Divorce is a fact of life.
If you should find yourself needing to divvy up assets and liabilities during a divorce settlement, you’ll have to consider insurance coverage for your kids.
Determining how to deal with your teen’s auto insurance can create problems because there’s no set formula. The decision should be something that’s negotiated between both parents. If Mom has sole custody, the teen driver should be on her policy. However, if Mom and Dad share custody, both should include the teen under their coverage.
The premium you pay for your teen’s auto insurance will depend on where you live. When setting rates, insurance companies look at the claims history in the locale where the car is garaged. Premiums vary from city to city, and even among ZIP codes in the same city. So, if you’re moving from a rural to an urban area or from a low-crime neighborhood in a city to one where there are more vehicle thefts and auto burglaries, your premiums will increase.
Homeowner insurance is linked to ownership of the property and who is listed on the mortgage. If the home is in both parents’ names, coverage would also be under both names. In this case, you should have a written agreement dividing responsibly for mortgage and insurance payments.
If you move from the family home into an apartment, you’ll need renters insurance to cover your belongings, as well as your children’s personal items and additional liability protection – even if you’re still named on the homeowners policy.
To receive expert advice from our agency’s personal lines specialists during this difficult period, free of charge, please feel free to give us a call.
Content provided by Transformer Marketing.
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Miguel Angel Fragoso-Hernandez sets goal of medical career in Watsonville
WATSONVILLE >> At Pajaro Valley High School, Miguel Angel Fragoso-Hernandez is known as Nino, or Kid, a nickname bestowed during his freshman year, when, a year younger than most students after skipping first grade, he was the smallest player on the junior varsity soccer team.
But Fragoso-Hernandez, now a 17-year-old graduating senior and class valedictorian, has another title in mind: doctor. He’ll take a step toward achieving his career goal when he enrolls at UC Berkeley in the fall to study biology or biochemistry.
At a graduation ceremony Thursday, he plans to remind his classmates how they reached this point in their lives.
“It’s not like you did it on your own. Your teachers helped you. Your parents helped you all through your life,” Fragoso-Hernandez said. “At the same time, (the graduates) sit here because they worked for it.”
Fragoso-Hernandez will speak from experience. His parents, Martin Fragoso and Julia Hernandez, emigrated from Santiago Tulantepec in Hidalgo, Mexico, to the U.S. in their teens. They were very poor, Fragoso-Hernandez said. His father scrounged from garbage cans to get enough to eat. His mother, living on a rural ranch, watched two siblings die in childhood.
Here, they worked in the fields at first, but later Miguel’s father became an auto mechanic and eventually bought the business from his boss. After volunteering at Freedom Elementary School, his mother was hired to supervise students at recess.
As the family’s income improved, they were able to move from a series of crowded garages into a three-bedroom apartment in a Holohan Road complex. Though he was only 7 at the time, Fragoso-Hernandez recalls his amazement at the space and the fact that the apartment had its own kitchen.
Growing up, he watched his father work two jobs at times, and his mother devote herself to work and raising three sons. But he didn’t understand what they were trying to accomplish until high school.
“I thought they came to find a better life for themselves,” Fragoso-Hernandez said. “I didn’t realize until my sophomore year that the ultimate goal was to have a better life for their children.”
Though neither Fragoso nor Hernandez went to school past the sixth grade, they knew education was the key to reaching that goal, and they instilled that value in their children.
Fragoso-Hernandez said math and science captured his interest at any early age. He paid attention as his older brother did his homework, and by the end of kindergarten he had mastered multiplication. He finishes high school with a 4.24 grade point average. In addition, he was a forward on the varsity soccer team for three years, and has worked as a math tutor in an after-school program for elementary students since he was 14.
His father’s struggles with poor health led him to decide on a medical career, either as a general practitioner or a surgeon.
“I grew up seeing him with all these problems, and I wanted to be able to do something but I couldn’t,” he said. “I want to be able to do something for someone in the same situation.”
