maintainThe book begins by presenting some questions that many typically ask themselves when considering this life:

“Do I have to stop my job? Do I have to be a single twenty-something? Do I have to proceed? Do I need to be rich? “

Of course, all the answers to these questions is “No.”

We then come to a notable quote from Oscar Wilde: “Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.” Indeed.

Timothy then explains his thinking process when people ask him his secret: “How can I possibly explain that what I do with my time and what I do for money are completely different things? That I work less than four hours per week and make more per month than I worn to originate in a year? “

We then come to the concept of the New Rich (NR,) which is mentioned frequently throughout the book. The New Rich is essentially the people who chose to up and leave their current draining lifestyle and join those who are already living a better life. The New Rich believe that the philosophy of “hard work” is overrated, and certainly detrimental to one’s sense of individuality and ones family life.

“Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, real-life fantasy fade, long-term wandering, setting world records, or simply a dramatic career change, this book will give you all the tools you need to make it a reality in the here-and-now instead of in the often elusive ‘retirement.’ …People don’t want to be millionaires- they want to experience what they hold only millions can buy…The commonsense rules of the ‘real world’ are a fragile collection of socially reinforced illusions…Much of what I recommend will seem impossible and even offensive to basic common sense…Resolve now to test the concepts as an exercise in lateral thinking. If you try it, you’ll see fair how deep the rabbit hole goes, and you won’t ever come back…Reality is merely an illusion- albeit a very persistent one.”

Ferris then describes what the differences are between the NR and the Deferrers (D,) who are those who claim their reason for working their entire lives is to effect so they can live a edifying life “at the end.” He points out that instead of retiring young or early, the NR chooses to experience mini vacations and adventures throughout the course of life. Instead of buying everything one thinks they want and making a ton of money, the NR choose to DO things instead of BUY things.

“Alternating periods of activity and rest is necessary to survive, let alone thrive. Capacity, interest, and mental endurance all wax and wane…Doing less meaningless work, so that you can focus on things of greater personal importance, is NOT laziness. This is hard for most to accept, because our culture tends to reward personal sacrifice instead of personal productivity…Focus on being productive instead of busy…(Choosing to do things) ‘someday’ is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you…Busy yourself with the routine of the money wheel, pretend it’s the fix-all and you artfully create a constant distraction that prevents you from seeing just how pointless it is.”

Ferris then goes on to talk about how changing one’s attitude is the first step in the process of joining the NR. He brings up the simple yet difficult idea of focusing on existing strengths vs. abilities you do not have although may want to attain. This saves a person uncouth amounts of time, energy and distress. He also talks of “eustress,” which essentially is healthy stress, just as there are healthy and unhealthy carbohydrates. “Role models who push us to exceed our limits, physical training that removes our spare tires, and risks that expand our sphere of comfortable action are all examples of eustress.”

“Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be converse with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with course and rough dress, saying to yourself the while, ‘is this the condition that I feared? ‘” – Seneca

I feel the quote above is extremely important in Ferris’s concept. Before we can pick up a changing lifestyle, we must recognize our own ability to let go of material things, and truly test ourselves to peruse if we feel attachments to these things. If we do, then changing one’s entire lifestyle and view on working will essentially become obsolete. Instead, ask yourself if you want to work your entire life in order to effect a car or house. If not, then how come the majority of people who work to a certain age only end up acquiring possessions instead of using their money to do things they truly enjoy?

“The fishing is best where the fewest go, and the collective insecurity of the world makes it easy for people to hit home runs while everyone else is aiming for base hits. There is impartial less competition for bigger goals.” Simply put, we strive to be mediocre because everyone else is doing the same thing, but we fail to peek that if no one is trying to “make it large,” then there’s a bigger chance for us that DO try, to succeed.

We also should not define our needs by what we want, but instead what are passions are. For example, if someone gets a thrill from mountain climbing or sight-seeing, they should develop it a personal goal to try and do this as much as possible, instead of just as a once-a-year vacation. The biggest anxiety in people’s minds should not be traveling to another country an ending up broke, injured or lost; the biggest fear should be accepting your current boring, meaningless job status as a justification for one day owning lots of money.

In addition, Ferris smartly points out that unprejudiced because a task takes a lot of time, does not mean the task is more meaningful than others. For example, ask yourself how many hours of the day do you spend watching TV, sorting through emails, organizing papers or simply doing anything “just incase” the time may come that you’ll need this task done. Do you really need to do all of these things? What would happen if you chose only to complete tasks when they needed to be done, instead of doing them in the present to make for an easier future?

Another idea that I’m personally guilty of partaking in, is consuming too much information. With the internet, it is literally virtually possible to take EVERYTHING we peruse and we often expend time looking through emails for things that we never do or never will use.

“The average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain.”- Colin Wilson

Ferris puts us at ease again by addressing many of our fears and telling us how to deal with them, such as not paying the bills, ruining your resume and losing health insurance.

He also uses personal examples to remind us that he isn’t just telling us how to change our lives, he himself has done it: “If your dream, the pot of gold at the end of the career rainbow, is to live large in Thailand, sail around the Caribbean or ride a motorcycle across China, guess what? All of them can be done for less than $3,000.” He then describes how taking mini vacations, such as one week, can be detrimental to your wallet an experience as a whole; spending 1-6 months someplace foreign allows you to truly experience a new place instead of during the touristy thing, which is typically more expensive. Also, staying in a place longer gives you more flexibility and you don’t have to worry about leaving because you already purchased a return flight home.

