A Closer Look: Industrial Alliance’s Unique Mortgage Insurance Solutions

Industrial Alliance has term mortgage insurance plans that  provide various unique benefits to take advantage of.

A home is the biggest investment most people make in their lifetime, so its imperative that you cover your investment and protect your family in case of  financial catastrophe.

7 tips to boost your health condition instantly

The cost of your health insurance policy premium depends on a number of factors like your age, the benefits you choose or your health status. The first two values are usually both quite firmly defined, but the condition of your health can be improved immensely without spending too much additional time or money. If you've always wanted to improve your health condition, follow all or some of our tips and feel the difference for yourself!

Hydration

Do you drink enough? Being hydrated or dehydrated influences not just how you feel, but also your efficiency. Long term dehydration often leads to skin problems, loss of appetite, worse physical performance, trouble concentrating or even to a stroke, to name a few. Staying hydrated is a bit tricky, because adults developed the nasty habit of ignoring the early signals of thirst and drink only when the thirst (dehydration) fully develops. In fact for every 16 pounds of your weight you should drink 10 fl oz (1 big glass) of fluids every day, while spirits, wine, coffee and black tea don't count in at all and beer contributes to your daily intake only by half of its quantity. (We are of course not suggesting that you should drink beer twice as much.)

Proper meal timing

If you often feel tired even though you don't usually skip meals, try to eat 6 light meals a day instead of just 3 big meals. Your blood sugar will keep quite high during the whole day which should help you to stay concentrated on what you are doing. Also eating more times smaller amounts of food helps to get slimmer, so it this is one of your goals, go for it!

Sleep less

If you think you sleep enough but still feel tired and sleepy during the day, or if you lie in bed for ages, not able to fall asleep, try the following trick. The following night go to sleep later than you normally do and get up after only 5 hours. If you slept the whole time, add additional 30 minutes the following night and if you sleep again the whole time, keep adding 30 minutes at a time, until you actually find the right amount of sleep time for you. The important thing is that you sleep the whole time. If you can't, shorten the time you spend in bed. You should experience much more energy during the day and getting to sleep should not be a problem anymore.

Quit smoking

What actually happens in human body after the last cigarette? Within 8 hours, carbon monoxide level in blood drops to normal, while oxygen in blood increases back to normal. After 24 hours, the chance of a heart attack decreases. After 48 hours the nerve endings begin to re-growth and the ability to smell and taste improves drastically. After about one month after the last cigarette, coughing disappear, sinuses are clean again and lung function increases. This 23 minutes presentation might help you to make the final decision, so give it a try!

Get a pet

Why you might ask? According to the many studies, having a pet (especially a dog) actually decreases your blood pressure and heart rate! How is that possible? One way to look at it is the increased exercise that comes with caring for a pet. Another thing is the calming influence of another living creature - especially for those living alone.

Take a vacation

Of course taking some time of every year or even a few time a year contributes to your health in many ways, but to be more specific - taking a vacation is very good for your heart! According to a study at The State University of New York, middle-age women who didn't take frequent vacations have 8x the risk of either having a heart attack or dying of heart disease.

Laugh out loud

You've surely heard of this one: laughing improves your health. But how exactly? For one, laughter reduces the stress hormones that have been linked to heart disease. It also lowers the blood pressure and prevents the heart attack by making your blood vessels expand.

7 Steps to Getting the Cheapest Term Life Insurance in Canada

We all know that most people don't spend their days thinking about life insurance, but if they did they would see that term life insurance rates vary widely from company to company, and that taking the time to investigate their options could translate into thousands of dollars worth of savings for them and their families.

The following 7 steps make sure you'll be several steps ahead of "most people". They will help you cover your bases and make sure you're always paying the lowest life insurance price possible.

A Closer Look: HSBC Term Life Insurance

In just minutes, you and your family can enjoy peace of mind for the next 10 or 20 years. Simply create a personal quote, answer a few questions, then enjoy instant coverage, all online. It's quick, it's convenient, it's HSBC.

-Source: HSBC Insurance

These HSBC term life policies are underwritten by Household Life Insurance Company and, in keeping with convenience for the insurance consumer on the run, they come with only seven health questions. However, this rapid-fire solution comes with a heavy price. The premiums are almost double the rate of the competition.

Life Insurance: Are Canadians Over Insured?

Canada is thought to be a conservative nation and part of conservatism is the prudent planning it takes to purchase life insurance, maybe that's why 70% of Canadians have some sort of life insurance policy. While life insurance forms the backbone for most sound financial plans in Canada, we wondered if other nations around the world think so.

Below is a chart highlighting what percentage of a nations population has some sort of life insurance plan, whether that be group or individual:

The Top 5 Life Insurance Rip-offs

careful before you sign
photo by Christian Birmele

In the land of life insurance, it's important to be cautious and inoculate yourself against the traps that exist in the business. When it comes to your financial future, knowledge truly is power, so we hope that by exposing these rip-offs, you'll become a more powerful and savy life insurance consumer.

