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At some point, your home is going to have to deal with property damage. Disasters can strike at any time and no one is safe from it. Regardless of whether it’s small, like a broken fence, or a major issue, like a fire or a flood, hopefully, you have a plan in place to take care of the damage. Homeowners have property insurance for a reason. It saves them a lot of money in the long run. This is especially true if they live near the coast or near areas where disasters strike more frequently.

It’s a good thing to always go over the steps to claim property insurance. When you’re in the midst of a disaster, it might be too difficult to remember each step specifically while going through the process. But if you’re mindful and are prepared, then you should get through the process with no issue whatsoever.

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Here are the three steps to always remember for property insurance claims.

Step #1: Get a Good Idea of the Damage

The first thing you’ll want to do is take a look at the damage you have to determine if it’s worth filing a claim for. No matter how small the claim, it will increase your rates, so it’s best to avoid making a claim if you don’t have to. Just call a repair person or fix it yourself. Eating that cost will be cheaper down the line than filing a claim.

But, if the damage is too extensive, you will have to file. Before you call, get a good understanding of what you’re working with. You already know that the insurance company will most likely give you a lowball number, so if you don’t know the value of the damage, hire a qualified and professional contractor to help get a good assessment.

No matter what you do, take lots of pictures. Even if you don’t think it matters, take pictures of it. Document everything the best you can.

Step #2: Familiarize Yourself with Filing a Property Insurance Claim

The best thing for you to do is to understand and be prepared for the process you’re about to go through. After taking pictures and getting estimates from contractors, you’ll now have to deal with a lot of hassle. Property insurance companies don’t like to give away money, so it’s going to be a time consuming and often frustrating process.

You’ll speak to your agent and then the claims advisor who will go over how the process will go forward, how you’ll get your money, and when. Then, the company will send in their own consultant. This could be a several week process where they go over the damage and gather the necessary details.

Step #3: Begin to Fix the Issues

Once you’ve gone through all the hassle of dealing with the insurance company, it’s time to start fixing the issues and getting yourself back on your feet. You will use the money you get from the property insurance company to start repair work ASAP. Things may go even more in your favor if someone declares an emergency. That means more federal and state funds will be used to help people get through the disaster.

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There are a variety of companies out there who excel in disaster clean-up. Whether it’s removing the smell of smoke from the house, repairing flood damage, HVAC installation or repair, plumbing, or any other issues, they’ll be able to take care of it for you. You also have the option of pocketing the cash and fixing it yourself, but again, your rates would skyrocket

Over the past week or so, President Trump is taking the border war to a new extreme. He’s now blaming Mexico, at least in part, for the problem. He’s saying they’re not doing enough to stop illegal immigration into the U.S. In the last few months we’ve seen large caravans of people cross Mexico unimpeded. Their destination? The U.S. border.

As a supposed threat to Mexico, Trump is now saying he will shut it down. The whole enchilada. He tweeted on Friday that he would shut down the border “If they (Mexico) don’t stop them, we are closing the border. We’ll close it. And we’ll keep it closed for a long time. I’m not playing games.” Is this something that could really happen? Moreover, how would it impact us?

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Crisis at the U.S. Border?

Many might look at the southern border and think it doesn’t impact them much. What goes on down there stays down there. But in reality, there’s a real economic impact to how the border is operated. When President Trump says there’s a national crisis, what does that mean? Also, are the Democrats correct when they say there is no national crisis?

Such an event was not just created out of thin air. The problem of illegal immigration has been addressed since well before Trump. You can watch videos of Obama, Bush 2, Clinton, Bush 1, and Reagan talking about it. The need for tighter security, a better immigration policy, and more have been priority. At least, it was a priority at election time.

The U.S. Southern border has been a mess for a very long time. Over the past few decades, it’s been estimated that as many as 20 million illegals have crossed. FAIR estimates that number to be 12.5 million illegal aliens. They also estimate that over $134 billion is spent each year to care for these illegals.

So, the question remains. Is Trump justified in shutting down the U.S.-Mexico border? It really depends on what side of the fence (no pun intended) you’re on. Whether it’s an emergency is debated, but no one can deny there’s a massive problem. It’s a growing problem that needs to be addressed ASAP.

The Cost of a Closed Border

Another major question that needs to be asked is the economic impact of closing the border. Well, the results would most likely be devastating. For one, America is already locked in a trade war with China. The economic impact of this locking of horns has been far-reaching. The two world’s largest economies fighting each other is not good for the world.

Secondly, Mexico is America’s third-largest trading partner. Unlike the issues with China, completely closing the southern border would prevent imports and exports. Auto parts, food, and other goods and services would be completely blocked. This directly impacts 1.2 million jobs. $615 billion worth of these goods are imported each year.