Ferris even gets into what he considers to be the “necessities” of travel:

1. “One week of clothing appropriate to the season.”

2. “Backup photocopies or scanned copies of all important documents: health insurance, passport/visa, credit cards, debit cards, etc.”

3. “Debit cards, credit cards, and $200 worth of small bills in a local currency.”

4. “Small cable bike lock for luggage.”

5. “Electronic dictionary.” These are much faster than regular dictionaries.

6. “One broad-strokes travel guide.”

“It is fatal to know too much at the outcome: boredom comes as lickety-split to the traveler who knows his route as to the novelist who is over distinct of his plot.” – Paul Theroux

Ferris also discusses which locations, from his experience, will give you the most bang for your buck. Such locations include Argentina, China, England, Thailand, Germany and Holland. In addition, he describes exactly what steps to take 3-1 months in from your trip, to ensure a smoother leaving process when you go.

“People say that what we are seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think this is what we’re really seeking. I think what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive.” – Joseph Campbell

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.” – Steve Jobs

The book is a priceless gem, in my plan, in saving time, as many of the websites provided in the book are non-mainstream and can assist greatly in lowering the overall costs of traveling that often sway people away.

Overall, The 4-Hour Work Week is a very useful tool in helping to convince you and allow you to live out your dreams, with little money and the right attitude to boot.

Start with Health Insurance Quotes
Don’t settle for the first health insurance provider you derive from a Google search; the best way to find a wide range of rates and services is by getting a quote from a health insurance database. NetQuote is a great place to start, as this one compares rates from leading health insurance providers including American Family Insurance, Kaiser, Humana One, and Assurant Health. Even if you don’t heed up with any of these companies, you’ll have a good conception of the rate ranges and services available in your area.

Review Rates from Self Employed Insurance Group
This is a sales and marketing agency for health insurance, that takes care of the approval stage of your application. The health insurance providers in this network are not major companies, and the company works with association health plans instead. It’s a private company that won’t sell your information to third parties, and can help you secure some solid health insurance packages in a very short period of time.

Get a Free Quote from eHealthInsurance.com
If you’re looking for a temporary policy or unbiased a standard individual health insurance policy, this is another valuable resource. eHealthInsurance.com specializes in short-term, student, and dental insurance if you need other services as well, and the application process is very straightforward. Health insurance coverage plans are available from Humana, United HealthCare, Aetna among others.

Learn the Ins and Outs of Health Insurance for Self Employed Individuals at HealthInsuranc.org
If you’re wondering how association-endorsed health insurance eplans work, or honest want to find out how to reduce health care costs, this is a valuable resource to pick the right strategy. You can also catch a free health insurance quote for a variety of plans on the site.

Finding affordable health insurance when you’re self employed can take some time, but reviewing and comparing at least 5-6 options is the best way to choose the right match. When you don’t want to spend too much for health insurance coverage, but still want a reliable and trustworthy health insurance provider, make spend of any of these resources to find the best fit.

Everyone, it seems, guarantees that they will save you money on your current insurance rates. Geico promises 15% or more, Progressive promises to compare quotes for you to find you the best rate; Allstate promises “you will save more”; State Farm promises the “best rates”; and the list continues on. Undoubtedly, all these companies, and many others, honestly are interested in saving you money, they want your business and in order to get your business they have to be competitive in their pricing.

Nevertheless, almost all these companies’ websites use fairly generic information forms when generating your car insurance quotes. These estimated quotes are often much higher than what they would be if you where to actually visit these agencies in person or narrate with an agent. These is because local insurance agents also want your business, often more so than a national company, and are aware of the prices online and are likely to be wiling to do whatever they can to beat any online price you may find. A good example of this is my experience with Allstate.

When I entered my information into Allstate’s online quote estimator the estimate was just over $1000 every six months or $180 a month. My wife and I have two cars, and have totaled one with in the last year, and have been in three other accidents (it has been a banner year). However, when I went into a local Allstate agent’s office he quoted me an insurance premium which was much less: $790 for six months or $132.38 a month. I was surprised at the difference. This may not always be the case, but often is. If you are truly looking for the best auto insurance rate available to you it would be worth your while to devote at least half of your looking efforts towards local agencies. Sometimes the best deals are with local car insurance agents who sell for a larger national company.

Drive Fewer Miles

It stands to reason that the less you drive the less likely you are to put yourself at risk. Those who drive more miles, on the other hand, will pay higher auto insurance rates. The average driver travels about 12,000 miles per year. So, if your insurance company recognizes drivers who are on the road less than the average, your rates might be lowered accordingly.

Low Risk Classification

At some point, everyone is classified as a high risk driver, especially after an accident. Drivers should strive to remain in or return to a uncouth risk category, while excluding from the policy anyone who displays chronic poor driving habits. Carrying low risk drivers on your insurance policy will help your rates, since they are less likely to get into an accident or file a clam. On the other hand, high risk drivers will cause your rates to rise, even if they never drive your vehicle so much as one mile! Excluding high risk drivers from your insurance will result in lower rates, but should they get leisurely the wheel, coverage will not be granted to them for any reason.

