Car Accidents and Insurance

If you are in an at fault car accident, you always want to make sure that the person you hit can get a couple of quotes from shops before you call up your insurance or make a police report. In Florida, you can make a delayed police report, which means that up to 5 days after the accident, you can make a police report at the station and you can use this police report for an insurance claim. This should be true in other states as well.

If you have the person get quotes and you can pay for the damage out of pocket, then you will not receive points on your license and your insurance will not increase. Another reason to get quotes is that it might be cheaper to replace the bumper out of pocket, than to replace it through insurance if you have a high deductible. Let's say, your deductible is $1,000 and the bumper you hit can be fixed/replaced for $500, then there is no point to involve insurance and receive points on your driver license as $500 is clearly less than the $1000 from your deductible.

Suze Orman Expense Sheet - Budget and Emergency Fund Planner

Another great budgeting tool is on the Suze Orman's website, Suze Orman's Expense Sheet. You enter your emergency fund amount and break down how much you spend each month by category. Then, Suze lets you know what your essential expenses are and based on that how large your 8 months emergency fund should be.

If a budgeting category is off from the national average, the cell will highlight yellow and by hovering over the cell, you can see what the national average is. If you are spending less, that's great. However, if you are spending more than the national average on a category, you should reconsider that expense even if you have an above average income.

At the end of the process that takes 2 minutes, Suze will tell you to beef up your emergency fund if you do not have 8 months of essential expenses. If your emergency fund fits the bill, she'll say that you should aggressively pay down any debt.

Cut Your Bills - Insurance

Insurance is something unavoidable, if you own a car that is. However, many people overpay simply because they stick with the insurance agency that gave them their first quote or they never compared rates. A great company for comparing rates is Insurance.com. This site allows you to fill in the forms once and get quotes from several companies.

However, it does not hurt to get quotes from other companies that you do not see on the Insurance.com list, or even those that show up, just to make sure.

Upromise.com will offer $5 if you request a quote from Liberty Mutual, even if you do not sign up for their insurance.

Make sure to compare insurance rates every time your insurance expires as you might be able to get a better deal elsewhere. Also, make sure to pay your premium in full for the 6 months. Usually, it will lead to great savings.