Individuals in some cases say that western countries have “free” medical care, yet they end up paying for their medical care through various taxes and charges. In countries like the US, people usually pay for medical care in insurance premiums. Medical care is rarely truly free. Financial experts have opined that medical services, governments, and insurance agencies determine how a normal citizen pays for healthcare.  [Read more…]

Your home is your castle. Which means you want to keep your family as safe as possible when they’re inside of it. But how safe is your home, really? There are so many things to consider when it comes to the safety of your home. Everything from potential break-ins to the strength of certain valves in the systems of your home. Air pressure can impact your home’s safety, since dispense valves generally require a minimum air pressure of 70 to 80 psi in order to function properly. If you’re unsure how to tell how safe your home is, you should do a full inspection. Here are some questions to help you get started.

How Safe Is the Neighborhood?

To determine how safe your home is from outside threats, look at how safe your neighborhood is. Look into the crime rates in your area, especially for things like car theft and robbery. If the rates are high in your neighborhood, it is worth taking extra precautions to keep your home safe. However, it is important that you actually look into the numbers yourself instead of relying on reputation or stereotypes. Otherwise, you might make assumptions about your neighborhood that will either cause you unnecessary stress or make you too lax in your preparations.

Do You Have a Security System?

No matter where you live, a security system can add another layer of protection to your home and family. Consider buying a system for your home. There are many types of security, which can be put together to set up a system that works well for your family. Surveillance cameras are a popular option. According to IHS Markit’s latest report, over one billion surveillance cameras will be installed worldwide by the end of the year. Cameras can help deter crime or solve it after it’s been committed. Along with your cameras, you can install alarms and extra locks. You might also consider getting a dog as a threat deterrent as well as a furry member of the family.

Is Your Home Well-Maintained?

No matter how safe your home is from exterior threats, you need to make sure you address the interior ones as well. According to the National Floor Safety Institute, slips and falls are the leading reason for worker’s compensation claims. They are also the top cause of occupational injury in people over the age of 55. It is equally important to avoid falls at home, so make sure that your home is well-maintained. The floors should be even and there should be safety rails on all of the stairs. As you maintain your home, look for fall risks, as well as any other potential dangers. This will help you avoid injuries to your family or visitors.

Do You Have Supplies?

While you don’t need to set up an underground bunker in order to keep your family safe, you should always have a two-week supply of food, water, and other necessities on hand. This will keep your family safe in any kind of emergency that might require you to stay inside for two weeks. You should also consider how you will keep warm or cool if the power goes out. By considering potential emergencies ahead of time and preparing for them, you’ll be in a better position to keep your family safe during an emergency situation.

The safety of your home and family should be your top priority. This is why it is so important to take extra steps to keep your home safe. Look at all the ways that your home could be in danger, then figure out how to prevent these things from happening. If you apply the questions above, you’ll be off to a good start at figuring out how safe your home is. Then you can take the necessary steps from there.

Debt can wreak havoc on you and your family. Even if you think you can handle it, you’ll often find that debt overwhelms you. You can even find yourself in a situation of wage garnishment where your earnings are withheld to pay off outstanding debts. However, there are steps that you can take every day that will help you to make a dent in your debt. Even if you can’t pay it all off at once, making these simple moves will help you regain control and get you and your family on the right track. Some are preventative, while others will help you keep your debt from getting worse. But all of them are simple and useful.

Read Your Mail

If you’re the type of person that ignores your mail for days at a time, you could miss important information. Many companies will contact you about your debt through the mail. While some of these are scams, many are real. Depending on the type of debt you hold, your doctor, credit card company, or even the government might try to reach you. The IRS conducts three different types of tax audits: field audits, office audits, and mail audits. If you are being audited and don’t open your mail, you could get in big trouble.

Pay with Cash

As much as possible, you should pay for purchases with cash. Cash keeps you on a strict budget. Once it is gone, it is gone. There’s no way to overspend when you only have cash. While this might not be realistic for all situations, it can be very useful for things like grocery shopping or spending for fun. Keeping some cash in your home is a good measure for emergencies anyway, but you should make paying for purchases with cash part of your daily routine. Then you won’t be tempted to put unnecessary purchases on your credit card.

