1. Ensure that all accessible external doors and windows are fitted with locks and the keys removed and hidden from view. This is a basic security measure, especially in places where you’re new and anybody can just break in your room.

2. Check with the landlord that previous tenants no longer have any keys. The previous tenants might come back and just enter without your permission. They might not have clean intentions. To avoid this, make sure that they had surrendered their keys to the landlord.

3. If in shared accommodation check the room door can be locked. It might not be safe with many people in one building. And it’s not always safe when you’re sharing your accommodation with someone you’ve just met. Privacy also comes into play, and a lock on your door may just help.

4. Join your local Neighbourhood Watch scheme and meet the neighbours. If there are any on your new place, join them! Other than being a great way to meet new people and make new friends, you’ll also be able to keep up with the different dangers in the area and security measures to employ.

5. Arrange for a friend to visit the property regularly if you are away to remove any mail and put it in a safe place. Don’t forget to provide them with a contact number. If you have to go somewhere, like go back home to your parents’ house for an occasion, have your friend take care of things for a while. It’s important that people will think that there is still someone present in the property to avoid burglary and break-ins.

6. Check outside lighting does work and leave lights on in the house during darkness using a suitable timing device. Lighting and timing devices have proven to be a burglar’s enemies.

7. Remove any valuables from show and put in a safe place, hidden from view. If you don’t them stolen, then better to keep it hidden safely.

8. Whenever you leave your home always lock all doors, even if it’s only for a couple of minutes. Don’t think that a few minutes isn’t enough for a burglar.

9. If the property has a garden, check access is secure. Burglars sometimes use the garden as a hiding place. Check whether anyone can possibly use the garden as a tool for hiding and check for any entrance and exits.

10. Ensure you have the household insurance policy details and a contact number handy in case a claim has to be made. Check in detail what the insurance covers in the likely situation that belongings will be stolen.

Source: Easier Finance

Liz Pulliam Weston is an author of many books and a personal finance columnist for MSN Money. Her 3 Costly Myths About On Insurance is just one of her many contributions to the financial world. The following is from the said article and talks of the 3 myths in insurance that can cost you a lot of money:

Myth: Your benefits should roughly equal the premiums you’ve paid

Many people feel cheated if they aren’t “using” their insurance — in other words, if they pay premiums for years and never make a claim.

That, however, is exactly what you want to happen with most types of insurance.

Sound insane? It’s really not. Most of the time, insurance should be thought of as your protection against true financial catastrophe, not as a buffer against the normal ups and downs of daily living.

You want your homeowners insurance to be there if your house ever burns down, for example, because you probably don’t have enough savings to rebuild your home or pay off your mortgage otherwise. On the other hand, you can easily swing the cost of replacing a pane when Sally down the street knocks a line drive through your window.

So why pay extra for a policy with a low deductible, just so you can get your insurance company to cover a cost you could readily handle on your own?

Opting for deductibles of $500 to $1,000, instead of $100 to $250, can save you as much as 35% on your premiums.

Myth: Insurance should cover disasters that are likely to happen

More than 80% of California homeowners don’t have earthquake insurance. That figure often stuns people from out of state, because of the widely held notion that the Golden State is a bowlful of geological jelly.

Californians, however, know that serious earthquakes are pretty rare. Most are mild, and almost all are very localized. So, the chances of your own home getting totaled in one are actually pretty slim. That excuses Californians from buying coverage, right? Hardly. Similarly, you may not be off the hook if you don’t have flood or windstorm insurance.

* Video: Save money on home insurance

Remember, insurance is meant to protect you from financial catastrophe — disasters from which you could not easily recover on your own.

Some people ignore this advice, figuring the federal government will come through for them in a disaster. You should know, however, that typically this help isn’t free. Most help comes in the form of low-interest loans.

One look at the wake of Hurricane Katrina should make you wary of relying on government help. Even with such aid, many people lost their homes in the 1994 Northridge quake in California. They found they couldn’t simultaneously pay their mortgages and afford places to live while their homes were being rebuilt.

So, if you don’t have enough cash saved up to rebuild your home or pay off the mortgage, and you live in an area where natural disasters are a distinct possibility, you need appropriate coverage.

Myth: Insurance is a rip-off; buy only the minimum required

This idea occasionally surfaces on the Your Money message boards and in e-mails I get from readers. People’s suspicion of the insurance industry can be so profound, they’ll put themselves in real financial danger — the old cut-off-your-schnoz-to-spite-your-face response.

It’s scariest when people skimp on liability insurance. This pays for the damage you do to other people or that they do to themselves on your property.

Say you’re held responsible for an auto accident in which somebody is paralyzed. You can be on the hook for that person’s medical expenses, lost income and care for the rest of his or her life. Injure more than one person, and the cost goes up exponentially.

If you don’t have liability insurance, or you’re carrying too little, most of what you own could be at risk. You could be sued and lose just about everything you’ve spent a lifetime working and saving to accumulate, plus perhaps your future earnings as well. All this because you wanted to save a couple of bucks on your premiums.

A smarter choice is to get enough liability coverage at least to equal your net worth. (Your net worth is everything you own minus everything you owe.) If your net worth is $250,000, for example, boost the liability coverage on both your auto insurance and your homeowners insurance to at least $250,000.

Source: MSN: 3 Costly Myths About Insurance