Thieves are hard at work during the holidays — learn how you can stay safe from them. voronaman / Shutterstock.com
Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on Living on the Cheap. Holidays are a busy time for all of us, including the scammers and fraudsters working overtime right now to cheat you out of your money, even your identity. Here are types of holiday scams to watch out for.
Use these tips to make the holidays more festive and enjoyable without big spending. Syda Productions / Shutterstock.com
Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on Living on the Cheap. Everyone you know is searching for the best deals on gifts and trying to figure out how to avoid the stress that comes this time of year. If you want to enjoy more time and worry less about spending too much, check out these ideas to help you do both. It doesn’t take a lot of money to make the holidays enjoyable — just…
The beloved retailer is ending Cyber Week with a bang. E. Murphy / Shutterstock.com
Advertising Disclosure: When you buy something by clicking links on our site, we may earn a small commission, but it never affects the products or services we recommend. Target’s best sale of the year wasn’t on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. This year it falls on Dec. 2 and Dec. 3 — this weekend — when Target gift cards are 10% off in stores and online. That might not sound like much of a deal…
Black Friday isn’t the only time you can find deals on holiday gifts. Take a look at four ways to capitalize on low prices right now.
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So Black Friday wasn’t the savings treasure trove you were hoping for. It’s a bummer, but it happens. That doesn’t mean you’re doomed to pay full price for everything still left on your shopping list. There are still plenty of deals around; you just have to know how to find them.
Here are four tips that can help you snag great last-minute prices before the holidays.
The biggest holiday sales might be behind us, but Black Friday and Cyber Monday don’t spell the end of great deals. There are plenty of retailers who continue to offer discounts on their products through the end of the year, especially if they didn’t sell as much on Black Friday as they’d hoped.
Keep an eye on your favorite retailers and consider subscribing to their email lists if you’re not already. That way, you’ll know about upcoming deals and sales right away and you can act quickly.
Price tracking apps, like Keepa, can help you track products on popular items over time. These apps can also access historical price data to clue you into potential upcoming price drops.
These tools are pretty simple to use. You look up the product you want and add it to your account. Some even enable you to import wishlists from popular sites like Amazon. Then, they’ll keep watching those items for you and send you notifications if the price drops. This could save you a lot of time compared to manually checking prices day after day.
Using your hard-earned credit card rewards points to pay for holiday gifts might not be as appealing as finding a great savings deal. But it could still help reduce your out-of-pocket costs this holiday season.
There are two ways you could go about this: You could apply your unused rewards points to your credit card balance to reduce next month’s bill. Or you could use your rewards to purchase gift cards to popular retail stores. Then, you can use those gift cards to buy items for loved ones on your holiday shopping list, or you could give them as gifts directly.
Retailers sometimes find themselves with a surplus of items if they weren’t able to sell as much as they’d hoped during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Eventually, this becomes a problem because they want to make space in their stores for new items coming in. This is especially true for places like clothing stores, where the products sold are seasonal.
As stores gear up for new arrivals, leftover goods often get sent over to the clearance rack where you can pick them up for cheap. It doesn’t hurt to check a store’s clearance area as the holidays get closer to see if any of those things you were eyeing on Black Friday start to show up there.
It’s never easy to predict whether a better price will come up between now and the holidays, but there’s still time to wait and see. Give it a few weeks and then, if you still haven’t found a price that fits your budget, you’ll have to make a decision: Either pay full price or look for something else.
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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Kailey Hagen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Homeowners insurance should cover property that is stolen, as long as the homeowner had personal property coverage. Learn more here.
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More than 1.1 million burglaries occurred in 2019, according to the FBI. When a thief enters a home, a property owner could face substantial losses both because the thief could take items and also because the thief could damage the property.
If a homeowner has their stuff stolen, the big question is, do they have to pay to replace it out of their checking account? Fortunately, in most cases, the answer is no. That’s because a homeowners insurance policy will usually cover the stolen items. There are, however, some important limitations to be aware of to avoid out-of-pocket losses.
Homeowners insurance typically pays for the property stolen within a home as long as the property owner had personal property coverage.
Personal property coverage is an additional kind of protection that comes with most homeowners insurance policies. While dwelling coverage pays for issues with the house itself, personal property coverage pays for the stuff in the home that belongs to the owner.
Dwelling coverage pays for losses up to policy limits, which are usually set at a percentage of the amount of dwelling coverage. For example, if a home was covered for $500,000 and personal property coverage was equal to 50% of that, the personal property part of the insurance policy would pay for up to $250,000 in property stolen during a robbery
If you buy a standard home insurance policy, your insurer will most likely include personal property coverage by default when providing a quote for coverage. But lenders don’t require this coverage, so it is optional. And the amount that the insurer offers may not be correct based on the value of each individual property owner’s possessions.