A Closer Look: CPP Term Plans

Since June 2006, Canadian Protection Plan [CPP] has offered various term life insurance plans underwritten by Unity Life. The flagship plans in CPP's lineup are Deferred Term, Simplified Term and Simplified Term Plus.They are all available without a medical and can be purchased online or through a broker.

The flagship plans in CPP's lineup are Deferred Term, Simplified Term and Simplified Term Plus.They are all available without a medical and can be purchased online, or through a broker.

Before you choose a plan that works for you, take a closer look and see what each one means for your financial future.

Read the rest of the article A Closer Look: CPP Term Plans.

10 tips that keep your wallet full

Is the thought of financial crisis troubling you? Do you want to spend less?
No need to be worried: with the following tips you will be able to cut on expenses in no time. 

I. Grocery shopping
Don’t ever shop on empty stomach! That way the advertisement is especially tempting. Before you leave home, make a shopping list and stick to it.
Match up the prices per pound or ounce to find the best deal. If you look around the shelf, you will note that cheaper items are located at harder to reach locations, usually at the bottoms of shelves. More expensive goods would be presented in front of your eyes. If you can tell the difference between a $9 bottle of wine and a $30 bottle of wine blindfolded, buy the more expensive one. If you can’t, stick to the $9 one. Having your shopping list ready, don’t fall into the trap of buying stuff because it’s cheap.

II. Water
Do you really need to pick up your favourite bottled water every day? By filtering your tap water you save both money and you also help the environment. Sure: recycling all the plastic bottles is one way to go, but not creating the waste works even better.

III. Coffee
Can’t live without caffeine? Most people can’t. But is it worth paying for your coffee every morning? Learn to make coffee yourself and save a lot.

IV. Snacks
The breakfast long forgotten and your lunch break far away: time for some snack. Chocolate bar might be tasty, but eating it every day is no good to your health and wallet. Try fruits and veggies instead. Getting slimmer is just another side effect.

V. Movies & Cable
A night out at the movies is not particularly cheap. It can be between $20 and $30, including popcorn. On the other hand, for $9/months you can watch all the movies you like on Netflix. But when you do finally sit down and watch TV, do you go through all the channels you have available?
Have a look at what you are actually paying for and get rid of all those channels you have no use for.

VI. Music CDs
Do you still keep collecting expensive new released CDs for one or two songs? Why don’t you check out the on-line services allowing you to download just the songs you like? iTunes or Amazon let you download them for under $1 per song.

VII. Phone
While some people may be able to live without a cell phone quite happily, most of us can’t either for personal or professional reasons. But having a cell phone doesn’t have to be a burden. Don’t stay with your cell network provider only because of loyalty. If you find a better plan with another company, go for it. Also consider pay as you go.

VIII. Gas
For busy professionals, having a car although costly is a necessity. Because the use of gas differs significantly, you should look up the fuel efficiency of gas online before you make the purchase. What you save on a single refill may not be a lot, but over the years the savings are huge.

IX. Smoking
Quitting smoking not possible for you at the moment? Try rolling tobacco instead. Switching to rolling tobacco saves you plenty of money (up to 50%), since you tend to use less tobacco per cigarette. Give it a try!

X. Credit cards
Having a credit card could be a real advantage in unforeseen situations when you are short of cash. On the other hand, that tiny bit of plastic can really make your life costly and difficult, when you are unable to repay it on time. Most people keep using their credit cards only out of a habit. Think differently: close all your credit card accounts except for one and live on what you make! Or do you really enjoy paying the interest rate every time you pay with that piece of plastic?

I hope these tips help you save money. They've helped me and my friends afford wonderful family vacations and cruises. Live well and smart. Don't forget the best things in life are free - time with your friend and family. Make the most out of life and don't work yourself to death.

I have my office working on a four day work week and they love it. More time to enjoy life and more time for friends and family.

BMO Life Assurance Re-Pricing Term Life Plans

AIG Life Canada was once very aggressive in the term life market and its successor, BMO Life Assurance, has followed suit by re-pricing both its Term 10 and Term 20 policies, effective May 1st.

BMO Life Assurance, has followed suit by re-pricing both its Term 10 and Term 20 policies, effective May 1st.

Non-Medical Life Insurance Consumer Report

Couple by Masahiro Hayata

Non-medical life insurance plans can be purchased instantly, without medical exams. No doctors or nurses will need to visit. You just need to answer yes or no to a series of questions. Traditionally, only a limited number of companies offered these types of plans in Canada, but competition is heating up among insurance providers.

Non-medical life insurance plans can be purchased instantly, without medical exams.

Read the full article Non-Medical Life Insurance Consumer Report.

Life Insurance, Underwriting and Bankruptcy

It's standard practice for insurance companies to determine your life insurance premiums based on several influencing factors. These variables include the following:

• Your age
• Gender
• Whether you smoke or not
• Overall health
• Family history for disease and medical conditions

Unfortunately, with the current economic crisis, a new factor that could influence premiums is having more and more impact on more and more Canadians everyday–bankruptcy.