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Wow, is there a lot of information on this infographic. Not only is there a lot, but it is printed very, very tiny. There is too much to go through in one post, and you’ll have to enlarge the image to see the detail, but it is worth it to see all the things that can impact your car insurance premium.
Some Highlights
Wheel/tire in the center branches out into sections like insurance history, coverage levels, gender, age, martial status, location, driving record, make or model of a car, vehicle use and credit history. I’ll give you one tidbit from each “spoke” to provoke you to read all of them.
Insurance History
Insurers want to know if your previous policy was cancelled for non-payment? Why? You have to follow that thread on the graph.
Coverage Levels
Coverage limits and deductibles will affect your monthly rates – inspect the infographic to find out how.
Gender
Men have more accidents than women. But does that mean their insurance premiums are higher?
Age
Some age groups are at higher risk and have to pay higher insurance premiums.
Marital Status
Married people have lower rates.
Location
Where you live, drive and park your car matters.
Driving Record
Drivers with previous violations prove to be higher risks which means their rates will be higher as well.
Make or Model of Your Car
Insurers consider the risk of theft, cost of the car and repairs, and overall safety record when determining rates.
Vehicle Use
The more you drive, the higher your risk, and the higher your rate.
Credit History
Your credit score helps determine your insurance score.
Big Items
Cell phone use while driving is popped out and you’re given a lot of information on that. Same with speeding.
The Golden Rules
Comparison shop, pay your bills on time, keep your house in shape and drive responsibly. All these things will help you save money on your car insurance.
Scorecard
Design: C
TOO MUCH TINY TYPE! The idea is good, but they could have gotten the idea across in a way that would be easier to read.
Information: A
This is all the information you need to know not only what affects your car insurance premium, but you can find out intuitively the steps you need to take to fix your insurance score by learning these facts.
Source: Car Insurance Infographic provided by Cheaper Car Insurance
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If you have college bills then you are probably reminded of the costs or your text books every month. This infographics details some facts about buying and selling your textbooks online.
The price of textbooks has increased 186% since 1986 which is much faster than other consumer products. While that is a scary stat, the more shocking fact is students pay an average of $900 per year for textbooks.
The good news is most textbooks can be resold and that means most textbooks can be purchased online at used prices and then returned for a refund cost. Win, win for the student and the textbook reseller. Look into it and reduce your college costs.
Via: Sell Back Your Book
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Any time is a good time to start saving. Obviously, the sooner you start, the more money you will have when you really need it. This infographic reminds us that there are a lot of things to save for – retirement, emergencies, personal goals, and more. So what are the savings trends among people of prime savings age (25-34), and why aren’t more people saving money?
Saving Money…In Theory
A small graph in the upper left corner shows the most likely New Years Resolutions among 25-34 year-olds, and the number one choice is to save more money. That’s followed by losing weight, spending more time with friends, and volunteer work. In reality, only 4% of this demographic saved 20% or more, 24% saved about 6-9% of their income, 32% saved 1-5%, and 40% saved nothing.
Desirability vs. Affordability
This section reviews some of the things that people spend money on, and how money can be saved. For instance, you may need to have a smartphone with a data plan, but you could save a lot of money if you only buy what you need. For instance, everyone wants the latest and greatest, but that costs the most. A basic phone with limited features costs the least for a data plan, but might not offer the functionality you need. If you go with a middle of the road free phone with a 2-year contract, you could save while still getting what you need technology-wise.
Similarly, people spend a lot of money on their home entertainment. A cable package with the works, including a DVR, can cost $200 per month, while streaming web service only costs less than $10 per month. Basic cable costs about $30 per month, so you could have that and the streaming web service and still be paying a lot less.
As for eating, everyone likes a nice meal out every now and then, but it is so much cheaper to cook at home.
Generally, if you use common sense and a little self control, you can save money without sacrificing too much of your comfort.
If You DO Start Saving
This graph is the best part of the whole infographic. It shows you, based on how much you save per week, how much you could have in 5, 10, and 30 years. It’s inspirational and makes you want to start saving, even (ahem) if you’re older than the demographic targeted in this infographic.
Scorecard
Design: B
The design is clean, but there are a lot of tiny words that make the eyes swim a little. Other than that, the colors and fonts are good and the background is quite nice.
