Archive for October, 2008

Companies sell insurance to help the average consumer relieve some of the fear of the unknown.  We don’t know what’s going to happen to us in the future, and that fear of the unknown is often what drives us to purchase insurance.  While there are many good reasons to buy insurance (for your car, for [...]

With the worst performing week on Wall Street and a worsening economic crisis, companies are looking for ways to save money. In 2008, the travel industry has been faced with rising air prices, increasing airline fees, reduced capacity and cancelled routes. What can companies do to ensure their travel costs are kept under control or [...]

  It is not uncommon to see an extra traveling member with families vacationing with kids. But, do not forget to purchase travel insurance for the nanny to ensure all bases and all people are covered further protecting a vacation investment and providing peace of mind. Travel insurance ensures travelers can be ready for the [...]

Greener Pastures hosts this weeks Carnival of Personal Finance.  Here are a few of my favorites, but check it out for yourself for the full list of personal finance blogs. AJC from How to make $7 million in 7 years … no scams, no schemes! presents Show me the money!, Debbie from Destroy Debt presents [...]

Many families enjoy the fall season, and celebrate with one or more trips to the local apple picking farms.  In our family, we usually go once together, and then again with the children’s school field trips – so we end up with several bags of delicious apples to enjoy.  However, what do you do with [...]

If the price of your regular trip to the grocery store giving you a slight heart attack every time you check out?  Time to see if your area has a food buying club! WHAT IS A FOOD BUYING CLUB? Food buying clubs, also called cooperative consumer food-buying clubs or preorder co-ops, are when groups of people [...]

Families are constantly being told to track their spending and stay on a budget but many will fail at doing so because they don’t really take in to consideration what constitutes spending. To get an adequate picture of what you are spending requires tracking EVERY CENT SPENT. That means spending at convenience stores, spending at [...]

Bullet proof glass, surveillance camera and armed guards? China has a reputation of guarding its Panda bears, but how about protecting another almost-extinct species? Known as “China Girl”, the last female Yangtze giant soft-shelled turtle resides in the Suzhou Zoo in China. Initially “China Girl” had called the Changsha Zoo home. There are just four [...]

While the estimated losses of first mortgages come in around $180 million, it is not the live-in homeowners that are causing the financial crisis in the market. It appears that the biggest losses actually originate from commercial real estate loans and investment property loan. Houses also “built on speculation” are also a part of the [...]

Wachovia Bank customers may not know how close they came to not having a banking institution. Last week, Wachovia Banks was running but with strong concerns that the bank would not be open for this week. Before any deals were being worked out, Wachovia did not have a source of liquidity and under those circumstances, [...]

If you own a retail business, it’s absolutely critical that you have some sort of merchant account for credit card processing. Merchants who only accept cash and checks lose out on a substantial amount of sales volume simply because many people do not carry cash anymore. They depend on electronic payment methods such as credit [...]

Wachovia Bank customers may not know how close they came to not having a banking institution. Last week, Wachovia Bank was running but with strong concerns that the bank would not be open for this week. Before any deals were being worked out, Wachovia did not have a source of liquidity and under those circumstances, [...]

Regardless of the value of the “green back” or the United States’ “green currency”, green travel is on the rise. More than 18 million Americans can be classified as ecotourists, according to the International Ecotourism Society and a Geotourism Study by the Travel Industry Association and National Geographic Traveler reports nearly 55.1 million Americans express an interest [...]