A co-worker of mine recently returned from a trip to China. The pictures he brought back were breathtaking and encouraged me even more to get my trip planned for visiting China. As beautiful as the pictures were, he did tell me about a potentially serious situation he encountered while he was over there – his wife had become very sick one evening and was rushed to the hospital. It turned out she needed her appendix removed. Luckily, he said, they had purchased medical insurance before their travels and the whole procedure was covered and they were able to resume their touring of the country in just a few days.

I was a little confused, so I asked him about why he purchased medical insurance when we already had a group health plan here at work. He said that before he left he had inquired with our insurance company and found out that they don’t cover anything done outside of the U.S. He and his wife had debated about whether to spend the extra money on travel medical insurance before the trip and decided the small price of the insurance was negligible considering the peace of mind it offered – and boy was he glad that he did!

Just like regular health insurance, these policies take care of you when you are outside of the country. There are many insurance companies that offer these types of policies and most of the time you can get a quote and purchase coverage in no time at all. They can cover everything from supplemental insurance (in case your health insurance does cover certain procedures abroad) to full coverage for everything from visiting a doctor down to hospitalization.

Now that I’m planning my trip abroad I’ve taken his advice and went ahead and added one more thing to my planning list – purchasing travel medical insurance. The peace of mind – and his adventure – were enough to convince me that the cost is worth it for having one less thing to worry about during my travels!

Do you live in the state of Florida?  I do.  I have been trying to sell my house for a number of weeks now, with no luck.  I mean, my house is not the prettiest thing on the block – army green on the outside and a pink and purple paint job on the inside (don’t ask – it was my wife’s idea).

Anyways, we just haven’t had any luck selling our house.  We are in the process of moving to a new place and are in desperate need to get our equity out of this house so that we can put it in our new one.

In my desperation, I picked up a newspaper in hopes I could find someone who would buy my house.  On ad in particular caught my eye.  It read:

Buy Ugly Houses Fast
Visit CashHomeBuyers.com.

Let me tell you, I was excited.  I fired up my computer and went to the site.  I visited the page to sell your home online in Florida.  I filled out the information and waited.

I received a phone call later that day from a gentleman that was interested in purchasing my house.  I asked him about the site and he mentioned that the goal of the site was to find sellers who are motivated – like me – and help them out.

Needless to say, after selling the old house, I felt a sense of relief.  Now I know where to go if I have problems selling my house next time – CashHomeBuyers.com.

If this blog was an infomercial here is the opening line:

“If you are over the age of 50 you may be paying too much for your car insurance“

I know you probably don’t want to admit that you are old, right?  Well, some things do come with age: and one of those things as a senior can be a discounted car insurance rate.  

Most insurance companies start these discounts by age 50 or 55 and one can expect anywhere from a five to ten percent discount.  For most companies, these discounts start automatically.  Be sure to consult your insurance broker as to what and when these discounts commence on your insurance plan.

Just like anything else, be sure to shop around when trying to get a senior citizen insurance discount.  Many insurance companies offer different incentives depending on your age and driving record.

Lately I have not been impressed with the battery life on my old Samsung cell phone. It is almost two years old and most days I cannot make it through the day without the battery dying. So, I figured it was time to buy a new phone. I took my quest online and found an interesting prospect: the Nokia N95.

What caught my eye is that the Nokia is not just an ordinary phone, but a smart phone. It has a built in GPS, a 5 megapixel camera, and I can read my emails on the camera. If I want to know what movies are playing at my local theatre, I can check online with the integrated web browser. Love music? You can use the phone as an MP3 player. There is even a standard headphone jack to plug in some headphones to listen to music.

All in all, I am excited. When you can buy mobile phones that work as a phone, MP3 player, GPS, camera and more, it definitely reduces the number of devices you need to carry with you. I am definitely going to consider buying a Nokia N95 as my next cell phone.

Uniqueness is valued in our society.  That is why we have different clothes, different hair cuts, and drive different cars.  Even if you have a different car than your neighbor, chances are someone has a car exactly like you.

Don’t you want to be unique?

I know I do.  As much fun as it is being a follower (sarcasm here), I would rather be a leader.  So, I went looking online for a way to create my own unique Ford Mustang.

Guess what I found?

A unique website that was exactly what I was looking for: ModdedMustangs.com.  They have all the information that you need to customize your Mustang to your taste.  You can learn about some parts available for your car, the new 2008 Ford Mustangs, and even download wallpaper for your desktop.  If you need some ideas on how to customize your Mustang or if you run into problems, you can always post on the Ford Mustang forum and get an answer from entusiasts around the world.

If you own a Mustang, you need to check out this site.  I am going there right now… see you all in the forums.

The other day I was using a search engine to find some coloring pages with which to make paper piecing patterns for my scrapbook.  I came across an interesting site called thedollpalace.com.

The site contained cartoon dolls and dress-up games with which to create avatars.  I started playing with these highly amusing little people.  You should see the one I did of my dad.  It was roll-on-the-floor, laugh out loud funny.  

I got a little bit carried away because I realized I had been sitting at the computer, playing on a "childrens" website for over an hour.  I thought I had better get back to the task at hand.  I looked into their coloring pages and was again pleasantly surprised.  There were pictures of just about everything imagineable.  I knew I had hit the jackpot for my scrapbooking paper piecing patterns.  I proceeded to print what I needed and bookmarked the site.  

The only downfall I see in the future is time management while on the site.  Time gets away when you are playing.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  But be sure to check out thedollpalace.com.

If you live in Phonenix or you are thinking about moving to Arizona and you need to secure a great deal on a mortgage loan, then your best opportunity to get a low rate is to compare 3 or 4 lenders quotes. Shopping for a mortgage loan can be very complex.  We found that there are a number of sites that offer comparison shopping and used a service offered by LoanNetwork.com where they actually had lenders contact us with there mortgage quotes. It was super easy to shop for a mortgage and helped us save a ton of time in trying to compare offers. Comparing refinance and purchase home loans for closing costs, interest rates and programs has never been easier. The site offers free mortgage calculators, a forum to ask their expert response team and offers mortgage loan quotes for all 50 states including: Arizona Mortgage loans, second mortgages, equity loans, interest only and deferred interest mortgage programs.