About two years ago, a friend of mine lost her husband in a freak accident. As you can imagine, that was just about the most devastating thing that could have happened to a homemaker with two young children to care for. But things got worse when she realized her husband’s meager life insurance policy would barely cover funeral expenses. She had to sell her home and move back in with her parents, which further turned her children’s lives upside down. It was a terrible ordeal all around, but at least it helped me open my eyes about my own situation. I wanted to make sure nothing like that ever happened to my family.

You can’t ward off unexpected death, of course, but you can make sure you have a very good insurance policy in place to help keep your finances stable in the aftermath. One of the first things I did after coming back from that funeral two years ago was sit down with my husband and go over the policies we had. As I feared, they were woefully insufficient, and wouldn’t allow either one of us to keep the household going on a single income. So we decided to review some life insurance company ratings online and change our policy to something far more comprehensive.

I can’t remember the exact site we went to back then, but it was very similar to LifeInsuranceStar.com. We were able to look at a single table and compare trusted companies like Allstate, Geico, Banner Life, New York Life, State Farm, The Travelers, and MetLife at a glance. We were then able to get additional details about specific policies from the companies we liked the most, and we ended up buying the best life insurance policy we could afford. We plan to continue comparing our current policy to others every year or so, and will buy more coverage whenever feasible.

Death is an uncomfortable subject for most people, but this is a conversation that responsible folks must have with their partners. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to treat life insurance as an “extra” that you only purchase when everything else is taken care of. Cable television is an extra. The iPhone 3GS is an extra. But a good life insurance policy is a necessity.

There’s no question that the last couple of years have been absolutely brutal on the stock market. We’ve all heard or read news stories about older folks who had the entire value of their retirement portfolios wiped out and are now forced to keep working instead of enjoying their golden years on the golf course or beach.

People are understandably hesitant to put their money at risk these days, but the fact remains that you must invest in order to build a suitable nest egg for the future. Though stuffing your money under your mattress might give you extra peace of mind, no one ever gets a decent return on invest (ROI) by doing that. Instead, comparing the best annuity rates online might be a wiser course to follow at this point.

Annuities are one of the safest investment vehicles around. Without going into a lot of detail, what essentially happens is you invest a lump sum with an insurance company or securities firm, and after a certain period you begin receiving regular payments (plus interest) in return. The initial investment is tax-deferred until the time payments begin. The two main types of annuities are fixed annuities, which are somewhat comparable to certificates of deposit, and variable annuities, which share similarities with mutual funds. You should definitely read up on the differences between these types prior to making any investment decisions.

Once you conclude that annuities are right for you, it’s important to compare rates first. There are many websites — such as FreeAnnuityRates.com that make this task a lot easier by providing online calculators, rate charts, and side-by-side comparison tables for annuities offered from top companies like Mass Mutual, New York Life, John Hancock, Lincoln National, and more. After you find an annuity with terms you like, you can go ahead and invest.

Even with the economy as bad as it is, we all still need to strive towards reaching our financial goals for the future. Yes, we should proceed with caution, but the key is to proceed nonetheless. Annuities might be the right investment solution for your needs, so find out more today!

Whenever you shop online, there’s a chance that your personal information, such as name, address, and credit card numbers, could be compromised, which could in turn lead to a bit of worry (at the least) or a nightmare battle against identity theft and fraud (at the worst). I personally do a lot of online shopping, so I’m always looking for ways to provide myself with additional protection. That’s why when I heard of a service called eBillme, I decided to give it a try.

eBillme is an easy and convenient way to pay for purchases made at top online retailers like Tiger Direct and Buy.com. eBillme works exactly like online bill pay with your regular financial institution, so instead of using a credit card or third-party payment processor, you simply add eBillme to your list of payees and pay for your purchases that way.

For example, I recently bought the Season 3 DVD box set of Moonlighting from Tiger Direct. During the checkout process, I selected eBillme as my payment option, and submitted my order without having to enter any sensitive information like a credit card number or bank account number. After that, I received an email from eBillme containing my transaction details, as well as step-by-step instructions on how to add eBillme as a payee at my bank. I was able to complete the whole thing in just a few minutes without a hitch.