Retain the Same Insurance Company for all Insurance Policies

Most insurance carriers offer discounts or deals for customers who take out more than one insurance policy. Insurance companies know that it takes some time to generate a profit from any one individual, so it is in their best interest to retain your patronage. Adding health insurance, life insurance, general liability, homeowner’s or renter’s insurance, or any of the other types of coverage to an existing policy will lower your rates by as much as 20 percent overall. Sometimes the discount is so drastic that the savings are applied to each policy.

Squeaky clean

Keeping a clean driving history and trim credit report helps you to lower your insurance rates. Avoiding accidents or insurance claims, obeying the law, and paying your premiums on time will show the insurance carriers that you are a responsible driver. Keeping a good credit rating indicates obedient time and money management. Insurance companies like to see customers who live musty, responsible lives in all venues, and therefore, offer the cheapest rates to these prized individuals.

Carrier Loyalty

Remaining a loyal customer with the same insurance carrier over a significant amount of time will earn substantial loyalty discounts. In most cases, loyalty discounts kick in after three years of continual coverage. Depending on the length of time, you may be granted a discount of 5 to 10%. The longer you remain with the company, the deeper the discount, to the maximum discount allowed.

Autos with Cheap Repair Expenditures

Average model cars are often cheaper to repair, and therefore, cheaper to insure. High performance or luxury cars, on the other hand, come with more expensive insurance rates because they are either more expensive to repair or more likely to need repair. And while rates may vary between insurance companies, all will charge higher rates for more expensive, premium automobiles. If you must drive a high end car, do not resolve for the cheapest insurance rate from a limited known company. After all, a fine, legitimate company may charge a little extra, but you can trust them to execute good on their insurance policies. On the other hand, a cheap insurance carrier might provide you with a slip of paper proving that you are insured, but when push comes to shove, they are more likely to obtain loopholes in the resplendent print.

Sources:

www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/cars/autoinsu/autoinsu.htm
frugalliving.about.com/od/…/tp/Auto_Insurance.htm
www.edmunds.com/reviews/list/top10/116958/article.html
consumerist.com/…/how-to-reduce-your-insurance-premiums.html

My Aunt Sara was a fiesty, warm Sicilian woman, the head of a gargantuan family since the age of 22, when her mother died leaving behind one married daughter and two young children. Aunt Sara was a Chrysler person. So was her younger brother, my Uncle Pete. Their children branched out, as I steal my cousin Ronny (Sara’s boy) ambling up in a mammoth Buick Riviera (the 1974 model with the massive back window) when he would drop off my cousuin Wendy (his daughter) for a visit, and my cousin Steven (Pete’s younger son) spending endless hours in their garage as a teenager with his friends rebuilding Chevy Corvairs.

And this wasn’t limited to my acquire family. I used to lay after school at my friend Kathy Walker’s house (because she had more Barbies than God), and in their driveway was her mother’s Chevy Bel Air Wagon and her father’s Chevy Malibu coupe. At my friend Connie Ross’ house her mother had a succession of Dodge passenger vans over the years (though her dad drove a VW Bug to work at the high school), as did the mother of my friend Julie Christie. Before us, in the earlier 1960s and the 1950s it was much the same in our neighborhoods and across America. American cars were it. The cool boys drove Mustangs and Camaros (or Firebirds if they were really perilous) and before the pimps were driving them, Chevy Monte Carlos were already a staple of the American family. The nuns at my high school had a Plymouth Duster and Dodge Darts and the nuns at my grammar school had one Vista Cruiser after another.

Staying Loyal Long After Loyalty Made Sense

Well into the 1970s and 1980s if you drove by the houses of my aunts, uncles and cousins on my mother’s side, you could see their Chryslers and GMs in the driveways. Even on my dad’s side my wealthy but frugal grandfather made only one foray into foreign auto ownership, during a side trip to Germany on their way back from a two years end in Viet Nam, he bought a brand new Mercedes Sedan, and grumbled often about the high maintenance cost. My grandfather, ‘Papa’, was a Dodge man. He had the ‘stylish workhorse’, the 1964 Dodge D-100 pickup, purchased before they left for Viet Nam but garaged until their return. In the summer he achieve wooden planks along the wheel wells in the truck bed, covered by a standard camper shell, and that was where the grandchildren rode to and from my grandparents’ summer house and the private Cedar Flat beach at Lake Tahoe all summer long. I don’t remember when he finally got rid of that truck, but it was after I went away to college, so sometime in the 1980s. When I graduated he was driving a 1984 Chrysler New Yorker Sedan, the last car he ever owned, and one that was given to my younger sister since she had helped take care of him and my grandmother when he fell ill in 1985.

