Short Takes: Insurance Claims and more

1. Making a claim on your insurance is often something you have to do at a traumatic time in your life. MoneyNing explains the things you shouldn’t say to your insurance agent if you want you claim approved.

2. Canadian Financial DIY reports on rule changes with Locked-in Retirement Accounts making it possible to shift money to a regular RRSP.

3. Big Cajun Man likens the choice between a fixed or variable rate mortgage to the choice for New England to punt or go for it on fourth down in a recent football game against Indianapolis. He’s right that fixed rate mortgages are the more conservative choice, but this doesn’t apply to the football game. Football games don’t have intermediate outcomes; the only possibilities are win, loss, or tie. New England coach Belichick made the right choice.

4. Mr. Cheap thinks it’s OK not to save for retirement in your 20s and 30s (the web page with this article disappeared since the time of writing).  This is another one of those cases where a message will resonate with the wrong people. Mr. Cheap wants to reach people who save every penny and fail to enjoy life. He’s more likely to reach spendthrift fools who are happy to have another excuse to speed towards a painful bankruptcy. This is often the way it goes with giving out advice as Jason Zweig explains.

Comments

  1. LyneNovember 19, 2009 at 10:57 PM

    Is this what you are looking for?
    http://www.fin.gc.ca/n08/data/09-109_1-eng.asp

    ReplyDelete
  2. geneNovember 20, 2009 at 12:16 AM

    You wrote: "These sound great for old rich people (something I aspire to be one day)."

    I agree, I'd like to be both rich and old. Not that I want to be old of course, but beats the alternative. Reminds me of what Warren Buffett says what he wants people to say about him at his funeral: "Boy, was he old!"

    ReplyDelete
  3. Michael JamesNovember 20, 2009 at 12:20 AM

    Lyne: Yes, that's it. Apparently, it was hiding from me the way things do just before my wife finds them for me :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Big Giants FanNovember 20, 2009 at 7:35 AM

    I don't think I disagreed with Coach Belichick's choice (however it was proven wrong, in that his team lost, so that is the ultimate barometer for that kind of decision), just used it as an excellent example of Risk/Success decision point.

    Have a glorious weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Michael JamesNovember 20, 2009 at 9:03 AM

    Big Giants Fan: Actually, the ultimate barometer of the correctness of a decision is whether it would be right to make the same decision if the same situation comes up again.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Michael JamesNovember 20, 2009 at 10:14 AM

    CC: Yes, a strong majority of people seem certain that Belichick was wrong (and many are quite adamant). I was among them, at first. However, the link I provided at the end of item 7 demonstrates clearly that Belichick was right. Further, the "context" of the game, which more or less means that Indy's offense was on a roll, tips the odds further in favour of Belichick's decision. This is one case where almost everyone's intuition fails them.

    For anyone not already sick of this football discussion, the flurry of comments on the post explaining the probabilities (see link at the end of item 7) are a case study in various fallacies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Michael JamesOctober 31, 2020 at 11:48 AM

      The comment above is a reply to Canadian Capitalist's comment:

      I personally thought Belichick's call was a bad one in the context of the game. Nevertheless, I find it fascinating that the Coach's decision is judged based on the results -- not the probabilities. Just like investors who "knew" a stock was going up after the fact.

      Thanks for the mention!

      Delete
  7. CanadianInvestorNovember 20, 2009 at 7:56 PM

    Hi Michael, thanks for the link. I have the same ambition as you and I'm making "steady progress" towards fulfilling half of the ambition. The other half remains more problematic!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Four PillarsNovember 21, 2009 at 5:59 PM

    Thanks for the link!

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousDecember 28, 2009 at 6:05 AM

    It was certainly interesting for me to read that article. Thanx for it. I like such topics and anything that is connected to them. I would like to read a bit more on that blog soon.

    ReplyDelete

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