When I blogged for moneyville, one of the mantras that appeared over and over in the best-read stories were “if you don’t ask, you don’t get.” This week on Give me back my five bucks, moneyville alumni Krystal Yee makes a great case for negotiating salary in a new job instead of simply accepting the first amount you are offered.
And I’m REALLY glad I didn’t read Mark Goodfield’s blog on the The Blunt Bean counter about how much it costs to own a dog before we got our darling cockapoo Rufus – even if he does wake us up at 5 AM.
Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Send us an email with the information to socialmedia@saskpension.com and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.
St. Valentine’s Day began as a liturgical celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentinus. However, the celebration of Saint Valentine did not have any romantic connotations until Chaucer’s poetry about “Valentines” in the 14th century.
Today Valentine’s Day is a huge marketing opportunity for florists, jewellers and the candy industry. As soon as the Christmas decorations come down, malls are decorated with hearts and flowers.
It’s actually rather nice to have something to celebrate when spring is till several months away in most of the country. But if you want to give your loved one roses, chocolates or dinner out at the local hot spot, you may have to pay premium prices in mid-February.
When I was researching romantic, inexpensive Valentine’s Day gifts, I found Sheryl Kurland’s list of 50 Valentine’s Day Gifts for Your Sweetheart (without looking cheap). I’m not much of a “do-it-yourself” person so many of her ideas exceed the time and skills I possess. But here is an edited list of the 10 suggestions I like best:
Make a framed group of photos (or photo collage) of memorable occasions you have celebrated together, in chronological order.
Burn a CD with meaningful music like the first dance at your wedding, songs from musical you saw on your honeymoon and the lullabies that were the only thing that put your baby to sleep.
Leave a love note on your partner’s pillow along with a chocolate truffle or two and a single rose.
Create an in-home spa day for your mate. Put together a basket filled with inexpensive candles, bubble bath, rose petals, facial mask and scrub. Hand her towels warmed in the drier when she is done.
Make a marvellous dinner for two. A home-made steak or lobster dinner is much less expensive than a pricey restaurant meal. And you can never go wrong with traditional cherry cheesecake for desert.
Give your lover Valentine’s Day IOU coupons: I will make dinner. I will do the laundry. I will walk the dog for a week.
Write new “updated” wedding vows, both serious and humorous and share them with each other over a glass of wine in a candlelit room.
Make homemade chocolate-covered strawberries: 1) Melt a package of chocolate chips in a double boiler and add a small amount of oil; 2) Remove from heat and quickly dip the strawberries into the chocolate; 3) Place on wax paper and refrigerate for several hours until chocolate is firm.
Get the kids involved. Help them make cards or print them off the internet. Make a special breakfast including pancakes, waffles or even buttery croissants from the local bakery.
If you don’t have a special sweetheart, focus on bringing a smile or laughter to everyone you come in contact with on Valentine’s Day.
Can you suggest other inexpensive romantic ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day? Send us an email to socialmedia@saskpension.com. If your idea is posted, your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card. And remember to put a dollar in the retirement savings jar every time you use one of our money-saving ideas.
If you would like to send us other money saving ideas, here are the themes for the next three weeks:
With RRSP season in full swing, you may be reviewing your budget projections to ensure you are saving enough for retirement. But are you factoring in the future cost of health care?
In Planning for health care in retirement, a guest post on Retire Happy, Sun Life Financial AVP Kevin Press suggests that some combination of disability insurance, critical illness insurance and long-term care insurance can help fill the post-retirement health care gap.
Understanding your family’s life insurance needs is another important element of financial planning. The blog Riscario Insider links to a LIMRA Quizz which you can take to test your life insurance literacy.
Finally, if you’ve decided that this is the year you will finally buy a smartphone or trade your old one in for a newer model, on Engadget, Tom Stevens explains and evaluates the new features found in the BB10 which was released with great hoopla this week.
Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Send us an email with the information to socialmedia@saskpension.com and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.
SPP posted a return of 1.22% to the balanced fund (BF) and 0.057% to the short-term fund (STF). The year to date return in the BF is 8.45% and in the STF is 0.52%.
