Do Not Wait Until The Creek Is Rising To Apply For Flood Insurance.
Do you need flood insurance? Or are those flood insurance ads on television just a ploy by the insurance companies to get you to buy yet another insurance policy? Floods are obviously quite common in low lying areas that are surrounded by water. In these areas, not having flood insurance is downright financially suicidal in the event of a serious storm.
But what about other areas that are not quite so low lying and are not quite so surrounded by water? Do homes in these areas have any real risk of being taken down by a flood? A simple flood that brings water into your home that only causes even an inch or two flooding in the house can cost literally thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. Two inches of water will impact everything from the floors and carpeting to the items that are touching the floor.
Of course, we expect people who live right next to large bodies of water to have flood insurance. They have a higher likelihood of experiencing a flood than others who live in typically drier regions. The typical flood scenario is always obvious to all of us. However, with new weather patterns there are more floods happening in more unlikely areas that are taking out the properties of higher lying areas that are removed from large bodies of water.
There is a lot of speculation that these new weather patterns that are causing unprecedented flooding in higher regions are caused by global warming. Since there are new and unusual weather patterns developing throughout the world, no one is immune to a flood any longer.
Floods can happen thanks to saturation of the ground just as easily as it can happen when ground water and rain water meet to cause excessive rain runoff which can lead to flooding. No matter where you live, you may very well find that you are suddenly noticing that there is an increase in water saturation after every rain.
Oversaturation is not the only thing that can cause sudden flooding. Large storms can also cause flooding. While we all know that hurricanes can cause floods, you might not know that Nor’easters and even large thunderstorm systems can also.
It takes very little time and money to get a good insurance policy that will protect you against the damage of even a small flood. While you might not have an ocean front view, flood waters can still manage to do a great deal of damage.
Is Gold Too High To Buy?
With stocks going up and down now, gold has outperformed the stock market in the last couple of years. Gold has been on a tear the last 6 months to reach all time highs and it makes you wonder whether it is now time to pull back some of your gold investments.
Gold is customarily considered a hedge against uncertainty and the world condition at present is most assuredly uncertain. Gold have never declined to zero and that is something that cannot be said for stocks, many of which have lost incredible valuations. For those owning gold, they must be thankful to have made an investment that has performed so well.
People with money to invest have to make choices that are increasingly tough in this very bad economic environment. It is difficult to find any investment that is truly safe and pays any sort of reasonable return. If you want to put your money in government guaranteed treasury bills or bank certificate of deposits, you are now getting next to nothing in interest. It is also debatable just how safe anything with the government is since it is technically bankrupt.
Gold has been seen as safe but at these high prices you have to be careful not to be investing your money at the top. Just like stocks, gold has experienced big drops over time and that could happen again here. Just because it has always recovered from any dips is no guarantee that it is totally safe.
Financial advisors will usually tell you to disseminate your money in gold, stocks, and other investments. This obviously helps to safeguard against losing all of your money, should something happen in one area in which you have invested. So don’t be afraid to add gold to your investments while keeping some of your money in other areas as well.
