-up plan.

Pre-existing conditions

Another thing to be aware of is whether your company’s health insurance plan covers pre-existing conditions. Common pre-existing conditions include chronic diseases such as diabetes, asthma, and high blood pressure. 

Receiving treatment for these conditions can be expensive, which is why some plans don’t cover this or have limits that are too low to cover the bulk of the costs related to treating chronic conditions, meaning that employees may need to purchase top-up insurance.

Portability: does it cover you abroad?

How portable is your health insurance plan? Unforeseen accidents can happen anywhere, no matter how safe a country is, so it’s essential to be covered wherever you go. 

It is therefore essential to double check the regions covered by your company health insurance policy. Most plans will cover you in one region only, as they tend to be cheaper. 

People with local company health insurance policies will usually purchase top-up plans that provide international coverage, or purchase travel insurance every time they go abroad for additional peace of mind.

It can be confusing going through all the fine print of your corporate health insurance plan all on your own, which is why it often pays to talk to a trusted broker like Pacific Prime Singapore for additional advice.

About the author

If you are looking for the best value health insurance plans on the market, why not visit Pacific Prime Singapore’s Company Health Insurance Page to purchase your plan today? Their team of experienced insurance advisors offer a wealth of experience that you can rely on.

Random Philosophical Musings on Aging

One of the things about reaching senior years is that we don’t like to think about all those things we can no longer do or all the things we have left to do but little time in which to accomplish them. 

Our lives have been a whirlwind of activity in which we were always so busy that we really didn’t realize how quickly time was slipping away from us. Now, as our senior years are approaching, many of us begin musing on the meaning of life and why we age. 

Here are some random philosophical musings on aging which many of us face as those dreaded 60s approach.

Does Aging Serve a Purpose?

Some of the most revered ‘thinkers’ of our day have spent years pondering the purpose of aging. 

It doesn’t take having an online masters degree in philosophy to understand the importance of this question, although a degree of that nature does help us discover answers from some of the world’s greatest philosophers to have walked the face of the earth. 

Both Socrates and Plato were known to have philosophized on the nature of aging and both are often quoted as we try to make sense of this body that no longer works as it once had, or the mind that is still sharp, albeit slower to respond than it once had been. 

So, does aging serve a purpose from a philosophical vantage point? Some say it does.

Why the Musings of an Aging Philosopher Really Matter

When we are young, it seems as though we are always at the top of our game. There is little we don’t know, little we can’t do and God help the person who doubts our abilities and aptitudes. 

However, as we age we realize that there is so much more to learn because there is so much we don’t know. It is at this point that an aging philosopher can begin guiding the generation seeking the answers they once sought at that age and time.

These musings have meaning in that they are able to guide future generations in the mysteries of life. 

Science explains much but there is much more which science is unable to answer and here is where thought and matter converge.

A Generation of Aging Philosophers Is at the Door

Now, at a time when science is advancing faster than the speed of light, there is an entire generation of aging philosophers at the door listening to see what science can explain and waiting to fill in the gaps where science has no answer. 

These are the Baby Boomers of the late 1950s through the early 1960s, the biggest generation ever to age all at one time.

We are those aging philosophers who have yet to be heard. This is the time in our lives when things begin to slow and we have time on our hands to ponder all the things we were once too busy to see. 

Perhaps this is the time to join an online masters degree in philosophy program so that other, younger philosophers will be there to hear our musings and carry them forward through a time when most are still too busy to hear, too busy to think and yes, too busy to live. 

These random philosophical musings on aging are meant to be shared.