Whether you plan to spend spring break on a beach or on the ski slopes, the only thing worse than losing your luggage is discovering your credit card has been lost or stolen. And discovering unauthorized charges on your credit card statement when you get home ranks a close second.
Here are 10 ways to protect your account information and resolve unauthorized card use whether you “staycation” close to home or travel abroad.
Don’t send card information by email or text: If you are booking travel or changing travel arrangements when you are away, remember most email and texts are not secure. All it takes for someone else to charge to your account is your card number, expiry date and security code. Even your name and address can be enough information for identity theft.
Don’t lend your credit card: Do not give even family members your credit card number or the card to use on your behalf. If you are prepared to authorize a family member to use your account on a regular basis, get a separate card with the appropriate credit limit.
Don’t share your PIN: Protect your PIN at all times and don’t write it down on a slip you keep in your wallet. If you can’t remember your PIN, go into your bank and choose a new one before you leave. Don’t use obvious numbers like your birthday or your telephone number.
Call before you leave: Financial institutions issuing credit cards have software that recognizes unusual patterns of behaviour. For that reason, on several occasions my card has been refused when I was travelling outside Canada. Now I always call to tell my credit card company where I am going and how long I will be in each city.
Check your credit limits: Make sure you know when your card expires and the withdrawal/credit limits on your debit/credit cards. I typically pay off my cards completely before leaving on a major trip, particularly if a payment is due in my absence.
Put the card company on speed dial: Make a note of your credit and debit card numbers, as well as issuer phone numbers, and keep them in a safe place in case your card is lost or stolen. Because I had CIBC VISA’s toll free number on speed dial when my card disappeared in a Peking market several years ago, I was able to immediately report the loss and cancel the card.
Carry only what you need: When travelling outside the country, I leave my rewards cards, hospital cards and other miscellaneous wallet contents at home. However, my husband and I usually bring several different credit cards and bank cards as back-up and keep all but one in the hotel room safe. A friend who recently visited Russia had his debit card “eaten” by an ATM. Fortunately his wife had her own debit card and was still able to withdraw the cash they needed for the balance of their trip.
Keep receipts: Review credit card receipts before you sign, and monitor both credit card and bank account statements carefully on your return. On a trip to St. Martin, I tried to withdraw money from a generic ATM machine to pay cash for a pair of earrings. The machine refused my card but spit out a receipt. When I got home I realized my account had been debited, but I never received the funds. It took months for CIBC to trace the transaction, but I did eventually get my money back.
Currency conversion: When using an unfamiliar currency, what looks like a deal, may turn out to be very expensive. Smart phone apps are available that will allow you to do on the spot calculations. VISA also has a currency calculator that can give you an indication of the rate you will pay when using your credit card. But remember, this converter uses a single rate per day with respect to any two currencies and rates apply to the date VISA processes the transaction, which may differ from the actual date of the purchase.
Beware of contactless credit cards: Many newly-issued credit cards and other important documents pose major fraud and privacy concerns because they are designed to be scanned through the air. “Contactless” credit cards have an embedded computer chip called a radio frequency identification, or RFID tag. When waved near a payment terminal in a store or by an unscrupulous individual using a manual unit, the chip supplies the card’s number and expiry date through radio waves, avoiding the need to swipe or insert the card. RFID blocking wallets or passport holders can be ordered online.
And finally, never let the card out of your sight when you make a purchase. In the few minutes that a clerk or gas station attendant has your card it can be swiped through a skimming device. This is less of a problem as more merchants are using portable wireless terminals, but this technology is not universally available in some parts of the world.
Can you suggest other ways to protect your credit cards on vacation? Send us an email to socialmedia@saskpension.com. If your idea is posted, your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card. And remember to put a dollar in the retirement savings jar every time you take steps to improve credit card security in 2013.
If you would like to send us other money saving ideas, here are the themes for the next three weeks:
Andrew is also a guest blogger on our perennial favourite Boomer & Echo. If you made a New Year’s resolution to eat less and work out more, you will be interested in his contribution this week about mobile technology that can improve your health.
