Musicians are coming together to raise money for the victims of a May flood that caused more than $2 billion in damage. Super stars Faith Hill and her husband Tim McGraw are organizing the Nashville Rising concert. “The musicians on stage have gone through it. Some of them have lost every instrument they ever owned, and some in the audience have lost their homes and their businesses. So we’ve been through this together, and we’re going to pull ourselves up,” Hill told Yahoo! News.

Performers include McGraw, Hill, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Martina McBride, LeAnn Rimes, Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Lynyrd Skynrd, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith and ZZ Top. Perfomer Julie Roberts is one of the flood’s victims, too. “We went upstairs to the second floor and had to wait to be rescued for about 5 1/2, 6 hours. We lost our home that day. We lost all of our belongings, all of our cars, but we were rescued and my four dogs were rescued,” she told Yahoo!. In addition to losing her home she broke her ankle. “It can heal. I’m alive and my mom’s alive and my sister’s alive, and I’m here to talk about it, and I’m here to sing tonight. So I feel very blessed.”

Ellen Lehman, president of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, says Nashville’s flood victims are starting to feel a major financial pinch. “Since the flood, (families) are not only required to pay their mortgage and the rest of their bills, but they’re also needing to pay rent,” she told Yahoo! News. “Going forward…they’re going to have to find the money to rebuild. That is a huge unexpected burden, and there will be people who can’t financially put together a package that will allow them to do that, and they’re going to have to walk away from their homes.” More than 37,000 people have filed claims with FEMA. Concert organizers hope to raise $2 million to help.

Suze Orman continues to give money advice in O, The Oprah Magazine this month. Her list “guaranteed to be ridiculously easy to implement” has several bits of advice. The first was track your spending, calculate your net worth and check your credit.

Find Hidden Savings

1. Shop for insurance deals. We’re always shopping around looking for great bargains, right? So, do the same for auto and home insurance. Just don’t reduce your level of coverage. These websites insweb and netquote can help you find quotes from different insurers.

2. Raise your insurance deductibles. If you raise your auto and home deductibles to $1,000, your premium cost falls 10 percent or more. Low deductibles can cause you to make claims for small-ticket items. There is also a nice payoff for a higher deductible, says the article. Just go ahead and call your insurer and ask for a new quote based on a higher deductible.

3. Check out a credit union. I don’t use a credit union, but I’ve heard great things about them. Sometimes you can get a better deal with a credit union. They also tend to pay higher yields on deposits. Findacreditunion can help you track down the best one. Make sure you look for one that is part of the federal insurance program run by the National Credit Union Administration.

4. Challenge your property-tax assessment. Orman says home values are down an average of 30 percent since the 2006 peak. If your assessment doesn’t reflect that, you might be overpaying. Call up your county tax assessor to find out more. The National Taxpayers Union also has a book on the topic.

I have to admit that I am just so excited to have found all of these websites in magazines that I regularly read. I’m always looking for more resources when it comes to saving money. Here is the second list of sites from Woman’s Day magazine.

Lynda: If you need some extra training in programs such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Office and the basics on photography or web design, this is a great place to start. The Online Training Library helps you keep your skills current and starts at $25 per month. Last month, they announced a partnership with Microsoft to be a training partner for Office 2008.

BigHugeLabs: Are you interested in photography? This site helps you do fun stuff with your photos, such as create posters, photo collages, special effects, jigsaw puzzles and magazine covers.

Dafont: Let’s say you’re working on a project and need to download a cool font quickly. There are more than 9,000 fonts to choose from and it’s free!

Fix It Club: Sometimes I get in a jam and wish I knew how to fix something around the house. Well, look no further. The Fix It Club offers free repair help for things from appliances to electronics and apparel to exercise equipment.

Budget Simple: Budgeting your money can be tricky and this website it designed to help for free. Budget Simple offers software to keep track of monthly spending and current income and expenses.

Annual Credit Report: This credit report is free and it’s available once a year. The site works with three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies. Reviewing your credit regularly is important and this helps you do it at no cost.

Dinky Town: Looking for financial calculators? You can calculate just about anything, such as mortgages, loans, automobiles, retirements, personal finances, credit card uses and savings.

Bloomberg: Need more financial calculators? Bloomberg.com helps you figure out how to pay off your car loan, convert currency, check out your investments and mortgage.

Discover America: This is the official travel and tourism website of the U.S. It can help you find great deals to just about anywhere and offers information about each state. It can also put you in touch with a travel specialist to help you book the trip.

