Mums Finance

This is one in the eye for greedy American retail giant K-Mart. The proposal to open its NSW stores during the morning marches sparked national outrage. Kmart managing director Guy Russo was quoted as saying yesterday that the company made the decision after an avalanche of criticism from politicians, ex-Diggers and customers.

“Having listened to the strength of feeling from our customers and the broader community, I will withdraw Kmart’s application for early trading on Anzac Day. I got this one wrong and on behalf of Kmart, I apologise,” Mr Russo said. Nice one then Mr Russo!

Federal Veterans Affairs Minister Alan Griffin had said Anzac Day was an occasion for remembering those who fought and died for their country, not for shopping and he is so correct. Anzac Day is a very important day in Australia, on par with Australia Day in January, and to think that this store could not go one day without making a profit is annoying to say the least. We don’t shop on Anzac Day, we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

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There have been a rash of accidents involving young children being injured by falling televisions and in some cases the child has been tragically killed. This is not surprising seeing as how large some of these tv’s are and it is fashionable to set them up high on wall units – this is problem and it has happened several times since Xmas already. The answer is to have the tv mounted securely.

You can get a plasma mount for your television which will keep it in place and not in danger of toppling over onto a toddler or baby playing on the floor underneath it. The danger with wall units is when the child tries to climb up and holds onto the unit for balance – the tv wobbles and over it goes…then you have a nasty accident.

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In Australia we have Medicare – in the UK they have the NHS – in America they have…well, they have to insure or save…or just wait their turn. I am talking about healthcare schemes and it seems that no matter what system is in place you end up either on a waiting list or having to fork out a lot of money. Having insurance certainly makes a big difference – in the US for sure – but despite the best intentions of schemes like the NHS you often are better off going private if you can afford to.

In  Australia you can insure yourself for private health care, in the UK you simply have to pay for it. It is not out of the range of many people despite the costs involved – what you need to do is create a health savings account for yourself which will pay for a private hospital and your choice of doctor. It could be well worth it in the long run considering the waiting lists right now – and the risk of contracting one of those deadly infections that are endemic in the public hospitals.

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