Stick to a Budget

You need a budget. You need to know exactly how much money your family spends each month and how much you bring in. Otherwise, you won’t know how much you can afford to spend. Sit down and make up an honest budget. Consider all of your expenses. Some will be the same every month while others will be more flexible, such as groceries. If your expenses are too high, your budget will show you how much you need to earn in order to make up the difference.

A budget is useful for everyone, but it is extremely useful for people on a limited income. About 8.2 million people receive disabled-worker payments from Social Security. In some cases, it goes directly to them. However, 104,000 spouses and 1.4 million children receive them to help their family. If you rely on a small income like that, you have to know where it is going in order to avoid building up debt.

Don’t Carry a Balance

If you have to use credit cards, pay them off at the end of each month. There are benefits to using credit cards. Many have rewards programs that you can take advantage of. Cashback programs, discount opportunities, or free airline miles can save you a lot of money if you use your credit cards correctly. However, you need to make sure that you stay on top of your payments. If you allow a balance to stay on your card each month, you’ll end up accruing interest and building even more debt.

If you eliminate your debt, it will give your family more advantages. However, this requires work. These small tasks can help you avoid building up more debt and help you to put a dent in your current debt. Implement them into your life and you’ll find that they are very effective.

A lower energy bill for your home means you have more money to spend on other needs including leisure, which is always a plus. If you’re wondering about how you can achieve this, read on.

1. Fix Leaks in the Plumbing

With the EPA saying that a faucet dripping a single drip each second can waste over 3,000 gallons of water each year, it’s clear that you need to fix any leaks in your plumbing. Perform a visual inspection to make sure that there are no leaks in and around your house. If you find any and have the necessary tools and know-how to repair them, do it as soon as possible. Otherwise, call a good plumber to come in and fix them for you. Doing this will help you use water more efficiently, and you will be paying for water that you’ve actually used.

2. Switch to Energy-Saving Bulbs

Bulbs around the house may seem to only consume a small amount of power when analyzed as a single unit. However, when they’re all put together and observed over a length of time, the story changes. To make sure that you use as little energy as possible in the house, switch to energy-saving LED bulbs, which will save you a good amount of energy and emit less heat when turned on. Follow this up with only turning lights on in occupied rooms and you will minimize your energy use even more, making this a habit worth practising with your family.

3. Perform Preventative Maintenance

Another way in which you can save on energy use in your home is to perform predictive maintenance as often as is necessary to do so. For example, it’s recommended that a family of four people with a 1,000-pound tank should have it pumped once every three to five years. When you follow this and other maintenance procedures for the appliances and systems in your home, you will have them run efficiently and therefore save a good amount of energy.

4. Get Energy Strips

Energy strips are an effective way of dealing with energy vampires in your home. These are appliances that remain on standby mode even when they’re turned off, effectively consuming energy even in this state. Put this to a stop by connecting your home’s appliances to energy strips and making sure that they’re only using power while they’re fully on and in use. Over time, you will realize that your energy consumption has gone down.

5. Only Run Appliances When They’re Full

Finally, this last tip is for appliances such as the dishwasher, washing machine, and dryer. You will get better energy-efficiency when you only run them when they’re full. While it may be tempting to throw in a few dirty clothes or dishes for a quick cleaning session, avoid doing this and you will save both energy and water as they will run at their most optimum in this case. With cabinets generally accounting for 40% to 50% of the total costs used up in a kitchen remodel, you can be sure that something like replacing an old appliance is something that you may fit into these costs. Doing so will ensure that you can now do chores well, fast, and in an energy-efficient way thanks to getting a new appliance.

Put these five suggestions into practice and you will start to enjoy lower energy bills in your home. Teaching the tips to your family will also help you instill good habits in them that will help them use energy well wherever they go, something that they will thank you profusely for!

