Part III: Term Insurance, Whole Life, Term-100 and Universal Life

It’s important to keep in mind that all insurance is either term insurance or permanent insurance. With term insurance there is an expiry date if the insured doesn’t die before the policy expires than there is no refund premiums and no payment made by the insurer (insurance company). Where as permanent insurance is generally insurance for life. This means that the policy expires on the day the life insured dies and the insurer pays the death benefit to the beneficiary (Death benefit).

Term Insurance

Term insurance is the perfect policy to insure temporary needs. It is insurance for a specific period of time usually 1, 5, 10, 15, or 20 years. Because of the short time period of this insurance it is not available to those over 70 years of age. This insurance has flexible payment options it can be purchased with a single premium or a series of premiums paid monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually.

This insurance is ideal for a young person for a vary of reasons. First because of a person’s age the premiums are low because the risk of premature death is very low. As such a large amount of insurance coverage can be bought with a low premium cost.  As a result within the insurance world term insurance is considered an entry-level product.

Term insurance has three sub-types to it:

1)   level term insurance

2)   increasing term

3)   decreasing term

When a person buys level term insurance they know exactly how much the insurance will cost, how much it will pay out, who will receive the death befit and when the insurance expires.

Increasing term insurance is a less common form of insurance. The idea is to provide premiums that will increase over the term as the face value of the policy increases over time. Essentially increasing term insurance covers a life that us increasing in value.

Decreasing term insurance provides the policy holder with a level premium over a long term, such as 20 to 65 years. However the face value of the policy decreases over time.  This insurance was once popular to insurance decreasing financial obligations, such as a mortgage. It is not as common today.

One of the befits for a young person starting out is the option of adding on a rider within the policy.  A rider is a policy extra which can be added on to the policy to customise it. it often increases the premiums of the insurance based on which one is added.

Two riders are available with term insurance: Renewable Term Insurance and Renewable and Convertible Option (R&C).

Renewable Term Insurance gives the policy owner the ability to renew the policy. When this rider is kicked into effect the policy owner can expect higher premiums on renewal. This new premium is called guaranteed renewal rate because the life insured is guaranteed to be insured regardless of his or her health. Despite the increase in premiums the face a mount of the policy still says the same. It is most common for this rider to be used to extend the policy for an additional 1, 5, 10 or 20 years. Unless the term insurance policy has this rider included into it is a non- renewable policy which terminates on the expiry date.

Renewable and Convertible option (R&C) allows the policy owner to covert the term insurance to permanent life insurance for the same or decreased face amount without evidence of insurability. This rider must be but in place when the application is made. As such a higher premium is paid to the insurer, as the insurer takes on the added risk of the policy owners deteriorated health.

Whole Life insurance

This product is available in two different kinds of payment forms: whole insurance which means the premiums are paid until the life insured dies and limited payment life which requires premiums to be paid over a specified period of time or to a specified age. There are two main features to this kind of policy: policy reserve and policy dividends.

Policy reserves are a really interesting feature of whole life insurance. During the early years of a policy, the policy owner pays more for the premiums than coverage requires. This builds up a reserve. One of the benefits of this reserve is if the policy owner no longer wants insurance coverage than part of the value of the policy reserve can be received by the policy owner via the policy’s cash surrender value (CSV). Unlike term insurance which we I just went over the policy owner can reserve ‘money back’ if the policy is discontinued.

Another great feature of the policy reserve is it provides the policy owner with the ability to 1) borrow from the CSV with a policy loan and 2) use a non-forfeiture option.   Using the CSV to take a policy loan allows up to 90% of the CVS to be borrowed from the insurer by the policy owner. Interest on the loan is changed at a interest set by the insurer which is usually competitive with rates offered by banks or other lending institutions.

There are 3 kinds of non-forfeiture option: automatic premium load (APL), extended term insurance(ETI) and reduced paid up option (RPU). Each provides the policy owner with a way of maintaining insurance coverage as an alternative to surrendering it if they can no longer afford the premiums.

Automatic premium loan (APL) is when the a policy owner forgets to pay the premium or is short of money when the premium is die, the policy will remain in force by using an automatic loan.

