Posts by Robb Engen
Our Home Insurance Bill Is Up 30 Percent!
Thousands of homes were damaged when the Bow and Elbow rivers flooded in Alberta this summer. Provincial government estimates show well over $5 billion will be needed to rebuild infrastructure. Bad weather and catastrophic events have been the norm in recent years, and now it’s starting to show up in our home insurance bills. Insurance…
Read MoreWhat’s Next For ING Direct: My Interview With Peter Aceto
It’s been nearly a year since Scotiabank officially acquired ING Direct, snapping up the online bank for $3.1 billion back in November. Scotia promised to keep its hands off ING’s operations, opting to keep the bank as a separate, standalone entity. For the most part, Scotia’s been true to its word. Earlier this year, ING…
Read MoreWhy Travel Insurance Is Essential For A Worry-Free Vacation
As snowbirds plan their annual trip down south, one question is whether or not to get travel insurance. The answer is they probably should. Insurance is necessary to protect ourselves from big medical bills when we travel out of the country. So whether it’s a 24-hour cross border shopping trip, or a two-month trip to…
Read MoreMid-Week Reading: Book Giveaway Edition
A mid-week round-up; what the heck is going on here? I’d meant to publish our weekend reading last Friday, but when I found out it was Robert Britton’s last day of work before he retired, I just had to publish his retirement story that day. But that meant we missed revealing the winners of our…
Read MoreWhere To Invest For Short Term Financial Goals
Interest rates on savings accounts and GICs are abysmal these days, so it can be tempting to plow all your hard earned savings into the stock market for a chance to juice your returns. But how you save and invest depends a lot on your time horizon – when will you need the money? No…
Read MoreCelebrating Three Years Of Boomer & Echo
It was just over three years ago that my mom and I started putting together a collection of articles that would mark the beginning of Boomer & Echo. We didn’t have a clue about blogging or running a website (and still don’t!), but we pressed on and have written over 650 articles to date. We…
Read MoreMy TD e-Series RESP Portfolio
One of the first things we did after our kids were born was open an RESP account. We set-up a family plan, rather than a single beneficiary plan, and have contributed $200 per month for the past few years. We just put money into a GIC for the first year. The account was easy to…
Read MoreWhy I Don’t Have My Finances On Auto Pilot
After writing about money for three years you’d think I’d have my own finances on auto pilot by now, but I don’t. I still have a household budget and track my expenses every month, and I don’t pay myself first (gasp!). While I can appreciate the forced discipline of automatic saving plans, I’m not a…
Read MoreWhy I Took A Cash Settlement For The Hail Damage Claim On My Vehicle
The weather in southern Alberta has been brutal this summer. When a huge storm rolled through Lethbridge on the evening of July 6th, we watched in horror as golf ball sized hail stones pummelled our house and vehicle. We did a quick survey of the damage; a few pieces of siding blew off the house,…
Read MoreHow I Plan To Be Financially Free By 40
I did some financial daydreaming after my net worth update last week. I took our current financial trajectory and projected out 10 years from now to see how that might look. I was surprised by what I found, and the exercise gave me the inspiration for a new objective – becoming financially free by 40.…
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