YOUI debited $592 from my Visa card even though I’d cancelled policy, writes Diana Clement.

It can pay to shop around when tying up cash at a fixed rate, writes Money columnist Diana Clement.

After the big shock, for many owners of homes and businesses, their insurance policies didn't cover them for what they thought.

Insurance would be the last thing many students are thinking about at this time of the year. Yet, it's precisely what they need, writes Diana Clement.

'Can you give me a discount" and "that's too expensive" are powerful words when it comes to buying anything. Yet, few Kiwis haggle for their big-ticket items.

The attack of the new clutter - otherwise known as Christmas - is on its way....

Put that credit card in your pocket. There are lots of things you shouldn't be buying before Christmas. They're the items that the retailers keep at full price or not far off.

All I want for Christmas is an Ebola emergency kit. That's not because I think I'm at risk of catching the disease.

I've failed. It would appear that personal finance journalists' budgets are a bit like builders' houses. Never quite sorted out.

Sometimes with investment it's the boring little things that make all the difference.

How to buy shares is a mystery to many people. One such reader emailed asking for a back-to-basics article on the subject of DIY share investing.

Read the fine print to ensure you stay within the insurance policy rules, writes Diana Clement.

I'd just landed back in NZ after five "trip-of-a-lifetime" weeks at the Fifa World Cup, writes Diana Clement. If there's a lesson from Brazil, it's be happy.

Women sometimes get a raw deal when it comes to insurance, for varied reasons. For one, most leave sorting out the insurance to their husbands, writes Diana Clement.

Whenever I suggest ways for people to get ahead financially, the response from a vocal minority of readers is to moan, writes

There are plenty of financial mistakes grown-ups make that their offspring should not copy. One of the big problems is being too conservative, writes Diana Clement.

People do odd - inexplicable, even - things with their money. Sometimes it's because of mental health problems - diagnosed or otherwise, writes Diana Clement.

There's a fox in the hen house of personal finance. It's called a credit card, writes Diana Clement. Most people have little plastic friends. They may also have Farmers Card, QCard, Gem Visa and other store cards, which are disguised credit cards.

Risk, risk and more risk. Where there's an investment there's always risk. Sometimes investors don't even know what that risk is. Foreign exchange risk is one that is little understood by the average investor.

Life is expensive and some decades are more costly than others. One of the most expensive is from age 25 to 35.