Extended Term Insurance (ETI) is an option that allows the policy owner who stops paying premiums to keep coverage in force by using the cash surrender vale of the polcy as a lump –sum premium to by term insurance.

Reduced Paid-up Insurance (RPU) this option uses CSV to switch permanent  coverage to term coverage, much like the reverse of the R&C  term option, reduced paid-up insurance uses the cash surrender vale of the who life policy as a lump-sum premium for a whole life policy that is paid-up which means there are no future premiums to be paid. The policy owner sacrifices the amount of coverage that he or she had previously to a lesser face amount but the policy continues as a permanent policy. This option provides many of the features of the original whole life policy including a cash surrender vale and insurance coverage for the life of the insured Dividends, however are not received and riders and other benefits are cancelled.

I mentioned at the beginning of the of this conversation about whole life insurance that this product had dividends now I will shift the conversation over to how dividends are part of a whole life insurance policy.

Dividends are paid to paid to participating policy owners when a surplus of reserves exists with the insurer. That are only available to participating policies and are a distribution of surplus earning held in the participating account established by the insurer that receives premiums from participating polices. Dividends are not guaranteed and vary year-to-year. There are three basic purposes to which policy dividends can be put: 1) savings 2) to acquire more life insurance 3) to reduce premiums.

A major part of whole life insurance is the idea of segregated funds. These funds is a type of investment available through insurers that provides a guarantee to the investor either 75% or 100% (depending on the contract) of deposits will be returned on death of the policy owner or on maturity of the contract in 10 years’ time.

If the person does not choice to use the dividends to buy segregated funds the  person can use the cash to buy more insurance. There are 3 additional insurances that can be bought 1) paid up additions (PUA) 2) special term additions 3) term additions

Paid up additions (PUA): uses the policy dividends to buy additional insurance. This additional insurance is paid up which means no premiums need to be paid. It is usually a participating policy in its own right with its own cash surrender value. Paid up additions add to the face value , cash surrender value and loan value of the original policy. Unlike buying a new policy no additional medical questionnaire is required. 

Special term addition: this is a one year non-renewable term policy that typically equal to the CSV of the policy at the end of that policy year. The deference between the cost of term insurance and the policy dividend is paid in cash.

Term addition: this uses the whole dividend to by a non-renewable one year term addition that will be paid if the life insured dies during that year.

In summery Whole life insurance is a great product that helps answer a variety of problems including: estate planning, creditor protection, the need to build tax deferred savings and the need to build collateral.

Adjustable Premium whole life Insurance

As the name suggests the premiums change over the life of the policy. The premiums and death benefit will be guaranteed for  a limited period, usually five years and then adjusted to keep pace with current investment yields. At the end of each guaranteed period a comparison will be made between the new investment yield and the yield at the beginning of the period. If the yield has increased either: the sum insured increases and the premium stays the same or the sum insured stays the same and the premium is reduced. If the investment yield has decreased either : the sum insured decreases and the premium stays the same or the sum insured stays the same and the premium is increased.

This kind if insurance is popular in an economy where interest rates are rising. But falls out of favour when interest rates decrease and policy owners are confronted with paying more premiums for the same coverage or reducing coverage for te same premiums.

Term –to-100 Insurance (T-100)

This insurance is a hybrid of term insurance and permanent insurance. While it is in force for term (to age 100) and premiums are paid over the same period. When the life insured reaches 100 years of age, this policy either pays out the face amount r is considered paid-up, which means that future premiums are not required to keep the policy in force . Life term insurance T-100 generally has no cash value or dividends. This kind of insurance offers the distinct advantage of lover premiums relative to permanent insurance and other kinds of insurance.

T-100 is an insurance that appeals to those who find the insurance for life aspect of permanent insurance important and yet do not feel the frills associated  with other forms of peppermint insurance important but do not want he frills associated with other forms of permanent polices (like dividends, policy loans and cash surrender value).  This insurance is just as useful for estate planning for individuals and business as other forms of insurance.

NOTE: Sorry for such a long post. If you got to the end THANK YOU!, Please let me know if you have any questions!

