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So I was sitting down to write my blog and was trying to think what pearls of wisdom I could espouse this time around. I realized that I have been saving money for a while now on my groceries with very little effort and why not share that with you.

It is not very often that I get on the wagon and become political, but this is definitely one time that I am at the front of the wagon. For some reason, there are those who believe that it would be a good idea to impose a logistical nightmare of compliance and disclosure to a point that is completely inane.

For the last twenty-five years I have worked with many people from all backgrounds, I have assisted families in meeting their financial objectives, protecting them against financial ruin when catastrophe strikes and become Uncle Brian to many children.

When I first started in the financial world as an insurance salesperson, I can recall being encouraged to speak with everyone about life insurance – from family members to complete strangers. In fact, I remember my first manager relating a story of how he picked up a client after he had an accident with them that was his fault.

First let me state that in many ways, this blog entry is self-serving, but it also should give a very clear reason why a client should refer people to people they do business with.

Let’s first look at the three parts to a referral situation.
1) The Provider: This is the person or the entity that is providing the product and/or service.
2) The Referrer: This is your new client who has the initial experience with your service
3) The Referee: This is the associated individual(s) who is referred to you to experience your
product and or service.

Yet again, I have come across a situation with a retiring couple where what they thought would happen is definitely not going to happen. For many years Mr and Mrs had been putting money into a life insurance contract that was supposed to pay them enough to retire on. This was the story that was told to me when I first met with Mr and Mrs. I asked to see the plan that was to be a miracle and was not surprised to see that it was a Universal Life insurance plan with an annually increasing cost of insurance.

As I often do, I was reading some interesting information on the internet from Gordon Powers in MSN Money from September 22, 2012. I have included the article here and recommend you speak with your parents about this if you have not already done so and then give me a call.

"Insurance experts call for a new tax-deferred savings vehicle to offset the costs of long-term health care.

Right about now, many people are taking stock of their money and the potential tax owing and preparing to make a last minute contribution to their RRSP. Some will line up at the local deposit taking institution on Friday and the person on the other side of the counter will offer sage advice (that would be sarcasm) and the deposit will find its way into the flavor of the month. Others will line up to borrow money in order to fulfill this media “should” and make a contribution.

First, I hope that everyone had a superb holiday season and are back into the swing of things.

I have been promoting the use of a service referred to as NoPanicComputing for small businesses to address their IT needs for a while now. Goodness knows the amount of money that I have saved as a result of their services and support. Their CEO, Larry Keating, has a blog that is in The Huffington Post and today’s blog is a very interesting one. Although I have not personally used the K9 software he speaks of, I am very confident in his recommendation. Please see the post below,

The following is an article taken from MSN Money on Sat, 24 Nov 2012 by Gabrielle Brassard-Lecours I think it is a phenomenal reminder as we embark on a new year to remember some simple things like this.

It is that time again when you cannot get away from the commercial hype of the season. Everywhere you go, everything you listen to and all that you see is drumming into your head that it is time to spend, spend, and spend.

When I work with people and get them to do some budgeting with their expenses, I often tell them to track their expenses in December and January. Why, because they are often your most expensive and least expensive months respectively. After all, who wants to be a Scrooge and how few of us have money left over for luxuries in January?