Shopaholic? Me?

What does the term life insurance mean?

It is one thing to assume that it means if you die, you are cover and your dependants receive some cash from your insurers but the reality is far from that. You can have criticallife insurance, ie if you are diagnosed terminal or for some reason cannot work, this policy would cover you but most do not include this extra. You also pay a ridiculous amount for it. Personally, I think if you put the amount you would pay the insurance away instead of paying premiums, you have a better chance of being financially better off. Although you never know as your accident could happen within days of taking out your insurance. Then again, most will not cover you for a period of time eg the first 3 months! You could have medical life, this is where they cover your medical bills for private health care. Again expensive but it does cover MOST of your medical bills. Check about dental and optical as often they are separate yet again. And last but not least they only pay out for life insurance is certain cases of death, ie they wont pay if they think it was suicide!

As with all insurance read the very fine and tiny print!

It is amazing how suddenly everyone wants you to sell your gold and more interestingly it is very hard to discover what they want to actually pay for it. Now if you could buy gold online at the price they want to buy it at, you would be making a very good investment especially as I don’t think the price of gold has dipped in the last couple of decades despite the recession and bad economies.

Mind you, I could follow my son’s advice and go to the end of the rainbow to find the pot of gold… but would I just flog it? Probably but I would search online and off for the best rate!

It’s that time again, when you realise that your mortgage introductory rate is up and you need to shop around again. However it is not simply about getting the best rate because there are a whole load of other factors to consider including:-

• Solicitor Fees
• Arrangement Fees
• cheap term life insurance quotes
• Time taken to sort it all out

And who knows what else. And when you realise it costs hundreds if not thousands of quid, then you know you need to be able to justify the saving on the interest fees against these costs. And if you can do that… well then it is time to change your mortgage.

I travelled recently and like thousands if not millions of people had cancelled flights – both ways. What really irked me was the fact that we thought we had protection but all we can get from our insurance is £20 for a “delay” despite the fact we had to buy new flights both ways and at an exhorbitant cost. At least term life insurance is a bit more basic and you shouldn’t be so easily screwed off. They have to pay at the end of the term or if you die! Just don’t stop paying or you lose everything cover and whatever you paid to date, but as I said better than travel insurance that you have to keep your mind at rest and then find out the worst!

A while back we decided to save up any money we would have spent on health insurance as a medical fund (in case we get sick). You know, we were playing the odds that we will maintain good health. What my hubby was not counting on was my dipping into the fund to go er shopping for Christmas. Hubby was not too pleased to say the least. Perhaps we should have gone with low cost health insurance rather than our savings. Well… as I said… better than a loan especially in the current financial economic situation.

Apparently it makes sense to double check your insurance online before renewing your annual subscription. The reality is that even if you renew with your own insurers, you might still make savings by checking it as a new customer rather than simply renew. I must say I am grateful to my brother for noticing that it makes sense to check, as every year we make savings just by checking our insurance quote. You would think that loyalty would count for something… but apparently not. And personally I also think that “no claim bonus discounts” are an excuse to over charge people… but that is just my opinion.

Since my post Helping Aids, I have been advised that people can apply for social security disability benefits which can help go towards the extra costs linked to disabilities. There are companies that can help you apply for the benefits or you can head to social services for advice.

I think it is great that you can get financial help for disabilities. My only fear is abuse of the system, but that is always bound to happen with benefits. People try to abuse where they can and as a tax payer, I obviously object to the abuse. I think I will just go shopping to take my mind off the fact that there is a bad side to life too!!

It is amazing how much you can save when you compare prices. Take my dad, he decided to compare life insurance and it actually saved him a small bundle. The thing is that, this is something you buy every year and so in essence you are saving that amount every year. It quickly adds up. Now if you compare your insurances every year and manage to get it further reduced every year, then you know you are saving lots of money to spend on other things. Cool Huh!

Now what should I spend them on?

Talking about travel, the one thing I truely believe in is having travel insurance. First of all if the worst happens at least you are covered and not stranded in some strange country. Trust me, I have been robbed in Amsterdam, sick in Hong Kong (food poisoning), and lost luggages in many a country!!

At least if you have insurance and either keep the receipts or have proof of all your purchases (credit card bill), then perhaps you stand a chance of being able to replace all your goodies. I know I would have been devastated if after my trip to Milan I lost all my shoes. Mind you my favourite pairs did travel in my handluggage to prevent them getting lost!! Still the thought of another trip to replace them would be of some condolence!

The important bit is having enough insurance. I mean having a £300 lost luggage allowance when it was a Louis Vuitton Bag and Manolo shoes simply won’t cover it. So do your bit and trawl for insurance quotes before choosing one. Last but not least… if you travel more than once a year, annual insurance is always a better financial option.

I can already feel it. The island of man is gearing up for the TT. Roads are being maintained, signs are being put up, there are adverts for motorcycle accident attorneys (which come in really useful especially for Mad Sunday) and people are already having trouble finding accomodation for the duration. The best bit about it is there is a buzz in the air. The place becomes alive with activity. Shops open solely for the 2 week period of TT (and some stay open for the summer too if we are lucky). It is a wonderful time around the TT in the Isle of Man. Now if it were only like that the whole year round. I heard it used to be in a time when it was popular to holiday at home!