Tomorrow: Universal Life, Disability, Accident & Sickness, Critical Illness and Long Term Care

Part II: The basics of an insurance Contract and the different kinds of life insurance

 The Key aspect of insurance is the contract. This is issued to the policy owner.  The policy owner also known as the insured is the person who applies for the insurance policy pays the insurance premium payments. Payments are made to keep the policy in effect so that when the person (life insured) dies the face amount ( the amount of insurance payable on the event covered in the contact) will be paid out. Each contract has a face amount which is the amount of insurance payable on the event covered in the contract.  The face amount is what the premiums that are paid are based off of and is paid out to the beneficiary on proof of death of the life insured. I hope that didn’t confuse you. All these things that I just explained are the basic elements that make up all insurance contracts.

An important part of insurance is the different between the idea of actual authority and apparent authority.  Actual authority is when the insurance company that the insurance broker is representing instructs the insurance agent to perform specified tasks. These tasks are performed by virtue of the agent’s actual authority granted by the insurance company.  This is very different from the ideal of apparent authority. Apparent authority is when certain tasks must be performed that do not fall within the agent’s actual authority. As such the agent acts with apparent authority.  An example of actual authority is delivering the policy contract to the clients.  Apparent authority is a gray area within insurance which insurance and can be a source of headache for companies when insurance agents exercise it to liberally.

A very important aspect of life insurance is that it is tax free. This makes it ideal for estate peruses as it not subject to probate fees and can be used to pay any outstanding debts of the insured person uncured by the estate upon death.

There are 9 main types of  personal insurance:

1)Term insurance

2)Whole life

3) Adjustable premium whole life insurance 
4)Term-100

5) Universal life

6)Disability

7)Accident & sickness

8) critical illness

9) long- term care

Another common insurance is business insurance.  Anyone with a small business or family business should have business insurance. It will be discussed in a later post.

Tomorrow: Term insurance, Whole life, Term-100, Universal life.

Debt and A New Series on Insurance

Where does debt come from?


http://www.investorsgroup.com/english/aboutUs/media/topics/files/credit/11-05-where-debt-comes-from.shtml


Gail is known for saying that debt is a factor of lots of little purchases compared to lots of large ones. I found this nice photographic brake down of how Canadian’s spend there way into debt and thought it was worth sharing.


In case you were wondering I didn’t write my test yesterday. My Company didn’t want me to… there’s a large story behind it but what it comes down to is the left hand of my dptm not knowing what the right hand was doing. I now write June 1^st. I am not sure if the time lag is a good thing or a bad thing. But what I have decided is to share with you all my new found/ studied knowledge. Starting today I will be writing a series for the next little while on different aspects of insurance and taxes. Given that I live in Canada all of the figures and formulas will be based on Canadian insurance and taxation rules. However the basic principles of insurance are world wide.


What is Insurance, an Insurance Advisor and The basics of a Contact?


Insurance comes in all shapes and forms, be it travel insurance, car insurance, life, property or business insurance. The idea of insurance is to minimise or spread the risk. There are two measures of risk: severity and frequently. The more severe the even the less likely it is to happen. However the most sever risks are often the most costly to the individual. 


As an individual you are most likely to experience risks associated with:
1) Loss of income during the period of family obligations 
2) Loss of wealth
3) Inadequate retirement planning
4) Financial inadequacy of estate


To help ease the financial burden associated with these kinds of risks, individuals buy insurance. To help you with the process of buying insurance you turn to an insurance advisory whether it’s over the phone or in person.
An insurance adviser is a fiduciary, like your doctor this person is expected to protect the information you share with them and keep it confidential. This is someone you put your trust into to recommend a product(s) that best suite your needs.




Tomorrow will be the basics of a contract and what kinds of life insurance are available. 

