My Life: A Case Study

Money-Guy 08-24-2010

You have probably noticed that we are slightly off of our 2-week routine of getting you guys a new show this week. The reason is, well, because sometimes life just happens. So, over the last two weeks, life has been happening and it had me temporarily out of whack.

But here we are, and now I am back to the old me. Between car accidents, family illnesses, new car purchases, and insurance changes, I feel like I have had quite a number of life experiences over the last two weeks that I can share with you and hopefully you can learn something from.

As I mentioned two weeks ago, my wife was in a car accident and, thankfully, she was not injured. However, there were some unique circumstances surrounding the accident and the insurance of the individual who ran into my wife. In last week’s show, I shared how to work with the insurance companies and what you can do to make sure that you protect yourself. Well, after you get all of the insurance issues handled, the next task that usually has to be completed is finding a new car. This is the exact issue that has occupied my mind for the past 14 or so days.

As you listen to the show, I share with you how you can use Edmund’s Forums to find out what other people across the country are paying for the car you are looking for. You can then use this information to negotiate with a dealer in your area. Another resource I share is Zag.com. This is a car buying service that I found to have the very best baseline prices for the cars I was looking for. While this service still leaves some room for “super-consumers” to get slightly better deals, it is still a great place to start to ensure you aren’t getting ripped off.

I go on in the show to share a listener email who was curious about life insurance. More specifically, he was asking about permanent life insurance. Coincidentally, I just finished applying for a new life insurance policy last week so this listener’s email could have not come at a better time. In the show I share my thoughts on permanent life insurance versus term life insurance as well as what you should be thinking about when you make the decision to purchase a new policy. A great resource if you are looking for life insurance is www.michaelgassesagency.com. On this site you can get immediate quotes for different life insurance policies.

To close out the show, I share with you some changes that are taking place in Flexible Spending Accounts. Due to the new health care legislation, you will no longer be able to use FSA dollars for over the counter medicines. For those of us who used this money for cold, allergy, sinus medicine, etc. this will be a huge change.

Again, I apologize for getting off track this week but, sometimes life just happens. We plan on getting back into our routine and touching base with you guys every two weeks. As always, thanks for listening!

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