Polk Saver

The economy’s faltering and your business is feeling the pinch of the recession. Who doesn’t? Even big corporations are getting bail-outs left and right!

Customers are becoming selective in their purchases. Yet they still continue to buy from trusted and well-known businesses. They look for “value” in their purchases. They are going to buy from someone. They’re likely to buy from businesses that they know and like. That’s why advertising, especially in a down economy, makes your business stronger not just for the short haul, but also long-term.

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If costs are rising, and your business is grappling from the effects of the current recession, there may be a way to alleviate your situation. If the very existence of your income-source is being threatened by escalating business expenses and sales are slowing down, you may benefit from this smart business tip.

Cut your costs by moving your business or office into your home. Be a home-based business, ride out these challenging times, and come out of the recession stronger than ever.

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Car insurance is a funny thing. Most people can’t stand paying for it. Only when they need it are they really happy that they did. While everyone complains about the amount they pay in premiums, the truth is you can do a lot to lower those amounts. In this article, we take a look at the issue of how filing claims against the insurance policies will affect your car insurance rates.

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Fact: Healthcare costs including drugs continue to rise every year. This has tremendously affected most Americans. Add to the fact that we are on a recession, and the impact of these rising costs on families everywhere are very unfortunate.

Below are some smart strategies that you can use and implement to save on drugs.

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For many people, even those with good spending habits, creating and sticking to a budget may seem like a significant challenge. Learning to budget wisely, however, isn’t just a tool for getting by from month to month. Good budgeting is the first step towards financial stability, both now and in the future.

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During tough times, as we are experiencing right now, finding new customers to your business is equally tough—in some cases even impossible. But this doesn’t mean that you cannot prosper and be profitable. And this can be done only by retaining your current customers, and possibly asking them for more sales or increasing the frequency of their purchase. Remember, it costs twice as much to gain a new customer as it does to hold on to an existing one.

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The most vital part of your financial well-being is your credit score, commonly called your FICO score because most scores are determined on the Fair Isaacs Corporation Credit scale. When we typically think of the importance of our credit scores, we think of how this little three digit number is used by creditors to judge our creditworthiness to obtain loans, mortgages, credit cards, and other financial products.

But a credit score carries much more weight than just the types of loans we can get and the terms of those loans, but also affects our ability to get the job we have been training for, the amount that we are charged for insurance, or even our ability to qualify as a tenant/renter of a decent apartment. Yes, the credit score is a powerful force in many aspects of our lives and can follow us around like a criminal record for years, wreaking havoc and allaying well-formed plans.

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Private student loan consolidation cannot be generally mixed with federal student loans due to the low interest rate on the latter. However, there are several options open to refinance the private student loans by replacing them with another.

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Being a college grad in the middle of a recession is one of the toughest times to try to find a job. Unfortunately, there are thousands of students who have recently graduated – or are about to cross the stage – who will be looking for employment with 4 million others who have recently been laid off. So how can someone with very little experience compete against candidates who have years of know-how and education under their belts? There are a few tips to consider that can help to make the job search a little simpler. Let’s take a look at what they are…

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With the economy on the rocks and money on the mind, it can be difficult to contemplate the expense of taking a vacation. Fortunately, there are many ways to plan a great road trip and keep the costs to a minimum. Try these 10 tips when planning your next road trip vacation.

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