An overwhelming majority of Americans prefer living in homes that are surrounded by beautiful yards and gardens. The sheer beauty of lawns as the summer season sets in is a sight 90% of Americans would prefer to wake up to daily

Any family can landscape on a budget and still have a beautiful lawn. Using a combination of patios, plants, waterscapes and window boxes, you can design a yard worthy of the neighbors’ envy without breaking the bank. Here are 5 tips for landscaping on a budget.

1. Plant trees

A tree sprouting from under your well-manicured lawn could take the beauty of your home to another level altogether. When placed in a strategic area of your lawn, the tree sapling you plant today could grow into a massive tree. Within no time, you could have hundreds of trees growing on your lawn, of course, depending on how large it is.

This should be your contribution to increasing the tree cover in the USA, which, according to the U.S. Forest Service, increased by 119 percent hardwood trees in 2007 over the 1953 statistics for the same. This is a 2.00 growth-to-removal ratio.

If you decide to later sell your home, this could be the one thing most buyers would find irresistible, and that can only be good for the value of your house. And the good thing is that tree saplings are not expensive. You can get one for half to a dollar-and-a-half.

2. Introduce edging to bring order to your lawn

You do not have to be overly worried about where to get money to landscape your lawn. Use those rocks you collected from your rockhounding excursions to edge your lawn.

Edging tells your lawn how far to go, giving it a patterned look that is simply beautiful. The key is to use what you have to enhance your lawn, and if you look around keenly, there are enough materials you can put to great use. These include ballast, logs, concrete, recyclable items, concrete, wood and bricks. You could also add edging to keep the mulch where it’s supposed to be (in your flower, shrubs and tree beds) and to prevent erosion besides making your lawn stand out.

3. Add string lights to your backyard

Your yard may look beautiful during the day as the sun’s rays cast their bright hues onto it. It could look even more breathtaking at night with string lights that you can buy cheaply. Let the soft, ambient glow of these lights turn your deck into a beautiful summer hangout.

Depending on your budget, you can choose between white twinkle lights that retail at around six dollars per strand or the clear globe light that costs about $9. The latter is more durable than twinkle lights. They give your patio a modern look that’s hard to ignore.

4. Providing ventilation for enclosed sunroom, porch or deck

Consider using vinyl-glazed window enclosures to add character to your deck or porch, or even the sunroom. For adequate ventilation in at least 75% of your enclosures, use vertical four-track or side slider horizontal panels that could provide ventilation to between 50% and 100% of your enclosures.

5. Contract a landscaping professional

If you are not a fan of DIY projects, consider hiring a landscaping professional who does this type of work on a regular basis. Landscaping requires meticulous planning and keen attention to detail.

While you can easily carry out some landscaping tasks by yourself, or with a little help from family, hiring a professional removes the guesswork, especially for more complex landscaping projects. The good thing is that there are budget-friendly landscaping professionals you can hire, even on a shoestring budget.

You do not have to raid your bank account to landscape your garden or lawn. Even with a limited budget, you can have a lawn that people would marvel at. Just a bit of ingenuity and creativity here and there will bring your lawn or garden to life, even at night when string lights literally light up your lawn. Or perhaps you should leave the entire task to a budget landscaping professional. You will be surprised how far what you think is too little can go.

You want your family to be safe. And is there any place safer than home? Unfortunately, a lot of times your home is not as safe as you want it to be. Danger can appear in any number of forms, including illness, injury, and harm from strangers. If you want your home to be safe from all of these things, you need to put the work in that will make it so. This can be overwhelming, but don’t give up. Instead, here are four tips to get you started on making your home a safer place for your family.

Install New Locks

Locks are your home’s main form of security. However, there are times when it is better to get new locks than it is to keep the ones you have. If you’ve just moved into your home, you should get new locks made. Same if you’ve gone through a divorce or had someone move out. You don’t know who has keys to those old locks. With new locks, you know exactly who has access.

Installing new locks can also allow you to get stronger options put in. A chain or a simple lock might not be enough to keep someone out. However, you might consider putting in a deadbolt instead. This will give your family peace of mind whenever the doors are locked.