Information: A
Good information for everybody, and puts data in an easy-to-understand way that packs a punch.
Source: FeedthePig.org
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Most people have been in a shaky financial boat for some time now. It’s hard to get a loan to buy a house, a car, or even to get a credit card. What if your refrigerator, stove, or other essential appliance craps out on you and you need a new one? You don’t have the available cash, your credit cards are maxed out, you can’t get approved for a new credit card, and the Appliance Fairy isn’t knocking at your door. Do you spend a dollar on a lottery ticket and hope for the best, or do you do what many people are being coerced into doing and rent to own your new appliance?
That’s wha t this infographic is about. And though it’s from the UK and the money numbers are in £ instead of $, you get the idea that for the price you end up paying for that appliance, you could have bought two or three of the same.
Inflated Prices
A high price for a washing machine (in the UK) is £470. If you pay to rent to own, you end up paying £1250.
APR
The APR on a rent to own appliance can be as much as 49.9%. That’s compared to 4-6% for a school loan, 10% on a property loan, etc.
Saving vs. Rent to Own
If you save the equivalent of £5 per week for 50 weeks, you can buy a new washing machine, TV, refrigerator, or “cooker.” If you go the rent to own route it could take you as many as 150 weeks to pay it off. Think smart and cut back on the lattes. You can buy your new appliance outright in no time.
Scorecard
Design: B
It’s OK, but not stunning. The colors are sort of annoying, but the graphics and text are clean.
Information: A
Pretty cut and dry, really, but gets the point across.
Source: Appliances Online
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Walking through the stores during Christmas can be a dangerous time for your purse or wallet as thoughts of “What about me?” enter your thoughts when its time to buy gifts.
This Christmas spending infographic as uncovered some interesting Christmas buying statistics on this year’s expected trends on spending for holiday gifts.
Let these 5 tips on how to shop for Christmas help get you through the holiday season with your sanity and bank account in tact. Merry Christmas!
5 Saving Money Tips when shopping for Christmas
1. Think of Consequences
Before you commit to spending a fortune on dinner and drinks in December, consider your budget in January.
2. Don’t swipe on Credit
Not only will you end up spending more when you add interest rates on to the bill, but you are like to spend more than you can afford.
3. Use the Internet as your Catalog.
Check out where you can get the best deals before you head out. Be wary of high shipping fees.
4. Secret Santa
Secret Santa’s work best if you all agree on a spending limit that is affordable for everyone.
5. Stress Less
Christmas is a chance to spend time with friends and family, don’t let buying presents overwhelm you.
Scorecard
Design: A
Fun board game motif with nostalgic color theme and matching graphics. Nicely done.
Information: A
Helpful and practical advice mixed in with some eye-opening statistics about buying at Christmas.
Via: cashdoctors.com.au
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Ah Financial Aid. At first, it seems like a gift from above. Then, you realize you have to pay it all back. This handy infographic gives you plenty of advice on navigating the scary waters of paying for a college education.
Types of Financial Aid
The infographic shows us 9 different types of financial aid. Savings, jobs, work study, grants, federal scholarships, institutional scholarships, federal loans, and private loans. Those last two – those are the ones you have to pay back.
Timing – Childhood Through High School
Basically, as a parent, you should start saving for college as soon as your child is born. It can cost as much as $100K per child for a college education, so the sooner you start saving, the less money you have to borrow. These people advise that by the time the child is a freshman in high school, he or she should start working, and by their sophomore year he or she should start working with their guidance counselor to discuss scholarships and things like that. Also, by June of sophomore year, the student should start researching schools.
By Junior year, the child should start applying for scholarships, and the parents should start helping the child prepare for those applications by helping get portfolios and letters of recommendation. By the summer before Senior year, parents should start researching and applying for general scholarships.
In the Senior year, parents should request a FAFSA PIN and fill out the FAFSA worksheet, if they will be needing federal aid. The student should apply for any institutional grants when they apply for specific colleges, and the government will determine Pell grant eligibility once the FAFSA form is filed.
After High School
You have to renew FAFSA every year, and if the child has a scholarship he or she will have to maintain a certain GPA to keep it. The whole time the child is in college, parent and child should be saving and planning for repayment of loans, as they can be due as early as three months after graduation.
Is it Worth It?
