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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Times Advocate, 2008-01-30, Page 13Wednesday, January 30, 2008 Times–Advocate 13 Financial tips for snowbirds When feeding the blues is (NC)—Thousands of Canadians 'snowbirds' fly south each winter to escape the cold and enjoy the warm weather south of the border. If you're among them, take note of these important financial precautions offered by Patricia Lovett Reid, senior vice president of TD Waterhouse Canada Inc: Ensure your will is up to date. If you own property or other assets in the U.S. or another country, make sure the terms of your will are valid there. Arrange power of attor- ney to allow someone to manage your affairs in case you're incapacitated. You should have powers of attor- ney for financial matters and for medical and person- al care or the equivalent in your province. Review your investment portfolio. Will any invest- ments mature while you're away? If so, you may want to leave instructions as to how they should be rein- vested. Purchase adequate health insurance. Medical care out- side Canada can be extremely expensive. Set up access to invest- ment and banking accounts. Options include Internet access, automated tele- phone services, and person- al telephone contact. Make arrangements Arrange for bill payments. Make a list of bills that will come due, and determine how to deal with them. If you can't make payments through post-date bill pay- ment from a bank account or through Internet or tele- phone banking, have some- one pay them for you. Make sure you'll have access to cash. This may be as simple as taking an auto- mated banking machine (ABM) card with you. You could also take travellers' cheques or transfer cash from Canada to a financial institution at your destina- tion. Be sure to pack the names and numbers of your Canadian financial institu- tions. Toll-free numbers are usually available for those who winter in the U.S. "Following these easy steps will give snowbirds peace of mind, knowing their financial needs are taken care of so they can relax and enjoy their time away with confidence," says Lovett -Reid. Resolve to improve financial fitness (NC)—A favourite New Year's resolution for many people is to improve their level of physi- cal fitness. This year, why not resolve to improve the fitness level of your investments too? Here are a few suggestions from the financial planning experts at TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. Consolidate for success. If you have accounts at different institutions, managing investments and finances can be diffi- cult. Consider consolidating accounts at one institution to get a better handle on your finances. You'll have fewer statements to deal with, and it will be much easier to see the "big picture" of your assets and how they're per- forming. Contribute the maximum to your RSR Making your maximum annual RSP contri- bution should be one of your key priorities. Try to contribute early in the year. The sooner you get money into an RSP, the longer it has to grow while sheltered from tax. If you don't IHVE have the entire lump sum now, a pre -autho- rized plan will let you make regular contribu- tions throughout the year. Be tax -smart. Plan now to reduce taxes to the extent possi- ble and invest tax -effectively. Keep tax breaks for capital gains and dividends in mind when you make investment deci- sions. And remember that the dividend tax credit has been increased. Taxation can also affect how you allocate investments inside and outside � 1' I) -I FL., 1 r > your RSP. Whip your portfolio into shape. Review your investments. Are they still meeting your goals? Is performance in line with your expectations? Is your portfolio diver- sified? If you're not getting what you need from your investments — including your RSP — it may be time to make changes. Know where you want to go in 2008. As your life and financial circumstances change, it's important that your portfolio keep pace. more than the munchies (NC)—Despite New Year's diet resolutions, junk foods and comfort foods hit the spot on cold and dark winter days. Overeating during the long festive season, or during win- ter, is a common complaint. However, there are people for whom overeating is a serious year- round concern. Tom Peplar is one of these peo- ple. On any given evening, Peplar drives to three or four different fast food outlets, piling bags of fries, burgers, donuts and bagels onto the passenger seat. Sometimes he makes it home before beginning to consume the food. Sometimes he doesn't. Genetically predisposed Binge eating disorder (BED) is readily recognized by healthcare providers as affecting a large num- ber of people, almost evenly divided between men and women. Individuals with BED are often genetically predisposed to weigh more than the "average" person, let alone the unrealistic cultural ideal. There are two distinctive kinds of