Overall, I was very impressed by the way eBillme works. I feel much more confident shopping online when I don’t have to enter a credit card number during checkout, so this is an option that I’m going to continue using whenever its available. Check out the eBillme site for yourself, and give them a try the next time you shop at a merchant that offers their services!

When my husband went on a business trip to Texas last year, his associates took him to a professional rodeo in Mesquite. Jerry had never been to a rodeo before, and was at first a bit skeptical about how the event would turn out. But he ended up having an absolute blast there, so now he’s trying to convince me to go with him next time.

After checking around for more information, I agreed — but on one condition: that we attend the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.

There are a couple of reasons that I’m choosing the NFR over other competitions. First of all, it’s the premier rodeo event in the country, routinely drawing around 170,000 fans during its 10-day run. Plus, all of the top cowboys and cowgirls show up to compete in the NFR, since there are eight world championship titles at stake in addition to a boatload of prize money.

The second reason I want to attend the NFR is that it’s in Vegas! I’ve never been to Vegas before, but have been dying to go ever since I played my first hand of blackjack on an Indian reservation casino 15 years ago. If we go to the NFR, we’d be killing two birds with one stone. Perfect!

Anyway, I know that National Finals Rodeo tickets are hard to come by, but since the event isn’t until December, I’m hoping we have a shot at getting good seats. If we’re able to pull this vacation off, I’m sure we’ll have an amazing time!

I’ve been lucky enough to travel to many great countries all over the world, but one of my most memorable adventures happened right here at home.

When we were just out of college, my then-boyfriend and I thought it would be fun to drive down to New Orleans for a few days before starting our new jobs. We only had about $750 between us, which had to last until we got our first paychecks. The smart thing to do would have been to keep a few hundred of that money in the bank so we wouldn’t be tempted to spend everything — but I never said we were smart!

Anyway, the drive down to New Orleans was uneventful, and although we were dead tired when we arrived, there was no way we could go to bed without checking out the city for a bit. We hadn’t done much research about things to do in New Orleans, so we figured we’d just grab a drink at a bar on Bourbon St. or take in the French Quarter like most tourists. Instead, we headed straight for one of the local casinos.

We opted to play blackjack, and started losing almost immediately. Within an hour, we lost ALL of the money we brought with us, and since we didn’t have any credit cards, we were facing the embarrassing prospect of having to phone our parents to send some cash via Western Union.

When we got back to the car, we noticed that we had two dimes and a nickel in the change holder. My boyfriend looked at me, shrugged, grabbed the money, and started to walk back inside. I followed.

We got a quarter from the cashier, and put it in a video poker machine. We won a few more quarters. We played again, this time hitting a bigger hand that paid out $15.00. We then took that $15 back to the blackjack tables, and pushed our bankroll back up to $150. We called it quits right there, got a room at a cheap motel, and then drove back home the very next day — without bothering to do anything else in New Orleans!

Obviously, my past experience in New Orleans isn’t going to make it onto a list of the best family vacation ideas, but it was definitely a pretty wild time!

If you really want to learn about some fun things to do in the best vacation destinations across the U.S., then you should check out the Trusted Tours & Attractions website. There you can find activity ideas such as an Everglades adventure, sightseeing suggestions such as this Alcatraz tour, recommended restaurants, and even discount tickets to make your holiday a great one.

Better yet, you should sign up for the Trusted Travels eNewsletter to get this free monthly mailing delivered right to your inbox. It’s full of fantastic travel-related stories and tips, so it’s definitely a worthwhile read. Plus, if you sign up for the newsletter between now and March 31, 2008 you’ll be entered in a drawing to win an iPod Nano!

Sounds like a good deal to me!

Identity theft is a major concern of mine because I do a lot of online shopping and banking. I’ve actually had my credit card number compromised a couple of times after making purchases on sites that weren’t as secure as they could have been, and it was no fun going through the dispute process with the card issuer.

After these bad experiences, I’m starting to think that a service like lifelock would be perfect for me. LifeLock is a company that provides identity theft protection for individuals, families, and children by setting up fraud alerts on their behalf. Once those alerts are in place, creditors and banks will be required to verify the identity of anyone who tries to get new credit cards or apply for a line of credit in the name of the person listed in the fraud alert.