Bits and Bites of Life

I wasn't going to post anything tonight because tomorrow is my test... I think. But I think I need to get a little bit off my chest.  If your not up for semi-rants than, I hope you have a wonderful night and stop by tomorrow. :)

First, the changes at work require everyone to get licensed. The job is calling for A&S however I argued that I should be allowed to do my full LLQP. My reasoning was there was no point in doing 1/2  credit when I could just do a full one. The management agreed and so I am doing my LLQP. Now everyone writes tomorrow or Thursday. I was told by my soon to be manager that I should expect to do it when everyone else is, that means I am not going to be given extra time. The normal completetion time for LLQP is 8 months I have 3. Since this is now a business requirement and I have to meet the business needs. However I am not feeling 100% confident, I asked my current mamager if it was possable to just write the A&S  exam tomorrow that way I could meet the currrent business requirents and progress through the LLQP at my leasure. He told me no, but he also came back with "according to Lisa [deptm head] you have not been scheduled to write the exam tomorrow." WHAT!!! Aspect which is our scheduling system has me been coming in early to work and booked off all day for training/A&S testing.' So now I have no idea what to expect when I walk in to class tomorrow.  I am not even sure what I want to have happen tomorrow. Part of me whats to get this thing over with and move on the other part wants it  to not happen so I can have more time... I think I should just get it over with.

Second, today I was having a conversation with my BF about tomrrow. He'd like to come out to see me after my test to play teenis with me. Now I don't play tennis, I mean I can't even manange to hit the ball let-a-lone make it travel anyplace. Tennis is like baseball, but I am willing to do it for shear shits and giggles. I know I am no Wimbledon candidate. The thing is I have something else on Wednsday's and haven't been able to go for over a month, I would much rather do that than tennis.  However I would love to see him so tennis it is. Unit we got talking about camping.

Let me explain a little about camping. For the past 3 years my BF has organized a camping trip where his whole group of friends get  together and drink and such. Not my idea of a good time, but last year I went and it didn't go as well as he would have liked. On our way home he told me that it was off and not to expect one for next year (2011).  In November I was selecting vacation time to book off for this year (2011) I asked my BF what days he wanted me to book off. He came up with nothing! I finally got form him that he would like me to book his Bday off. Fine done. That was it... nothing else NO other dates were given to me. April rolls around and he drops on me guess what we are doing the camping trip again this year, can you book the weekend off. I told him I would try the request was declined. As it stands I don't have the weekend off, I am now on flex and have no way to predict that I will even get the weekend off. Any ways the last time we chatted he said well I don't know about transportation, you have to get it off at a reasonable time if your coming.

TODAY  we chatted about it and I say look by than I'll have a car but if I can get it off it will because a guy at work is willing to switch shifts with me for his M-F 4pm-12am so I won't be up until after 12am Saturday. He responds with an ultimatum "well of all the things in the summer to go to with my group of friends this is it, if you can't be bothered to show we'll have to re-evaluate the relationship." I told him I would try my best and this is what he lays on me!! I am so enraged right now.

Part of me understands him, you see it will all be couples expect him (the organizer) if I don't show. He doesn't  want to loss face by saying 'Sarah had to work.'  He wants me to be his robin to his batman, if you catch my drift. BUT I am the one who will get ALL the blame if I don't show up, despite the fact that I asked in July of last year and again in November. I work for a LARGE multi-national company who does its workforce shift scheduling out of INDIA, they are not going to drop everything for me for a camping trip!!! The part that pisses me off is I ASKED HIM FOR DATES!!! and he gave me nothing, natta, zip until I pressed him about his Bday!

I am so frustrated with him that, if this is how he wants to play it he can dump me now! I can honestly say I am not 100% sure I want to see him tomorrow anymore. After everything that is going on with work I just want to be able to blow of steam (tomorrow) and if this is going to hang over my head, I don't want to do it with him.  Also I can't know if I can keep my mouth shut about all. I will likely say something to him about it tomorrow and it end up being our first 'real' fight, he will drive off mad and I just don't know were it will end up. He's going to be frustrated with me and I am with him on this topic. Tt Iill be all one big mess, nothing will get resolved. Should I let it blow up, i might end up single but if this is the inevitable maybe sooner is better than later. I don't know, I don't know.... there are too many balls in the air. And it all seams to hinge on me, Me getting a car, Me getting the time off, Me, Me, Me.

I am sorry I can't be perfect nor that I am willing to rush out and lease a new car. Frankly I don't think I would even qualify for one. I know he's frustrated with our relationship and with my job. But I told him before he even signed up for this gig that This is what I was going to be doing. 1) move home 2) get a job 3) pay off debt ASAP 4) get a second job or a 3rd one to pay of debt ASAP.  He asked me not to get a second job he was afraid it would impact 'us' time. So I don't have job #2 or #3. But that lack of income means that things are not going to happen at a snap of finger.