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44% of the imported produce in the United States comes from Mexico. Important foods that are staples to the American diet. They include things like avocadoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, and raspberries. Prices of all these things would assuredly shoot through the roof and may even cause a shortage.

So, it’s easy to see the major impact shutting down the border would cause. The U.S. economy wouldn’t be free of disastrous consequences. Losing our third largest trading partner would indeed reverberate throughout the stock market and beyond. Regardless of your political affiliation, we should all hope that President Trump doesn’t make this mistake.

As we barrel through Spring, more people are thinking about having a garage sale. Spring cleaning often leads to finding a bunch of stuff people just don’t want anymore. Rather than just throwing away extra clothes, toys, and objects, it’s better to sell them. You can make a few bucks while decluttering your home.

The problem is, a lot of people don’t know how to promote their garage sale. That can lead to a waste of a perfectly good weekend. Many will just throw what’s left on the corner with a ‘FREE’ sign attached to the box. You can help prevent that from happening by taking the time to properly promote the event.

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Here are 5 strategies for having a successful garage sale:

1) Decorate Your Yard

When you’re driving down the street, which businesses catch your eye first? Usually, it’s the ones with decorations, flags, banners, and ribbons. They dominate the other businesses in attracting attention. You can do the same for your house! Other than just throwing your stuff in the driveway, decorate your yard. Put up streamers and flags.

Catching the attention of everyone who drives by is important! That includes having a large display. Don’t keep all your stuff tucked away in the garage. Fill up your yard! Make it known you’re having a garage sale and EVERYTHING MUST GO! Let the salesman spirit flow through you and you’ll make the most of your experience.

2) Display is Important

Another way to improve your garage sale is to keep everything organized. Look at how stores organize their shelves. If you have shirts, jeans, and other clothes just stuffed into a box, that looks messy. That also makes it difficult for potential buyers to sift through and find what they want.

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3) Enlist Help for Your Garage Sale

Listen, you don’t know what to expect when the big day comes. It can be a lot of work setting up tables, organizing your stuff, and even dealing with a rush of people. Enlist the help of family and friends! That can even help sell things much quicker. Have someone go around answering questions and acting like a salesperson on the floor of their favorite store. It will help!

4) Price Items in Advance

The last thing you want to do after opening the garage sale is to run around pricing things. That will be frustrating for you and the buyers. If you don’t want to price individual items, then group them based on price. For example, have a table where everything on it is $3. That makes it easier to organize your sale.

5) Use Lots of Signs

One of the best ways to promote your garage sale is not skimping on the signs. One or two in your neighborhood might not be enough. Instead, throw around ten brightly colored signs within a few miles of your home. That will get you the attention you need to draw in more potential buyers.

If you’re waiting for your tax refund to come, it might already be burning a hole in your pocket. That’s human nature. We get money, we want to spend it on something nice. Maybe you wanted to buy that big screen TV a down payment on a car. Really, it’s your money, but there are smarter ways to spend your tax refund.

It may not seem like you get too many opportunities to have the extra spending money. You do your best to fight off debt and the rising tide of bills all year long. There’s nothing wrong with splurging if that’s what you had in mind. We’re simply saying there are better options out there that will leave you in a better spot.

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Only 27% of Americans plan on using their tax refund to pay off their debt. That number is down from 36% last year. That drop doesn’t mean people have less debt. It just means they’re making more money and don’t mind using their refund to splurge. Let’s look at 4 smart ways to spend your tax refund:

1) Use Your Tax Refund to Pay Off Debt

You knew we were going to go here first! Debt is one of the biggest problems in a person’s life. It’s a budget-sucker that can cripple a person financially for years until it’s paid off. Instead of wasting your refund on a short-term pleasure, consider the long-term impact of paying down debt. Companies allow you to take on debt because they make a ton of extra money off you later in the form of interest.

By using your tax refund to significantly put a dent in your debt, it will save you later on. In fact, it can pay down the principal and cut your interest in a big way. Therefore, using at least some of your tax refund on debt is the smartest decision you can make.

2) Improve Your Savings

Having some money in the bank for a rainy day is super important. In fact, it can save your family a lot of headaches if something happened. Maybe you get injured and lose out on work. Or there’s a natural disaster and you have to wait for an insurance check to cover the damages. Are you prepared for all that can happen?

Most Americans don’t even have $400 in the bank for emergencies. If something happens, they’re not in a good spot. The best advice is to have at least six months’ worth of bills and expenses saved in your account. That would provide you with at least six months of security if something happened.

3) Cover Your Healthcare Costs

A 2018 survey from Chase and JP Morgan found that healthcare spending jumps 60% after refunds go out. That’s because so many people take advantage of the extra cash to cover expenses. Many Americans still do not have health insurance. If that’s the case for you, use the extra money here to get your check-ups.

