These Vacation Safety Tips Brought to You By Martinez & Associates Insurance Services

• Don't post on social media until you return.

• Let a trusted neighbor know you will be away and have them keep an eye on your home. It is a good idea to leave your vacation address and telephone number with a neighbor so you can be reached in case of an emergency.

• Be aware of any travel and health alerts at your destination

• Write out a schedule and give it to a family member for safety purposes.

• Make copies of all of your credit cards, important identification information, including your medical insurance cards and your traveler's checks.

• Look for deals. You can find websites all over the internet that can help you score deals on hotels, amusement park tickets, airline travel, and so on. Make sure you look for bargains after you set the budget.

• Put inside and outside lights on timers.

• Advise your alarm company and local police if you will be gone for an extended period.

• Stop the paper and garbage service.

• Don't take expensive jewelry with you. Jewelry can get lost or be a target for thieves.

• Never put your home address on your luggage tags. Write your phone number instead.

• If you are traveling to a foreign country, remember to study up on laws and customs. You will have a much better time if you understand the culture.

• Make sure all electrical appliances are turned off.

• Before you leave for vacation, you may decide to close your curtains to prevent people from peering inside your home to see whether you're there.

These Gardening Tips Brought to You by Martinez & Associates Insurance Services

It's easy to spend good money every year on maintaining a lovely yard. These suggestions can help you save money during this and future gardening seasons.Plan ahead of time. You can achieve several goals by determining the average frost-free date and planting early. This date can be found online or in seed catalogs that detail the various growing zones for various vegetables. Here are some compelling reasons to begin early this year:

• Refrain from purchasing an excessive number of high-tech gadgets. In any case, you'll only use your favorite tools. The key is to keep your tools in good shape – clean and sharpened. A few basic, high-quality tools should last for many years.
• Plan your vegetable garden in accordance with what your neighbors are growing so that you can share your vegetables when they are ready to eat. I've had too many of one type of vegetable that I couldn't give away because my friends were all ripe at the same time.
• Spend more money now on higher-quality gardening tools, and you will save money in the long run. They will last for years, allowing you to save money by not having to replace them every planting season. The same is true for gardening gloves; buy the best you can afford so they will last the entire season.
• Choose perennials over annuals for your flowerbeds. As they grow each year, cut them back and exchange them with your friends to have beautiful gardens while saving money.
• Cooking scraps and coffee grounds can both be composted. The end result is far superior to any potting soil purchased from a nursery or hardware store. The cost is reasonable, and this is recycling!
• Instead of mulch, try using pebbles or small rocks as ground cover in your garden. This will save you a lot of money because you won't have to buy mulch every spring and fall.
• Begin with good soil in your garden. For nutrient-rich planting beds, work in compost, manure, or dried peat moss. Amended soil is lighter, drains better, is easier to weed, and allows roots to establish themselves faster.

These Tips Brought to you by Martinez & Associates Insurance Services

Spring is always a good time to organize, clean, and update your house and yard. But spring is also a great time to clean up your personal insurance program. Between yard cleaning and painting the garage, we hope you contact us and ask for a spring insurance review.

Here are some tips we have found helpful when starting your spring personal insurance clean-up.

Examine Your Automobile, Home, and Personal Liability Limits – If your policy limits are less than $100,000, you may not be able to cover your legal liabilities in the event of a claim or accident. Anyone with any assets or income to protect should get minimum liability coverage of $500,000 to $1 million or more. You will find the cost of higher limits is very competitively priced. For higher limits this would be a good time to call us regarding purchasing an Umbrella policy.

Recognize The Risks And Coverage You Need - Every property, home, and family is unique and comes with its own set of risks. In general, homeowner's insurance is intended to protect against dangers beyond the owner's control, such as rain, wind, fire, vandalism, pipe bursts, falling objects, theft caused by broken glass, and so on. Flood and earthquakes are generally excluded.

Keep a Home Inventory - Keeping an accurate inventory of your personal belongings will help you recover faster in the event of a loss.

Bundle Your Insurance - Save money by combining your vehicle, house, and umbrella policies with one insurer.

Choose the Right Deductible - A greater deductible lowers your premium, but you'll be responsible for more out-of-pocket expenses in the event of an accident. If you have a clean driving record and no accidents, you might choose to raise your deductible. The benefit for taking this risk might be as much as a 40% discount.

Consider Identity Theft — One of the fastest-growing crimes in the United States is identity theft.

Read Your Policy - We're not referring to the 1-2 page Declarations Page that serves solely to demonstrate coverage, but rather the 20-30-page insurance Binder or Policy that provides the specifics of the coverage and exclusions. Nobody enjoys reading insurance policies, so don't be surprised if you don't comprehend them.

We'll be more than happy to help you review your coverage needs and make the changes necessary to your policy. Once this is completed, you can enjoy a cold drink in your freshly mowed backyard!

These New Year Resolution Tips Brought to You by Martinez & Associates Insurance Services