Wealthy Wednesdays - How much is your life worth?

Wealthy Wednesdays – How much is your life worth?

Everyone knows that insurance is a necessary evil.  But how do you really know if your over insured or under-insured.  You need life insurance, home insurance, car insurance, jewelry insurance, medical insurance and the list goes on.  When we purchased our co-op we were told that the co-op insurance covers the four walls, everything else is our responsibility.  We contacted family friends, our real estate attorney and of course our insurance agent to come up with a number we were comfortable with as far as a figure that we rebuild our entire unit God forbid something happens.  It is very hard to put a number on memories so considering a lot of our things were new we tallied all our receipts and added a couple of bucks and we went on our way.  Everyone who knows me knows I’m in constant search of ways to better organize my life and I came across Quicken's website.  (As far as finances go, I’m a financial analyst (depending on the day of the week) and an Accountant for the rest of the days so I built myself a really detailed worksheet in Excel to manage my finances.  I’ll share a demo worksheet that I sent to all of my friends and family in a later post.)  Quicken has a product called Quicken Home Inventory Manager.  You can actually take pictures of an item, load it into the software, scan your receipts and applicable warranties and even list a beneficiary for the item.  The software compares your insurance coverage to actual replacement costs and tells you if you are under-insured.  I mean who thinks of these things?  You can also back up your information onto Quicken Online Backup which allows you to be anywhere and still have the ability to retrieve your information online.  The software is only $29.95 and considering it can save you thousands of dollars in the event of a claim this would be a FANTASTIC investment.  There’s one drawback.  You have to have Windows software.  My heart sank when I read this.  I’m in a monogamous relationship with Apple.  Well…I was actually just thinking about getting a Netbook since I’m going back to school this semester for another degree *shudders* Nonetheless for those of you who do have Windows I would definitely suggest taking a closer look into this product and seeing if it was something that works for you.

**Disclaimer – Quicken did not reach out to me in order to endorse this product.  I just really think it’s cool. 

A Mid-Summer Night's Clean

I did a huge spring cleaning this year when I moved all my winter clothes to the storage bins and took all the summer clothes out.  I cleaned, reorganized the closets, organized the food containers and for the average bear that would be enough.  Somehow for me it wasn't... so this weekend I was inspired to do it all over again.  But first I had to get organized!  I put on my thinking cap and created a huge Excel spreadsheet broken down by room and then in the order I was going to clean.  I think it makes the most sense to clean from ceiling to floor..I can show you better than I can tell you.  Read more after the jump for a quick example.

Wealthy Wednesdays: Want vs. Need

With the state of the current economy many of us have experienced some sort of reduction in income. Whether it is a layoff, cutback of hours, no raise or bonus this year, I think everyone is feeling the pain.  It's times like these that call for the natural resourcefulness of a woman. There are so many ways in which we can cut back.