Getting The Proper Level Of Home Insurance

If you are looking to insure your home, it can be hard to work out how much insurance you need. Obviously you don?t want to pay too much for your insurance, but not having enough cover can be a problem if anything should go wrong. So what is the right level of home insurance to have? Here are some factors you should consider before making your decision:

Go for 100%

Although how much insurance you need depends on your financial situation, you should try and insure your home for 100% of its value, including the contents. This means that if anything really bad happens to your home the cost of putting it back to exactly how it was will be covered. This is more expensive than just setting an amount that your home should be covered for, but gives you the peace of mind that everything will be replaced with no depreciation. However, before deciding the amount of cover you need you should ask yourself a number of questions:

How much will it cost to protect my property?

Work out how much it will cost to replace everything in your property right now, and how much this level of cover will cost. If you cannot afford this level of cover then remove things that are non-essential from the policy.

Inflation protection

If you are insuring your property it is important to have inflation protection. If you don?t then the amount you receive for damages could be less than you need. If your policy doesn?t automatically include this then review it once a year to make sure you are properly covered.

Home improvements

If you make home improvements then you should make sure that your policy is up to date and covers these new additions. If you don?t then any damage will mean you lose the money you spent on the improvements.

Specialist coverage

If you live in an area that has specific problems, such as flooding, then you need to make sure you are covered for these items. Although it may cost you more if these things are big risks where you live then they are perhaps the most important things to be covered for.

Renting your property

If you rent your property to others then you need to have additional insurance to cover yourself for liability and medical problems should anyone be injured in the property. You will also need additional cover for the property itself and your belongings.

If you live in an apartment

If you live in an apartment, then the building itself is covered by the landlord's insurance, although your property and liability are unlikely to be covered. You should have insurance on the items that you own in the rental property.

Keep an inventory

Whatever level of insurance you have, make sure that you keep an inventory of everything that you own and its value. If there are any problems then you can use this list to show exactly how much you are covered for. Although the amount of cover you get depends on your circumstances, you should always try and get as close to 100% cover as you can.

Read More

Elvira's Quest

Elvira's Paradise has come to a temporary standstill, construction wise, until we find an investor, we have had a number of enquiries resulting from our search, but none have actually come up with the money.

So to keep myself occupied I agreed to run in the Mrs. KFAANT, which stands for the Katherine Filipino Australian Association of the Northern Territory. It is a quest run every second year to raise funds for the KFAANT. I was approached by the President, Mrs. Rose Hewitt, Marichu Rawson and probably my best friend Mrs. Judy Payne and asked if I would enter the quest.

The winner of the quest is determined purely on the amount of funds raised by each contestant. This is the major fundraising venture by the Association, therefore a successful quest is most important to the Association, it needs the funds to pay for the rates, electricity, maintenance and if there is any money left in the bank, some capital works programs.

Some people have told me that I am crazy for entering the quest when I have so much on my plate. They tell me that I should concentrate on developing the Tourist Park, but if you can't contribute to your community and try to improve the lives of the people around you, why were we put on this earth?

The final counting of the funds raised is to be held on Wednesday 27/08/08 and the crowning of the Mrs. KFAANT is to be conducted at the Annual Bario Fiesta on Saturday 30/08/08. Some of the Stalwarts of the Association are providing the entertainment for the evening by way of a number of traditional Filipino dances, and each contestant is going to showcase their talent as well as joining in with the local Filipino dancers for one number.

The other 2 contestants will be performing dances from the provinces that they come from and I will be singing, I hope. My voice hasn't been up to scratch lately, due to a mild attack of the flu. Hopefully everyone will enjoy the evening of Filipino entertainment and food.

Meanwhile I am waiting for our first shipment of Cabins, Gazebos and Household and Garden furniture to arrive. It is scheduled to arrive in Australia by the end of September now, due to the cutback of ships coming to Darwin from Asia.

The hunt for one or more Investors continues as well. There is somebody out there in this big wonderful world of ours who can see the financial advantages of an investment in Elvira's Paradise, we just have to be patient and they will come. As it says in the Kevin Costner movie, "If you build it they will come".

Read More