It’s up to each homeowner to make sure that they take a look at the policy terms and confirm that all of their stuff — and not just the house — is insured against losses.
While personal property insurance will typically cover losses up to policy limits, that’s a general rule. There’s all kinds of fine print when it comes to insurance — including strict limits on the value of certain items.
Insurance companies generally cap coverage for possessions like collectibles, jewelry, and furs. Homeowners may be limited to recovering no more than $1,500 for the value of their jewelry, for example, even if they have tens of thousands of dollars in valuable jewels at home.
It is possible to buy add-on coverage for expensive items in most cases. For example, many insurers provide standalone policies or riders that homeowners can add to their homeowners coverage. To insure jewelry, for instance, a homeowner might pay an extra cost of around 1% to 2% of the value of the item.
Again, reading the fine print of an insurance policy — or asking an agent — will be important to make sure all property is protected in case of a robbery.
Finally, homeowners should make sure that they have replacement value coverage for their possessions, as opposed to market value coverage. With replacement value coverage, insurance will pay the cost of replacing stolen (or damaged) items. But market value coverage would pay only what the items were worth at the time of robbery. Since a used couch or bed isn’t worth much, this would often leave homeowners without the money to reasonably replace the items they lost.
Homeowners should be prepared for the risk of a robbery — or other losses to their personal property — by checking their insurance coverage today to make sure they have the right protections in place.
There are many homeowners insurance companies to choose from. We’ve researched dozens of options and short-listed our favorites here. Looking for a green build discount or easy bundle policies? Want an easy-to-use interface? Read our free expert review and get a quote today.
We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
By decluttering, you can make some extra cash and even invest more. Find out how it could put you on a better financial footing.
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I saw my neighbor cleaning out his garage recently, and it reminded me that I’m overdue for taking inventory of what I have in my home and what I could easily live without.
I get a little boost when I declutter. I like to have a relatively simple life without a lot of stuff — except for the excessive amount of Legos my kids have. But sifting through all your belongings can also bring benefits to your personal finances. Here are just a few.
If you need extra cash, decluttering can be an excellent way to make some money with little effort. Sure, you may have to climb into a cobweb-filled attic or make a trip to your storage unit, but you’ll likely come across a few things you can sell.
I’ve seen plenty of couches, bikes, workout equipment, and clothes listed online by people who are clearly just getting rid of stuff they don’t use anymore. Even a quick look through your closets could help you find a few things you could put up for sale.
Have you ever seen someone list a sofa for sale online? You’ll often see they’ve taken it right from their storage unit and set it outside to take a picture.
There are more individual storage units in the U.S. than fast food restaurants, creating a massive $29 billion industry. Do we need all that stuff? Probably not.
And we’re paying a lot of money per month to store it. The average storage unit costs $180 per month. Are you looking to save extra cash each month? One Saturday of cleaning may do it.
I recently had to buy a pair of dress shoes because I couldn’t find my old pair. It’s possible I got rid of them in my last move, but I’m partly convinced that they still may surface the next time I sort through some of my old boxes (I don’t dress up often, clearly).
If I were more organized, I would have known for sure if I still owned my old dress shoes before buying new ones. The point is that decluttering can save you money by helping you know exactly what you already own.
When talking about ways to make some money by decluttering, it’s easy to skim over what you can do with the money you make from selling your stuff. One significant benefit is to build up your emergency savings.
Americans’ savings accounts have dwindled over the past few years, and the average amount now has $1,200 in it, according to a survey by The Ascent. With inflation still elevated and credit card debt reaching $1 trillion recently, American savings accounts could undoubtedly benefit from a boost.
Keeping with the theme of what you can do with the money you make from decluttering, making a little extra cash from selling the stuff in your attic or clearing out your storage unit could boost your available cash for investing.
Let’s say you have a storage unit and pay the average $180 per month to rent it. If you clean out the unit and put that money in a brokerage account each month, owning an index fund that earns an average rate of return of 8% per year, you’d have about $12,936 at the end of the five years.
That’s just an estimate, of course, and there’s no guarantee you’ll earn that much, but it’s an example of how putting that $180 to work differently could bring a significant financial win.
The holiday season can be a great time to start decluttering, helping you clear out some things you don’t need while earning extra cash for shopping. If you need additional help tracking your spending, using a budgeting app is a good idea.
And remember, even if you don’t make any money decluttering your home, you’ll likely feel better that you’ve gotten rid of some stuff you’re not using. And if you find an old pair of black dress shoes, they’re mine.
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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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