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Posted
Feb 04 2009, 03:10 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
"Rutgerskevin" at The Red Stapler Chronicles coined a new term that's apropos for our collective economic situation. It's the "layoff drill," which, much like a fire drill, will help prepare you for an emergency situation.
Basically, you pretend you just lost your job and figure out how you're going to get by. "Sound like just a stupid game of make believe?" he writes. "Tell that to the 100,000 Americans that lost their jobs in just the last two days."
Kevin designed and executed a layoff drill just in case, and found that it was incredibly productive. While Kevin is usually one of the funniest bloggers we read, this was no joke.
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Posted
Jun 04 2009, 03:43 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner site ConsumerAffairs.com.
A new study finds that more than 60% of personal bankruptcies in the United States in 2007 were caused by health care costs associated with a major illness. That's a 50% increase in the number of bankruptcies blamed on medical expenses since a similar study in 2001.
In an article to be published in the August issue of the American Journal of Medicine, the results of the first-ever national random-sample survey of bankruptcy filers shows that illnesses and medical bills contribute to a large and increasing share of bankruptcies.
"The U.S. health care financing system is broken, and not only for the poor and uninsured," said Harvard Medical School researcher Dr. David U. Himmelstein. "Middle-class families frequently collapse under the strain of a health care system that treats physical wounds, but often inflicts fiscal ones."
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Posted
Sep 21 2009, 06:10 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
We knew that health insurance companies refuse to sell individual policies to people who've had cancer or hypertension. But acne or bunions -- or working in a first-responder job?
Insurance company documents obtained and made public by Consumer Watchdog indicate how far some insurers will go to limit individual coverage to only the healthiest people (and those with the safest jobs). A hangnail? You'll get coverage. Toenail fungus? Perhaps not.
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Posted
Apr 10 2009, 10:39 AM
by
Joan Melcher
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Free medical care in the good ole U.S.A.? Could it be that Congress finally passed a national health care bill?
Don’t get too excited. It's Walgreens that's offering free medical care for unemployed, uninsured workers through its recently unveiled Take Care Recovery Plan.
Under the plan, people who are laid off and don’t have insurance, and their uninsured family members, can receive free treatment during 2009 for minor ailments at Take Care clinics in 342 locations across the country.
But there is a catch or two.
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Posted
Nov 07 2008, 12:50 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Hey, you with the half-mast eyes: Put that coffee down and tell me how you're feeling. Rested, alert and upbeat? Ready to take on the world, or at least to accomplish everything on today's to-do list?
That's what I thought. You need a nap. We all need naps. A 20- to 40-minute snooze can change your mood, improve your cognitive abilities and maybe even save your life.
Oh, and it's also a frugal hack. More on that later.
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Posted
Dec 27 2007, 08:27 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Nora Dunn at partner blog Wise Bread. The days of employer/employee loyalty are long gone. No longer do people finish school and work their entire career at the same company, retiring with full pension and benefits for life. In fact, the average person will change not only employers but also careers multiple times before reaching age 50. Combine that information with layoffs and downsizing on the employer side, and "tenure" is a thing of the past. As a competent and dedicated employee, you can use this to your advantage. If you are doing a good job, your employer will want to keep you. And to do so, your company knows it might need to entice you to stay if your skills are marketable and you are in demand.
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Posted
Sep 10 2008, 12:14 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Two encounters with illness have cost David of My Two Dollars and his wife nearly $10,000 out-of-pocket so far this year, and that's not including the $320 a month they were paying for health insurance premiums. Health care is a huge personal-finance topic, but PF bloggers rarely write about it -- unless it hits close to home. Luckily, David and his wife were able to absorb the unanticipated expenses. But, he wonders, what about people who can't?
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Posted
Apr 02 2009, 11:53 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This guest post comes from Ron Haynes at The Wisdom Journal.
Though there certainly are sectors of the economy that are flourishing (namely government, health care and energy, according to USA Today), the fact remains that many people working in the private sector are getting pink slips and, if they're fortunate, a severance package.
If you're among those being terminated, what you do with that cash is important because it's meant to sustain you and your family for a while until you can find another job.
Or, you can throw caution and frugality to the wind and blow it, acting as if nothing ever happened, avoiding ways to make extra money, and neglecting your interview skills. Here's how:
Take a vacation. While vacations are certainly a great time to build family bonds, see new sights, and expand your horizons, now is not the time to be focused on that particular horizon. Now is the time to focus on restructuring your career. "Lay off" the vacation.
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Posted
Mar 05 2008, 07:51 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller. 2008 has been a difficult year. On Dec. 30, I rushed my wife to the emergency room. She had severe abdominal pain and was literally doubled over as we raced to the hospital. When morphine didn't dull the pain, they moved to Dilaudid, which is much stronger. It took the edge off the pain. Then the vomiting started. Ten hours and many tests later, they released her. They didn't know what the problem was, but the medicine had reduced her systems. After a restless night, the pain returned, and off we went to the hospital at 5 a.m. This time we spent 13 hours in the emergency room before she was admitted. More tests, more guesses, more pain and more vomiting. By Jan. 2 (happy new year, by the way), they had narrowed the problem to one of her kidneys and scheduled a procedure for later in the week. The procedure went well, and everything seemed to be resolved. She was discharged that day. Five hours later the pain and vomiting returned. We were off to the emergency room again, she was admitted and had the same procedure. She was discharged the next day, nine days after the ordeal had begun. She's doing much better now, although there are a number of follow-ups yet to go. They think the problem has been resolved, but they aren't certain. I give you all of this background so you can better appreciate the following four things this experience taught us about health insurance (we have preferred-provider organization or PPO insurance).
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Posted
Sep 28 2009, 01:59 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
A new Harvard study estimates that nearly 45,000 Americans die each year because they don't have health insurance -- and that's after other factors like income and unhealthy behaviors are taken into account.
"Deaths associated with lack of health insurance now exceed those caused by many common killers such as kidney disease," an article by the Cambridge Health Alliance reports.
The study says the uninsured have a 40% higher risk of death than people who have private health insurance -- like the insurance you get through your job. Or, to put it another way, a person dies because of a lack of insurance every 12 minutes.
Of course, some people neglect their health. But many, we suspect, don't see a doctor because they're afraid of the cost. Doctor visits and tests can add up to an intimidating amount, even if you're uninsured but have a good income. A CNN story put a human face on some of these avoidable deaths -- a freelance cameraman, a self-employed mother of two, and a 25-year-old woman who worked in a movie theater.
So we had to wonder: Have you put off visits to the doctor because of financial considerations?
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