bing- ing; binging caused by restrictive eat- ing, and bing- ing used to comfort oneself emotionally, as a distraction or as a numbing tactic. "Due to cul- turally rein- forced body dissatisfaction, many people diet, making themselves hungry, and then binge in response to that hunger." says Merryl Bear, director of the National Eating Rural mail delivery, a Canada Post priority OTTAWA - Canada Post Corporation would like to firmly dispel any misconceptions that might have arisen, from recent media reports or other sources, about the future of rural mail deliv- ery. We would like to reiterate our commitment to rural mail delivery and to assure our customers that the ongoing Rural Mail Safety Review is not an attempt to reduce service in rural Canada. It is aimed at providing our Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers (RSMC) a workplace free of undue risk. Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC or Labour Canada) has ruled on 40 workplace safety cases as a result of RSMC complaints. Our safety review is a direct follow up of those rulings. We continue receiving workplace safety complaints from RSMCs; to date we have received over 1300. These complaints were backed by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, which represents the RSMCs and validated by health and safety experts at HRSDC. Also, our RSMCs have been involved in 68 accidents since January 2004. As a responsible employer and respected service provider Canada Post is morally obliged and legally required to address this issue. Not a cost cutting measurement — a commitment to employees The federal government has directed us to maintain rural mail delivery while respecting all applic- able safety laws. We intend to maintain rural mail service as always. We consider changing a customer's mode of delivery only as the last option when the safety of our mail carrier is in question. The Rural Mail Safety Review could cost Canada Post up to $500 mil- lion over the next five years. This is clearly not a cost cutting measure but an expression of our commit- ment to employee safety. This money is not spent merely on assessing whether or not a mailbox presents a delivery safety hazard but also to exhaust all possible avenues to keep serving rural mail- boxes and ensure customer conve- nience. All our RSMC vehicles are equipped with Canada Post signs and flashing amber lights. We pro- vide paid assistants to RSMCs so delivering to mailboxes doesn't pose an ergonomic problem of reaching out from the driver's seat to the passenger side window. Wherever needed, we install and maintain community mailboxes within short distances of cus- tomers' homes. There are over 843,000 rural mail boxes in Canada. They are served by over 6,600 RSMCs. RSMCs pull their vehicles over at each rural mailbox, deposit the mail and then merge back into traffic to proceed to the next address. Increased traffic volumes, the nature of roads (narrow or no shoulder), visual obstructions like curves and hills, are just some of the conditions that increase the risk of accident during mail deliv- ery. Since an RSMC repeats the mail delivery sequence more than a hundred times on each mail route every day, the probability of an accident increases exponential- ly. Matters become worse in the winter when snow banks narrow down the road and block the view of oncoming traffic. Affected customers are notified We hired internationally renowned traffic safety experts, who have been recognized by the federal government for their con- tribution, to develop a set of crite- ria to determine whether or not delivering to a rural mailbox poses an undue risk to the mail carrier. The criteria consider various fac- tors such as road conditions, traffic volume and clarity of view for oncoming traffic. During the review Canada Post informs each and every customer affected of all the steps throughout the process by letters, newspaper advertisements and in-person meetings. Disorder Information Centre, www.nedic. ca. "The person may also eat for emotional reasons: to soothe them- selves, to avoid uncomfortable situ- ations or to numb uncomfortable feelings." Feelings of shame and embarrassment are prominent among people who binge -eat. Help and support for overcoming Overcoming binge eating is large- ly dependent on understanding why it happens, says Anne Elliot, pro- gram director at Sheena's Place in Toronto, which offers support groups for binge eaters. Therapists work on helping binge eaters to become aware of feelings that accompany the urge to binge. Approaches to dealing with binging include teaching individuals to examine relationships with family and friends, and the way in which they respond to difficult situations. Planned and balanced meals and snacks throughout the day can also help binge eaters normalize how they eat. VALENTINES FEB. 14/08 Treat your sweetheart to our delicious Valentine's Day Dinner. 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