A graph show you the amount of effort needed and the chance of success in getting loans based on how much aid you need. Generally it’s better to get a federal loan than a private one, and hopefully there is enough scholarship money out there to make it so you don’t have to borrow too much.
Scorecard
Design: B
It’s a little hard to read, the last graph is a little hard to understand, and the colors are jarring.
Information: A
It’s tough to figure out the right thing to do when it comes to finding money for college, and this is very helpful.
Source: Private Student Loans
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This infographic addresses something that impacts all of us in the U.S. – the debt crisis. The infographic was very informative – with some staggering numbers that makes one wish to either bury one’s head in the sand, or to start some sort of massive, worldwide bake sale. Let’s get on with the data.
Debt
The United States currently owes $14.5 trillion and it’s rising daily. I guess some people see the word “trillion” and it might as well be “bazillion” or “katrillion” Unless one is a Douglas Adams fan, and in that case “Trillion” reminds them of something else, only maybe spelled differently. Either way, it is a very large number that sort of boggles the mind so the graphic breaks it down by if you borrowed a dollar per second how long it would take you to borrow $1 trillion. Then, just multiply that by 14.5 and you get a rough idea of how much money this country owes. It’s as much as all the other governments in the world put together.
Whom Do We Owe?
In a word, everybody. Check out the picture for a breakdown.
Can We Fix it?
The infographic talks about how much each employee in the country would need to make in order to pay off the national debt. It doesn’t look like it’s happening any time soon. The average household makes about $46,000, while each employee would need to make $90,000. And what does that mean, anyway? I guess taxes.
One confusing thing is that, at the bottom, there is this picture of Africa and we’re told that $14.5 billion dollars would feed East Africa for 4,000 years. Since the national debt is $14.5 trillion, did they mean trillion, or billion? We get the idea either way, but I think a little clarification would have been good there. Maybe it’s just me being nitpicky.
Design: B-
It’s ugly, but so is the debt crisis. I don’t like the colors used, or the layout of the thing.
Information: A
F, actually, to the information itself, but an A to the folks who compiled the data.
Source: Prozac Birth Defects
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It’s a treasure map! It’s a choose-your-own adventure! It’s a savings plan! It’s a great idea, but let’s see how it’s executed…
Start the Game
The infographic states that “Stock markets have walked the plank. Find the best place to stash your loot…” This is going to be hard to explain, methinks. Maybe I should do the rest of the review in pirate talk? Arrrr! Or. not.
Play the Game
The first question you’re asked is if you want easy access to your savings. If you pick “no” you are taken to another question that asks if you’re prepared to “lock your money away” for five years. If you say “no” to that, you are asked if flexibility is more important than a huge interest rate. If you say “yes,” you are taken to Citibank, where you can get 6.30% on 6-month term deposits. If you say “no” you’re taken to Victoria Teacher’s Credit Union, where you can boost your interest rate with a 3-year term deposit and 6.75%. Basically, most of the questions lead to one of these choices.
More Factors
If you had answered “yes” to the first question, you would be asked if you have a mortgage with 100% offset account capability. If you do, the game ends there as they advise you to put your extra money in the offset account. If you say “no” to the mortgage question (and honestly, these days, who wouldn’t?) you are asked if you can make regular monthly deposits of over $200. If you say yes, the game is over again, because UBank USaver pays 6.51% when you deposit $200 or more every month. If you aren’t able to deposit $200 or more each month (and how many people in this economy can spare that extra scratch) it asks you if you’re 18-29 years old with less than $5K in savings. It occurs to me that this is an Austrailian infographic, so none of these things actually apply to us, but it’s still helpful to know because how different could it be in the US? Never mind. It can be way different. Shoot. I digressed) and you are between 18-29, you can put your money in a UBank USaver Reach, but if you’re not you are asked if you’re willing to move your money around every few months. And the game goes on. It’s a clever idea, and I’m sure the information is wildly valuable to people in Australia. I wish they’d make one of these for each country. Actually, looking at the company’s website, I’m pretty sure they have information for everybody. Just check them out.
Design: B-
The idea is good, but the execution isn’t the prettiest, and I think they could have made it a lot more attractive.
Information: A
The information given is very good and, like I said, very valuable to those it applies to.
Source:
For the full treasure map, compare term deposits or savings accounts now.
