Part of deal in managing your personal finances is to keep everything well organized. This means that paperwork is in place and copies of everything are readily accessible. If disaster strikes or some other unfortunate event happens, will you know what to do? Read on and we’ll take a look at some important documents that key to keeping your finances organized.
Financial Statements: Your 401(k), college savings, pension, IRA, and other longer term investment statements should be as readily accessible as your bank savings and checking account statements are. In an emergency, who has the presence of mind to think what should be done next? Not likely you. Have a safe, secure place where all important financial paperwork can be accessed in a moment’s notice. Make certain that account numbers are clearly listed, but don’t list your personal identification number as it could fall into the wrong hands and cause a whole different kind of disaster!
Your Will: You may have a copy of your will and your lawyer another copy. However, if your entire family is wiped out, would they know who your lawyer is? If not, things can get really dicey. Better to make a copy of your will and place it in a safe deposit box or with a trusted relative who can access your information if needed.
Additional Paperwork: Make a list of everything you own or have and leave that list in a place where it can easily be found. This list should include social security numbers, burial plot information, funeral wishes, living wills, your attorney, birth certificates and adoption papers, all of your banking and financial information, your home’s deed, auto deeds, and any other paperwork that can help during a time of crisis.
Some homeowners keep all of their pertinent paperwork in a fireproof box while others make copies of these same papers and leave them with a trusted friend or relative in another city. If you live in a hurricane prone area, such as the Delta region, then having your paperwork at a location far away from the disaster area is wise. That way you can be certain all of your important information isn’t affected while you try to get your life back in order.
No one thinks about a disaster happening but we should. After Hurricane Katrina leveled New Orleans, things were even more complicated for people who had no back up plan in place. Don’t get caught unprepared!

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Individual Retirement Account (IRA) Investment - Mutual Funds
You are invested in Individual Retirement Account (IRA) certificates of deposits and bonds for your retirement. These are excellent investments; but you do not want all of your IRA investments in just these type of savings because you can get locked in with low annual percentage yields.
You want a much larger annual return on your investment but with low risk. Your goal is to maintain a comfortable life style whether the market goes up or the market goes down.
A excellent IRA investment option is a Mutual Fund — the common name for an open-end investment company. Like other types of investment companies, mutual funds pool money from many investors and invest the money in stocks, bonds, short-term money-market instruments, or other securities. Mutual funds issue redeemable shares that investors purchase directly from the fund or through a broker for the fund.
Including an IRA investment as part of your portfolio, you want a mutual fund to meet certain conditions such as:
1) Return over long-term (5 years) should be above the average CD yields. An example would be a mutual fund that provided an 8% average for 2002 through 2006. There is no guarantee of past performance but it can help you assess the fund's fluctuation.
2) Risk should be minimal. The risk ratings of mutual funds range from low to high. Risk is a standard deviation of the return on total investment.
3) Distribution of income and/or capital gains that the mutual fund gives its shareholders should be large. All distribution should be reinvested which increases the number of shares owned. Taking this action allows you not to be taxed for the income or capital gains received. You acquire additional shares of the mutual fund at a lower net asset value price because the share price is reduced by the amount of distribution.
4) Total Expense ratio should be low or should not exceed the average of other mutual funds serving the same investment classification. The total expense ratio is the fund's total annual operating expenses which includes management fees, distribution (12b-1) fees, and other expenses is expressed as a percentage of average net assets.
On September 15, 2006, $10,000 was hypothetically invested among four mutual funds that fill the above qualifications. Here are the current results.
Investment as of September 15, 2006:
• $2,000.00 (114.92 shares) Balanced
• $2,500.00 (89.22 shares) Equity Income
• $2,500.00 (139.60 shares) Multi-Cap Core
• $3,000.00 (20.19 shares) Speciality: Health
• $9,843.08 (actual total investment -1.56%) shares purchased after initial fees
As of May 11, 2007, the total return on these funds is $11,201.51 11.20%. The combined total return includes income and capital gains that were distributed by these mutual funds. If the distribution was not made and not reinvested, the total return would be $10,595.56 5.96%.
Mutual funds are not guaranteed or insured by the FDIC or any other government agency — even if you buy through a bank and the fund carries the bank's name. There is no guarantee of past performance and always contact the mutual fund and read the prospectus before making an investment.
Mutual Interest Data Service http://www.largedividends.com was created September 26, 1999. The objective is to be an exclusive resource based on finding top mutual funds that 1) distribute large income/capital gains and 2) maintain performance growth for a 5 year period. To validate this niche, the above mutual funds model was created. You can see the actual distribution and reinvestment for these investments at www.largedividends.com.


Compare House Insurance Quotes Online to Get the Best Rate
The best way to get the best house insurance quotes is to compare rates from different companies. And the easiest way to do that is online. Here's how ...

House Insurance Coverage
Before you go shopping for house insurance you should know what's covered:
House Structure - Structural coverage pays for damages to you home from fire, smoke, lightning, theft, vandalism, and weather damage (except floods).
Your house insurance policy should cover the cost of rebuilding your home and should not be based on your home's appraised value. You can ask a builder what the square-foot rebuilding costs are in your area then multiply that figure by your home's square footage to get a cost estimate.
You can save money on your premium by raising your deductible. Increasing it from $250 to $1,000 will save you up to 25%.
Personal Property - You and your family's personal possessions are covered by personal property coverage. Most insurance company's cover your possessions for half of what your home is insured for.
Expensive items like jewelry, furs, and collections may only be partially covered so you'll have to purchase additional insurance in the form of a rider to cover them.
Liability - Liability coverage pays for damage done to others and their property, by you or your family. It can get extremely expensive if you're sued, so you want to have enough liability insurance to cover all your assets.
It only costs an average of $50 a year to increase your liability coverage from $100,000 to $500,000, and it may be well worth it if you have to go to court.

Compare House Insurance Quotes Online
There can be a huge difference in rates from one company to another, so it pays to spend a few minutes comparing quotes online. There are now websites where you can get quotes from a number of different insurers, and even talk with an insurance professional online (see link below). It's fast and it's free.
Visit http://www.LowerRateQuotes.com/homeowners-insurance.html or click on the following link to compare house insurance quotes online from top-rated companies in your area and see how much you can save. You can get more homeowners insurance tips by checking out their "Articles" section.

The author, Brian Stevens, is a former insurance agent and financial consultant who has written extensively on how to compare house insurance quotes online.