Mouse Savers: If you love Disney World, this is the place to go for savings on everything Disney. You can get park and cruise discounts, save on shows, hotels and even books, movies and music.

Many Americans have to take prescription drugs prescribed by their doctor and many are going broke trying to pay for them. When I was a journalist at a newspaper in Florida, I wrote a story about how several people were having to turn to Canada for cheaper drugs. CBS News had a recent segment on saving money at the pharmacy with tips from  All You magazine, so you don’t have to look outside the United States. There are some ways to help with things such as coupons, discount programs and just chatting with your doctor.

DestinationRx is a site that All You suggests you check out. This helps you to call around to different pharmacies and even Sam’s Club or Costco may have even cheaper prices.

I never thought there would be a discount card out there for prescriptions. Check out YourRxCard or Family Wize. These sites can possibly help you cut your prescription costs in half. These discounts are offered by some healthcare groups that have worked out discounts that anyone has access to.

I have a regular medication that I must take every day. I was so excited when I found out it was finally available in generic form. Around 75 percent of brand-name drugs have a generic available, according to the article. My medication went from being $100 per month to $50.

The mail might be another option. Your health insurance company may have a mail-order pharmacy that they like to use, but be careful that you make sure it’s a verified site.

Believe it or not some drug companies offer coupons for certain medications. OpimizeRx can help you search for them. One thing that I did was switch pharmacies and I received a $25 gift card to use toward my medications.

Cutting a pill in half sounds strange, but All You says it can help save money. Check with your doctor and see if the medication can be doubled and then split in half.  The cost per dose can be lower. Prescribing a 90-day supply can also save you money instead of going month-to-month.

The Partnership for Prescription Assistance can help you to afford your meds. It can provide you information on states, non profits and drug companies that offer assistance even if you have your own insurance.

The recent trouble we had with our van was compounded last weekend when the suburban we bought on Tuesday was crushed by a tree on Friday. It seems the insurance company was not enthused that the car we bought to replace the totaled van was now totaled as well. I’ve been learning a few things about this unique situation that might help others deal with insurance situations.

Things I am Learning about My Auto Insurance

1. My agent is a salesman. He does not handle the claims and doesn’t have much to do with the claims. It would be helpful to me if I knew someone in the actual claims office.

2. You can not sell what you do not own. That means in Alabama the title from the purchase of the vehicle must be sent in and a new title issued under the name of the new owner (up to six weeks according to the title office).

3. It is not my insurance companies fault that the car was totaled just days after I purchased it and although they WILL provide a rental car for up to five days after the car was declared totaled they will not provide one until the new title is issued (and I can’t buy a new one until the check from the insurance company is deposited which will be issued when the title arrives).

4. Dealing with another insurance company can be easier than dealing with your own. I did not ask a tree to fall on the car but apparently I am still somewhat responsible.

This is not going to be fixed overnight but at least it gives us time to see if a new vehicle really is necessary for the daily functioning of our lives.

Health insurance has been making the news a lot since Obama became President. There is concern for those families (particularly children) that are currently living without health insurance because of the rising costs. The good news is that you can still find affordable health insurance if you take a little time to look around.

Tips for Getting Health Insurance

1. Skip the co-pays – there is no reason to pay extra each month so that you can see the doctor for half price once or twice a year.

2. Get the weight off – deductibles are higher for people that weigh more than the recommended amounts (and each insurance company has its recommended limits).

3. Look around – check out all the different insurance companies and not just the “named brands” that you may have grown up knowing.

4. Read the details – compare apples to apples by knowing exactly what the different insurance companies cover.

5. Raise the deductible – the higher the deductible amount then the lower the monthly premium costs. Just be sure that you have the ability to get the deductible amount (in savings or some other form) if it is needed.

Health insurance does not have to break your bank account. A little research can go a long ways towards lowering your insurance costs.

Most people know that they need life insurance to help protect their family if something should happen. Fewer people actually take the time to make the investment. And there are only a limited number of people that actually have the amount of life insurance that is needed to help protect the financial future of the family.

Steps to Figuring Life Insurance

1. Figure up how much it would cost to pay off all the family debts – mortgages, car notes, personal loans and other debts.

