Squirrelers

There are so many times when we have to pay full price for purchases, that we might overlook some instances where we can actually get discounts.  One type of purchase for which we can often obtain discounts is home insurance.

When looking for ways to get home insurance discounts, it’s important to ask questions and be resourceful.  Simply assuming that there are limited options can be underselling the potential opportunities to save. The reality is that sometimes it pays to ask, and it could be worth taking the time to search for savings.

Along those lines, here are 4 ways to get home insurance discounts:

Bundling

In this case, you may be able to obtain a discount if you already have another type of coverage with an insurer.  For example, if you already have auto insurance coverage, adding home insurance may help you save money through a discount for using the same insurer. 

Security System

If your home has a burglar alarm, it might deter troublemakers from theft or other damage.  If it’s an active system that is approved, you might be able to get a discount.

Smoke Detectors

If you’re peacefully sleeping at night, you may be less likely to notice smoke that if you were wide awake and alert.  Even then, you might not be aware of a fire brewing.  It’s commonly understood that a smoke detector is a good thing to have, and it might get you a discount as well.

Online Discounts

Of course for a wide variety of purchases, it’s possible to save money online in the UK, and this could include home insurance.   Yes, the use of discounts might even extend to this type of expense.  One can go online to get discounts on Churchill home insurance, and explore potential opportunities to save. 

Bottom Line

There are many ways to save on home insurance, and different ways to get discounts.   Taking a short amount of time to investigate options could potentially result in less money spent.  Spending less is a beautiful thing!

The role of the pensions trustee is important and requires responsibility, commitment and time on the part of the individuals appointed. If you’re becoming a trustee, you’ll need to make yourself familiar with the administrative and legal requirements of the role – in addition to being able to handle the pressures and challenges it brings.

Pension trustees may want – or even be required – to undergo training to prepare for the legal and regulatory details of their scheme. Trustee training isn’t a one-off, as the law and the pensions landscape changes, trustees are expected to adapt constantly – education and knowledge is the best strategy for anticipating problems and governing a scheme safely.

Pension trustees who do not fulfil their obligations may be subject to fines – but there are plenty of resources available for anyone searching for ways to overcome the problems associated with the role. Having capable and knowledgeable trustees in charge of a pension scheme is in everyone’s interests – especially the employer, who can only stand to benefit from happy and prosperous employees.

Trustees: Key Duties

Deeds, rules and regulations: the trust deed is the most important document in the  trustee-pension relationship. The deed, along with relevant pension regulation outline  powers and the rules you must follow. 

Prudence, responsibility, honesty: given the importance of the position and the potential for influence over the financial future of scheme members, it is vital that trustees are honest and prudent in their financial dealings. This includes taking financial advice, and considering every circumstance when making investment or savings decisions with scheme funds.

Best interests: as a trustee, you should always work in the best interest of the scheme beneficiaries. This may lead to disagreements with some sections of the scheme membership – but a trustee must consider the needs of every member.

Impartiality: the pressures trustees are put under in their capacity as scheme managers, makes impartiality a vital characteristic. This means acting without bias in all financial dealings and being able to weigh the needs of groups of beneficiaries against others while considering the overall effect on the scheme.

What do trustees do?

The pension trustee is, in a day-to-day sense, responsible for fulfilling the administrative needs of a pension scheme: filing paperwork, paying bills and communicating with other professional bodies. The tasks might include tax payments or maintaining an inventory of assets and liabilities.

Trustees must also make financial decisions, choosing how, where and when to invest a pension scheme’s funds. In your duty to act in the best interests of employees, you must consider the risk of certain opportunities over others and the potential for financial gain – avoiding loss wherever possible.

The financial and administrative responsibility of pension trustees extends to dealings with scheme members. In addition to understanding when and how pensions are to be paid out, the trustee must be able to communicate clearly and in detail with beneficiaries, both providing information and advice and providing details on topics such as annuity rates or the effects of government pension legislation.

The ability of the trustee to communicate with beneficiaries is a crucial part of the job. When pension schemes face difficulties – or are forced to wind up – a capable and impartial board of trustees can make all the difference in resolving the situation swiftly and successfully. 

The preceding was a guest post

The following is a guest post

It’s a relatively new phrase, but one that is increasingly popular amongst newspaper editors and politicians: the Squeezed Middle.

But who are the Squeezed Middle and how do you avoid becoming one of them?

The squeezed middle is a phrase normally used to describe those middle earners in society whose wages do not continue to rise with the cost of living and in essence become squeezed between stagnating wages and rising inflation. However, not all experts agree there is such a thing. Nick Boles, Director of think tank Policy Exchange, believes there is only a squeezed bottom which represent 20% of society, whilst the 60% who make up the middle are just continuing along as normal.

However, with food prices up by 28.7% since August 2007, fuel prices by 45.5% and travel costs by nearly 25%, it hard not to believe a significant proportion of us are squeezed, especially as weekly wages over the same period have not increased by more than 10%.

So are you feeling squeezed?

