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Anybody paying a monthly student loan bill would be thrilled to pay less per month or pay off their loan faster. Over 44 million Americans carry a total of $1.5 trillion in student loan debt. That’s an average of $32,731 each. Millions could pay less but don’t take advantage of loan consolidation or refinancing. One reason is that the process seems too complex. Is it really? Simplify Many Variables It really is a chore to gather information about consolidating or refinancing student loans. You basically have to visit each lender website, one-by-one, and jot down data, such as: Interest rates (fixed and variable) Loan terms – How long you have to pay back your loan. Minimum and maximum loan amounts – The least and the most you are allowed to borrow. Benefits and features – For example, discounts if you set up auto-payment. Eligibility – May depend on enrollment status, where you live, or cosigner status. Who wants to collect all this data? Well, thankfully, there are online resources that put all the information on one page. These details matter, and later you’ll learn how much you can save if you refinance your student loan. Consolidation vs. Refinancing Loan consolidation … Read more

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A life insurance policy is an insurance policy that provides cover to the family or the nominees of the insured after their unfortunate demise or any other situation. This is done by financially supporting the family in exchange for a premium that is paid by the policy holder every month, half yearly or yearly. Certain types of life insurance policies also have investments opportunities and can also be chosen as a plan that would give benefits to the policy holder while they are alive as well as to their family. Get a life insurance plan out of the best life insurance policies out there that will give your family maximum benefits. Few of the best life insurance policies will get the claim settled without any hassles or delay. So, choosing out of the best life insurance policy should be done after proper and thorough research and comparison. Choose the one with a high claim settlement ratio It means that the number of claims settled is closer to the number of claims made by the policy holders or their families. The insurance company having a high claim settlement ratio can ensure that your family will be secure and get the cover … Read more

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Careful budgeting is a big part of preparing for a newborn’s arrival. There are a few obvious expenses you’ll have to consider, such as the cost of toys, furniture, food, and lots of diapers. Indeed, diapers, food, and formula alone can cost up to $2,500 per year for a newborn. And these are just a few of the expenses that everyone knows about — as you continue to research the cost of having a baby, you’ll uncover lots of other things to budget for, from healthcare to life insurance. Day-to-day costs of raising a baby are high, and you’ll also have to account for healthcare. In addition to feedings and diaper changes, watching for and treating things such as diaper rash and cradle cap are important for newborns. You’ll need to carefully monitor the baby’s health and meet all the doctor’s appointments for the baby. The mother’s healthcare needs are also vital following a pregnancy. Remember to consider the cost of prenatal care when budgeting for your first year as a parent. Another area that’s easy to overlook is how you should adjust your insurance after having a child. Indeed, childbirth is a major milestone that inspires many people to … Read more

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When you invest, your money makes more money. Besides the obvious benefit of freeing up your time to do more of the things that you like to do, investing does something that you can’t do on your own, regardless of how talented you might be. Many financial markets allow you to leverage your investment. The result is that you earn far more than you could from any amount of industrious labor. What’s more, if you’re particularly good at investments, say, buying and selling foreign currency banknotes at a currency exchange website like Treasury Vault, then you don’t have to work full time for a living. You can simply make trades a few times a week or month. When you invest, you strive to own assets, resources that you own that you expect will increase in value. You place these assets into a portfolio, which is a figurative way of describing your total investments. This portfolio will consist of holdings, which are specific assets, and asset classes, which are assets grouped by similar characteristics, like stocks or bonds. 2 Primary Investment Categories Although this is a bit of a simplification, you can chunk investments into two specific categories: Investments where you … Read more

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Life insurance payouts are not automatic. If you are the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, you need to contact the insurer and file a claim to collect the benefits of the policy. This concept is an important one to understand, as buying life insurance does not protect your loved ones unless you make sure they know that the insurance policy exists and how to file a claim. Whether you’re the insured person or the beneficiary, it’s important that you understand how the claims process works. You may think that many people already understand life insurance claims, but many people don’t have experience with life insurance claims and don’t know much about the process. For example, in a survey by Health IQ, only about one-third (35 percent) of respondents understood one important situation that could delay benefits payouts. You can test your knowledge of the life insurance claim process, and perhaps learn some important points along the way, by taking a short quiz from Health IQ. Health IQ is a life insurance agency founded specifically to offer savings for health-conscious people in a manner similar to the savings on auto insurance available to people with good driving records. The Health … Read more

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Sad to say, teens are some of the least safe drivers on the road. You can’t really blame them for this. They’re the group that has the least driving experience of any. But they are often foolhardy and make poor judgements on the road that can lead to traffic citations or accidents. People aged 15-19 are only about seven percent of the population. But they contribute about 11 percent of total automotive accident costs. No parent wants to get the phone call that their child has been involved in a serious auto accident. Therefore, we should take extra steps toward making teens safer on the road. There are a few ways telematics can help in this pursuit. What Is Vehicle Telematics? Before discussing the potential benefits of telematics, we need to understand its basic principles. These systems take in data as you drive and build a composite picture of your driving profile. In addition, they provide services to people that can be extremely useful in a pinch, as you’ll see below. Telematics systems are built into almost all vehicles currently sold in the United States. For example, the first GPS and cell phone integrations actually came to market in 2000. … Read more

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