In 1989, as my husband and I drove from my childhood church toward my mother’s house after the baptism of my nephew, he commented about the three tiny ladies driving their huge cars slowly in front of us. “Look at them,” he complained light-heartedly, “so small they cannot see over the dashboard, and obviously too short to reach the gas pedal. 22 miles per hour in a 35!” I looked up from the card I was like a flash signing and putting into an envelope and laughed. As if participating in their own private parade were twp 1989 Chrysler Unique Yorkers, a gold and a bronze, and trailing gradual them was a 1988 Chevy Celebrity Eurosport in a flashy silver metallic – driven in order of age by my Aunt Sara (in the lead), Aunt Florence (Uncle Pete’s widow) and my mother. We ambled behind them in my husband’s 1987 Dodge Colt. At the time I drove a 1986 VW Golf Sedan. “Don’t they know they acquire small cars with good gas mileage now? ” He asked out loud once I pointed out it was my family holding us up and not some random blue hairs.

I realized how many of the Americna automakers were no longer making limited cars, or were making fewer and fewer models. The Chevy Chevettes and Vegas died out, as did the Ford Pintos and Fiestas. Chrysler held on with the Dodge Colt, but the Omnis and other ‘world cars’ fell by the wayside. Which is not to say any of these cars, other than the Colt, benefited from an overall reliability. By the mid 1980s you saw very few of them left on the road even as older Toyota Corollas and Datson B210s, and especially the puny Toyota and Datson pickups, kept on truckin’,

On the cusp, American automakers make the wrong turn

I asked my mother about her change in vehicle style and size later in the evening of that baptismal day parade. After my father’s initial foray into fuel-efficient vehicles in 1974 with a 1972 Toyota Corolla, in 1975 they permanently down-sizied their vehicles, buying first a Dodge Colt sedan, and then the following year a Dodge Omni (my mother had become a Chrysler person due to the reality Chrysler made more of the smaller, cheaper cars than Ford or GM). The Toyota Corolla was handed down to my oldest sister, who has owned Toyotas or Hondas ever since. But, sometime after my father’s death my mother began to fall victim to the ‘sales pitch’ when she went to purchase a new car. When she went to trade in her Omni, which had survived two rear extinguish accidents and had travelled the 200 mile round trudge from Tahoe and from college trips to see the kids approach San Francisco about fifty times a year, she intended to buy another dinky, fuel efficient car now that this one was fuly paid off. She had qualified for a ten thousand dollar loan, though with trade in she did not ask to pay nearly that much, hoping to collect something for about eight thousand out the door. But, those salesmen. She was convinced that despite the reality most of her children were now grown and on their own, she still needed a lot of space, for safety. A sedan is a safer vehicle model than a coupe (she always bought sedans, even in small cars), and a big sedan is safer than a small sedan, they told her. Granted, she had a checkered history of driving, with many a rear end collision, but her accidents were always at low speed. But, her downward spiral into large vehicles with poor gas mileage (that just the same were totalled out in her accidents – low speed or not) began in 1984 with the first Chevy Celebrity, a brown one that took her to and from the San Francisco area where my older sister lived with her husband and two children and where another sister and I were away at college.

Now, my mother had damaged her earlier cars. For a time my older sister and I ‘shared’ the 1975 Dodge Colt sedan at college (I rarely ever got to drive it, but was allowed to be a passenger on visits home and at the end of the year). Its front bumper had been replaced twice, and it survived a side impact accident when a state worker rushing to lunch rammed the driver’s door by trying to scoot in front of my from the bike lane from behind me as I was turning left onto the next street. The Colt’s engine rolled on until it was traded in, after 107,980 miles, in 1984, for my sister’s first car. The Celebrity lasted only four years, going under in early 1988 after a minor collision in which its front end folded up upon hitting an old pick up at 10 miles per hour. It was repaired but mother was advised to trade it in on a new car because they couldn’t guarantee its reliability. The 1988 Celebrity lasted until 1990, when my mother turned in front of oncoming traffic with a very pregnant me in the passenger seat, and we were broadsided by a large pick up hauling cement. Two Celebritys totalled in minor accidents were enough for my mother to give up on GM (where she’d paid three thousand dollars more than she owuld have for a new smaller car) and follow her older sister to Chrysler permanently.

Now, in the 1960s and 1970s my mother and her brother and sister probably needed larger cars. They had children or grandchildren they hauled around, and they liked the roominess. I have to admit, that 1974 Buick Riveria, owned by a man with one child (and another on the way that year), seemed like an awful lot of car to buy. I rode in the Riveria many times, to the East-West football game at Stanford, or for out of town shopping trips with my cousins Janet and Wendy, and it was cavernous inside. I distinctly remember the sensation of sliding across the leather backseat until the lax waistbelt finally held us in station, on any turn cousin Janet took at more than 10 miles per hour. I remember climbing up into the window area with Wendy and marvelling that we both fit. And the trunk – it was a teenager ‘drive in’ trip night in heaven. You could fit at least four people in there. That the gas tank had to be filled twice a week at a minimum, was just a sign of prosperity and places to go. And reliability? Who knew how many miles you could drive one of these behemoths because successful American families traded their cars in after two years, three or four at the most.

