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How Can I Save Money With a Bundle?

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piggybank-2913293_960_720When you buy insurance, you might get different plans at different times of your life and not really think about how much things can add up over time. It’s like when you go into the grocery store and set a limit for yourself, it’s hard to stay under the number you set if you aren’t looking at all of your options and asking the employees “What kind of deals do you have?”

Sometimes it’s the simplest of questions that can help you the most, and if you are willing to do it when you are shopping around, you should be willing to do it with your insurance! All your savings will add up in the end and you might be able to do something nice for yourself with that little extra cash!financing-3536755_960_720

Asking your insurance provider about bundles can be very worthwhile question, and it never hurts to ask. Just act like you do when you go to the store looking for a good deal and find out the ways you can save some money! Like teacher’s try to tell us, there’s no stupid questions!

 

Disaster Hits, What Now?

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flood-642586_960_720If you have lived through a disaster or know anyone who has, you will know how hard it is to get back on your feet in the aftermath. It’s a long process and you pretty much have to fight to gain back everything that you had.

I had some family from South Carolina come to El Paso after their house and place of business was flooded out during Hurricane Charley in 2004. I remember them not knowing what would come next, and what would happen if they had to start over again. We as a family helped them with anything that they needed and got them through the next couple weeks so they could figure out if they wanted to come back here or go back to South Carolina.

It would have been devastating for them to lose everything, they owned their house and had a profitable business— and one of the saddest things to me was my cousins didn’t want to make new friends and start all over, they knew them all since they moved out there when they were kids. My aunt did have insurance, but all her documents were ruined in the storm—and she was right (she always was/is right!), but she called in to her insurance companies and after a few weeks of getting everything in order she was able to get back to South Carolina. hurricane-matthew-1769040_960_720

I called her up and asked her about the process when I was writing this blog to catch up and to see what she went through. She said that it took an extremely long time and she actually mentioned to me that what made it so long was that she had to deal with separate companies! After that ordeal she ended up finding out that bundling would’ve saved time and that it’s easier to deal with one company, and one deductible, and that’s how she has it set up now!

The Bottom Line

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real-estate-475875_960_720When you have a lot to protect it quickly becomes pretty stressful and expensive making sure that all of your physical assets like your car, house, most importantly your family is safe and the protection you have is up to snuff. But did you know that buying insurance separately can make you spend more when you don’t have to?

Bundling insurance can save you money, and it can also save you time. For instance when I was looking for car insurance I ended up being able to bundle in renter’s insurance for only a few dollars more, it saved me time and ultimately money since I wanted to get that for my apartment too at the time. We are all looking at the bottom line, right?accounting-761599_960_720

Another reason I like it is the simplicity of my bill and payment, I have it arranged where I send one single payment a month and I know that everything is said and done! So for your sanity, and your checkbook you should checkout what you can get when you bundle your policies! [Read more…] about The Bottom Line

Reasons You Want To Take Advantage of Open Enrollment

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calculator-1044173_960_720With Open Enrollment coming up, it is important to look at your personal situation and think about if there is anything that you would like to change with your health insurance. Things that you should take into consideration would be if you like your current provider, if you want to change the type of plan you have due to cost, or if you don’t have health insurance at all and need to get it!

Just like in past years, if you don’t have employer provided health insurance and you are over the age of 26, you cannot be on your parent’s plan anymore. But unlike in 2018, going forward from 2019 and onward, there will no longer be a penalty unless the state you reside in mandates a penalty for not having health insurance.

If you are not happy with your provider you can shop around for another during this Open Enrollment period, and if you want to change the type of plan you have you can do so during this time as well! If you have a specific doctor that you want to go to, but is not within your network, you can find which provider has them in-network and sign-up with them. Or if you just want to switch to try something else out you can as well, no problem!

There are exceptions to this Open Enrollment period, with life changing events you can insurance-1991276_960_720change your plan to better suit you. If you have a child, get married, or lose your coverage you can change or enroll in a different plan for 60 days following the event. But otherwise you will have from November 1st to December 15th, 2018 to make any changes—and remember any changes made during Open Enrollment start on January 1st, 2019, so get ready and plan accordingly!

Why Is Health Insurance Important?

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runners-635906_960_720Health insurance is a very important component of any person’s safety net. Without sufficient health insurance, you can find yourself in a rough situation medically, made worse by a giant medical bill out of left-field! And if you have children this becomes especially important since their health is of the upmost importance.