Well if you are there are some basic steps from YourDebtExpert.com you could take to improve your finances and disposable income:

1) Review your finances: time for a clear out. Imagine you were made unemployed tomorrow, what would you cut? Most of us could make cuts: direct debits, standing orders – but the reality is most never will until forced to. So force yourself: cuts those unnecessary payments and shop around for better deals.

2) Pay down those debts: it will never be easy, but you know you have to. Continuing to refinance is not a long term solution and even switching to interest free deals is only effective if you reduce those balances. The Office of Budgetary Responsibility don’t believe you will and are actually predicting you will continue to borrow and personal debt in the UK will rise by 50% over the next five years to £2.25 billion. Prove them wrong.

3) Claim back you PPI: average claims are now paying out over £2,000 per policy and a recent report by the Financial Times found that the £9 billion had already been claimed back by British bank customers. It also found these claims are doing more to boost the economy than Government initiatives. 2012 is being predicted as a bumper year and banks are expected to settle most claims and pay out in excess of £6 billion. So if you haven’t claimed, what are you waiting for?

4) Get Healthy: it’s often said Britons were at their most healthy during World War II with rationing. If we were all honest the majority of us could do with a bit of rationing today. Learning to cook using basic ingredients, such as fruit and veg, is not only healthier but can help save a few pounds as you shed them. And if you smoke, stop. A 20 a day habit will cost you more than £2,500 per year – that could be half of your rail season ticket and for the average middle earner that would be the equivalent of more than a 10% pay rise.

5) Love Nights In: the Joseph Rowntree Foundation recently carried out its Minimum Income Standards survey. It found that a Briton’s expectations as to what was necessary for a minimum standard of living had not significantly changed since before the credit crunch. It appears we are not yet ready to cut our cloth accordingly. Those surveyed, however, accepted savings could be made by staying in more and going out less, so love staying in and you may just keep out the red.

The following post was provided by Bills.com

At a recent party, I talked with a guy who brokers private mortgages. Naturally, my antenna went up and I peppered him with questions. Here’s what I learned in our conversation and research I did later online.

In the home loan world, what insiders call soft money loans get press attention because most consumers use soft money loans when buying houses or refinancing existing mortgages. Few know about private mortgages, also called hard money loans, because private mortgages are a specialty loan rarely sought by consumers.

I asked the broker why hard money loans exist, and who would be knuckleheaded enough to borrow money at a high interest rate when they can find a soft money loan at any bank or credit union for less. He seemed like a nice guy, but I thought of private mortgage loans as the homeowner equivalent of payday loans offered to the desperate seeking to avoid foreclosure.

Not so. People use private mortgage lenders for six scenarios.

Flipping: Ever wonder how people who buy properties, repair them, and sell them get funded so quickly so often? Private mortgages.

Raw Land Acquisition: Soft money lenders rarely loan money for raw land for many reasons, but the main one is it’s so difficult to appraise raw land with any degree of confidence. As one real estate put it to me, “In many cases, raw land is undeveloped for a reason. Banks would be crazy to lend on raw land.”

Construction Pay-Off: Oftentimes, home builders are intentionally not fully funded for spec home construction. A construction pay-off loan allows a home builder to finish construction on a home and prepare it for selling.

Standby Loan: Similar to a construction pay-off loan, these are loans builders must have lined-up for some construction projects, and may be needed when a project is completed.

Bridge Loan: Bridge loans are a catch-all name for short-term financing of real estate projects. One use might be a buyer seeking to take advantage of a fast-closing deal, such as the purchase of an under-valued property in a foreclosure auction.

Foreclosure Prevention: Used when an owner is caught between a buyer who cannot close immediately and a lender who is driving for an expedited foreclosure.

The common thread in all private mortgage loans are these four characteristics:

• Brief closing time (usually less than 30 days)
• Short term (6 months or so)
• High interest rate and closing costs
• Funded by a local private lender

Quick Tip: Think of soft money loans as long-range strategic tool, and hard money or private mortgage loans as short-term tactical tools.

Hard Money Lenders

The private mortgage broker said he earns a finders fee for matching borrowers with private mortgage lenders. I asked who these lenders are. He said the almost universal rule is they are local people. Most have a great deal of liquidity and the desire to earn more than what’s available from bonds and the stock market. A near-iron-clad rule in private mortgage lending is the lender looks at the property in person before making the loan.

Lenders do so to make an informal appraisal of the property in comparison to similar properties in the neighborhood.

Another rule most private lenders follow is to lend up to about 70 percent of a property’s available equity. Doing so limits the amount they may lose should the borrower default.

The broker said some brokers will specialize in certain types of deals. Some, for example, love the risk of flipping, and will work handshake deals with flippers with whom they’ve completed many deals. Others are more risk-averse and will focus on standby loans, which have fewer unknowns, generally speaking.

Private money lenders do not have storefronts or Web sites. They prefer to work with a known circle of brokers. Their only other form of overhead are lawyers who conduct basic title research on properties and draft loan contracts.