Thanks  for listening, now I should get back to studying since I have 100+ pages to go an an exam to pass or fail tomorrow.

Weekly Money Check-Up

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on my LoC I put 650+... and it still doesn't feel like its going any were, specifically down. 

2. Today I am thankful a job... in a few short weeks if I don't pass this pre-qualifying test I could be out of on.

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was I can't remember... how sad is that

4. I will consider this week a success if I pass my pre-qualifier and get Em's and my costume done.
5. I am currently craving to have this stuff stick in my head. I have often wished I could just plug into a computer nd let the stuff be downloaded in to my head.

Weekly Spending Re-cap May 16-May 22, 2011

May 16 (Monday)
No Spend Day


May 17 (Tuesday)
No Spend Day

May 18 (Wednesday)
No Spend Day

May 19 (Thursday)
$25.00 bus tickets

May 20 (Friday)
No Spend Day

May 21 (Saturday)
No Spend Day

May 22 (Sunday)
No Spend Day


*this does not include bills being paid and funds being funded, all that happened on Friday (Pay Day post)

Pay Day

By now I am sure that most people are aware that I like love books. I have often thought about going through my old LoC and visa statements and tallying how much I have spend on books in the past. One of my goals this year was to read 50 books I already owned. Partly to help achieve on of my life goals (to have read 97% of books I own). But also because I am sure that I currently own more books that I have NOT read than read. Second I put myself on book buying ban in February and never really stopped. I am proud to say that I have not bough a single book this year. This is might not seam like a big deal but for those who are shopaholics, or love buying shoes this is like you giving up shoe or clothing shopping for 5 months. To help keep me away from the temptation I have avoided going into book stores. 


Work always seams to have a ‘market place’ set up every pay week in the lobby of our office building. Most of the time the stuff sold is bags, clothes, jewellery and trinkets, so I don’t have any issues with resisting spending money. However this past pay week we had a full on book sale! It’s like my Company wants me to spend my pay before it’s even in my account. I decided that I do have $75 that I can spend so I decided to look around. There was only one book that was interesting partly because it was so heavily discounted for what it was. The book was Peterson’s field Guide to Eastern Trees, normally $20-30, only $7.99. So it was a great deal. However I didn’t buy it because I am sure we have a copy at the cottage and because I currently have no use for the book. Also the sale down stairs was set up by the company that run’s Blowout Books which is basically heavily discounted books that are the end of a print or books that didn’t sell well in normal book stores like Chapters. The end result was I walked back to my desk empty handed. 


Any ways with out ado, the budget:


                              Pay (OT included): $1,152.68
                                   Easter over time: $125.54
TD LoC: $525
OSAP: $0
Visa: $0
Retirement: $25
Emerg fund: $25
Xmas fund: $40
Vet bills: $50
Cat food: $20
What if fund: $84
cell phone: $50
Car fund: $142.14
Company Stock: $82.16
Over Time money ($125.54) put into LoC


Included in the Car fund amount is $9.00 left over form last pay that was snowflaked into car fund.


Bills Paid to date:
Cell bill: $75.39 ($24.61 snowflaked into LoC)
OSAP:  $117.45


Total snowflakes: 9 + 24.61= $33.61 

To Share or Not to Share

Things at work are getting more interesting by the day. A guy in our department who I was friendly with as he say diagonally from me, got fired. Turns out he tried to fraud his own dptm and our ‘sister dptm’ I don’t know were he got off thinking he would be able to get away with it. He use to brag about frauding other banks to people on the floor. Another person I work with, who was hired the same time I was, has had several absents and been on short term disability. She was recently haled in to the Directors office to chat and hasn’t been seen from since. Let me explain the hierarchy in our dptm: agents (me), seniors, team managers, dptm manager and than the Director. So when the Director gets involved with the problems of agents you know there’s an issue. I am not someone who cares for office gossip. However since we have moved desks I am now sitting in an area that has a lot of visitors who like to chat.  


