Insurance

You get used to company benefits. There's the comfort in knowing that your dental and your vision is partially covered by your company. You know that if something happens to you on the job there's the option of short-term and long-term disability.

Sometimes though, disability insurance isn't enough when you're ill, supporting a family, or if you're one of the 2.6 million self-employed Canadians in this country. There are no benefits for them. One of those alternate options is critical care insurance.

Junior has grown up enough to drive in your absence. No longer you hovering by your son or daughter's side, and you don't even know on occasion where they are actually going. Scary or scary? This is where some special kinds of insurance come in. Additional driver, occasional driver, the categories are many and the costs can be staggering. Or not. In fact, there are ways how to make those costs if not bearable then, at least, acceptable.

You know how it is. Your daughter will attract better insurance premiums because she's not as testosterone-driven like your son. That's the stereotype, and statistics seem to confirm it.

Can there be ways of overcoming it?

Turns out that the answer is yes.

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Lose 10 pounds? Sure. Stop swearing?

Okay... good luck with that. What New Year's resolution should young couples really be thinking about making and sticking to? How about getting their financial houses in order? In our rush to lead "grown up" lives complete with house, child and Xbox, many of us are forgetting some of the building blocks of a healthy financial life.

"A lot of couples will spend money on a flat-screen TV or dinners out but won't put together documents that protects what is most important -- children, savings, house," says Rona Birenbaum, a financial planner at Caring For Clients, who is used to speaking to couples about getting their finances in order.

Here is what Birenbaum suggests to prioritize when it comes to new year's financial resolutions for couples entering 2012 with many questions, worries and -- sometimes -- no clue.

Create a Cash Flow Plan for 2012

The New Year gives everyone the opportunity to decide what's important to them. Create a cash flow plan, starting with saving goals (such as education, retirement), as well as fixed costs (such as your utility bill and mortgage) and then add the variables.

We're nearing the end of the year and right now we're distracted by holiday shopping, holiday eating, hanging out with family and friends and perhaps wondering what to do to celebrate the new year.

The last thing we're thinking of are our finances but before the madness of tax season begins in January (!), why not take the time now to get your finances in order?

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Why so many people love decorating their homes for Christmas, even though they are fully aware they'll have to take the stuff down a couple of weeks later, is a topic for psychiatrists and psychologists.

Some North American towns and cities go so far as to stage competitions to celebrate neighbourhoods that come up with the most extravagant decorations. Why they don't double their electric power rates is another question altogether.

And why so many ignore very basic safety rules, that's something nobody has come close to explaining.

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Anyhow, herewith a few common-sense ideas:

The first days of a new year always bring with them a need to clean the slate and pledge new resolutions with the best of intentions behind them, but while the focus of these are usually on health and wellness, many forget that a healthy financial life is just as important in many ways.

Not only can such a thing free you to pursue your many life goals and dreams, but free you emotionally from the added stress of crushing debt.

This is why these days you see just as many money motivated resolutions right alongside the recommendations that deal with diet and exercise.

Yet with so many out there to follow, it can be hard to determine what is the best and most universally applicable financial advice. So here are ten diamonds in the rough we think everyone should take notice of.

1. Resolve Your Debts -- This is the one resolution that must be tackled before everything else, but it's also the one that takes the most discipline. The quickest path to living debt-free is to cut your spending and put the extra money in your budget towards paying off your debt a little at a time. The key is sticking with it, but you don't have to do it alone. A credit counselor can go over your strategy and support your effort, while a debt reduction service can settle debts over $10,000 to a smaller, more manageable amount for a fee.

Baby it's cold outside. And inside! Until last week I assumed that upgrading to energy efficient appliances was something you do when you're renovating and the bank's throwing low interest cash at you. But then my furnace died. It didn't just act up like a tired toddler, it was as dead as the parrot in John Cleese's famous Monty Python sketch Dead Parrot. No repairs, no new parts.

Faced with replacing our 25-year old natural gas unit at considerable expense, Christmas gifts and winter holidays suddenly seemed in jeopardy. We'd done some repairs to the house before -- roof and air conditioning -- so we knew the importance of shopping around. But, like with any specialized job, getting a quote for replacing a furnace is a mug's game. Unless you're a pro, you're really starting blind.

So with overnight temperatures dipping below freezing and the kids complaining about their four layers of pajamas, it was time to focus the search for a quality contractor at a reasonable price.

By Douglas McIntyre, Daily Finance

Almost all of us have some assets worth insuring -- our homes, our cars, our health. But the insurance business goes far beyond the basics.

If your possessions are worth a bit more, you might have separate policies for your jewelry or art. Businesses take out insurance to protect their executives against lawsuits. And when they consider certain employees to be vital to their bottom lines, they may even take out life insurance policies on them.

Celebrities are no different. They take out insurance to protect their most important assets -- themselves.

To find out what the 9 craziest celebrity insurance policies are, click on the link (or the lovely picture of Keith Richards) below. Story continues below the gallery:

The 9 Craziest Celebrity Insurance Policies - Photo Gallery

You must have seen the TV commercials: an adult offers a child something, and then, he offers something better to another child, just because that child is, as one of the commercials puts it, newer.

It's all about offering incentives to newcomers while earlier clients have to make do with services they have signed up for earlier, getting no new incentives in return.

Are the commercials a smart way of marketing financial (or any other) services? Or are they a sad commentary on the fairness (or lack thereof) when it comes to attempts to drum up new custom?

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By Douglas McIntyre

It's often said that active hobbies promote healthy living. Some people, however, take their fun to the extreme, engaging in pastimes that put their health -- and even their lives -- at risk. Insurance companies refer to such activities as "hazardous vocations," and charge higher premiums to those who engage in them. Sometimes, they even deny such people coverage altogether.

24/7 Wall St. compiled data from government agencies and the organizations associated with these "extreme" activities to determine which had the highest rates of accident and death. We also looked at several insurance estimates to determine how much premiums would increase for those who listed these activities among their regular hobbies. (We excluded risky activities that are generally performed by professionals, rather than as hobbies, such as rodeo riding or racing sports.)

In terms of strict numbers of fatalities, these hazardous vocations are less likely to get you killed or seriously injured than riding in a car or on a bicycle. Nevertheless, insurers consider them high risk factors.

Gallery: The 7 Deadly Hobbies



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