"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined." ~ Henry David Thoreau
Betty-Anne Howard
M.S.W., B.A. (Hon.), CFP, CLU, CHS
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By Paul, on October 8th, 2010 That’s what I used to think. As a young man the thought of a Critical Illness or any disease, that would impair my abilities or impact my life, was not in my scope of thinking. In fact, I had such a negative experience with a very demanding & overbearing Insurance Salesperson when I was younger, I proceeded to kick him out of my house and, it left me with a very negative impression of Insurance and the people who put it in place.
Obviously over the years my attitude towards Insurance has changed drastically and now being uninsurable, I regret not having more insurance in place but am grateful for what I do have and thank my sister (Betty-Anne) for putting that in place for me.
Continue reading Critical Illness – Not Me!
By Paul, on April 30th, 2010 Submitted by: Katherine Davidson
There are many ways to save money through insurance. Let’s begin with the biggest investment of our lives – purchasing a home.
The homes we live in are big investments. Often they are the biggest investment we make and inevitably, whether purchasing a home for the first time or refinancing, someone has suggested you purchase mortgage insurance – life insurance on the home owners, in the event that either of you die, then your mortgage balance is paid off.
There are other options you need to know about that have proven to be incredibly beneficial to our clients and will be for you as well.
Continue reading How to save money with insurance
By Paul, on March 10th, 2010 There are many things most people would rather talk about other than the possible death of their child and looking at putting insurance in place, for that purpose, but what would you do if the unthinkable happened?
It has been my experience that insuring a child at a young age is very smart and responsible thing to do, on the part of the Parent or Grandparent.
Whole Life Insurance increases in cost as you age and is never as cheap as when you are younger. With each passing year the price goes up. Therefore the younger you are at issue the more money your child saves in their long term plan.
In my personal case my Nephew was diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia at the age of 24 and therefore became uninsurable. If he had Insurance in place as a child he would not have that concern now. However he is faced with an inability to obtain life insurance coverage now when he needs it the most. There are many things that can happen in your childhood that may prevent you from being insurable or rate you at a higher cost. Not to mention how happy I would have been if my parents had presented me with a whole life insurance policy paid up. In reality I also am faced with insurance concerns now. You see, being Diabetic with a Heart condition means that I myself am uninsurable. I am grateful for the insurance that I did put in place, prior to becoming uninsurable and have future insurability riders.
As a result, both my daughters have $100,000 whole life policies that I took out when they were very young. I structured them in such a way that my wife and I will have them all paid up within a fixed number of years and provides a “line of credit” on their insurability later.
I can not stress enough the importance of Life Insurance for children, for the foundation of a long term financial plan.
By Betty-anne, on January 5th, 2010 Okay, this is Canada and sometime it feels as though winter lasts forever! And yes, this is the second season of Financial Planning and the first one was winter too.
There is a lot of activity this time of the year and that keeps us very busy. Another deadline is looming, and, just to confuse everyone, the deadline is round about the end of February, the very beginning of March, the actual date can change every year, like a moving target.
This deadline is for money you want to use to go towards your future (you would like to retire some day, wouldn’t you?) and, rather than free money (as discussed in the last winter post), these contributions help you keep more of your money, for yourself.
It’s all for you actually. You see, how this works is, you put money away for your future into something called a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) and then, you pay less to the government in income taxes, it’s as simple as that. Sounds like a good idea, don’t you think!
So, it’s not free money where the government gives you something, it’s more money they would have taken from you but they won’t, this time, because, they don’t want to have to take care of you, later on in life. So, this is considered to be incentive so you’ll take care of yourself. Isn’t that lovely.
So, don’t forget this years deadline is Monday March 1st. Hopefully, you are somewhat oblivious to this date because you’ve been dollar cost averaging into your investments throughout the year! More on DCA in a later posting. A very wise move, DCA!
By Betty-anne, on December 22nd, 2009 Just as the group by the same name actually began their careers as; The Four Lovers, we are hoping that the same degree of passion can be brought to bear on Financial Planning. Why not? Just because it’s never been done before, doesn’t mean it can’t! Don’t the four sins include money (along with sex, eating and….) So, let’s begin with
Winter: There is a deadline fast approaching. If you have kids and you want to get them educated beyond high school and, you want them to get access to free money and, stealing is not an option. Here’s a way to do that.
Here’s the best part, you get to receive that free money from the government. Yes, you heard that right! Now some might argue that it was your money in the first place but I wouldn’t go there right now. Just stick with the joy of knowing this is free money and leave it at that.
December 31st is the deadline for these plans called; Registered Education Savings Plans. This is not a forever deadline, you can still get free money next year and keep that scheme going for a while. It’s just that there are some restrictions so it’d be good to talk to a Financial Planner about that so you don’t lose the opportunity to take advantage of these plans.
P.S. There is also an ugly rumour going around that if you don’t get another plan in place before the end of December – that would be a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA), – you lose this years contribution amount – don’t believe it, it’s not true!
Oh yes, and another deadline, ever heard of a Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP)? If not and, you qualify, December 31st is another important deadline for you (or your child).
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