Category: Announcements

Million Dollar Journey gives his views on the 2009 Budget

My Two Dollars wrote about a restaurant where the staff voted to work for tips only.

Preet has a book giveaway.

Financial Blogger talks about Critical Illness Insurance.

The Money Gardener reflects on the recession.

Good Financial Cents discusses types of trusts and when you might want to put one in place.

The Oblivious Investor takes issue with the definition of risk.

Dividend Growth Investor suggests Using Tax Loss Harvesting to Find Dividend Bargains.

Money Ning reminds us why we need to keep receipts.

Consumer Boomer talked about fixed annuities for boomers.

Cash Money Life wrote about how the economic stimulus check affects your 2008 tax return.

Green Panda Treehouse reviews H&R Block Tax Cut software.

Blunt Money says one big payment is not the answer.

Canadian Capitalist reports that poor 10-year stock returns is not unprecedented.

The Intelligent Speculator wonders so what if executives are using private jets?

Investing School discusses the pitfalls of dollar cost averaging.

ABCs of Investing wrote about Chasing Investment Returns and TIPS, Treasury Inflation Protected Securities

Carnivals

Taking Charge did a very interesting carnival of personal finance.

Carnival of Financial Planning was held at the Skilled Investor.

Little Miss Money Hacks hosted the Carnival of Money Hacks.

A quick note to let everyone know that wolfe and Swati are the winners.

I’ll be in touch with them by email to work out the delivery.

It was interesting to watch some of the inauguration speech by US President Obama this week.  While I think it’s great that a black man is president of the US – I thought the far more important milestone in US history this week was that George Bush is no longer in office.  As a Canadian, I don’t really care if the Dems or Pubs are in power (although I’d be more likely to vote R if I was an American) but if someone like Bush is charge – that is cause for concern.  His re-election ranks right up there with the OJ acquittal in terms of unexplainable events.

The funny thing is that I thought he was a pretty decent president for the first couple of years – but now Bush just reminds me of one of those movies where the company janitor gets promoted to CEO because of an administrative error.  In the movie, the former janitor usually ends up being very competent and saves the company from some impending financial disaster.  In real life…well it’s safe to say the opposite happened.  I’m sure he’s not a bad guy but he just got in way over his head.

The links

Squawkfox had a great post on words and expressions not to use on a resume.  I was wondering why she asked for my resume a while back – that’s where she got all her material.  A must read!

The Money Gardener broke the news about a plan by the Ontario and Canadian governments to provide a 10% down payment for anyone buying a house in Windsor.  That area has been hit hard by the auto sector so I guess the government is just trying to keep the city afloat.

Good Financial Cents– a new blog – wrote an introduction to asset allocation.   The author of this blog, Jeff Rose is a pretty nice guy and is also a certified financial planner in Illinois.

Bible Money Matters had a good post called do you ever plan to fully retire? A great question – I’d like to not have to work but I also don’t want to be sitting around all day.

Preet had an interesting idea about buying a Civic and renting a Ferrari.  I’ve never rented a fancy sports car but I always thought that renting made a lot more sense than buying.

The Oblivious Investor had a very interesting post about diversification using individual stocks.  It’s not that easy!

Dividend Growth Investor discusses when to buy back dividend stocks that you sold?

Amateur Asset Allocator says that socially responsible investing is a myth.  I couldn’t agree more!

Moolanomy says that Lending Club is better than credit cards when funding a small business.

The Well Heeled wonders is it time to buy?

Million Dollar Journey has 6 reasons why a recession is a good thing.

Canadian Capitalist wrote about preparing for tough times (ie layoffs etc).

The Intelligent Speculator speculates on Google stock.

Investing School explains what a hedge fund is.

ABCs of Investing wrote about 529 educational savings plans and explained what a stock exchange is.

Financial Blogger reveals the dark side of the MBA.   Wasn’t that a Pink Floyd album?

Money Ning has 50 ways to save money when traveling.

Green Panda Treehouse says that Circuit City liquidation Deals aren’t good deals.

Goto Retirement lists some key policy provisions with long term care insurance.

Blunt Money has some suggestions for maintaining your motivation.

Carnivals

Carnival of Personal Finance

Don’t forget to enter in the contest to win one $50 gift card at Chapters.ca.  There are two cards to giveaway and so far only 30 comments so get over there!