Anyways besides that I have finally fished reading the main book for my LLQP’s I now have case studies to go through and a lot of other stuff as well. I went for my second physio appointment on Tuesday; I need to actually start doing the stretches so that physio is of use to me. Recently I have felt that my budget is boring and automatic, maybe it’s because I didn’t hit my target last month with my LoC. Or it might be because I have had no life for most of this month and the last couple of weeks in April. I have done every little but work and go home and study. Even when I was in school I was so much more active. I feel like despite putting more than 50% of my income into student debt I am still not making the kind of progress that I want to me making on my Student debt. Everything seams to be in slow motion except time which seams to be rushing by. 


Yesterday I saw my BF. He recently got an iphone; I am envious because I really want one. You’re going to laugh when I tell you why. I want to be able to bank on my phone and keep all my accounts in order.  I currently bank on my ipod touch so it wouldn’t be much of stretch, do it on my phone. Any ways Scotia’s app now has a feature were you can add two cards to it. My BF wanted to add my card as well as his so that I could bank on his phone. I was ok with this. Then he wanted to know what the password was and if it was ok for him to know it. He actually already new the password I use it for another thing I have. I felt a little put in the spot though I know he didn’t intend to. In the end I related and told him. I had a feeling wash over me that I can’t really explain. I know where it stems from. If you can believe it I am quite secretive about the details of my finances. Not here of course but with my friends and family. I also have never shared anything like this with someone that I have dated. For my BF his parent’s finances are completely synced, every aspect of it there isn’t one thing that the other one doesn’t know about. And in his mind it is one of the things that despite all the hell they have been put through as a family has helped keep them together, since everything is so inter twined the act of separating would be so much work that it would have to be a truly permanent decision. My parents were the complete opposite. My dad and mom have always had separate account to my knowledge, while married. My dad even had a post box at our local post office that he would direct certain pieces of mail to. On the eve of there divorce my mom opened or found open a piece of mail that showed my dad has $80,000 in investments which he hadn’t devolved through the course of there 15 year marriage.  There are lots of stories that this that go back and forth depending on whose view of the divorce you take.  Given that I grew up in a money secretive family I am by nature secretive when it comes to money. So giving my BF access to my accounts like that is a huge step for me. And he doesn’t have access to all my accounts just ones at Scotia. However that is my main bank and most of my accounts are with them.

Weekly money Check-Up

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was cat food, or physio since my reimbursement hasn't come through yet.

2. Today I am thankful for my health.  Tomorrow my step-mom goes in for her second brain operation and will than spend the next 6-8 weeks in the ICU. 


3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was spend time with my BF though he paid for it so it really wasn't cost free.

4. I will consider this week a success if I finish all my review questions in book 1 and 2 for my LLQP

5. My favorite magazines are   don't have any... since I never buy any. 




I haven't been feeling in the mood for heartfelt blogs.  I have been reading though my past posts, months back and realized that they have been more enjoyable than the ones I have written of late. Many years ago I use to journal and occasionally I would go through phases were I just didn't think I had anything worth putting down, not that I didn't have LOTS to write about. This is not a signing off post. I still very much intend to blog and read blogs. I just thought you should be kept in the loop as to why I haven't been blogging so heartfelt as of late.


On a side note I'm not normally one that asks this kind of stuff but, if anyone belongs to a prayer  group if you don't mind sticking my step mom Cathy on the list it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Weekly Spending Re-cap May 9-May 15, 2011

May 9 (Monday)
$45.19 cat food

May 10 (Tuesday)
$9.02 shoppers drug mart
$12.50 TTC tokens
$85.00 physio ($8.50 out of pocket)
$1.66 TD visa card (remaining interest acclimated from date of statement printing to paying off in full)

May 11 (Wednesday)
No Spend Day

May 12 (Thursday)
No Spend day

May 13 (Friday)
$12.50 bus tickets

May 14 (Saturday)
No Spend Day

May 15 (Sunday)
No Spend Day 

Happy About Paying bills?

I started writing a blog post while at work today. However I forgot to email it to myself so its currently siting on my desktop at work. oh well. Yesterday I got my Roger's bill in and I was every excited to get it. Last month when I called Roger's in an attempt to reduce my cell bill or to find out how much it would cost me to brake my contract. By the end of the conversation the agent was able to drop by bill by $15.50, so I excited to see that my bill this month is $75.45. Since I budget $100 every month for my phone that means that I have almost $25 I can snowflake into my LoC, how wonderful is that!! Also I got a cheque in the mail as well today, I didn't expect one until June, but what ever works for government. I am not sure what I will do with the cheque ideally, I would like to put it into my LoC. But we will see how everything goes.