4) Necessities Are Key

If everything is great with your debt and savings, then necessities are a great way to spend your tax refund. Blindly splurging may sound fun, but it’s important to make smart spending decisions. If you know you need a car, the extra cash can come in hand for a down payment. Putting the money towards a home purchase is great as well.

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The idea is to be as smart as possible with your finances. Saving your money for a rainy day or paying down debt is always the wiser choice. It will set you up for greater success in the long run.

Americans love to drink. It’s a pastime that came to this country centuries ago with our ancestors. Even though we love to drink, the consequences can be far-reaching. There are obvious things that happen when people drink, like being under the influence while driving. Some aren’t so obvious, like drunk shopping in the middle of a stupor.

What’s interesting is that while fewer Americans are drunk shopping, they’re spending more money. A new survey, called “Drunk Shopping”, looked at the lives of 2,000 U.S. adults. It revealed that more than a quarter of them weren’t afraid to pull out their purses and wallets while drinking.

When they do shop under the influence, they end up spending a lot of money. In the last 12 months, Americans spent $39.4 billion. While that’s a lot of money, it’s actually up 65% from the year before. The average breaks down to about $736 per person who partakes in drunk shopping. That’s a lot of inebriated money flying out the door!

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Where Americans Spend the Most While Drunk Shopping

A bit of the money spent goes towards the usual things you’d expect. For example, you’d think someone who is drunk would buy food at the bar. Food and beer go together like milk and cookies. Other ‘necessities’ include cigarettes, clothes, and shoes. There are some other strange purchases made as well.

14% of people purchased a vacation while drunk. 12% bought a pet. 10% bought a car. No, this isn’t made up! It’s sort of funny to think about, but you have to wonder how many of these purchases were regrets the next morning. “Nothing says buzzkill like a dent in your bank account after a night of drinking,” said Finder’s Consumer Advocate Rachel Dix-Kessler.

Previously, it was stated that the number of people who go drunk shopping has declined. That number has fallen by about 20%. Yet, they’re spending 65% more. A lot of that has to do with millennials. They drink less than baby boomers but spend more money while drunk. They average millennials spend while drunk is $1,047.

How to Prevent Yourself from Drunk Shopping

If you personally find drunk shopping is a problem for you, there are a few things you can do that might help. One of those is to remove saved payment methods while shopping online. A lot of apps will allow you to save your payment methods, making it easier to buy things. Also, when you go out drinking, hide your credit cards.

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“Most important, if this is an ongoing problem, consider evaluating your relationship with alcohol. Nothing is worth tarnishing your personal and financial well-being,” she said.

One of the main reasons why conventional combustion engines dominate the market is the price. Conventional cars are often as much as 20% cheaper for the same type of vehicle. But with air pollution an increasing problem, environmentalists and government partners are always searching for ways to encourage people to buy electric and hybrid vehicles.

The only way to get people to ditch the combustion engine is for electric technology to drop in price. And according to Bloomberg analysts, that’s exactly what’s going to happen. They predict that by 2022, it will be cheaper to buy an electric car than a conventional one. Combined with continued incentive efforts to entice more buyers to go clean, experts hope that the lower costs will jumpstart a new buying revolution.

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Improved Technology for Electric Cars

Technology always starts out slow, clunky, and super expensive. Can you remember back to the 80s when the first personal computers first started becoming prominent in the market? Now, the device we all carry around in our pockets with us is dramatically superior to that technology. Not to mention, much cheaper to produce.

The same can be said for electric vehicles. The battery technology has actually been around longer than the combustion engine. Yet, the range was horrible and too expensive for anyone to take seriously. With no real demand to buy them, manufacturers had no reason to develop the technology into a viable reality.

Who wants to pay 20% more money for a car that can only carry you about 36 miles? That was the range for Chevy’s Volt back in 2010. Their expensive battery was over 400 pounds and cost about $35,000 in total. That’s quite expensive for the little distance. Why not just pay that price for a better combustion engine?

Still, like the computer, engineers and scientists have been figuring out ways to pack more power, get more distance, and do it taking up less space than they used to. These advancements seem to improve the function of the batteries as much as 10% each year. Tesla’s newest models can get over 200 miles on a single charge, soon to advance to over 300 miles.

Newer Technology, Cheaper Price

Back in the day, TVs used to be this enormous box structure and weighed hundreds of pounds. Now, you can get a lightweight flat screen for much cheaper. The technology has advanced and companies can make the parts cheaper. General Motors is doing the same with its new lithium-ion battery packs. Not only do they have improved distance, but cost about 70% less than they did in 2012.