You have to leave a comment (on the contest post, not this one) saying what if any changes you are going to make to your asset allocation this year.  If you don’t know what asset allocation means then a comment saying “no change” will suffice.  🙂

Contest will be closed at 8 pm on Thursday, January 22.

Contest is open to Canadian residents only.

Check out similar contests at the Canadian Capitalist and the Financial Blogger.

Weight

182 pounds – down 1 pound from last week which is good.  Didn’t run this week because of knee problems which are hopefully temporary.

The Links

Jordan’s post this week on investing part of a house down payment in stocks reminded me of a Rob Carrick article on investing lessons learned over the past year.  One of the people mentioned was an investment advisor who advised a client to invest the proceeds of their recent house sale into equities even though they were planning to buy another house in a year.  I thought this was pretty bad advice and if I were that client, I’d be looking for a lawyer!  The most amazing thing is that the advisor used his name in the article – perhaps he should sign up for my other blog and learn something about investment time horizons?

Another article I read recently which quite amazed me was about student loans and unethical private loan companies.  While the premise of the article was interesting (students being taken advantage of by loan companies) the thing that blew me away was the student profiled.  She obtained a degree in photography in Santa Barbara and managed to rack up $140,000 in student loans!  Just to show that wasn’t a typo – $140,000 in student loans!!!!!

Who in their right mind would ever agree to graduate from a program with a ridiculous debt load like that?  I can see if you are in medicine or some guaranteed high-paying career path it might make sense, but for most people, it just doesn’t make any sense.

The blogs

Big Cajun Man had an interesting story about his recent layoff from Nortel and the fact that he was lucky to get out when he did.  Unfortunately employees who were more recently laid off (or are about to be laid off) might not get much of a severance package.

Jason from Frugal Dad has started blog about blogging called SideHustleBlogging.com – if you are interesting in blogging or the business behind it then check out this blog.

Million Dollar Journey had an interesting case study – a young couple provided their finances and wondered if they can afford a house.

Preet has some total return indices’ calendar returns for the last 15 years.  This is in Canadian dollars.

Financial Blogger explains why the markets are so volatile.

PFN and stuff

Money Ning is looking for advice on where he should live in 2009.

Blunt Money says that sometimes repairs are worthwhile in it’s going to cost more to fix it than it’s worth.

Squawkfox created a free printable workout log.

Canadian Capitalist reports that currency neutral funds are no bargain.

The Intelligent Speculator tells us about the flip side to leveraged ETFs.

Investing School explains the spread between the bid and ask prices for stocks.

ABCs of Investing wrote about setting financial goals and variable and fixed annuities and stock splits.

Carnivals

Carnival of Financial Planning was held at the Skilled Investor.

Weight

183.0 – I gained 3 pounds over the holidays which is unfortunate but to be expected.  I went to visit my parents and although I like to blame them for making it easy to overeat, the reality is that I use those visits as an excuse to eat and drink as much as I possibly can! 🙂

The links

A worthwhile read about money on Money Grubbing Lawyer – written by an ex-con which is something you don’t see everyday!

Dividend Growth Investor talks about when to sell dividend stocks.

The Oblivious Investor says that imperfect information is the reason why high-cost mutual funds still exist.

Brip Blap had a great post on time management.  He’s not working 9-5 anymore and it finding it hard to be productive.

Million Dollar Journey has a post on real estate – 7 real estate myths busted wide open.

Thicken My Wallet had a good post on preferred stocks – are they right for me?

Preet is back from holidays and has some conspiracy theories about investment managers on tv.

Financial Blogger has some thoughts (regrets?) on home renovation.

Money Ning says you should toilet train yourself.

A guest post I did a while ago called Know the history of the stock markets.  I wrote this when the market was still crashing but it still applies!

Clever Dude hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance and did a rather clever fairy tale theme.

Blunt Money says that percentage-based budgets don’t work.

Moolanomy presents an introduction to peer-to-peer lending.

Squawkfox celebrated her 1 year blogiversary – she has listed some of her best posts from the past year so go check it out.

Canadian Capitalist reports on asset class returns for 2008 – most of them weren’t good!

The Intelligent Speculator says that leveraged ETFs are a scam.

Investing School lists 5 legendary investors.

ABCs of Investing wrote about asset allocation and the reasons for owning different asset classes.  Dollar cost averaging was the subject of another ABC post.

Carnivals

Carnival of Personal Finance was held at the Fraud Files.

Carnival of Financial Planning was held at the Skilled Investor.