Selecting a nursing home

The decision to place an elderly relative in a nursing home is always difficult for a family. For the patient, a nursing home represents a frightening loss of independence and abandonment by family and friends. For the family, the decision creates guilt feelings, even when they can no longer care for the elderly relative. To lessen feelings of fear and guilt, it helps to involve the patient, if possible, in choosing the nursing home. Adjusting to nursing home life will be easier if your relative understands the alternatives and feels, his or her wishes are being considered.

Mutual fund roulette

Some consider the stock market to be a genteel form of gambling. The rise and fall of the market and such terms as “market crash" and “black Monday" might give weight to these suspicions. However, when individuals start to refer to “investing in the lottery" we must give consideration to reality rather than phraseology.

Insurance for travellers

Although many travelers may not have been notified by their travel agents, flight insurance that use to be an automatic benefit with every ticket purchased from a travel agency has been eliminated by most agencies due to the cutbacks the airlines have made in travel agency commissions.