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The goal of electric car manufacturers is to get the price to drop again by 2020. But we’re still not quite ready to get away completely from our dependence on fossil fuels. Hybrids are trending towards remaining the more popular version of eco-friendly models. Hopefully, we will continue to switch from combustion engines to straight electric in the near future.

Many adults today don’t really understand budgeting they money today, much less children. They simply weren’t taught by their parents and it shows. Concepts about debt, interest, and others have contributed to insane amounts of problems. It even contributes to the massive student loan debt crisis going on right now.

If you have children, then you probably already know they don’t grasp the value of a dollar. They don’t understand how hard you work for your money. They go about life with no worries or fears that food will make it to the table and toys will be supplied. Yet, it’s at a young age when parents should start introducing the concept of money.

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Here are a few steps for teaching your child(ren) about money.

Step One: Give an Allowance

Giving your child an allowance is the first step in teaching them about money. Many parents don’t take this approach. They wonder why they should pay their kids anything to help out around the house. Well, if that’s the route you’re taking, then you’re passing up a great opportunity. You can use an allowance not just to entice them to help, but to teach them the basics.

Certain tasks they do can be worth a certain amount. Instead of outright buying them the toy they want, show them how to save up their allowance to buy it themselves. You can even introduce them to the concept of budgeting. What you pay them, of course, is up to you, but create a system that helps them learn.

Also, don’t be afraid to give more if they excel at helping out. Maybe they keep good grades, work hard, and their room is always clean. Reward good behavior with raises and bonuses. The goal is to show them how real life operates. If they want something as an adult, they have to work for it. Nothing is ever just handed to them.

Step Two: Open a Bank Account to Teach About Saving Money

One great way to teach your kids about saving money is to take them to the bank. They can budget their allowance appropriately. For example, a certain percentage goes towards what they want. The rest goes into a savings account. Maybe your teenager wants a car in a few years. Offer to match them dollar-for-dollar.

When they’re ready to pick up a part-time job, they will have a bank account already and have down proper saving techniques. These are life skills that will vastly improve the quality of their adult life. They may even enjoy the concept of a savings account if it gains interest over several years. It’s called free money!

Step Three: Becoming a Smart Consumer

Teaching kids about money don’t end with saving money. It also involves teaching them how to shop smarter. Show them how to clip coupons, chase sales, and make good buying decisions. Otherwise, they will not know how to spend what they earn wisely. It takes impulse buying out of the equation for them.

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Once a month, even if it’s a hassle, take your kids with you to the store. Show them that you don’t just buy whatever you want when you want it. You make decisions and sacrifices that work within your budget. You can even teach them the intersection between quality and price. These are essential adult skills they will need to know.

Yesterday morning, the Federal Reserve announced there would be no interest rate hike in 2019. This move comes as a bit of a surprise. This decision came during their policy meeting on Wednesday, the second of the year. They decided unanimously to keep the interest rate between 2.25 and 2.5 percent.

After a busy 2018 that saw more than one hike, two more were slated for this year. In fact, as late as December, Fed Chair Jerome Powell suggested as such. Economic growth and record low unemployment would certainly warrant an interest rate hike. Yet, it’s the U.S. trade war with China and even more unknown impacts of Brexit that changed their mind.

“The Committee will be patient as it determines what future adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate may be appropriate to support these outcomes,” the Fed said in a statement released following the two-day meeting. “We still see a sustained expansion of economic activity, strong labor conditions, and inflation near 2 percent. But the crosscurrents suggest a less favorable outlook.”

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Could Higher Interest Rate Cause a Sluggish Economy?

There’s absolutely no reason to doubt that the current economic forecast will sour. The White House remains optimistic, but December did see some volatility in the market. It’s causing a bit of a worry to economic experts. While much of it might’ve been caused by the government shutdown, they’re expecting a weaker labor market.

“The Fed may be overreacting to market volatility that occurred in December and distortions to economic activity and data from the government shutdown,” said Tendayi Kapfidze, the chief economist at LendingTree. “While many measures of economic growth have slowed, sentiment data which is timelier has rebounded from those declines.”

Could Rates Change?

While it is good news that the interest rates will remain the same for now, this is just a signal. They’re anticipating a slower market. That means they could reverse their decision later in the year. That’s especially true if the U.S. has an excellent summer economically. In short, their decision yesterday wasn’t final.

“Hikes would occur later in the year,” said Kapfidze. “Perhaps starting in September if the economy accelerates over the summer.”

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That would ultimately depend on whether the trade war with China wraps up favorably for President Trump. Good news like that would be a major boost for economic growth in the near future. Even if no new deal was made, just the fact that the war was over might pique the interest of investors.