Andrea over at So Over Debt blogged about wanting to buy an ipad, she has put the vote to her readers. I voted for her to put the money towards her credit card. The comment on her previous post mentioned a lady by the name of Suze Orman. I had never heard of her and didn't take much note of the name until I turned on the TV and by chance landed on CNBC and her show happened to be on. From what I saw it seamed very 'american' lots of flash and fast talking. I found some of her comments a bit extreme, I mean who needs $5,000 in income monthly when they are 'retired' with no debt!!  But that's my view at least. Any ways it was interesting to see the show and she had some valid points. 

It's Friday

It’s Friday! A week has gone by and somehow I haven’t even blinked, yet! I work tomorrow so my weekend doesn’t start just yet. Sorry for being MIA. I spend Wednesday night with my BF who came down to see me yesterday I didn’t do anything exciting but catch up on blogs I had missed reading from the day before. I tried to post yesterday but Blogger must have been down, oh well.  My reading has been going slow as I have done very little all week. However I WILL get to page 360 by the end of the night even if it kills me! I had my first physio appointment this week. It was just the consultation it cost me $85.00 and was put on my visa card. When my reimbursement from my benefits comes in my outstanding balance on my visa will be $8.50. I have yet to sort out were the money is coming from but I’ll just have to adjust the budget a bit, no biggy. Frankly this is a long time coming and really should have been done months ago. What this means though is that its very likely I am not going to get a visa bill this month with a zero balance printed on it; because of the delay between putting the money on it and paying it off in full. This is the most depressing part.


Mom has been bringing up the issue of a car again. Now she is saying that she is willing to ‘top-up’ the amount that I save to cover the difference in the price of the car I buy. I have managed to delay her until the end of June; this will give me more time to save for the car. Also providing I don’t get fired for not passing my LLQP test at the end of this month, June is a 3 pay month for me. After paying my normal funds, buying my BF a B-day gift since it’s his birthday in June, what ever is left is going into my LoC. I have rough numbers of what my LoC will be by the end of June but nothing really concrete. What I do know is that if I have to add insurance on to my July budget the extra June pay will go a long way towards my end goals. Once I had insurance to my monthly budget I will not be able to put as much into my LoC. Sigh.

Weekly Money Check-Up

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on a gift.

2. Today I am thankful for a steady pay cheque. Its not what I want to be doing beyond another 1.5 years but its paying the bills. And if I don't pass my LLQP will result in my termination form my current role, something I can't afford to have happen.

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was spend mother's day cleaning the back yard up ripping up carpet in my mom's room. It makes me happy if it makes my mom happy because it reduces the overall stress factor in the house.

4. I will consider this week a success if I have read all 360 pages in my LLQP book by Friday.

5. The summer movie I am most looking forward to is Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows Part II

Weekly Spending Re-cap May 2-May 8, 2011

May 2 (Monday)
No Spend Day

May 3 (Tuesday)
No Spend Day

May 4 (Wednesday)
No Spend Day

May 5 (Thursday)
$10 charity ticket

May 6 (Friday)
No Spend Day

May 7 (Saturday)
$5.64 Lunch
$16.94 Gift
$7.91 Walmart

May 8 (Sunday)
No Spend Day

Happy Mother's Day

April Goals Recap and May goals

This has been a very busy week for me and so I have not had change to review my  April goals and set my goals for May. I have to say I think April goals were an epic fail on my part. I think part of the reason is that I made goals with great intentions but as the days went by my monthly goals post got further down the list of post for April. To prevent this from happening again I am going to make a monthly goals tab. You see often when I am bored I will reread posts and things on my blog. I know pathetic, however it might help keep my Monthly goals fresh.