Test for Lead

House paint used to have lead in it. While it’s been a long time since this was the case, many old houses still have traces of lead in them. Lead poisoning is dangerous and can impact babies and children if they eat the paint that chips off the walls in an old house. In adults, chronic lead exposure might lead to joint pain, high blood pressure, and concentration or memory issues. This is why it is so important to test for lead. If you find out that there is lead in your home, take measures to remove it. Then you can be sure your family is safe from lead exposure and you won’t need to worry about it anymore.

Plan Ahead

While you can’t prepare for everything, you can prepare for a lot of things that might happen. So take some time to consider how you’ll keep your family safe in different situations that might occur within your home. This could be anything from a power outage to construction. For a power outage, prepare yourself to live without electricity for a few days. For potential construction, determine what will need to happen to keep your family safe. You’ll need to talk to the project manager when that time comes. A project manager is responsible for all phases of the construction and makes sure that they stick to their timeline and budget. You’ll need them on board to keep your house safe.

Consider Steel Roofing

If you need to replace your roof, consider getting steel roofing installed. Stone-coated steel roofing has a Class A fire rating and a Class 4 hail resistance impact. It is also 100% recyclable and lightweight. Your roof is very important for keeping the rest of your house safe, so you need to choose the best possible one.

Keeping your house safe is not an impossible task, but it can get overwhelming. If you’re looking for ways to keep your home and family protected, take some time to consider your needs and what the most likely problems will be. Then take these steps and follow them. This will get you started in securing your home from any problems, both natural and human-made, that might occur. Once you’re done, you’ll know that your home is safe.

Energy saving is important for everyone to practice, not just for the sake of your finances, but for the sake of the environment as well. Use the tips for energy saving around the home below to ensure that you get an energy-efficient home that will leave both you and the environment with a smile when all is said and done.

Keep Your Home Appliances Well-Maintained

The first thing you need to do is to make sure that all the appliances in your home are always well-maintained. This will keep them in a good state at all times, in which they will consume minimal amounts of energy as they work as optimally as they were intended to work by their manufacturers. This will save you a considerable amount over time, an important thing given the fact that the average family today spends $2,000 each year on energy bills. Half of this goes towards keeping the home warm or cool in different seasons, so making sure that your appliances are working efficiently is one of the best things you can do.

Invest in Modern, Energy-Efficient Appliances

Technology has come a long way since the first appliances were made, so it’s good to stay modern as far as your appliances go. If you still have the same appliances you had about a decade ago, you can make sure that your family will enjoy the utmost comfort by switching them out for newer models. While this may cost you a bit upfront, the savings you make over time will be every bit worth it. Shop around for those that have the best Energy Star rating to be sure that you get the very best deal, and one that you will enjoy for a long time to come.

Save Energy With Your Landscaping

You can also save energy with your landscaping. A simple way to do this is to plant deciduous trees on the west and south sides of your house. This will have the effect of having shade over your house from their leaves in the summer, while you get added warmth in the winter when the bare branches allow extra sunlight to filter through to your house. Installing a fence is another way to save energy, as it will give you a 65% return on investment while offering you protection from high-speed winds that could cool your house or even destroy its structural value in case it’s accompanied by hail.

Seal Your Home and Insulate it Well

To make sure that you’re not losing treated air from your indoors to the outdoors, it’s important to insulate your home. Start with the windows, looking to see if there are any gaps and cracks which you can seal with caulk and weather stripping. If you can afford it, change your windows from single-pane ones to double-pane ones, which will afford you better insulation and enable you to keep your home a lot more comfortable with minimal energy. Also make sure to repair any pest damage as this can leave you with leaks you’re not aware of. Termites, according to the LA Times, were the main pest concern for 20% of homeowners in a survey, so have your home fumigated if you suspect any pest damage.

Maximize on Natural Lighting

Finally, make a lot of use of natural lighting by reducing your reliance on artificial lighting. South and north-facing windows will be a lot more effective at letting in sunlight that will also warm your home better and reduce harsh lighting in winter. While working on the lighting, you could also change any conventional lights you have in the house to LED lights which will be a lot more energy-efficient and more eco-friendly as well.

Use these tips to enjoy an energy-friendly and comfortable home in all seasons!