Smart Finance: 6 Things to Consider Before Making a Major Purchase

It isn't every day that you spend $30,000 for a new car or $300,000 on a new home. Even spending $500 on a new water heater or a new television isn't something that you do regularly. If you are going to spend that amount in the near future, what are some things that you can do to ensure that you are spending your money wisely?

Get Quotes From Multiple Retailers

The first thing that you want to do is get quotes from a variety of retailers. You may find that buying online is cheaper than buying at a big box retailer. You may also find that buying from a local store is more expensive than the big box retailer but that you get better service from the local store. 

Consider Extra Fees

There may be a variety of fees that you have to pay on top of the retail price. These fees may include paying for delivery, paying for installation or paying for the retailer to haul away the product that you are replacing. 

Consider the Cost of Insurance

When you purchase a car, boat or house, you may need to purchase an insurance policy to protect yourself or the lender financing the purchase. Liability is just one of the reasons to get boat and yacht insurance now. It may be a good idea to comparison shop ahead of time or buy a policy that can take effect immediately after you make the purchase. You don’t want to be caught without insurance on these types of things. 

The Product Should Have a Warranty

The product that you purchase should have a warranty that lasts for at least a year. If it doesn't you may want to look into buying an extended warranty or service plan. These policies can be affordable depending on the level of coverage and service you want or need. 

Determine How to Finance the Purchase

Many stores offer 0 percent financing if you open a store credit card to finance the purchase. Assuming that you can pay the balance off in a timely manner, this may be better than depleting your savings account on one item. 

Figure Out If Sales May Lower the Price In the Near Future

If Black Friday is around the corner, it may be best to wait until the price goes down on the item that you want. In some cases, online retailers may have special sales or specials to drive traffic to their website throughout the year.

Careful research, considering additional fees and insurance and smart financing of the purchase can help you get the most for your dollar. It’s important to consider all of the extras of making a big purchase so you don’t have financial trouble after you buy it. These tips can help make sure you are making smart financial choices and enjoy your purchases, rather than regret them.

How To Be Smart About Car Insurance In A World Full Of Dumb Motorists

Buying a car is expensive, and the better the car, the more expensive it is going to be. After you buy a car, you may be reluctant to spend any more money on anything else. When the idea of insurance comes up, you may be wondering if this is something you can put off for a short time until you can rebalance your cash flow. 

While it’s natural to have this passing thought, acting on it can prove highly detrimental. Unfortunately, there are some people who try and get away with not buying car insurance.

The thought of going without car insurance is completely unnecessary. You can get the lowest possible rates from companies like www.acceptanceinsurance.com. So it’s not an unreasonable expense. What’s more important to consider is that car insurance helps protect you from all kinds of financial disasters.

You need insurance for three primary reasons: it satisfies a legal requirement; it offers personal liability protection, and it covers expensive car repairs after an accident.

A Legal Requirement

When it comes to car insurance, you really don’t have a choice. You have to carry it by law. Your state will require you to carry a minimum amount of car insurance on your vehicle. How much depends from one state to another. 

Naturally, if you want to be smart about it, you should buy more than the minimum. You should buy as much insurance as you can afford to get the maximum amount of protection. There are some things that it is not wise to skimp on, and insurance is one of those things.

What happens if you don’t carry car insurance?

If you get pulled over for any reason at all by the police, the first thing they ask you is for your car insurance papers.

If you don’t have insurance, you will be in a lot of trouble. For one thing, you may not even be allowed to drive away once the police know that you are driving without car insurance. For another thing, you may have your car impounded.

However, it gets even worse. You will be forced to go to court and pay heavy fines. Then, on top of all this, your license may either be suspended or revoked for a particular period of time.

Liability Protection

Even if there were no laws requiring car owners to get car insurance, it would still be a good idea to have it.

If you are involved in an accident, your car insurance gives you liability protection.

