Lethbridge Automobile Insurance and Home Owner Insurance

Well it is that time of year again for me. I received in the mail my renewal for my Lethbridge car insurance and my Lethbridge home owners insurance. Not always a pleasant envelope to open, but a necessity in our society.

In Lethbridge (and all of Alberta), most consumers buy their car insurance/automobile insurance as well as their home owners insurance or tenant insurance from a licensed insurance broker. Lethbridge insurance brokers or insurance agents can help find you a policy that first of all meets your insurance needs and secondly meets your budget.

Often when selling Lethbridge real estate to first time home buyers I am asked to recommend a Lethbridge insurance agent to the client. I used to have a good friend who was a broker and I sent her countless clients and was always pleased with the service she gave my clients. Recently, I have began looking around due to all the competition in the industry and trying to see who can provide my Lethbridge clients with the most affordable and acceptable insurance coverage along with some attentive service.

If you are a client of mine, I am happy to share my experience in dealing with various Lethbridge insurance agents and possibly recommend a Lethbridge insurance broker to you. Feel free to give me a call.

Lethbridge Financial Planning

Many Lethbridge real estate and Lethbridge mortgage clients that I meet with often have no organized financial plan or debt management plan at all. A Lethbridge financial planner is a professional who can advise of several options available for structuring debt and investing for the future. There are several great money and wealth management companies that have offices in Lethbridge and I do work closely with them when requested.

When I meet with a client, I am often shocked to discover that I am the first person who has ever asked deep financial questions. The conversations which follow often are the first real indepth conversations about money that many individuals or couples have ever had. I am glad to open this door for clients, although it is not directly part of my relationship with them. I am quick to assess their needs and to direct them to a professional who has a proven track record and who is a comfortable fit for that client.

So if you are one of my past of existing clients, you will recall that we discussed many aspects of your finances. And if you are at the early stages of buying or selling real estate or thinking of mortgage financing, feel free to contact me. I am always glad to discuss personal financial matters, advise if there are options which I can assist with, and to recommend Lethbridge Financial Planning speicalist in cases that they are needed.

Lethbridge SEO Search Engine Optimization

As a business owner in Lethbridge, having a basic understanding of SEO search engine optimization is something which can help help you develope an effective and affordable marketing plan.

Lethbridge is an interesting community in the fact that our population of individuals who are under 25 and over 65 are both quite large. This is due to large numbers of students and senior citizens who call Lethbridge home. Lethbridge is also a fairly affluent city. Virtually all of our residents are online or have access to the internet, yet the majority of our local businesses have no online presence at all.

I do a substantial amount of shopping online. I also do a substantial amount of my own Lethbridge business online. Most of my competitors are not even there to compete with me. I find this amazing.

Even searching for 'Lethbridge SEO' in google you discover that 5 of the top 10 search results come back to me or articles that I have written. How can it be that the very companies who claim to be able to put your business on the first page of Google, or at the top of search engines, cannot even out rank me for search terms that directly pertain to their business?

Would you take financial advice from a poor man? Why would you ever take Lethbridge SEO advice from a business that could not even effectively get their own company to the top of the rankings?

Recent actions from the Bank of Canada point to the fact that they are sticking to their policy of holding the prime rate at its current low level until next year. They also caution though that the low rate cannot last forever and the consumers should not make financial decisions believing that the rates will not be increasing eventually.

Here is an article from todays thestar.com

Be careful, low rates won't last, says top banker

Mark Carney says people should manage `for a longer horizon'

OTTAWA–Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney is warning homebuyers against taking on too much debt because today's low interest rates will not last forever.

"People should manage their affairs prudently in anticipation that, at some point, rates will return to a more normal level," Carney said after releasing his quarterly economic review.

"Obviously, rates are exceptionally low," he said, noting that the central bank has used its interest-rate-setting influence to drive down consumer borrowing costs to record lows to help stimulate economic activity.

At the same time, Carney said, the bank has "given pretty clear guidance on how long we expect they (interest rates) will have to remain at these levels. People should manage their affairs for a longer horizon." He reaffirmed his promise that, barring an outburst of runaway inflation, the bank will keep its trend-setting overnight rate at 0.25 per cent until next summer. Assuming the economy is recovering by mid-2010, the bank is expected to begin raising rates.

The bank now estimates that Canada's economy will shrink by 2.4 per cent this year before rebounding with 3 per cent growth in 2010 and 3.3 per cent in 2011.

Carney said the housing market is showing strength and he has "some concern" that low rates and increasing demand by homebuyers could create an artificial price bubble of the kind that plunged the United States into a severe recession when it burst in 2007.

But the debt burden in Canada has not reached the alarming levels faced by U.S. consumers before the recession, he said.

