Life Happens 365 - Are You Managing the Risk?

By Diane Tait Image courtesy Pixabay When you get right down to it, shopping for insurance isn’t a lot of fun.   That’s because there are so many companies and so many different types of insurance coverage to consider.   Did you know there were 5,965 insurance companies in the US alone in 2020?     You also have to deal with insurance jargon that sounds to most consumers like a foreign tongue.   Before you wind up buying the wrong coverage or start working with an insurer whose idea of customer service is an endless voicemail loop, I thought I’d take the time to teach you ten ways to get it right.

  By Diane Tait Image courtesy Pixabay Face it, when it comes to identity theft, the bad guys are winning.   In 2018, consumers in the US were fleeced out of close to $17 billion by identity thieves. Even worse is the fact that the majority of these thefts has shifted from credit card counterfeiting to checking and savings account takeovers.   Another favorite target of identity thieves is to open fraudulent credit card accounts and/or to take out loans in the names of their victims.   Once a victim has been fleeced, the onus is on them to prove that the losses that occurred are indeed fraudulent.   This too costs time and money, which in essence adds insult to injury.   While all this is going on, the thieves are free to use and sell your financial data online.   Since many of the thieves are located offshore, the odds of the perpetrators being caught, much less prosecuted, is slim at best.   Even children’s identities have been stolen and used...

By Diane Tait Image courtesy Pixabay Driving for a living is a daunting occupation.   Not only do you have to be alert to what is going on around you, but these days you have to beware of distracted drivers on the road near you.   While the fatality rate for commercial vehicle collisions has steadily declined during the past 20-years, there are still more than 500,000 truck accidents every year.   Of those, 16% are deemed the fault of a commercial driver.   That means 84% of accidents involving commercial vehicles are caused by motorists who aren’t paying attention to the vehicles around them.   To help all you commercial drivers out there avoid accidents, I’ve come up with a list of 10 things you can do to avoid becoming a statistic.

By Diane Tait Image courtesy Pixabay As I sit here writing this, Hurricane Elsa is predicted to make landfall in Florida today.   Having weathered my share of hurricanes over the years, all I can say is that while the threat of wind and water causes many homeowners to lose sleep at night during Hurricane Season, there’s one peril that all too many ignore: CO poisoning.   Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that can incapacitate and kill in minutes.   Before you start firing up that portable generator or breaking out the camp stove, there are a few things you need to know.