US Finance World

Its the time of your life when youre most likely to want to travel, yet getting insurance has never been trickier.

A significant number of over 50s are being held back from going on holiday due to difficulties with getting suitable travel insurance, new research from Lloyds TSB has found.

The firm found that a little more than a quarter (26%) of over 50s have experienced travel insurance issues, with a variety of different factors causing these difficulties. 15% were refused cover due to an existing illness or injury, a figure which rises to 16% for the over 60s. I have seen at first hand just how difficult it can be – my own father underwent a couple of complex medical procedures last year, and I know that it was far from easy arranging cover for their recent holidays.

Around 11% of over 50s have had their applications for insurance turned down due to their age, rising to 16% for those over 60.

The trouble is that for many over 50s, this is the stage in their life when they are finally free to do a bit of travelling. T

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When I read articles promoting the value of multiple streams of income, I get excited in a good way, or I get excited in a not-so-good way. I get excited in a good way because everyone is capable of multiplying their income by managing a business (or businesses). I get excited in a not-so-good way because some of articles make it seem like creating multiple streams of income is a new concept, or that its as easy as buying a $500 information product.

Neither is true. Multiple streams of income are not new. And while the right $500 information product can really help, you still have to roll up your sleeves and do the work. Consider my maternal grandparents, Sallie and Oren McWilliams. The grand children of slaves, they raised five children together on their North Carolina farm.

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Photographer: Alessandra Benedetti/Bloomberg.

I’m not a bottom fisher, value buyer or knife catcher. Because markets are never wrong, but opinions often are, I hold fast to the philosophy that one must acquiesce to the market — not argue with it. To that end, I see a security plunging to multi-month lows as something to avoid, not an investment to add to my portfolio.

Still, most investors are intrigued by the notion of a bargain and many are now undoubtedly looking at Europe, whose distressed and debt-riddled PIIGS (the economies of Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) are continuing an historic slow-motion collapse that has the potential to tear the European Union apart.

I last wrote about Europe’s debt crisis in September. Since then, despite a battery of interventions, proclamations, meetings, regulations and bailouts, the financial and social crisis has deteriorated.

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Becci Hethcoat’s husband went to the store to run a few errands and came home with a hot tub. And not just any hot tub — a top-of-the-line, six-person spa, complete with a built-in waterfall, colored LED lights and an iPod dock. The family wasn’t in the market for a soaking pool, says the Wheaton, Ill., artist, but the dealer seemed to be “really hurting for business” and had slashed the price on the deluxe tub to an irresistible $10,000, a cut of nearly 30 percent.

But not everything about the family’s new addition went down swimmingly with Hethcoat. The discounted model was available in only one color, a flat white that she says shows any hint of dirt. Then there are all the fancy extra features: “I’m not a bells-and-whistles gal,” says Hethcoat. The colored lights are unnecessarily “froufrou,” she says, and the spa’s built-in iPod dock has already conked out. “The more stuff you get with it, the more things to break,” says Hethcoat, sighing.

Who’s up for a dip?

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Its a lot easier to make a Will than you might think….

Yesterday, I finally got around to writing a Will. I’ve been meaning to do it for ages, but have been putting it off and putting it off. So I was surprised by the intense sense of relief I felt once it was done. Knowing that my husband and I – and any children we will hopefully one day have – will not die intestate gives me real peace of mind.

Why? Because, without  a Will, your spouse and children could be put in a very difficult financial position, particularly if you have an estate worth more than £250,000 and/or you do not own your home as joint tenants. Read The Rules of Intestancy on adviceguide.org.uk for more detail on the ins and outs of who will inherit what if you die without a Will.

But even if you are joint tenants and have an estate worth £250,000 or less, it’s still tricky. According to DirectGov, when someone dies without a Will, it can take months or even years to sort out the inheritance. Your loved

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