When Fragoso-Hernandez was in middle school, the family moved to Gilroy, but he and his two brothers, Eric, a sophomore at Cal State Monterey Bay, and Marco, a seventh-grader at Lakeview Middle School, elected to commute each day so they could remain in Watsonville schools.
The three brothers were born in Watsonville, and Fragoso-Hernandez considers the city home. Once he earns his medical degree, he plans to return.
“Without Watsonville, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” he said. “I want to give back to this community.”
Content provided by http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/education/ci_25899165/valedictorian-credits-immigrant-parents-providing-opportunity
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Homes take a beating on the outside, from wind, rain, sun, insects and snow. Summer gives you a chance to repair damage, protect your home and keep its face to the world looking bright.
Home maintenance is like housework, flossing and exercise: You might as well work it into your routine, because the penalties are worse than the jobs themselves.
Here’s just one example: Cleaning the gutters costs nothing if you do it yourself, and roughly $100 to $200 if you hire a service. Ignore the job, though, and a ruined roof or damaged foundation could cost you thousands or tens of thousands of dollars to repair. Here’s why:
Leaky or overflowing gutters can rot fascia boards (the roof edge under the gutters), soffits and rafters.
Water may drip onto window trim, rotting it.
Leaky gutters let water pool at the foundation, causing basement leaks, mold and even foundation damage.
1. Paint
Fresh paint doesn’t just make your home look great. It’s a protective skin against UV light and moisture.
Earth911 tells where to get free paint:
Many household hazardous waste (HHW) facilities around the country have product exchange rooms, sometimes called swap rooms or swap shops. These rooms offer safe, unopened HHW items for public consumption, keeping them out of the landfill and letting you save some money.
Call your city to ask about your local HHW facility. Other sources for cheap paint:
- Habitat for Humanity’s ReStores (find one near you) sell “gently used” tools and supplies for home projects at low cost.
- See EcoBusinessLinks’ national directory of recycled and surplus building materials and suppliers.
- Search online for a city’s name and “salvaged building supplies” or “recycled building materials.”
2. Mulch
Laying a 1- to 3-inch layer of mulch on garden beds spares a lot of weeding. Mulch smothers weeds by depriving them of oxygen and light and it holds moisture in the soil, saving water and giving plants a consistent source of moisture.
Mulch includes many materials placed on the ground to prevent weeds from growing, including rocks, gravel and plastic. Leaves, grass clippings and tree bark are organic materials most often used on garden beds. Hay and straw also are used in vegetable gardens. Organic mulch breaks down into nutrients that feed plants.
Be careful in vegetable gardens to avoid mulch with pesticides, herbicides or other garden chemicals. Also, used incorrectly, mulch can damage or kill trees and ornamental plants by depriving them of oxygen, so leave a 3- to 5-inch space around stems of younger plants and give mature tree trunks eight to 12 inches. North Carolina State University’s Cooperative Extension Service explains how to safely use mulch.
Free or cheap sources of mulch:
- Grass clippings. Let them cool down before mulching.
- Raked leaves. Shred first with a shredder or lawn mower so air and moisture can reach the soil beneath.
- Shredded wood or bark. Electric utility companies and tree services may have cheap or free wood chips or shredded bark. Also, some cities collect leaves and branches, chipping them for use by local residents.
- Cardboard. Ask recycling centers and appliance stores for free cardboard. Wet it down, cut it to fit and place it around plants, covering with soil or bark mulch. This is best in wet climates where cardboard breaks down into the soil. WikiHow gives instructions on using cardboard and has more ideas for cheap mulch.
3. Seal wood decks
The cheap way to approach this job is to do it yourself. It’s not difficult, although it’s nice to have help. You’ll spend a couple hundred dollars on supplies and rented tools. Do it annually or every two to three years, depending where you live. Ignore the job long enough and you’ll need to replace the deck, at a cost of thousands of dollars.
Read the entire article here.