When I bought my first car, a used 1981 VW Rabbit sedan, I wanted agility and reliability, and low insurance cost. I was three months out of college and was not going to spend more than $3,500. I also had a low operating budget, so to take me to and from San Francisco every week I needed a car with ample MPGs, and clocking in at about 28 highway, the Rabbit was a keeper. It already had 74,000 miles on it, and my mother warned me most cars couldn’t get to 100,000 – but she’d been buying American for so long she was in that trance. I drove the Rabbit to visit my boyfriend and his family in San Diego when I couldn’t afford a plane ticket. That puppy hit 100 on the freeway and smooth got conclude to 30 MPGs. I rarely ever checked the oil, let alone changed it, but each week I travelled wherever I wanted to go, and five days a week it was a steady commuter for me. Then one day late in 1986 my lack of regular maintenance habits caught up with me. 120,416 miles into it’s life it sputtered to a stop across the street from the VW dealer in Walnut Creek, California. The mechanic’s verdict was I should have changed and refilled the oil once in a while. The cost to repair it was over a thousands dollars. I traded it in along with the entire $650 I had in my checking account at the time, on a brand new 1986 four door Golf. I had that car until after I got divorced, when I sold it for cash and then used half of the cash as a down payment on a new Toyota Extra Cab pick up. I was amazed at what my Golf was still worth when I sold it, $3,200. The Toyoyta pick up I kept until after child number 3 came along and I realized I couldn’t fit two kids in hte back for much longer. I sold it, running like a charm, for over $10,000 but $$2,500 under blue book (it has a bed liner and custom camper shell). Today I drive a Toyota Matrix. I view to drive it until it absolutely needs to be replaced. It gets terrific gas mileage, runs like a charm and has been a solid performer.

The SUVs in the carpool line at school

One day I was sitting it the carpool line at my children’ s school and I realized the little Toyota sedan I was driving was like a speed bump to all of the Chevy Suburbans, Ford Expeditions and Dodge Durangos infront of and behind me. I also noticed that the Cadillac Escalade was exactly the same as the Chevy Suburban and the GM Yukon, ditto the Lincoln Nvagiator and the Ford Exoedition. They were giant boxes making shade in the parking lot, replacing the smaller minivans these motehrs had been driving a few years earlier. While I didn’t think I needed to compete, I did notice some advantages of having an SUV. I go up the hill to Tahoe a lot with my kids, or we travel up to Oregon or elsewhere, and having a roomy car that can handle bad weather was a plus. I looked at makes and models, rented some for weekend trips and followed up on gas mileage and reliability. I bought a Jeep Tremendous Cherokee Laredo used, with 100,000 miles on it. It was a 6 cylinder, loaded with extras and got about 24 miles on the highway. For commuting I mostly drove the smaller car, but when we needed to spread out, take the dogs with us, drive narrow mountain roads, we took the Jeep. It spent considerably less time in the repair shop than many of my friends’ later vintage and larger SUVs.

My older daughter learned to drive on that Jeep (after taking the door off the convertible Cabrio I’d bought her by throwing it into reverse in the garge and then getting out of the car), but when she got hit about a year after she got her license, I dfidn’t like a sound it started to make. It had over 180,000 miles on it and I wanted her to have something more top-notch and a little cheaper on gas. Her dad bought her a primitive Mazda 626 sedan. Later we replaced the function of the Jeep with a Mazda Tribute that gets over 25 miles per gallon highway, a little smaller but more agile than the Grand Cherokee and better built than the newer models of Jeep (our earlier one had been a 1996). Now that I have a second child learning to drive I am thinking about trading in the SUV for a small sport wagon, maybe a newer Matrix or a Suzuki.

When I heard the government is putting severe limits on continued payments to GM and Chrysler, I was thinking about all those SUVs, all the giant trucks, and the reality that other than the Pontiac Vibe, which is essentially the same as the Toyota Matrix, for years American automakers have lacked a small wagon like car. Many of the big SUVs are only 5 passenger vehicles, and the ones with the third row seat are cramped. They could manage to seat seven in a minivan comfortably, but when given the bulked up body of a Suburban or Exploreer or Expedition, they couldn’t manage the extra seats well. My Toyota Matrix has almost the same headroom as my old Jeep Grand Cherokee, and it has just slightly less horizontal seating space, but it fits five comfortably. I guess I’m wondering why Toyota and Honda made slight station wagons consistently from the late 1970s on, but American car makers, with the exception of a few tris with the Ford Escort, did not. And why are there so many Toyota Corolla and Camry wagons still on the road, still worth thousands of dollars, and fair a few Escorts that you can get for a song? Why are the Ford Explorers and minivans plagued by transmission problems befoer they even hit 100,000 miles, but you can see a 30 year old Toyota Land Cruiser tooling around on its novel engine and transmission?

Instead of making better cars and making more fuel efficient cars, American automakers tried to take us on a trip to excess. They convinced us to buy big cars when big cars were not in our individual or collective long term best interest. They built cars whose values dip quickly and whose life expectancies are half that of a solid Honda or Toyota (or Hyundai or Kia today). There are Toyota and Honda plants in the US, and there are American nameplate plants in Mexico and other places in addition to the US.

