Asha Anujeeva

Lately I’ve noticed when I go places, that there do not seem to be any clocks within easy eyesight.  When I go to the doctor, dentist, or even shopping, there are no clocks to be found!  I find that quite annoying!  I don’t always remember to wear a watch, and it is a pain in the neck to have to pull out my cell phone to check the time every time I need to know what time it is!  I’m sure that they have been advised by some expert that it is better for their business if their customers have no idea what time it is, but that really aggravates me just the same!

At least more and more businesses are signing up for DIRECT TV for Business.  Being able to watch Commercial DIRECT TV while I’m stuck waiting somewhere helps to keep me from being aggravated about extended wait times.  The biggest issue that I have, though, with DIRECT TV Business is that frequently the television show that is being broadcast at the time is some sports channel.  I’d rather watch the news than a sports game!

There are so many new challenges about life in this new age of the information super-highway.  Anyone who is thinking about how they are going to make a living is going to have to consider whether they are better off working for themselves, or for someone else.  There are pros and cons to each.  Running your own business did not used to be as complicated as it is now.  You would buy some equipment, hire some guys, put an ad in a trade magazine or local newspaper and hang up your shingle.

Now in addition to that you have to consider whether to, or how to, use the Internet for its best advantage.  Are you better off  just using it for simple things like banking and emails, or are you better off buying a domain, buying business hosting, and putting up a big interactive website?  And if you DO decide to put up your own website, how much marketing do you want to put into it so that people can find your site?  Do you simply want to add to your printed media that you have a website, or do you want to pay some SEO companies to help you to be easily found through the major search engines?  There are a lot more decisions to be made out there in this information era!

My cousin has recently moved to Somers CT and is looking for ways to lower his living expenses there.  I’ve always been under the impression that Connecticut is not a cheap place to live!  I think that they have a fairly high tax ratio, and if I recall correctly I’ve heard that they have the highest sales tax in the country!  So I can understand his concern for lowering his expenses in other areas! 

So I’ve been going through various search engines, using search keywords like Homeowners Insurance Somers, CT, or Life Insurance Somers, CT and Life Insurance Tolland, CT to see who the insurance agents are in the area he has moved into.  I think with a little bit of research he should be able to find a good agent to help him get the insurance he needs without breaking his budget!

I think that the new Real Estate Tax Benefit should certainly light a fire underneath my friend Todd. Todd has been putting off buying a new house for the past several years; he has been thinking that the values of real estate are still going to fall for a while now.  I can understand his concern; the real estate market has become a pretty scary place lately!  But I think that if someone is absolutely certain that they are going to stay put in one location for several years, then buying a house is a good idea.  Especially with the tax benefits involved!  Many people need the tax benefit of owning a home; the interest on the mortgage payments is tax deductible.  (As far as I’m concerned ALL interest should be tax deductible, even credit card interest, but that is not the case.)

Because this new tax credit has been extended, more people can take advantage of it and buy a new house this spring and still get the tax credit. From what I understand the income limits have been increased as well, so more home buyers can take advantage of it. And this tax credit is not only for first-time home buyers! It can benefit other home buyers who are moving up from homes that they’ve lived in for at least the last five years. This benefit can truly help a lot of people, and not just a select few.

Not too long ago my uncle retired from the insurance company that he worked for.  He worked there for forty years!  I cannot even imagine working for any one company for that long a period of time!  It seems that in this era the businesses don’t want to keep employees that long – they don’t want to pay benefits of any kind! 

We had always bought our insurance through him out of a sense of family loyalty, but now that he is no longer in the business my folks have decided to start  looking around for cheap auto insurance quotes on the Internet.   With the economy still in such rough shape it seems like a good idea to see if we can save some money and still have good coverage on our insurance policies!

It wasn’t many years ago that my parents bought a new car and were completely shocked about how much their insurance rates went up when they went to insure it!  I think that the cost of insuring a new car is not something many people take into consideration when they decide to start shopping for a new car!  I know that would be the last thing on my mind if I was looking at a new car!

Anyway, I found a website called cheap-autoinsurance.com and decided to check out what they had to say.  We had to enter our zip code into their little search engine and then they displayed several different low-cost partners to click on to get quotes.  I decided to click on the Progressive link because I know that they have a reputation for comparing lots of different companies at the same time.  I wanted to give it a go and see if Progressive would really tell me if there was a cheaper company than Progressive!  So I typed in my information and sure enough, up popped a grid of different quotes, and one of the insurance companies really WAS cheaper!  I was quite surprised at that result!