If you cause an accident, you can be held responsible for all the costs associated with it. You must pay the medical expenses of those who were injured. If the accident results in a fatality, you have to pay the family a monetary award.

These are extremely high costs, and can literally ruin your life for years to come. You may have to sell everything you own, including liquidating your financial investments and selling your home.

If you don’t have enough assets to liquidate, then you could spend the rest of your working life paying off the expenses caused by the car accident.

If you did not cause the accident, but were hit by a car driven by someone who did not have insurance, you may have high medical expenses.

While you might be able to sue the other person, the chances of them having enough money to pay you are slim, especially if they cannot even afford to buy car insurance.

However, in a case like this, your car insurance company will pay for your medical expenses.

In addition, your insurer may also pay for repair or replacement for your damaged car.

How much your insurance company will pay for your medical costs and car repair or replacement costs depends on the type of insurance you are carrying.

Vehicle Repairs

Another expense associated with causing an accident is repairing the other person’s car. This can be very expensive.

As the at fault driver in the accident, you may either have to pay for car repairs or if the cost of repair exceeds the value of the car, you may have to buy them a new car. Without insurance, you would have to pay for this out of your own pocket.

You are also liable to pay even if you don’t hit another person. If, for example, you drive into a wall, a store, a house, an electric pole, or a street sign, you have to pay for the property. 

Insurance Protects You

When people think of insurance, they view their premiums as a waste of money. This is an entirely wrong way of thinking about insurance. Your small premiums are protecting you from all sorts of exorbitant costs—medical costs, monetary awards, property damage—that you might not be able to pay for out of your own pocket. In fact, a single accident could force you to go into bankruptcy.

There is a reason the law is so strict about car insurance. It protects everyone from costs that they might find unaffordable. Despite this, one in seven drivers don't have car insurance. So you even need car insurance to protect yourself from people too dumb to buy it.

10 Surprising Things that Increase Home Value

Looking to increase your home’s value, but you’ve already exhausted the traditional value increasing methods such as updating the kitchen and bathrooms? Here are 10 surprising things that you may not have realized can increase your home’s value.

Roof repairs

As you’ll read in this article, having your roof repaired is one of the best home improvements you can make before the winter months hit, and it could mean the difference between having a seamless winter season and dealing with expensive repairs due to ice damming. 

It makes sense, then, that inspecting your roof and making any necessary repairs is one thing you’ll be sure you want to do before listing your home. Homebuyers, after all, want to make sure that the next home that they invest in, well, offers a well-built roof over their heads. If once you’ve repaired your roof, it promises to last another three to five years, you’re set. As an added bonus, repairing any unsightly flaws in your current roof will improve your home’s curb appeal.

Foundation repairs

Similarly, home buyers want to be sure that the home they are going to invest in is built on a strong foundation. Be sure that your home’s foundation is keeping the home up off the ground without any apparent cracks or failures.

Trees

As this article details, trees planted throughout a neighborhood can raise property values throughout the entire area. Even trees planted in a neighbor’s yard can raise the value of your own property by potentially thousands of dollars. In one study, homes that had “street trees”—trees planted between the sidewalk and street—sold for on average $7,130 more than homes without street trees. 

To get the most property value out of your landscaping, plan your landscaping early on, allowing for trees and shrubs to mature for when it’s time to sell; you’ll see on average a 12% increase in the perceived value of your home. And a strong overall first impression? That’s worth up to 27% in increased perceived value.

New outdoor lighting

On a similar note, it’s a good idea to consider updating your home’s outdoor lighting before you put your house on the market. As with landscaping, lighting can contribute to a better overall first impression of your home. Updated outdoor lighting won’t just give your home a better ambiance at night, either; it will also give your home a more modern feel during the daytime.

New front door

Installing a new front door is another way to instantly boost curb appeal, and it’s a home improvement that many homeowners overlook. Just be sure not to veer too far away from the mainstream here as you replace your front door. This is also a good time to update your front door’s locks.