Reaping what they Sowed
American automakers bet on the come. They bet they could convince us to continue to buy bigger because the time of plenty wasn’t going to run out. Even when gas prices soared, they were slow to answer with more fuel efficient models, and they built more hybrid SUVs, than smaller hybrids – meaning we’d continue to consumer a lot more gas with their vehicles. A hybrid gets better mileage in the city in stop and go traffic and the benefits even out on the highway, where it performs like any other car with its engine size. The signal the Detroit automakers choice to focus more on hybrid SUVs sent is that they don’t think we use SUVs for weekends, trips or heavy use, but as our casual commute cars. So, while people can find on a list to buy a SMART car for about $10,000, or a solid compact Hybrid for less than $30,000 to meet inner city and short suburban commute needs with minimal exhaust and minimal gas usage – Detroit rolled out $35,000+ SUVs whose city performance was far less than that of many non-hybrids and whose highway performance was only as good as other small SUVs.
And, even when SUVs were the craze, Kia and Hyundai were working on smaller, cheaper SUVs with better overall mileage, so Honda and Toyota met that challenge, bringing prices down to $15,000 or less for a base model – but could you accept a Ford Escape or a Chevy Equinox for that amount? No, try about twice as much. And Chrysler, making a real dent with its reto PT Cruiser ten years ago, moved to muscle cars and giant trucks instead of fuel efficient family cars and sporty, smaller SUVs.

American automakers also couldn’t enjoy their costs. Fragment of that can indeed be blamed on unions, but also on management for not forging real partnerships with workers. Sales have been declining for more than a decade for these automakers – so something should have been planned. Instead some really bad decisions were made. Remember Saturn? Remember their minute vehicles that weren’t blooming but were cheap and basically ample? Then GM sucked them support in and Saturns got outsized. Look at the size of the Saturn Vue SUV and the flashy sports models, and recall that impartial two years ago Saturn did away with the innovative SC-2 3- door coupe and the ION, its smallest sedan. Both were priced under $20,000, and Saturn now has the larger, less efficient Aura, selling for about $25,000.

My guess is GM and Chrysler have a lot of inventory gathering dust. All of those useless Hemis (no offense to anyone who owns one – but they are a specialty purchase, not a mainstream engine choice) and massive 300s.
And, at a time when automakers should have been looking forward (look how even Volkswagen totally redesigned the new Beetle to be a 21st century car by taking the best of the old idea and making it better), Chrysler decided to go retro. GM made its best selling line, the re-acquired Saturns, bigger and mroe expensive instead of smaller and cheaper. What will happen when Indian cars join the Korean and Japanese cars already available in America? BMW picked up the Mini, down-sized some of its models. Volkswagen put out more cars under $15,000 and with more than 30 MPG. Nissan has the Versa and the Cube. Toyota has the entire Scion line, plus the Yaris. Honda has the Fit. Where do GM, Ford and Chrysler have, especially GM and Chrysler who are tring to survive?

I have no doubt that Detroit is full of dynamic engineers and that all of the American auto companies have workers cpable of producing Colorful Cars and Yarises and Fits and Versas and exiguous SUVs and hybrid compacts and even better more forward thinking cars. But, the clock may have ticked out for them. They waited and waited and waited. They fought emission standards and fuel efficiency standards. It is 33 years since emission rules required catalytic converters and 35 years since the chock wave in the early 1970s oil mark and scarcity crisis. If Chrysler could build the Dodge Colt in 1975 and Ford could earn the well, I guess the Escort is its cheapest and most reliable long-running model, and Gm could make the Chevette way succor then – what have trhey been doing since? They probably have the truck market for the forseeable future – but Americans don’t just buy trucks. Americans, by our sheer volume, need smaller, more efficent cars. Hit with losses of home values and asset values, we need affordable cars that will rush a long time. What neither Detroit nor the American consumer needs are lots and lots of idle vehicles that are overpriced and quickly devalued and that don’t provide the quality we need. We don’t need to idle thousands of autoworkers, but literally hundreds of thousands of other American workers have already been idled by companies that operated poorly or made bad decisions.

This is not a time to just buy American to save some jobs – it is time to invent a quality American product – to acquire solid, affordable and ecologically sound vehicles. Our manufacturing base is a cornerstone of the strength of our economy. It is about producing something tangible with an actual value that can be sold here and abroad. The value of our currency and our other assets are favorably impacted by the production of necessary manufactured goods. Our automakers have lost sight of that. They have lost sight of ow important it is to make the highest quality, most forward looking product in a swiftly evoolving global economy. When the rest of the world zoomed ahead out of necessity, our automakers (at least some of the time) lounged around getting fat and lazy and now they are gasping for breath vainly crying out “Wait up!” to the rest of the pack. Work hard, stay fit, say – and the American public will back you up. That is the message we need to send to Detroit, and if they fail to hear it we cannot help them and we will suffer some of the collateral damage of their poor choices through the ripple effects on our economy. If GM and Chrysler go under, a huge portion of our manufacturing base also goes under, but if they do go under it will not be because of failings within the American people of failure of government to respond at this late date – it will be under the weight of their own neglect.

Actually, they both are. The request is: Which competing strategy fits a family’s financial goals and, unbiased as importantly, its investment aptitude?

The product at issue is whole life insurance. In addition to insuring the life of the child, a whole life policy builds cash value over time. Cash value is the amount the insurance company will surrender to the insured if the policy is cancelled. The accumulation of cash value is expressionless but steady.

Critics suggest that the money spent on whole life insurance would be better used investing in something else. They suggest using portion of the whole life premiums to pay for a term life insurance policy with the same amount of coverage. That way, the life is still insured. Because term life covers a set number of years and does not build cash value, the premiums are considerable lower than they are for whole life. According to this strategy, the money saved on premiums should be invested in the stock market, Treasury bills, bonds, or an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). Over time, the critics say, the return on any of these investments will exceed the return from a whole life policy.

