My wife is amazing.  You see, she not only raises our three young children, but holds down a part time job as a cheap auto insurance saleswoman.  This not only takes up most of her spare time, but it lets her get out of the house and have a break from the kids.

I am just amazed at her ability to keep everything straight when it comes to knowing a cheap car insurance rate from a quote.  I know that I would have no idea what to do and it would be too confusing for me.

Take for example classic car insurance: for me, I would think that it the original car insurance policy that you get.

Well, I would be wrong.  But somehow she is able to keep everything straight.  I guess that is why she is the car insurance specialist and I am not.

When I was finished high school, I decided that I wanted to work for a year or two to earn money for tuition, before returning for university. I wanted a good job, mainly one that I could work at during the day, so that I would still have my weekends and evenings free.

I was hired after my very first interview, to sell car insurance Toronto. It sounded like it would be an alright job, although I knew it might get boring fairly quickly. I will admit that the job itself did get rather tedious, but I liked the people that I worked with and they made the job fun.

I gave car insurance quote after auto insurance quote and by the end of the two years, I am pretty sure that I could quote just about anything off the top of my head. I made enough money to pay for four years of school, but it was hard to say goodbye to the extended “family” that I had for the past two years.

When we lived at our old house my ex husband was hit by a drunk driver who hit him and then fled the scene. It was a Sunday morning and he was on his way to the gas station where we always bought the Sunday paper and chocolate milk and donuts. For some reason he was driving my mom’s car, probably because ours wasn’t working.

Thank goodness she had great car insurance! He had the right of way and as he was crossing the intersection, the drunk ran her red light and smashed into the side of mom’s car. It was a good thing that mom had full coverage auto insurance on that car since the other driver left the scene.

Mom was able to get another car pretty quickly after the accident and the agent gave her several new auto insurance quotes in order to find one that fit her needs.

I will never again take advantage of the chance that I am covered by medical insurance ever again. As a single mom on a low income, I have decent enough coverage, but it is not enough. When I had a little extra money, I bought some temporary insurance to tide us over until I could further decide what to do.

When my daughter fell out of a tree and broke her arm, I breathed a sigh of relief for this coverage on the way to the hospital. Rather than worry about money, I knew I was able to just be there to comfort and reassure her that she was going to be alright.

I later found out that my temporary insurance had run out only two weeks before. I berated myself for letting this happen, as my medical bills were now much higher than the insurance would have been. Sometimes I wish that I did not have to learn everything the hard way.

I am trying to grow up and become an adult, but I am finding it very hard. I wish that it were as easy as I had dreamed it would be when I was younger. I am only making it on my own because of my mother’s annuity. I have had to go without a lot of things since moving out from home, but there are certain things that mom won’t let me go without.

One of those things is health insurance. She said that in order to be responsible everyone should have this kind of coverage because otherwise they were not thinking about what they could put their families through. She told me to get her a health insurance quote and that she would pay for it.

I also got a car insurance quote and asked if she would pay this, as well. She did, but I have to pay her back for it and she told me that I was either going to have to get another job or cut back on some of my luxuries. I did both and am starting to make it okay on my own. I am happy to say that I will not have to move back in with mom.

The other day, a man came to our door trying to sell individual medical insurance. I politely refused and turned him away, but he really got me to thinking about what type of insurance that I currently had and what kind of coverage I was currently holding. I guess my medical insurance is always something that I have taken for granted.

I decided to take a deeper look into it and called my insurance company. I found out that my accident health insurance had expired more than three years ago. It is a wonder that I never got into an accident in that three years, and I quickly repurchased the needed insurance.

The customer service representative that I was talking to also informed me about the introductory offer for individual vision insurance plans. The offer sounded really good and I decided to purchase this as well. I can sleep better now, knowing that my coverage is all intact and I will be ok if something does happen.

Well, I was looking at the list of top franchise opportunities for 2007 and I was amazed that some of the companies that I thought would be on there were not present.  I suppose that is the same as every year - we have our predictions, but they don’t always come true.

Perhaps my biggest surprise was that Starbucks didn’t make the list.  Now, I have seen them pop up all over in my home town this past year, and five years ago, we didn’t even have one.  Now, almost every corner has one.  After I did some research, I found out that you cannot own a Starbucks franchise - they are not available to the public.  Guess I will have to dream of owning another coffee shop instead.

There was also a section on the fastest growing franchises that I skimmed over.  I was really surprised to see a lot of commercial cleaning companies on the list - I never realized that there was so much growth in that sector.

Well, another year gone by, and some of my predictions I made at the end of last year ended up on the list.  I will have to sit down and predict what will happen next year - I am sure there will be a few more surprises at this time next year.

With the prices changing so much year to year, for most of us this is becoming a yearly ritual - to see what we can find for low cost car insurance.  With the advent of the Internet this shopping around has become much easier - you can now save yourself some money from the comfort of your own home.

I always try to make a point to do a little research regarding the car insurance types available to me.  Did you know that there are five general types of car insurance?  I had no idea, until I did the research.  Learning the terminology and types of coverage are essential to ensure that you get the best deal possible.

So if you are looking for some car insurance - take the time to learn your options.  If you know what is available, and what the prices are in the market, you will be able to make a smart, informed purchase - and keep some money in your pocket.

I am concerned about your health.  Sure, I don’t know how old you are and whether or not you have any types of health problems, but as we all get older we run into different health conditions.  Call it a byproduct of aging, but it is something you will have to face.

What really concerns me is the financial burden you will experience due to your health.  Some of the blogs I have read have stated that you may need to spend upwards of $50,000 per year to get the long term care you need.  Is your retirement savings prepared for that?

Sadly, most people can’t handle the extra expenses generated due to their bad health.  Quite a few of them end up in poverty, or end up depending on their families to pay their health costs.

Save your families from the financial burden of your health - get some insurance to cover your long term medical bills.  The price for long term care insurance is definitely worth the piece of mind - you will feel a sense of relief that you will be taken care of should your health deteriorate.

Just be sure to check out your options before you need long term care.  Just like life insurance, if you are not insured when you need it, it will be too late.

I have saved up to go for a trip for a long time.  Working at McDonalds doesn’t pay a whole lot, but I had been putting money away for over a year.  I had bought my tickets to Mexico and booked the trip.  A week before I left, my dad had some advice to share with me.  He said: 

“Son, get some travel medical insurance.” 

I was a little confused, so I asked him about why I should purchase travel medical insurance when we had family health coverage. Dad said that even though our family medical insurance covered us throughout the United States, they don’t cover any of us outside of the U.S. He offered to pay the small premium for me to have coverage while on my trip. 

We visited an insurance broker and he explained that travel medical insurance is just like regular health insurance, but the policy takes car of you while you are outside the country.  These policies cover everything from supplemental insurance (covering you against some procedures abroad not covered by your standard health insurance) to full hospitalization. 

I feel better now that I know if I run into any medical difficulties while in Mexico, I will be covered.  My parents feel better about it too.