Read more at http://www.moneytalksnews.com/2014/06/02/12-cheap-and-easy-summer-home-projects/#4f2LmYs5xjDE2Rbw.99
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Summer is right around the corner, and with it comes a parade of graduations, barbecues, holidays and other gatherings with family and friends. Although summer parties are a source of excitement for most people, these get-togethers can also raise the risk of expensive liability claims. Whether you are throwing a birthday party or hosting a Father’s Day picnic at your home, you never know when an accident could occur. As more people enter your home, the risk of someone sustaining an injury on your property increases dramatically. For example, if you are operating a grill during a summer barbecue, your guests could be burnt accidentally. Likewise, if you own a pool, guests could injure themselves diving in, or they could slip and fall on the wet ground next to the pool. If someone sustains an injury on your property, they may file a lawsuit against you in order to recover medical expenses and/or lost wages related to the injury. If you don’t have enough homeowners insurance coverage to pay the damages awarded to the individual in court, you will be forced to come up with the money on your own, which can lead to serious financial problems. In some cases, a large liability settlement could even require you to file bankruptcy or sell your home and other valuable assets in order to pay the amount you owe. If you are planning to host any parties this summer, review your homeowners insurance policy before you send out the invitations to ensure that you have the proper amount of liability coverage. If you discover that your coverage is lacking, consider investing in additional coverage to protect yourself against loss. If you aren’t sure whether your policy provides sufficient coverage, consult our office for guidance.
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SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — After 17 years on the force, San Jose Police officer Huan Ngyuen had learned not to get emotionally involved in his work. But then one got through.
On May 6, a road rage slaying in his Little Saigon neighborhood, on the streets where he grew up and now patrols, took the life of a Vietnamese immigrant like himself. The victim was a 37-year-old bus driver who left behind a widow and two young children, one with severe autism.
“We try not to get emotional, but sometimes these things really affect me,” Nguyen said. “It kind of hit the soft core of my body.”
Ngyuen and his colleagues sent texts to friends and family asking if they could help the widow. Then, at his friends’ urging, he launched a website, hoping to raise a few thousand dollars. Word spread quickly: Now, less than three weeks since the murder, nearly $100,000 has poured in from the local Vietnamese community and far beyond, including Houston, Boston, New York, even London.
“I’m very thankful, and I’m very surprised,” said widow Dieu Huynh, a limited English speaker whose husband’s cremated remains were buried last weekend.
Sinking into her couch with her 4- and 7-year-old sons, she fought back tears, telling Ngyuen in Vietnamese how her youngest son, Steven, keeps asking her to call his father. Her older son, Henry, can’t talk, but hugs and kisses her. Unable to function independently, Henry dashes out the door into the street if left unattended, has seizures, and will need a lifetime of constant care.
“When I met this family, I could see they were going to need help,” said Ngyuen, himself a father of two. “It really, really got to me.”
National Center for Victims of Crime Executive Director Mai Fernandez said online, crowd-sourced fundraisers are increasingly common for crime victims, but usually it’s friends or family who launch them.
“I’ve never heard of a police officer stepping in like this. This sounds like a really special person,” she said. “When there’s a tragedy out there, there are a lot of heroes who step up. It’s amazing to see the outpouring of generosity of the public. Humankind really does care about each other.”
Ngyuen, who sought approval before reaching out publicly and has the full support of San Jose Police Chief Larry Esquivel, said he’s shy about being in the spotlight.
“But this isn’t about me at all,” he said. “My job is to help others. No amount of money can replace their dad, but this can help those boys as they grow up.”
Ngyuen also is keeping an eye out on his patrols for the suspect who shot Huynh’s husband, Phuoc Lam. That morning, with a rare few hours free, Lam and Huynh were doing errands for her upcoming birthday party.
Suddenly Lam slammed on his brakes to avoid hitting two men in a Volkswagen Jetta who pulled out of a mobile home park driveway in front of him, police said. Lam climbed out of the driver’s side to survey the scene. Words were exchanged, and as Huynh was stepping out to see what was going on, her husband was shot. Police said she told them she saw Lam fall.
Huynh doesn’t speak of it in front of her children. But at that moment her life crumbled.
Read the entire story here.
Content provided by http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/26/san-jose-police-officer-raises-money_n_5393027.html?utm_hp_ref=good-news
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Divorce is a fact of life.