When I was a kid in kindergarten, I remember my whole class went to the nurse and we did a little check-up to make sure we were in good health. When I was doing the eye test, my school nurse found out I could not see out of my right eye, which was effectively blind (I remember thought I had X-Ray vision in my right eye since everything was blurry out of that eye when I was a kid!) and losing vision in my left.

When my mom got the call from the nurse to tell her I was going blind she was getting her PhD— and had absolutely no insurance. So, she dropped out of her PhD program and found a job that had a good health insurance plan so she could take me to a specialist, which she did and the specialist ended up saving my vision. Another kicker to this is we also found out my little brother had the same issues during my check-ups and ended up saving his vision as well!black-and-white-915782_960_720

With this memory of mine, I cannot stress how much it helped me at a very young age, and I am thankful that something like this exists— otherwise I might not be here typing this today. Do not let yourself go without or have insufficient coverage, because you will never regret having it when you truly need it.

HMO, PPO, and EPO. What Do They Mean?

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health-2082630_960_720You’re most likely looking at these acronyms thinking, “What.”, and wondering what do they all mean? Well, each of these acronyms are different types of health insurance plans that have different features, and it’s up to you to decide which one best suits you!

HMO stands for Health Maintenance Organization, and these types of plans usually have cheaper monthly premiums and lower cost-sharing than other types of plans, but this comes at a disadvantage since you must get primary care provider referrals to see a specialist (Known as PCP referrals) which means you have to get a referral from your regular doctor to see a specialist, and these plans usually won’t pay if you go outside their network of preferred doctors.

PPO stands for Preferred Provider Organization and are called this because they have a network of doctors that they “prefer” you to use— but you can still go to a doctor that is outside their network if you want. Due to this freedom in your choice of doctor, you will face a higher premium than an HMO or EPO in comparison, but some find this preferable to the other plans. A lot of times you would get this type of coverage through an employer, but it is possible to get it as an individual as well!

EPO stands for Exclusive Provider Organization, and these are somewhat of a hybrid of an HMO and a PPO. With an EPO you have to stay within an “exclusive” list of doctors to use, and if you use an out-of-network doctor you won’t be covered at all. But there is an upside to this type of plan, as you do not have to see a primary care physician to go to a specialist (But the specialist has to be in-network!), and you do save money in comparison to a PPO.

family-2073604_960_720When making your decision, just decide what you think is best for you and your family, and which features are most important to you—just take your pick!

What Will You Need When Applying for Health Insurance

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If you want to make the process of getting health insurance easier for you, then look no further! In this weekly installment I will give you a rundown on what information you should bring, this way you’ll save time and you won’t hate the process as much as other folks have in the past!

calendar-660670_960_720With Open Enrollment just around the corner on November 1st (Ends on December 15th!), it is important to get everything you will need ready so you can make it a quick and painless process. You will need the typical information such as your name, address, social security number, and birthdate— but you’ll also need all that information for anyone that will have coverage under your plan as well!

You’ll also have to bring employer and income information for everyone in your household— so W-2 forms and pay stubs would be good examples of what to have. You will also need to estimate the amount of income you anticipate for 2019 as well,  and you can use your pay statements and W-2s to figure this information out, kill two birds with one stone! obama-1301891_960_720

Another piece of information will need to bring would be your current health plan for you and any other plans that apply to anyone you are going to provide coverage for. So round up all of this information, put it into a manila folder, and show it to your insurance agent so you can get in and out quicker than you can say “Health Insurance”! (In reality it won’t be that quick, but you know what I mean!)

How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?

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question-mark-2492009_960_720This can be a tricky question, but there are a couple of ways to go about finding the right amount that you need without wanting to pull your hair out!

You can calculate how much you need and base the question on what kind of financial picture you find yourself in now, and what kinds of financial milestones will you want to cover. This can be a useful method if you have children or are a meticulous person— but I know that some of us would like a more simple method.

A more elegant solution to this question is just buying coverage equal 5 to 10 times your annual salary, so if you make $60,000 per year you’ll want to have a policy of $300,000 to $600,000 depending on how much of a premium you’d like to pay per month. money-1885540_960_720

Using either of these methods, anyone establish the amount that they think their family will need in the event of their passing. You can include things like college tuition, ability to pay estate taxes, and even other expenses like a first car for a child or grandchild— just be sure to calculate it in before making your decision!