2. Figure up how much money would be needed to meet monthly expenses.
a. Groceries
b. Auto costs
c. Utilities
d. Insurance
e. Phone

3. Figure up the costs for burial expenses.

4. Set up a fund for any charitable donations that you would like to see given when you are gone.

5. Estimate an amount for future costs.

a. College
b. Emergency fund
c. Taxes

Once you add up all the potential costs that will face your family if you are gone then you will have a better understanding of how much life insurance you need. It will also give you a better picture of how important an investment of life insurance can be to the security of your family’s future.

This morning my son asked me why health insurance costs so much. I’m sure there are many people out there that would like to know that same answer. It’s rather simple. Health insurance covers too much.

Look at it this way. If you own a car then you have car insurance. Most of us by car insurance to protect the car (some of us just do it because it is the law). Any one with car insurance does not expect that insurance to foot the bill when the oil gets change. The car insurance does not fix the broken air conditioner. The car insurance does pay if there is an accident – it covers the major problems that the car faces.

If the car insurance did pay for oil changes, tune ups, brakes, air conditioning repair and all of those other little things that can go wrong with the car then the premiums would be through the rood. Insurance companies would have to figure in the costs of those routine mechanical issues when they figured up premium prices.

Back to the health insurance – there was a time when health insurance covered the major incidents in life (surgery, hospital stays, and things of that nature). Over the years the coverage has extended to the routine procedures of life (check ups, sniffles, or what ever else might come up).

It really is easy to understand now why health insurance prices are so high – the expectation of the consumer has risen.

With several big financial institutions failing, more people are wondering if their money is safe. Typically the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) only insures deposits up to $100 thousand. But what about individuals, businesses or non-profits that have more money than that?

CDARS® is the Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service®. It’s a network of banks that allow customers to receive full FDIC insurance on deposits of up to $50 million. You sign one agreement with one of the 2500 financial institutions across the country that offer CDARS, earn one interest rate and receive one statement. But your money is spread out among several different banks.

For instance, if you have a million dollars to deposit, your money would likely be spread out into more than a dozen financial institutions. That way, even with interest you earn, your money would be fully FDIC insured. You can search for financial institutions that are approved by CDARS here.

Last night, Washington Mutual became the largest bank failure in U.S. history. While much of its $182 billion in deposits were insured by the FDIC, amounts over $100,000 are not and may be lost forever. In addition, many depositors are reporting challenges in rapidly accessing their funds today, even though they may not be at risk.

Washington Mutual is also the thirteenth FDIC insured bank to fail this year, which is more banks than have failed in the past five years combined. With the anxiety and volatility the financial markets are still experiencing, more failures are practically a certainty during the fourth quarter.

What should you do? Well, certainly don’t panic. Keeping your money safe isn’t hard if you follow a few important guildlines:

If recent reports of banks failing has got you wondering if your money is safe, there is an easy way to find out. For starters, the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) is an independent agency of the US government. Their responsibility is to protect depositors (like you and me) from losing insured deposits if an FDIC-insured bank were to fail. If your accounts total $100,000 or less, it’s all insured.

So how do you know if your money is safe? Make sure your bank is FDIC-insured. You can do that very easily by visiting the FDIC’s website. Simply conduct a database search or look through the Institution Directory to make sure your bank is listed.

If your bank does fail, there is also lots of information about what happens to your money and how to get help. By the way, it’s not totally uncommon for a bank to fail. According to FDIC statistics, 43 banks have failed since 2000.

Photo Courtesy of Odalaigh

Homeowner’s Insurance is not everything that it is cracked up to be. Many people think that once they purchase the policy everything is protected. But not only is everything NOT protected, but it is likely that even your home is not protected under some conditions. This is one of the reasons that it is so important to read the details of your insurance policy.

Taking the time to read over your policy will help you understand what is covered and when. It will also give you guidance for purchasing additional insurance to cover the items and situations not protected under the current policy.

1. Jewelry, antiques and artwork – most homeowner’s insurance policies will only cover a small amount for these items – if they are covered at all. It may be worth the investment of a few extra dollars to get additional coverage on personal property. You will also want to get appraisals for the items and keep those appraisals in a safe location (away from your home in case of disaster).

2. Floods – basic homeowner’s insurance DOES NOT cover water rising in to your home. You need to invest in flood insurance if your property is located in a 100 year flood plain.

3. Other natural disasters – some policies may not cover earthquakes, volcanoes or even hurricanes (depending on your location). You may need to get additional coverage for protection against such events.

The time to know what is covered and how it is covered is before a problem occurs. Sit down with your insurance agent today and review your coverage. Then consider purchasing the additional protection you need to secure your future.