money

How my life insurance came in handy: AmericaDirect.com

Posted by

When I first met my wife in Taipei, she was a life insurance saleswoman for Aetna Life Insurance. She naturally tried to sell me some life insurance and got me what she thought was a low term life insurance rate for my policy, as she was just learning the trade. The other possible reason for trying to sell me on this is that she just wanted my telephone number!

Of course, I was the somewhat reluctant customer… there’s nothing wrong with me… I’m going to live for ever 29-year-old! To persuade me to buy it, she signed me up and paid the first contribution for me! That was not a little money, but it gave her peace of mind!

Funny thing is: about two years later, after a very hectic and stressful period of my life, my body was physically run down! I got pneumonia, ended up in hospital for 10 days, with a raging fever; and needed fairly powerful medications. This was all in the days before Taiwan’s National Health Insurance. When we went to check out, we paid the bill for that hospitalization, and it wasn’t cheap, something like half a month’s salary, plus I didn’t make any money for about two weeks or thereabouts.

After contacting our then insurance agent (wife was now an English teacher!), we were covered in full almost for the illness. When the check came, it was a might relief! That was handy. Handy, indeed. Next time, I took better care of myself, too!

Nowadays, though, I don’t have to meet someone on a bus just to get good life insurance coverage, I can just find online term life insurance rates and get instant insurance life quotes at the click of a button. However you decide to get life insurance, having appropriate life insurance can really make a big difference when things go bad.

Sponsored Post by AmericaDirect.com.

‘Free Money’: What do you do with it?

Posted by

3

If you like this blog, why not subscribe to this RSS feed. Or get our free email updates.

It’s tax season in many countries in the world: U.S., UK, and here in Taiwan, too. It’s time to pony up our share of our ill~ (well?!) gotten gains for the previous fiscal year, and that got me started thinking about ‘free money.’What is ‘free money’? Well, in some cases, it’s really free. You win the money in a competition, you inherit some money, you earn a surprise bonus, a stock suddenly bounces, whatever. This money came to you from the Goddess of Fortune. In other cases, ‘free’ money isn’t quite so free, but still it can be a big benefit.

‘Free money’ like that may come from many places, money that you dropped under the sofa, lay hidden in a bank account that was forgotten about, you loaned to a friend that was unexpectedly returned, a tax rebate… the list goes on. The key point to such money is that it is yours, but it was not available to you to spend or invest until you reclaimed it some how.

The temptation when you find such ‘free money’ is to spend it, because you want something in particular, and didn’t have the money for a purchase. In reality, this is a bad choice, because saving or investing ‘free money’ will always produce a bonus of some kind in the form of interest or dividends or capital appreciation. Also, over several years, such little amounts of ‘free money’ can, in fact, add up to quite a large some, larger than you might otherwise expect.

An example: in 1999~2000 our landlord, for various tax reasons (I don’t quite understand) returned our full year’s rent, that was about $8350. Then when we mortgaged and remortgaged our house a few years ago, because the paperwork took a while, we didn’t have to pay a mortgage payment for one month. That saved about $600. About three years ago, a relation returned our $3,500 loan now that they had the means to do so. Adding up all those amounts, we get about $12K. That’s not bad for free money.

Of course, there have been other occasions when we have received such ‘free money’ in smaller amounts, but the money has been spent or invested without us knowing or being able to account where it went.

So, this year, if you get a rebate or inheritance, don’t go out and buy a boat or a 2nd car or remodel yourself or your house. Think intelligently, and if you really want any of those items, work out a way to get the money from your regular budget. Put the ‘free money’ to use in your investments, whether it is tax free or not. It will add up quite quickly, and produce a loot more!

What kind of ‘free money’ did you receive? How did you manage it? Well or badly? Share your story with us!

Car parking: make money the easy Peasy way!

Posted by

Living in a large city like London, Birmingham or Glasgow, if you are a driver can be a nightmare…! Where on earth do you park at an affordable price, and in a timely manner?

If you live in a city, e.g. London, and have unused parking space, perhaps because you gave up your car, and now use the Tube, public transport, or even a bicycle, how can you make the most of the resource you have, the empty car park?

Both these problems have now been solved by Peasy.com. Peasy allows you to find and rent out parking spaces as well as allow customers to book online! Parking spaces for rent are available near train, tube, town centres and even sporting events, like the Saturday football game!

This could be a whole new income stream for you in the UK, without considerable outlay.

Car parks and convenience brought to you by Peasy.com.