Car Insurance Premium Savings

See the link below for a possible way to reduce your car insurance premium by considering telematics. According to the article, the good news is that your car insurance rate probably will not go up even if you are lousy driver. You would need to check with your insurance company to see if your insurance company offers this device, and if so are there any disadvantages or costs to you associated with this program.

 

Source:  Chicago Tribune October 28, 2012

 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-10-26/classified/sc-cons-1025-karpspend-telematics-20121025_1_drive-wise-premiums-safe-driver

Spam

If you get spam texts on your cellphone, it would be a good idea to forward the texts to 7726 (SPAM).  This will alert your cellphone carrier to block future texts from those numbers.

IRA Precaution

If a child inherits an IRA from a parent, the child cannot roll the IRA into their own name to preserve the deferral of tax on the income generated within the IRA.  The best way to preserve the deferral mechanism is to retitle the IRA as an "inherited IRA."  For example, the retitling could go something like this: "John Jones IRA (deceased August 1, 2012) for the benefit of Joan Jones beneficiary."  If the money will be divided among heirs, each recipient should retitle his or her share.  So the key here is retitling an inherited IRA.  Correct titling is critical here.  If you get the titling wrong, the heir(s) could be taxed immediately on their whole share.

An Inheritance Nightmare

If you add a child's name to a parent's bank account to allow the child access to funds in case of crisis, you may be creating a financial burden to the parents.  The reason for this comment is that in some states, this situation could trigger an inheritance tax payable by the parents if the child dies before the parents do.  For example, in the above case, the parents may be considered to have inherited a third of the money in the bank account and have to pay an inheritance tax on this deemed inheritance.  This may be the case even if the child had none of her/his own money in the account or never even visited that bank.  Currently, 7 states tax inheritances of this type - Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.  Four states - Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland and New Jersey -  appear to currently exempt parents of decedents from this inheritance tax law nightmare.  Granting the child a power of attorney instead of adding the child's name to the account could have averted this liability.

Scrap Recycling - Help The Environment & Yourself

Recycling is beneficial to the environment, and in addition can be financially beneficial to you also.  Consider taking scrap metal to a scrap dealer who will take the scrap metal off of your hands and keep the scrap metal out of landfills.  The scrap dealer will give you money for your scrap regardless of the condition of the metal.                                                                                                                   

 I took an old dead battery to the scrap dealer that could have cost me $10 to recycle, and I received $5.00 for the battery.  So I helped the environment by keeping the battery out of landfills, and I came out potentially $15 ahead by getting $5 and not having to pay around $10 to discard of the dead battery.

How To Stay Active Forever

Try these 12 easy ways to avoid getting injured during exercise:

• Ease Into Exercise - warm up your muscles to raise their temperature before you stress them.
• Target Your Middle - Build your core strength.  Try the plank - a simple exercise that resembles a push up in which your forearms rest on the floor.  Hold your core steady for 30 seconds, rest, and repeat.
• Embrace The Squat - Stand with your feet shoulder-distance apart and squat, back straight, until your thighs are almost parallel to the ground, rise slowly.  Repeat up to 20 times.
• Play Flamingo - Increase your balance by standing on one leg a few times a day.  Hold for 20 seconds and then switch legs.  Also, try doing the exercise with your eyes closed.
• Coddle The Achilles - Stretch the Achilles by leaning against a wall with one leg extended behind you with your heel on the ground.  Hold for 30 seconds, then slightly bend the knee on the extended leg and hold for another 30 seconds and then switch legs.
• Strengthen Your Shoulder - Do this by grasping both ends of an elastic tube and pulling the tube apart.  Repeat 5 times.
• Grab Some Golf Balls - Help prevent heel and arch pain that you can get with plantar fasciitis by loosening the arch and tissues in your feet.  Roll a golf ball over your arches including doing this while brushing your teeth.
• Stretch Strategically - The latest news about stretching is that it may decrease muscle power and contribute to injuries if done while muscles are cold.  Now the conventional wisdom is to stretch at some time during the day, perhaps  while watching TV or right before bed.
• Listen To Twinges - If something hurts you, back off from training.  If you do not do this, minor muscle tears can turn into major injuries.
• Drink Chocolate Or Regular Milk - Consuming some protein after exercise appears to help muscles rebuild themselves more effectively.  When protein is combined with carbohydrates such as sugar in chocolate milk, muscles recover even better. If you are trying to lose weight, plain milk works well too.
• Do The Laundry Lift - Strength training increases muscle mass and also helps to stabilize and protect your joints.  You do not have to lift heavy weights.  If you cannot get to the gym, lift your laundry basket (including over your head) instead.
• Take A Load Off - Days off are more important as you get older.  So skip at least one day every week, or at most go on a gentle walk.  If you are still fatigued or achy the next day, take another day off..

Tire Rotation

There was a time when rotating tires was not necessarily cost effective.  However, today's vehicles are very sophisticated, and uneven wheel rotation speeds, which can vary if one wheel's diameter differs from the rest, can affect things such as anti-lock brakes and automatic stability control.  So rotating tires on relatively current model cars may be well worth while.