"Canadian consumer balance sheets are starting from a much stronger position than U.S. consumer balance sheets" were in ahead of the economic downturn, Carney told reporters.

The quarterly review indicated the economy is on the mend but the recovery is being slowed by the unexpectedly strong value of the loonie on exchange markets.

Carney, who said Canada's currency is being driven by investors bailing out of the U.S. dollar, kept up what appears to be an effort to throw speculators off balance.

"Intervention is always an option," he added.

"Markets should take seriously our determination to set policy to achieve the (2 per cent) inflation target. Markets sometimes lose their focus. We don't lose our focus."

The bank governor did not give specifics on how it might take the unusual and risky step of intervening.

On Tuesday, by repeating his pledge not to raise interest rates until next summer, Carney seemed to have succeeded in catching markets off guard, with the loonie dropping nearly two cents against the greenback.

CIBC World Markets economist Avery Shenfeld said Carney seems to be engaged in talking down the value of the loonie. "By dampening expectations for early interest rate hikes, he's taken a little bit of a shine off the Canadian dollar."

On Thursday, the dollar shed 0.16 of a cent (U.S.), closing at 95.44 cents.

The bank said the loonie has established itself on exchange markets at about 96 cents, much higher than the 87 cents forecast by Carney a few months ago.

If investors keep shying away from the U.S. dollar, a rising Canadian dollar could "act as a drag on growth" in Canada, he said, especially if consumer and business demand takes longer to rebound globally.

With the global epidemic showing signs of continued growth, there is some help available to those who want it. Alberta has vaccinations on hand and is opening clinics on Monday to offer flu shots to those who wish to receibe them. They are specifically requesting that high risk individuals are the first to take advantage of it, the Chief Medical officer of Alberta believes everyone should get one.

I am not a big fan of vaccinations and much prefer to focus upon natural health and keeping a strong immune system to fight off illness without medical intervention. Here is the article though:

Alberta to begin swine flu vaccinations

Albertans should be able to line up for swine flu shots at mass vaccination clinics across the province on Monday, health officials have announced.

The free H1N1 influenza shots will be available to every Albertan over six months, with anyone at risk of developing a more severe illness encouraged to get their shot early. The shot will be initially offered through mass vaccination clinics and won't be available in settings such as doctors' offices or workplaces until mid-November.

"While there are higher risks groups that are encouraged to get the vaccine first, I urge all Albertans to get this vaccine," said Dr. André Corriveau, Alberta's chief medical officer of health on Wednesday.

"Not only to protect themselves but to protect those that are around them that may be at higher risk and to do as much as we can to stop the spread of the virus as soon as possible over this coming season."

The vaccine has undergone rigorous testing processes and clinical trials around the world and is established to be safe, he said.

Alberta experiences 2nd flu wave

Alberta is in the first week of a second wave of H1N1 influenza, said Dr. Gerry Predy, Alberta's senior medical officer of health.

Most people are experiencing mild illness and are being treated at home. So far this year, H1N1 influenza has sent about 160 people to Alberta hospital, with eight people dying. Since students returned to the classroom last month, 25 schools across the province have reported absentee rates of more than 10 per cent.

Information about the mass vaccination clinics will be available on Alberta Health Service's website.

"We want them to be patient because they may have to wait in line for a while," said Predy. "What we are trying to do here is protect as many people as possible in a short a period of time."

By Monday, Alberta should have 400,000 doses of the vaccine available and with more shipments coming in every few days, health officials say there will be enough to vaccinate everyone who wants the shot. Predy hopes to see between 65 and 70 per cent of the population immunized.

Alberta's flu season isn't over until mid-April.

The federal government has also ordered 1.8 million doses without the adjuvant for pregnant women and young children, but health officials in Alberta said those won't be available until Nov. 9. Corriveau said he would encourage pregnant women not to wait and get the shot with the adjuvant.

Seasonal flu shot will still be available

Alberta began offering a free seasonal flu shot on Oct. 13. The original plan was to stop offering that shot once a vaccine against H1N1 became available, but health officials said Wednesday that both shots will be offered where possible.

As long as each shot is given in a different arm, the H1N1 and seasonal shots can be administered in the same visit, said Corriveau. The H1N1 vaccine won't be fully effective until two weeks after the shot is given.

Earlier Wednesday, federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced that the H1N1 vaccine has been approved for rollout across Canada. The approval only applies to the form that contains the adjuvant.

The federal government had already shipped more than two million doses of the H1N1 influenza A vaccine across the country in anticipation of the approval.

Canadian public health officials are urging those most vulnerable to serious complications from the virus — such as pregnant women, young children, people living in remote and isolated communities, and adults with chronic conditions — to consider getting the vaccine as soon as it becomes available where they live.