A co-worker of mine recently returned from a trip to Canada. The pictures he brought back were breathtaking and encouraged me even more to get my trip planned for a ski trip to Canada. His trip was amazing, though he did tell me about a potentially serious situation he encountered while he was over there – his girlfriend had become very sick one evening and was rushed to the hospital. It turned out she needed her appendix removed. Luckily, they had purchased medical insurance before their travels and the whole procedure was covered.

The travel medical insurance was new to me, so I asked him about why he purchased medical insurance when we already had a group health plan here at work. He said that before he left he had inquired with our insurance company and found out that they don’t cover anything done outside of the U.S. His wife decided that they would be better off getting the insurance – and they were happy they did.

Just like regular health insurance, travel insurance takes care of you when you are outside of the U.S. There are many insurance companies that offer these types of policies and most of the time you can get a quote and coverage in no time at all. They cover everything from supplemental insurance (in case your health insurance does cover certain procedures abroad) to full coverage for everything from visiting a doctor, to hospitalization.

Now that my wife and I are planning a trip abroad, we’ve taken his advice and went ahead and purchased travel medical insurance. You can never be too careful.

Have a house for sale but no buyer?  You may have tried the traditional methods for selling real estate such as using a realtor, listing your house in the local classifieds, or putting a sign out on the lawn.  These methods usually work in a normal or hot housing market, but what do you do if the housing market is slow? 

You are now probably wondering how to get a fast home sale in any market.  I know I was.  

Do a quick search in Google for “we buy houses”.  I found over 44 million results for this phrase.  That is over 44 million sites that represent buyers for your home.  So how many people does your local classifieds section reach?  Well - not that many. 

What do these sites offer you, the seller?  Simple – it gives potential buyers  leads for a motivated home seller.  Translate that into English for you – people that want to buy your house.  

So next time you or one of your friends are trying to sell your house but are having no luck, remember the information I just shared with you – it is worth its’ weight in cold, hard cash.

I don’t want to be one of those people who pay too much money for something. This includes the insurance on my car. One of the worst things you can do is just assume that you have the best deal you can get, without doing a little bit of research.

There are many things to look into when purchasing auto insurance. There are certain discounts for safe driver, senior citizens and many other factors. The best thing to do is to look around and do some research. Check out what may be offered in your state and get quotes from many different companies. This will make your options more clear and will give you a better picture of who will give you the cheapest insurance rate as well as the best coverage.

If you have been looking for mobile phone deals, you may have looked at the various brands available: Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Apple, LG, and Sony Ericsson.  Each of them have various offerings ranging from inexpensive to very expensive.  Today we take a quick peek at Samsung.

From sleek and sexy to smart and full of features, Samsung mobile phones have plenty to offer - and prices that can fit any budget.  With well over a dozen current phone options, it is definitely an adventure picking one out.  In my quest to find one Samsung phone that really stood out, I came across the U600.

What sets the U600 from Samsung out from the competition is the fact that it is so thin - a mere 10.9 mm.  Music player, Bluetooth, 3 Megapixel camera, and a lightweight design that is unnoticeable in your pocket are all standard.  If you have some downtime, you can also catch the local news with its’ built-in FM radio.

What this phone is lacking is a 3.5mm headphone jack - you are stuck using the proprietary headphones supplied with the phone.  Also, some users have complained about the touch sensitive keypad - it takes some time to get used to it.  Problems aside, the Samsung U600 is a good, feature packed thin phone.

It seems that everyone you know has either dealt with or knows someone who has had breast cancer.  There are many organizations that help to raise funds to find a cure for breast cancer.  I was surprised to discover that the Ford Motor Company also supports this cause on a website dedicated to the Ford Mustang.

Ford is releasing a special “Warriors in Pink” edition of the 2008 Ford Mustang this summer in support of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure® - the world’s largest network of breast cancer survivors and activists working together to save lives.  The package adds a pink ribbon and Pony fender badge, pink Mustang rocker tape striping, charcoal leather seats with pink stitching, an aluminum-spoke steering wheel in leather with pink stitching and charcoal floormats with pink ribbon and contrast stitching.  It is available in coupe or convertible models in either black, white or silver.  Ford is donating $250 from every package purchased to Susan G. Komen for the Cure®.

My daughter asked me today if he could use the computer and go on the internet.  Being a concerned parent, I was leary as to whether or not I could find a site with activites that were appropriate to her age.  She is only four after all.

After browsing the internet awhile, I found a promissing site: thedollpalace.com.  They offer activities that are appropriate for her age and her interests.  She like coloring very much and the coloring pages had many pictures that she could color.  Don’t feel like digging out the crayons?  You don’t have to with this site as your children can color right on the computer (yay, no mess!).  If you do feel like letting them color, you can also print these pages out for them to color later.

She is also in love with dolls.  She has fun with the dress up games with the cartoon dolls on the site.  In fact, she could spend the whole day there, dressing up the cartoon dolls and changing their accessories.  We have even sent some of the ones that she has made of her grandparents to them by email.

So parents, if you have little ones, thedollpalace.com is a good site for you to visit.  It will keep them entertained and develop their creativity.

If you live in Denver or you are thinking about moving to Colorado and you need to secure a great deal on a mortgage loan, then your best opportunity to get a low rate is to compare 3 or 4 lenders quotes. Shopping for a mortgage loan can be very complex.  We found that there are a number of sites that offer comparison shopping and used a service offered by LoanNetwork.com where they actually had lenders contact us with there mortgage quotes. It was super easy to shop for a mortgage and helped us save a ton of time in trying to compare offers. Comparing refinance and purchase home loans for closing costs, interest rates and programs has never been easier. The site offers free mortgage calculators, a forum to ask their expert response team and offers mortgage loan quotes for all 50 states including: Colorado Mortgage loans, second mortgages, equity loans, interest only and deferred interest mortgage programs.