Individual investing has its own drawbacks, however. First and foremost, the plan is difficult to start, both logistically and emotionally. It requires at least twice as much paperwork to get started-one set of papers to initiate the term life insurance and another to set up whatever the investment is. The alternate investment requires a great deal plan and research, as well. Which stocks? Which mutual fund? Which bonds?

The emotional factor cannot be ignored, either. The beauty of whole life insurance is that the investment feature diverts attention from the life insurance feature. Parents of a newborn do not want to think about their child dying. With whole life insurance, the focus is on life-building a financial future-not death. Putting term life insurance into the mix strips away the emotional cushion. Parents are forced to confront the possibility of losing their child. Many people refuse to do so, and they end up doing nothing.

This is the problem with individual investing in general; inertia is difficult to overcome. Everyone should be saving and investing all the time, but they don’t-unless it is so easy to do so that they cannot resist. This is another appeal of whole life insurance. It offers an easy contrivance for parents to invest some money in their child’s future.

Those who have the emotional detachment to take out term life insurance on an infant and the financial aptitude to select their own investments should avoid whole life insurance. But those who are turned off by the thought of insuring the life of their newborn and who lack the financial savvy to invest on their believe should deem it. Whole life insurance is better than no investment at all, which is what many people would have without it.

Most children’s health insurance programs are relatively affordable and they can achieve the family from a lot of stress and worry caused by the financial burden of medical expenditure should it ever be required.

There are a wide range of children’s health insurance programs to decide from with most insurance companies and you really need to determine what level of shroud best suits your needs and then carefully read all the terms of the children’s health insurance program to determine whether a particular program sufficient for you.

With increasing medical expenditure occurring all the time it is well worth considering investing some money in a children’s health insurance program as it is generally not until something happens that you realize how important such an investment is.

Get Kids Health Insurance Quotes at: USInsuranceOnline.com takes the trouble out of insurance researching by giving you FREE quotes from top companies in a couple of minutes.

Top companies with agents providing quotes

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Online Insurance Guides and Resources

Health Insurance Resources – Includes types of health insurance plans, information on health insurance carriers, state-by-state medical insurance guides, and information for high risk individuals and families.

Online Auto Insurance – Explains types of car insurance policies, the details of auto insurance, state-by-state consumer guides, information for high risk drivers, and more.

Online Home Insurance Guides – Find out about types of home insurance programs, top homeowners insurance agencies, state home insurance laws and regulations, and other topics related to home owner insurance programs.

Life Insurance Online – Find out about different types of life insurance programs, check life insurance company statistics, and get details about life insurance for high risk individuals.

Annuity Resources – Find detailed descriptions of different annuity kinds, find out about the components of annuities, and net all the information on how annuities work.

1. Modern Prague Ford Mercury is located on Highway 13 and Highway 19 East at 1185 280th Street West in Unusual Prague, Minnesota. You can call them toll free at 888-235-3166 or e-mail them at npford@bevcomm.net . Their website is www.newpragueford.com Along with new and traditional vehicles; they also offer complete auto and truck repair including diesels. Free loaner cars are available. They were the recipients of the year 2002 president’s reward from Ford, are BlueOval Certified and are also Ford Quality Care Masters. Via their website, you can search through their new inventory, arrange for credit and view their specials. Their services are maintenance, repair, and parts including but not limited to, Oil & filter changes, Inspections, Fluid replacements, Windshield wiper blades, Belts, Tune ups, Name-brand Tires, Batteries, Brake Service, Shocks, Struts, Suspension as well as Minor and Major Engine Service.

2. Mahowald’s is also located at Highway 13 and Highway 19 East, right across from New Prague Ford Mercury in New Prague, Minnesota. They can be reached by calling 952-758-4488 or by emailing them at generalmail@mahowalds.com .Mahowald’s sells and services all makes and models of Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Chevrolet and Dodge vehicles. Their website is http://www.mahowalds.com/ which offers a Novel Vehicle Virtual Showroom as well as the ability to browse their current inventory of new and used vehicles. Their services include a Rent-It-All Center, a Mini-storage facility, as well as offering Kawasaki and Ski and Sea-Doo Products in their Mahowald’s Sports building.

3. Palmer Welcome Auto is located at 603 4th Avenue SW in New Prague, Minnesota. They specialize in used cars and can be reached by calling 952-758-2479

4. Auto and Truck Buyers Service of New Prague is located at 205 Main Street West Suite A and can be reached by calling 952-758-3630. They also specialize in used car sales.

5. Parts Plus, located at 205 4th Avenue SW in Recent Prague, Minnesota also offers a complete line of parts and accessories for foreign and domestic vehicles. Rental cars are available Call 952-758-4471 for more information.

Whenever buying a new or used car from anyone, acquire obvious that you understand all of the terms and conditions you are agreeing to before you sign anything. Shop around for the best APR, annual percentage rate, you can get when it comes to an auto loan but do not forget to also compare the other costs associated with a loan, such as loan insurance and loan processing costs. Talk to one of the specialists at any of these dealerships to see if leasing a vehicle would be better in your case instead of purchasing one. It is also advisable to get any obsolete car checked out by an independent certified mechanic. Buying a car does not have to be hard, it can be an exciting, enjoyable experience; Especially if you have your hometown neighborhood dealers in Original Prague, Minnesota there to assist you.

