I finally upgrade to high definition tv and have been pretty happy with it. Hockey is pretty good in HD (although it would be a lot better if the Leafs were still playing), but the best improvement has been cycling. I’m currently watching the Giro d’Italia (Canadian Ryder Hesjedal was the winner last year) and the scenery is fantastic. It looks good on non-HD as well, but the difference is stunning.
I can’t wait for the Tour de France to start.
On with the links
Ben Rabidoux, a noted real estate bear, wrote a good article called Should everyone consider renting over buying right now? It’s a reasonable article although personally I wish a smart guy like Ben would use his talents doing something more useful than calling for real estate crashes. Unless he can tell us when the market will go down, how much it will go down and for how long it will be down – any predictions are completely useless. See Garth Turner for another example. Garth has been calling for a real estate crash since sometime after the second world war.
Tom Bradley, the owner of Steadyhand Investment Funds wrote a letter to the Ontario Securities Commission with some suggestions about separating the cost of financial advice from the cost of mutual fund management in Canada. As I wrote back in 2011, I also think separating these fees is a step in the right direction. It’s interesting that Bradley talks about lack of disclosure of mutual fund fees, but he fails to mention that his firm would likely benefit quite a bit if his suggestions are put in place.
And now for something completely different
Here are a couple of non-financial links:
Making bacon. Who doesn’t like bacon? This song video is quite amusing and it might make you hungry.
The Rob Ford story just gets better and better. Jon Stewart from the Today show did a hilarious skit on Rob Ford which is well worth watching.
5 replies on “LinkStuff – High Definition TV Edition”
Wow, that’s pretty harsh. Even without a timeline or an exact amount, pointing out the risk in real estate is far from useless, it could save huge swaths of first-time buyers a lot of money on their largest living expense. Even if there is no crash, getting them to rethink renting vs buying at these price:rents is of great value.
My wife and I are done owning property. Its too expensive and not worth the risk in the short term. We are taking our money off the table and putting it to work paying our rent in our retirement so our pensions can more easily pay for living.
Thank you for the links info ! Would love to understand how Steadyhand Investment Funds would benefit from their recommendations over and above other organizations.
Thank you!
@Monica – Steadyhand does not pay any trailer commissions to brokers unlike most of the bigger mutual fund companies which means that no financial advisors will ever recommend their products to their clients which is the single reason their asset base is so small.
If the government separates the trailer commissions from the fund management, then companies like Steadyhand will be on a level playing field and will have a decent chance of being recommended/selected by financial advisors.
I should point out that they offer a great service – if you want to call them, they will help with making investment choices and setting up an account and the cost is half as much as most mutual fund companies.
Thank you!