Have you seen the cost of childcare lately? Add that along with housekeeping, food preparation, home accountant, and school transportation. From that list alone one can see how much a spouse really contributes to the household budget. It is estimated a non-working spouse contributes at least, but usually more, the equivalent of a full time job. For this reason it is important to buy life insurance for everyone in the household if the absence of their income would cause a financial hardship. For more tips check out The Top Ten Insurance Myths You Need to Know!

Metlife has recently launched a great life insurance tool. It is called the Life Insurance Selector. It is very handy and will "help you figure out how much life insurance is right for you" by asking "about your attitudes and preferences to see what kind of life insurance fits you best."

And, once you get your plan... it's not over! Learn how to maintain your life insurance plan at 5 Steps for Maintaining Your Life Insurance Policy After Your Purchase

Long term care insurance is designed to provide you help with assisted living care and home care due to a long term illness or long term disability.

A lot of people feel if they are "well off" financially presently, that there is no need to set money back for a long term illness or disability. Here is the catch: Some Medicaid may be available to help pay for a long term illness or disability if you qualify. But if you have a large amount of income or assets you may not qualify for Medicaid assistance. On the other hand, if you are not financially prepared for a long term illness or disability it can be even more devastating.

It is easy to see why people of all incomes can benefit from long term care insurance. Learn more about LTC insurance at Considering Long Term Care Insurance

Advancing your career can often mean regular job changes. Now, more than anytime in the past, people have more job changes and are regularly doing online career searches. With new job changes comes benefit changes. Sometimes, you may choose to advance your career and get a new job just for a bigger paycheck but you may want to slow down that career search because that new job may not pay off like you expected.

I guess greed just is too strong of a force for the weak. According to www.eagletribune.com, a "34-year-old Methuen resident was named by state Attorney General Martha Coakley's office as one of seven people indicted by an Essex County Grand Jury as part of a conspiracy to stage phony accidents to defraud insurance companies."

The list of people include a former national "Youth of the Year," an attorney and two chiropractors. Apparently, among other charges, they were getting "paid by area lawyers and chiropractors to recruit victims of phony crashes."

This is a good lesson for us all to not judge a book by its cover. Too often we trust people just because they have a professional title or are an eloquent speaker. Car insurance fraud can happen to any of us so don't forget to take a look at this Insurance Scam Fraud Protection article for help in spotting common car insurance fraud schemes.

Worker's compensation insurance is insurance that your employer is required to have. It provides benefits such as medical payments and living expenses if you are injured on the job. So what do you think happens to an employee if their boss does not carry worker's compensation insurance? According to www.nj.com, stories about workers fighting for benefits is common. Here is a story about a cab driver that worked for a company that did not provide benefits:

"In July 1994, Adel Hanna began driving a cab for Terminal Taxi in Jersey City. To get the job, he had signed a two-page lease in which he promised to drive 12 hours a day and pay the company $450 a week. The form also stated that Hanna was not an employee and was responsible for any injuries to himself or passengers.

Late the next year, Hanna got into an accident in the cab, rupturing discs in his back. After the crash, he could drive only four or five hours each day. In 1997, he filed a claim for disability payments and help with his medical bills. The cab company denied it owed him anything and won 19 trial adjournments in five years.

After a workers' compensation judge finally ruled in Hanna's favor in December 2002 -- awarding him $27,000 in disability payments and $3,000 for medical bills -- Terminal Taxi appealed the decision.

Fifteen months later, a New Jersey appeals court affirmed the judge's ruling and criticized the system for the "inexcusable" delays.

"We also cannot understand how the division allowed this disability claim to be postponed repeatedly," the appellate panel wrote."

What? Life insurance that can pay for college. It may be a choice for some with endowment life insurance.

Some families turn to endowment life insurance policies when adding security to their college savings portfolios. An endowment life insurance policy works two ways: It will work similar to a traditional life insurance policy where it will pay the face value to your beneficiary in the event of your death and it will also pay the face value of the policy if you outlive a set contract period. Check out the link above to learn more about endowment life insurance.

It is so close... summer is right around the corner and that means multiple trips to the local water park. But, there may be one thing you have not thought about. Does your water park carry appropriate liability insurance?

Liability insurance covers the water park's legal responsibility if someone gets injured... insurance that helps them pay you if needed. Unfortunately, not all water parks are properly protected. According to the www.insurancejournal.com, "The drowning of a Joplin, Missouri boy has led to House passage of legislation requiring for-profit swimming pools to have liability insurance. The legislation is named for 6-year-old Ethan Cory, who died in July on a field trip to business called the Swimmin' Hole." It is too bad that it took the death of this boy to pass the legislation.

The best I can come up with is making money. And they are both helping each other out. Have you seen the latest Geico commercial? Geico has come up with a great twist on advertising. According to adblog.msnbc.com, "If you’re a has-been celebrity looking for work - and what has-been celebrity isn’t looking for work, by definition - the good news is that there are other job prospects out there besides lame reality television shows. There’s also Geico. The insurance company has for some time now been employing the likes of Little Richard, Joan Rivers and even Charo to “interpret” real people’s stories of how well Geico dealt with their insurance claims."

Now we are all wondering who is next! Have you ever been this interested in an insurance commercial? While you are waiting to see who will be in the next Geico commercial, take some time to learn about how to save on your own car insurance. Just because Geico has such great commercials does not mean they are the best deal around. Check out this article to learn about How to Get the Best Car Insurance Quote Online.

Let's follow up on the last blog. With it being spring, that means most of us may live in an area susceptible to weather disasters. So, do you know what to do if you need to file a homeowners insurance claim? Here is a video that will give you a quick overview of what you need to know now, before your area is involved in a weather disaster. The video link is at the top of the page right under my guide picture.