Insurance Firms Located in IdahoIdaho is fortunate that it is served by a wide selection of automobile insurance providers ranging in from State Farm Insurance, to Farmers, GEICO, Progressive, Allstate, Titan Auto, and the Liberty Mutual Insurance Business All insurance corporations in Idaho are monitored by the Idaho Department of Insurance which is located in the state capital of Boise and all insurance complaints, questions and concerns must be directed by means of them.State Requirements for Insurance in IdahoLike most states, Idaho requires that all drivers, such as motorcycles, on the road ought to have, at the minimum, liability insurance This liability insurance need to at least contain $25,000.00 for injury or death of 1 individual, $50,000.00 for injury or death for two or additional folks, and $15,000.00 for property damage, though most insurance providers will suggest to its motorists that the amounts insured will need to be higher Proof of this automobile insurance should be kept in the auto at all times and if you are discovered to be driving with out it, you will be needed to supply proof for 1 year if you are a very first time offender If a driver is discovered to be driving with out insurance, their license can be suspended and a fine imposed by the judicial system.The state of Idaho does not need Uninsured / Underinsured Motorist coverage Though, since January of 2009, Idaho has needed that all insurance corporations to consist of an uninsured motorist bodily injury provision unless the clients expresses, in writing, that they do not want such coverage Average Insurance Rates for IdahoBased on figures, from the Insurance Data Institute, the average cost of automobile insurance for the Idaho driver was $564.00 for the year of 2007 This quantity makes it roughly $230.00 less costly than the national U.S average at $794.00 for that exact same year to make sure your automobile.This quantity is only an average of insurance rates and the actual quantity will depend upon the driver and their personal data, as well as the automobile itself When applying for auto insurance, the insurance organization may well ask, and decide your rates, upon your age, past driving record, your education and profession as well as your marital status Idaho also enables insurance firms to decide your rates, as well as products provided, based on your personal credit history.Elements that are very important, when an insurance corporation is determining rates, also contain the actual automobile that is being insured The year that auto was made as well as the make and model that it is, is also facts they will require The quantity you paid for your auto and the present condition that it is in now Your insurance organization will also want to know what safety features, such as a driver’s air bag, that may well be included in you automobile.Fairly speaking, Idaho is an inexpensive state to insure your automobile, but by keeping your driving record clean and your personal credit history in great shape you will go even further in lowering your insurance rates .

Quick Tip: The first company you should check with for motorcycle insurance is your car or home or life insurance company because they usually give discounts for unique customers.

Best Motorcycle Insurance Companies with free online quotes

To get online quotes, you really have 2 major choices: Geico and Progressive.

Geico is known for their outstanding customer service. If you accept into an accident, expect an agent to show up with a laptop the same day or at least the next day.

Progressive also is known for good customer service. When choosing between Geico or Progressive for motorcycle insurance, go with the better rate. You can put a question to both companies to take good care of you.

If you’re happy with the online motorcycle insurance rate, then go with the one you like. You’ll be done.

However, you can sometimes save money by calling a local insurance broker. They can find less well-known companies that offer lower rates (because they don’t advertise like Geico and Progressive). Simply check your phone book (or go to superpages.com), and look for “Insurance Broker” or “Brokers: Insurance”.

Understanding Motorcycle Insurance

Very often you will come across a set of three numbers like this: 20/50/25. Here’s what those motorcycle insurance numbers mean.

Bodily Injury/Property Damage/Personal Injury (in $1000′s)

1. Bodily Injury – If you afflict someone else. Your motorcycle insurance will cover their medical bills, lost wages, and wound and suffering for that amount.

2. Property Hurt – If you crash into someone’s property (car, bike, house, etc), this is how much your motorcycle insurance will pay to repair it.

3. Personal Injury Protection – This is for you. If you gather hurt, this is the part that gets you wait on on your feet.

Ironically, most insurance has higher coverage for property than people. Perhaps the bean counters don’t consider people that significant.

Simple Example

20/50/25
Them/Their Property/You

Your motorcycle insurace will cover their injuries up to $20,000. It covers their property up to $50,000. And, it covers your injuries up to $25,000.

How much can I expect to pay?

Here are the big factors affecting how much motorcycle insurance costs.

Your Age: Motorcyclists 25+ get better rates, under 25 get higher
Engine Size: A 600cc engine has higher motorcylce insurance than a 250cc engine
Bike Type: Sports bikes (like the Ninja) cost more
The Bike’s Cost: A stamp new bike will cost more than a used bike
Your driving record: If you have a history of accidents, your rate will be higher
Your experience: If you’re new to riding motorcycles, your insurance will be higher
Garage or Outside: If you hold it in a garage, your rate will be lower

So, that should set you up to know the basics of getting the best motorcycle insurance rate. Check out the websites below for more information on getting the best motorcycle insurance.

Resources:
Motorcycle Insurance minimums by State
Factors Affecting your Motorcycle Insurance Rates
Geico’s Motorcycle Insurance Website
Progressive’s Motorcycle Insurance Website