Hi, I'm Bill Sorenson,
vice-president in charge
of marketing and
communications. f just
wanted to bring you up
to date on a couple of
things we've been doing
to improve member
communications. For a
start, we've held several
branch advisory meetings
to fisten to what
members have to say.
We've also just
completed a strategic
survey of both members
and non-members, a
total of 1,100 people.
We'd like to thank ail
those who completed the
survey. We mailed it to
6,000 people and had over
18% fill it in and mail it
back. This may have had
something to do with the
incentives we offered:
two $1,000 cash prizes!
The prizes were won by
£. Finnson and Marion
Doig. Not bad for 10
minutes worth of work.
What did we learn from
the survey? All kinds of
interesting things.
Tidbits fike the two most
important things you're
looking for in a financial
institution: convenience
to home and service
reputation, in that order.

\

ia
ne Oo

Bad habits §
make for
poor financial
management.

he damage smokers
do to their health is
reason enough to feel
sorry for them. The
damage they do to their
finances truly makes us
weep, however.

It's been calculated
that by smoking a pack a
day for 15 years, at an
approximate cost of $4
per pack, a smoker sets
fire to a total of $22,000.
It’s also been calculated
that if a smoker invested
the same $4 per day in a
savings account yielding
10% interest per year,
they'd have $52,000 at
the end of 15 years

Our conclusion? One
of the best financial
management strategies
around is, simply, quit

smoking. <>

Borrowing
money? Here’s
how to make it
less of a
nightmare.

i i -ere’s a financial

nightmare. Say you
buy a $15,000 car with a
loan. You drive it home,
proud as punch. You
park in the driveway,
walk up to the front
door, and trip over your
son's teenage mutant
ninja hamster, comatose
on the front step. In
falling, you wrench your
back so severely, you
can’t work for three
months. Your spouse's
salary just doesn’t stretch
beyond the mortgage and
the grocery bills, and you
don’t have any
substantial savings. How
are vou going to keep up
the car payments?

At this point you have
a serious financial
nightmare unless you
have a rich relative or
something mysteriously
called “credit disability
insurance.”

Insuring a personal loan.
Often referred to as
CDI, this is a form of
insurance you can
purchase at most
financial institutions
when you take out a
personal loan. Should
you suffer a disability
from accident er
sickness, CDI kicks in
and takes over the loan
payments. In short, the

financial nightmare is a
nightmare no longer.

Expensive? Not really.
Rates vary from
institution to institution.
Using our own program
of CDI as an example, a
$15,000 loan over a four
year term, at an interest
rate of 13.5%, would cost
you $7.79 extra per
month for disability
insurance. Here, and at
most institutions, the
CDI monthly premium
can be added to your
monthly loan payments,
avoiding an up-front
payment.

Back to the
nightmare...

What if, when you
tripped on the Ninja
hamster, you had broken
your neck and died? For
just such a nightmare, it's
possible at most lenders

eliminating the debt.

to purchase personal tife
insurance with your loan.
Should you die before
the loan is repaid, your
survivors collect on the
life insurance, pay off the
loan with the proceeds,
and get on with their
lives debt free.

Here, we can go one
better — all our personal
loans carry an automatic
$30.000 worth of life
insurance, free of charge.
See the sidebar story for
just how useful that can
be.

The loan’s paid but what
about the mortgage?
Let's make the

A TRUE STORY

Jean Cooper (not her real name) came face
to face with one of the hardest realities of life
— the death of her husband, David. ‘An ,
emotional tragedy of the worst sori, David's
death turned inta a financial crisis, too. The
couple had little in the way of savings, no
assets to speak of, no RRSPs, David had
worked in public relations in a position that
offered many perks such as a company car.
Upon his death, these perks suddenly
vanished. The couple lived in an apartment,
rented for a modest $500 a month. The
salary from Jean’s job was only $1,333 per
montin. After taxes, deductions, food, utilities,
and rent, there was little left. Even so, she
could have just squeaked by. The critical
factor was a personal loan for $17,000.
Monthly payments were $587.23, and with
David's death, beyond her financial resources.

The saving grace? Jean was a member. She
and David had taken out the loan at NSCU.
Here, all personal loans carry an automatic
$30,000 life insurance policy, free of charge.
When David died, that policy kicked in,

financial nightmare a
little more

you tripped, broke
your neck, died,
and your spouses’ salary
didn’t cover the
mortgage?

For that circumstance,
many institutions offer
some form of life
insurance that would pay
off the mortgage in the
event of your death.

Here, we call such
insurance “group custom
term", and it too is
relatively inexpensive.
Because it is a life
insurance policy, rates
will vary depending upon
the individual, his or her
age, etc. For example,
under our mortgage
insurance program, a
non-smoking man under
35 with a $100,000
mortgage would pay a
rate of $9 per month: A
smoker would have to
ante up $13.50. Usually .

these premiums are paid -

with the monthly
mortgage payment.

The bottom line?

There are two sensible
rules of thumb when
managing your finances:
plan for the future and
plan for disasters. Loan
insurance very clearly
falls into the disaster
plan category. It’s
certainly true that the
odds are in your favour
— for instance, you only
have a lin 4 chance of
disability and a Lin 12
chance of dying before
65. But when you took at
the low cost of insurance,
there's reaily ne
percentage in tempting
fate.

Wednesday, April 3, 1991 - North Shore News - 33

nightmarish. What if

/- get yourself a sure-fire-.

P|
Buying a new
car this Spring?
Beware fuel
costs.

ransportation is the
third largest consumer
of a family’s financial
resources after shelter
and food. Adding up
loan payments, fuel,
repairs, and insurance,
the annual price tag for
your family's car starts at
$4,200/year plus.
Over the life of your
car, fuel consumption is
.& major cost factor,
sometimes rivaling the
original price of the
vehicle. Consider the cost
of gasoline over 6 years
of driving, assuming the
car is driven 15,000 miles
for each of the 6 years
and gas costs $4¢ a litre,
at the following rates of
fuel consumption: /

Comparing a 20 mpg
“gas guzzler and‘a:50 mpg
_ gas. miser, the savings are
dramatic — a $5,100

~ windfall in 6 years.
Perhaps it’s time to stop
playing the lottery and

~ winner, a new 1991 fuel
“miser. -

The top 17 gas misers.
Each year Transport

. Canada publishes a fuel
efficiency guide for the
new crop of cars. The
1991 Fuel Consumption
Guide, available in

~ Vancouver from
Transport Canada’s local
office at 800 Burrard
Street, rates new cars,
pick-ups, vans, and
special purpose (4x4)
vehicles. The following
cars took top honours.
50 MPG (city driving):
Chevy Sprint (3 cyl.)
Pontiac Firefly (3 cyl.)
45 MPG (city):
Chevy Sprint (3 cyl.
auto transmission)
Pontiac Firefly (3 cyl.
auto transinission)

43 MPG (city)

Ford Festiva (4 cyl.)
Nissan Micra (4 cyl.)
Suzuki Swift (4 cyl.)
38 MPG (city):
Subaru Justy (3 cyl.)
37 MPG (city):
Honda Civic (4 cyl.)
{fsuzu Stylus (4 cv.)
35 MPG (city):

Eaele Summit (4 cyl.)
Ford Escort (4 evi.)
Mercury Tracer (4 cyl.)
Byundai Excel (4 cyl.)
Nissan Sentra (4 cyl.)
Plymouth Colt (4 cyl.)
Tovota Tercel (4 cyl.)