Saving You Money For Life

If you had to put a value on all the things stay-at-home moms do it would quickly add up. A recent study by salary.com estimates that if the average stay-at-home mom were paid for all the time she spends cooking, cleaning, dealing with squabbles, managing the family’s finances, shuttling kids back and forth, etc., she would make $43,461 a year. And guess what. Word is getting around.

The life insurance industry has been restricting the amount of coverage on non-working spouses way too much for way too long. Now they’re finally beginning to acknowledge a loss of income to the surviving spouse because careers are slowed down to handle things at home.

Life insurance companies used to limit the amount of coverage a non-working spouse could obtain to $250,000 or 50 percent of the primary breadwinner’s coverage. Now a few companies are loosening the strings on this “rule of thumb.”

So how much life insurance coverage could you qualify for? It depends on what life insurance company you decide to go with. To determine how much you should have, go to a needs calculator.

Posted in Uncategorized | | No Comments »

Since there’s a website for everything it’s only natural that there would be one for insurance scams and it can be found at http://www.scam.com/forumdisplay.php?f=7. This particular forum deals with insurance companies scamming individuals, rather than the other way around. It is unclear at this time which activity is more common.

But it is refreshing to find a site where people make an effort to identify insurance companies with whom they have had problems. The only other way I’ve found to pick up insurance complaints is through haphazard searches that turn up blog messages and the like. Now just as there is a website for everything, every website has to be complicated and this one actually peddles a little advertising for online auto insurance sales. Whether that creates some vetting of the forum I cannot say. But what I can say is that there is enough participation in the forum to pick up repetition. You can see which auto and home insurance firms and others, keep turning up as problems. That kind of anecdotal evidence is invaluable – as good as any statistical survey you’ll find out there.

Scam.com doesn’t stop with insurance cons. They’ve got forums on auction scams, used car scams, contest scams, mail order scams – you name it. There’s even a Conspiracy Theory Zone. It’s an interesting collection of good information, ranting geeks and the usual registration and membership nonsense. Nonetheless, if you’re at sea regarding the myriad new insurance companies knocking on your email box, Scam.com might be a helpful resource.

Posted in Uncategorized | | No Comments »