Personal Finance and Money Management

While surfing the web this past week, I came across an article on umbrella insurance and why some people should get it. I was curious, so I decided to look into it a bit more.

I don’t personally know of anyone who has an umbrella insurance policy, but then again I don’t go around asking people about their insurance coverage. It does seem like a useful insurance policy that can provide important protection, so I want to share what I learned.

What is umbrella insurance?

Umbrella insurance is basically extra liability coverage. Ins

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The big news on the economic front is that the Federal Reserve has decided to launch a second round of “quantitative easing” – dubbed QE2. If you’re not familiar with the concept of quantitative easing, Jim at Bargaineering has a nice overview.

The ultimate goal of QE2 is to pump more money into our financial system to avoid deflation. On Thursday, USA Today took a closer look at what this is likely to mean to you.

A weaker dollar

If the Fed starts circulating more dollars, then it stands to reason that each dollar with be worth less. If you’re a manufacturer, this is good news, as it makes US exports cheaper. Of course

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Buying a car is the second largest purchase most consumers will ever make.  If you are in the market for a vehicle, one of the primary questions to start with is whether to buy a new car or used car.  (Or did you forget to even ask this question?)

Different situations – effectively, different people – dictate different actions. Here are six individual situations on whether to buy new or used:

Two People Who Should Buy New Cars

It seems that every financial study today suggests that Canadians are not saving enough money for retirement. One of the biggest fears for anyone especially retirees is the fear that you will run out of money.

This was a real outcome for Peter who retired with $1.2 million in RRSPs and investments back in 2007. At the time, Peter’s small pension along with his early CPP would be far from enough money to create retirement income. He went to a broker who suggested that he could invest into some income trusts, dividend stocks and income mutual funds to generate an income of $72,000 per year. That translated into a 6% withdrawal rate.

Things were going OK until the financial crisis hit in 2008 when his portfolio took more than a 30% drop to about $850,000. H

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