Canadian Personal Finance Blog

This is an important thing to remember when it comes to Debt Reduction and Financial Planning in general. Don’t get caught up too much in the whole, “What stocks should I invest in..”, or “Is Ameritrade better than Bob’s Discount Brokers?”, remember, Debt goes FIRST. If you are carrying a large Credit Card debt, who gives a crap about whether you pay $29 or $35 per transaction with your online broker? Whatever money you are thinking of investing, PUT IT ON THE DAMN CREDIT CARD DEBT!

Sometimes we lose focus and get caught up in the whirlwind world of financial planning and fun like that (I plead guilty to this offense as well, I am not pointing fingers at anyone, I am speaking from experience), worry about getting out of debt FIRST, then worry about investing.

We’ll talk about real world examples in the coming weeks and months, since my financial plans are not working as I had hoped, so I figure I might have an epiphany if I vent my spleen on the blog. We’ll see.

–C8j

“If you own Nortel, or a mutual fund holding it, don’t bail out now… If you do not own Nortel, then this is the time to start accumulating it.”

- Garth Turner November 27th 2000

So Garth Turner is a respected Canadian Financial person, and he got it OH so wrong, it hurts, so remember that when someone gives you a “sure fire” stock tip. Oh and in case you were wondering what other interesting things Garth has said:

“I am constantly amazed at the assumption people make that they can manage their own finances… most people can’t. They don’t have a clue how to pick stocks.”

- Garth Turner in a 2002 personal investment column regarding those unfortunate enough to have lost on Nortel

Just remember, that anyone can TELL you what to do with your money (including me) but eventually you are the one that has to live with the decisions, so you had better be doing some research of your own!

Of course there is the “legend” of J.P. Morgan:

Legend has it that when the elevator operator in Baruch’s office building started asking him for stock tips in August 1929, the financier knew it was time to get out of the market. He was dead right!

I found these quotes on Rick Mercer’s Blog, which is a great blog, with lots of interesting information (I think).

–C8j

This post was previously posted as: A very Good Quote for a Sunday

Good Quote For a Sunday

OK, before I get inundated, this is a good biblical quote that I think can work for EVERYONE (even atheists, agnostics, Jews, Muslims, Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto or Snake Handler):

No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. —Luke 16:13

So my interpretation of this in the financial sense is that if you make MONEY, or the pursuit of it, or the management of it your Master (as it were), you are not going to enjoy Life (your real master (if not God, for us spiritual folks)).

I have found that in my own life that if I worry too much about money everything gets out of whack (now yes, you should plan about money, but once you have the plan and are executing it, forget about it, will ya?). Money should not be your Master, or raison d’etre, it is a tool to get things and do things, and that should be it. Debt reduction is a goal not a God, and saving is a past time, not a religion.

OK, I’ll put away the soapbox for now, but I liked that quote –C8J