Deep cleaning

At this point, you may have guessed why this one made the list—a deep cleaning is the ultimate way to improve the first impression that buyers have of your home. This includes having the interior of your home professionally deep cleaned, as well as having your home’s exterior siding and pathways powerwashed. 

Really, not enough can be said about how giving your home a strong buyer's’ first impression boosts the home’s value overall. One major plus to this item on the list is that it’s by far the cheapest.

Green lawn

Another point for curb appeal? Yep.

External dwelling units

When you consider the fact that so many young adults are headed back to their parents’ homes for a break from rent, this one makes a great deal of sense. Having an additional “tiny home” on your property can increase home value by up to 34%.

Coffee shops

Okay, so this one is a little out of your control as a homeowner. But according to an article published by Time magazine in February 2015, a Starbucks opening in the neighborhood—within a quarter mile, to be exact—actually boosts local property values. When you consider the fact that for many a morning coffee is a daily ritual on the way to work, this one may not be all that surprising after all.

Walmart

Here’s another that’s outside of the homebuyer’s control, but it’s something to be aware of nonetheless. For many homebuyers, living near a Walmart offers the ultimate convenience. In fact, researchers at the University of Chicago concluded that living within a mile of a Walmart store could raise a home’s value by 1%-2%. And if that Walmart is located within half a mile of the home, the property value can increase by an additional 1%.

Know Your Basics about Working with a Debt Collection Agency

Once you have made up your mind that you will avail a collection agency service, to settle your accounts and close the books of old debtors you need to know how to work with them.

Your first step will be to list the accounts that are to be recovered in the debt collection agency’s form manually or load it electronically on their set format. Try to provide as much accurate data as possible to improve the amount recovered.

The minimum data that are required to be supplied to your debt collection agency are:

• The accurate name, address and telephone number of the debtors
• The name of the debtors’ closest family- in most cases, the spouses.
• The information about any mail that has been neglected and/or returned.
• The occupation of the debtors and their spouse and their job phone number.
• Any referring names of family, friend, neighbors of the debtors.
• A brief about any disputes, written or verbal
• The date of last payment, if any, the order date and the due date of payment.
• Additional contact numbers -mobile phones, fax, etc.
• Any other known names of the debtors -nicknames and aliases.

All the information is supposed to be with you, when your customer signed for a credit application.

Any specific notes that you have kept regarding any of the errant customers should also be supplied.

The debt collection agencies need you to cooperate on this matter, for making their task and your recovery easier. Most of these agencies have the knowledge and skill to get you favorable results. Getting them aware about the nature of your business and its dealing is also essential.

Some of the collection agency services are specialized. They only deal with business that is governed by certain laws of the state. If your business or service falls under these categories, it is essential that you find a debt collection agency, which is specialized in the particular field.

Do not allocate a single account to multiple agencies. If you decide to change your debt collection agency make sure that they do not have any of your account lying with them. Since the payment of these agencies is made after your debts have been recovered do not expect very quick results.

How do the debt collection agencies get paid:

Some of these agencies charge a monthly fee, while some charge per call. But most of the agencies charge commission on the basis of the amount recovered. This commission varies upon the “collectible” factor of the debt. If an account is 60 days old and the debtor is easily traceable, it is likely that the debt can be recovered easily. 

In such cases generally 25% of the amount is charged as commission. Accounts that are smaller in amount, but are aged more than a year, are likely to be charged more. If there is a steady flow of accounts every month the debt collectors charge a flat rate of 18% on all recovered amounts.

Some of these agencies also offer additional services at a flat rate that does not depend apart from deb. You need to ask each agency you contact about any such additional service that they provide.

There are multiple debt collection agencies working all over the U.S. Check their websites and the tally with the type of collection agency services that you are looking for. You will find a perfect agency that is best suited for your purpose and your business.

About Author: Rob Sanders, the owner of an audit firm discusses the best ways to work with a debt collection agency. He clears some of the doubts regarding their payment structure for debt recovery and other collection agency services.