For fans of passive investing, in Revisiting the Couch Potato Model Portfolios Dan Bortolotti discloses how and why he recently tweaked his holdings, although generally he does not advocate jumping from fund to fund.
Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Send us an email with the information to socialmedia@saskpension.com and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.
So your guy finally popped the question at Christmas and now you are sporting a shiny new bauble on your left hand. I hope after you called your parents, your next call was to your insurance company.
Whether Santa brought you a sparkling engagement ring, a stunning piece of art, a new set of golf clubs or a fast new bike, it is important to to make sure the items are properly insured.
When my husband and I got engaged he was still a student. The ring he gave me cost $300 and I almost got run over crossing Bloor St. in Toronto because I was so busy admiring it. In spite of its sentimental value I never worried about insurance for that ring, but 25 years later he bought me a much more costly replacement for our anniversary.
We are insured with TD Insurance through Security National. TD’s entry level gold policy limits recovery for theft or loss of jewellery to $4,000. Although we have the platinum policy which covers jewellery up to a value of $12,000, by the time I added up the bits and pieces I’ve acquired over the years including my newest acquisition, I realized our coverage wasn’t nearly enough.
So I decided to bite the bullet and purchase an additional floater (also called an endorsement) to cover my ring at the annual cost of $18.78/$1,000 of coverage. And I’m very glad that I did.
Several years later we were in Stratford for the weekend and went to a local gym on Sunday morning. I looked down at my right hand as we left the parking lot and was horrified to see the pear shape solitaire was missing from my ring. Even after searching in all the obvious places including a bin of wet, dirty towels, it was nowhere to be found.
I reported the loss to my insurance company and within a few weeks they calculated the replacement value of a stone of similar size and quality and paid that amount to my jeweller, inclusive of taxes. If I hadn’t intended to replace the stone, I could have received a personal cheque minus the taxes.
Prices for floaters and endorsements vary depending on the item, the insurance company you choose, where you live and where the item will be kept. There are no deductibles and frequently you get the option of having the insurance company replace the item for you.
To make sure your recently acquired valuables are adequately protected, the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I) makes the following five suggestions:
Contact your insurance company immediately: Let the company representative know that you now own a new piece of jewelry or other expensive item. Find out how much coverage you have under your current policy and whether additional insurance is needed.
Keep a copy of the store receipt: Forward a copy of the receipt to your insurer so that the company knows the current retail value of the item. Keep a copy for yourself and include it with your home inventory.
Have jewelry appraised: New jewelry should come with an appraisal. Heirlooms and antique jewelry will have to be appraised for their dollar value. It is important that expensive items be appraised properly because if you purchase a floater, you will pay a premium based on the appraised value and, in the event of a claim, be compensated for this dollar amount.
Take a photo or video of the item: With a camera in every smartphone, keeping a visual record of all of your personal possessions is easier than ever. If you use a video camera, you can also provide a verbal description of the item or collection. This helps to document your loss and speed up the claims process. It is also useful for documenting antique and unusual items.
Add the item to your home inventory: A home inventory can help you purchase the correct amount of insurance and speed up the claims process when there is a loss. To make creating your inventory as easy as possible, you can use the I.I.I.’s free Web-based home inventory software, Know Your Stuff® – Home Inventory. You can also download the free app for iPhones and Androids.
Store valuables in a secure location: Protect your jewellery by storing it in a secure location in your home. If you don’t wear the item regularly or are saving it for a family member, consider keeping it in a safe deposit box. You may save money on the cost of insuring it, as some companies offer “in vault” coverage.
Do you have any other ideas how to protect your valuables? Send us an email to socialmedia@saskpension.com. If your idea is posted, your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card. And remember to put a dollar in the retirement savings jar every time you take steps to ensure your valuables are properly documented and stored in accordance with the suggestions above.
If you would like to send us other money saving ideas, here are the themes for the next three weeks:
If you have a give-away pile accumulating in your basement or garage, Marc Saltzman says you may be throwing away items that could be be sold on Kijiji or Craigslist.
Ellen Roseman reports on how ignoring a 3-cent balance affected a reader’s credit rating so she couldn’t get the mortgage she needed for her new house.