Just think about all the things that routinely happen to victims of identity theft. Their credit cards get maxed out, their bank accounts get depleted, they encounter difficulties at work, they have trouble receiving earned entitlements, and they even get arrested for fraud (or worse). LifeLock can help prevent these problems from ever occurring by protecting your name and vital information from would-be thieves.

This service costs only $10 per month (or $110 for a year). I think the peace of mind that comes with being a LifeLock client would be well worth that price, so I’m definitely going to look into signing up.

If you’re worried about the adverse effects of identity theft, then you should check out LifeLock today. Don’t wait until it’s too late!

At about this time last year, my husband and I were busy trying to plan out our annual vacation. We were hoping to go to Australia, but had to scrap that notion once we discovered that the price of airfare and accommodation alone for our family of three would put us well beyond our modest budget.

However, we haven’t completely given up on making it Down Under someday. We want to see the Opera House in Sydney, climb the Harbor Bridge, head up to Cairns to see the Great Barrier Reef, and then perhaps find a way to go out to Uluru in the Northern Territory. That would definitely be a dream holiday for all of us.

So every now and then I check around for cheap flights to Australia in the hopes of finding something that we can afford. More often than not, the best deals on tickets to Australia can be found at DialAFlight.com, a leading independent travel company.

Unfortunately for my family, DialAFlight is based in the UK, so all of their flights naturally originate from there. That doesn’t help us very much, but I’m sure it’s great for UK travelers!

In the meantime, I’ll keep looking for discount flights to Australia from the United States. After all, I’m bound to find something one of these years, right?

By now, everyone knows about the mortgage crisis here in the U.S. that has led to an alarming number of foreclosures across the country. The media has been painting a pretty bleak picture of the situation for months, so the story has been hard to avoid.

These types of problems aren’t limited to our shores, of course, which is why the services provided by companies such as Money Magic in the U.K. are so important for consumers. At the Money Magic website, you can get free quotes for Mortgages simply by entering entering some basic information about yourself and talking to an independent financial advisor on the phone.

Money Magic has developed a reputation for providing great rates to borrowers — without the hassle of a credit check or any of the other red tape typically associated with the loan process. Their website also features a lot of free financial advice that can help you get your personal money matters in order, so it’s definitely worth checking out.

It sounds to me as though Money Magic provides a very valuable service to families and individuals in need of mortgage assistance or general financial advice. It’s too bad they don’t operate here in the U.S., as I know plenty of people who need this type of help!

I read a lot of celebrity gossip sites to keep up with the latest Hollywood happenings. It amazes me how often some of these big stars get busted for speeding — and how often they manage to get out of their tickets based on various technicalities. I won’t go so far as to say that their celebrity status has anything to do with it, but I do sometimes wonder….

At any rate, thanks to the Original Ticket Busters over at TicketBust.com, even regular folks can learn how to fight a speeding ticket and come out on top.

Ticket Busters consists of a group of consultants who know California traffic laws inside and out. As a result, they GUARANTEE that if you use their service, your ticket will be dismissed or reduced by completely ethical methods. In the off chance that it isn’t, you will get a refund of your TicketBust.com service fee.

That sounds like a pretty good deal to me!

I’ve got a friend named Chris who lives in Los Angeles, and he’s the type of driver who can’t resist putting the pedal to the metal every once in a while. I’m going to tell him about TicketBust.com and make sure he bookmarks the site. He’ll probably end up needing their help sooner or later!

Getting credit while in college is often an important step towards financial independence. No, I’m not talking about taking classes in order to graduate, though of course that’s the ultimate goal in attending school. I’m talking about obtaining a credit card in order to start establishing a credit history. A good credit history will make it easier to buy a car, lease an apartment, and make other necessary purchases as you settle into independence and post-university life.

For better or worse, Credit Cards For College Students are relatively easy to get these days. I’m not going to delve into fiscal responsibility in this post and tell you how to use your credit card wisely. Instead, I’ll just advise you to do some credit card comparisons before you sign up for any one particular card to ensure that you’re getting fair terms and a reasonable interest rate.

CreditCardSearchEngine.com is a good website to go to for these types of comparisons. The data are laid out in a nice table so you can quickly see which features certain cards offer. This makes it easier to find the right card for your needs — an important first step towards establishing your credit rating.