E mpire Co. Ltd.

A one-time tax benefit boosted Wi-LAN Inc.’s WIN-T three-month income into the black, the Ottawa-based patent licensing company said Thursday. Net and comprehensive income for the period ended Oct.

M y husband recently suggested to me that if I really want to trim our family budget, I should start by turning off the lights when I leave a room. In response, I gently reminded him to set our digital thermostat so that the heat isn’t on as high during the day when we’re at work or at night when we’re asleep.

A top insurance executive is calling on government to endorse multi-employer pension plans, as federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and a number of his provincial counterparts prepare to meet in Whitehorse next week to brainstorm ways to tackle the challenges facing the nation’s retirement system. Dean Connor, president of Sun Life Financial Canada, says those challenges amount to one of the most important issues that Canada is facing.

W elcome to the Globe and Mail Personal Finance Reader. I’m Rob Carrick, personal finance columnist at The Globe, and each week I compile a list of articles, blog postings, videos and websites that represent the best of what the online world has to offer on money-related subjects. In looking ahead to 2010, I can’t help but think of how the tone of e-mails readers send to me has changed over the course of the year.

R ussian companies are sitting on a multibillion-dollar debt time bomb after allowing overseas borrowings to rise since April, heedless of default fears that dogged them in early 2009. Bankers say a failure to complete restructurings may hamper Russia’s ability to borrow in the future and the absence of clearly defined negotiation guidelines between Russian and western lenders raises the risk of future defaults.

Many people in the UK have really suffered under a veritable mountain of debt and particularly in the course of the past three years since the start of the credit crunch. There are always times in life when individuals are less well off than others due to various reasons. These reasons can be for example due to a member of a household losing their job or having their paid overtime reduced or done away with due to their firm having fewer orders to fulfill