Jim Yih concludes Freedom 35 is possible but not likely unless you have sufficient passive income to support your lifestyle.
And if you are thinking about giving up on savings altogether, MoneySense editor Jonathan Chevreau says you may also be giving up the chance for financial independence while you’re still young enough to enjoy it.
Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Send us an email with the information to socialmedia@saskpension.com and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.
When I worked in a building that was linked by a tunnel to the Toronto Eaton Centre, I did all my shopping for clothes, gifts and even household items on my lunch breaks. Because I was in and out of the mall almost every day, I knew how much items I was interested in cost and when there was a great sale.
But since I started working from home almost eight years ago, shopping has become a chore. I have to get into my car and drive somewhere which wastes a great deal of time that could be better spent doing client work.
So now I am the poster child for online shopping. I particularly like that I can send orders to out-of-town family members directly without having to wrap and mail them myself.
However, if you shop online there are some basic things you need to know to ensure you get good value:
Real cost: If you are shopping online for the convenience or because there is no retail outlet selling what you want nearby, you may be prepared to pay a premium. Otherwise, before you add that great purse to your shopping cart, find out what the regular and sale prices are in a “bricks and mortar” store.
Shipping: “Free shipping” is the magic mantra of online shopping. But read the fine print. Even if you think you qualify, you could be in for a surprise. For example, Amazon.ca has free super saver shipping if you spend more than $25 but low-priced gently used books are not included. Items shipped for free may also take longer to arrive. Some U.S. vendors ship to Canada but don’t forget to factor in taxes, duty and currency conversion.
Return policy: Be very careful when you buy shoes and clothes online. I have trouble finding shoes that fit so I only order shoes online if I have tried them in a store and they are cheaper or available in a colour I can’t get locally. If there is a chance that you may need to exchange or return your order, make sure you understand how long you have, how much it will cost and whether you will get a credit or your money back. Shopping online is no bargain if unsuitable items cost more to return than they are worth or end up in the give-away bag.
Payment: Before providing your credit card number or other financial information, make sure the merchant has a secure transaction system. Most Internet browsers indicate when you are using a secure Internet link. Look for one or both of these clues:
An icon, often a lock or key somewhere on the outer edge of your browser window; the lock should be in the locked position and the key should be unbroken.
Whether the website address begins with https:// — the s indicates that the site is secure.
Personal information: Never deal with vendors who do not post a privacy policy committing them to protecting your personal information. For many Internet vendors, your personal information is as important as the money you pay for a product or service. Make sure you know why vendors are asking for information and what they intend to use it for. Ask yourself whether it is reasonable for the vendor to use your information in this way. Canadian companies are subject to privacy laws.
Online auctions: Shopping on online auction sites like eBay can be exciting and you may get a great deal. But it’s important to know what you are purchasing and get a description in writing in case the item doesn’t meet your expectations. Keep in mind that when you are buying from a private individual consumer protection laws may not apply. Better sites will keep records of customer satisfaction and should also have dispute resolution mechanisms.
Finally, if you are buying from the United States or another country outside of Canada ensure that products meet Canadian Safety Standards and that if there is a warranty, it will be honoured in Canada.
Do you have any other hints about how to maximize value when you shop online? Send us an email to socialmedia@saskpension.com. If your idea is posted, your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card. And remember to put a dollar in the retirement savings jar every time you get a great deal when you shop online.
If you would like to send us other money saving ideas, here are the themes for the next three weeks:
With RRSP season in full swing, the blogosphere and more traditional media are chock full of advice for those of you who resolved to spend less and save more in 2013.
Live for today or save for tomorrow? How do you balance small pleasures with big investments? Toronto Star consumer columnist Ellen Roseman reports on responses from her readers when she posted a story on millionaire Kevin O’Leary’s advice to stop buying coffee, lunches, magazines and cigarettes.
Of course, having enough money is not the only key to a happy retirement. You have to figure out what to do with your time. Tim Stubbs recently found himself with an extra 10 hours a week (wouldn’t that be nice!) when his gig as a Regina School Board Trustee ended. On “Canadian Dream: Free at 45” he writes about how he plans to spend his new-found “free time.”