                                     Professional 
1) Have read the full text book for my LLQP FAIL (no defence)
2) Have done notes for all parts of the LLQP FAIL (no defence)
3) Have done all the multiple choice questions in the Q&A book FAIL (no defence)

                                       Personal
1) Pay off visa card with tax return SUCESS 
2) Make charitable contribution SUCESS
3) Write cheque to ING to link accounts FAIL though in my defence I had two other cheque i was waiting to clear from my account before I added more
4) Get Rez project sighed by prof for Duke of Ed FAIL (no defence)
5) Get vol. signed for Duke of Ed FAIL (no defence)
6) Getting my line of credit under -30,000.000 SOME WHAT SUCESS (I got it with in $67 of 30,000.00 so while I didn't make my goal I tried my hardest to make it.



                            May Goals

1. fine a sport phyio place and go to minimu of one appointment
2. finish costume for Amine North
3. finish Emily’s Anime North costume
4. crack down on studying for LLQP
5. go through LLQP Case Study Questions Book once
6. Do mock LLQP exam at least once
7.  Write and pass LLQP pre qualifying test on may 25^th with at least 60%

Hopefully I have better luck with this month's goals!

Today was Pay Day!

With everything going on I hadn't had much chance to think about it. As it turns out I didn't get any stat pay I was due on this pay cheque. So I have to talk to my manager about it, however I haven't seen him at all this week. He's been MIA at work the days that I have been at work.

                                                            Pay: $1,027.08

TD LoC: $407.55
OSAP: $117.45*
Visa card: $0
Retirement fund: $25
Emergency fund: $25
Xmas fund: $40
Storage unit: $0
Cat food: $20
Vet bills: $50
Vacation fund: $0
What if... fund: $84
Company Stock: $82.16
Car fund: $128.75
Cell phone: $50*
Spending money: $73
Left in account: $2

*= money put in holding account until bill is due

Sorry

Sorry I have been MIA.  My BF had a family crisis so last night I drive to PH (his home town) which is 1.5h away from me to see him! It was completely worth it despite everything that is going on I had a wonderful time. However I am tired as hell because I drive back and got home at 3:15 am only to be at work for 8:30 am. What I realized as I was talking with my friend on the way home was with everything that had happened I had not even done my May budget and tomorrow is Payday!! So I did that first. You will notice that my cat fund is down to $37.61, the vet wiped me out. So I have decided that I am going to continue funding my vet bill fund $100 a month, until I get it to a level I am convertible with. After lending money to my friend on Sunday and putting 1/2 tank of gas in my mom's gas big SUV I am left with $3.46 in my account. I have snowflaked that into my LoC. As for the monthly goals review. I will get to it later this week. Don't hold your breath it was an epic failure. I am going to have to come up with some other way to flash them in my face.

Any ways I am off to bed I am picking my mom up at the sleep lab tomorrow and I have to be up early, plus I really need to catch up on sleep.

Weekly Money Check-Up

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on  emailing money to a friend.
2. Today I am thankful that we have the right to vote and determine the government of our country.
3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was plaid in the Alumni SGHL game.
4. I will consider this week a success if I get work done on my LLQP
5. One thing I appreciate about my mom is despite everything I can still count on her support publicly. 




Expect to see Monthly Goals Update tomorrow.

ELECTION DAY!!!

Today is election day (in Canada) please go and VOTE!!!!

Its not about a party or about an ideology its about exercising your democratic right as a citizen of this country. A right that less than 200 years ago Canadian's didn't have and fought to get! Today there are many countries around the world that as STILL fighting for the right.

So please  GO AND VOTE!!!

Weekly Spending Recap April 25-May 1, 2011

April 25 (Monday)
No Spend Day

April 26 (Tuesday)
No Spend Day

April 27 (Wednesday)
No Spend Day

April 28 (Thursday)
No Spend Day

April 29 (Friday)
No Spend Day

April 30 (Saturday)
No Spend Day

May 1 (Sunday)
$40 emailed to friend
$1 cost of sending money via email
~*~*~*~*~
This morning when I got up I thought I need to do my weekly spending recap. But of course it was only the start of the day so I held off. Just as well that I did I got  call from a friend of mine that she needed money. She discovered last night that her apartment had bed bugs and she needed the money to take everything to the laundry. I could careless about the money at this point I just hope she gets everything sorted out and I know that when she can she'll pay me back.