Canadian Personal Finance Blog

To quote Chance the Gardner from Being There, and I really do enjoy watching stocks on a ticker (I use the Yahoo Instant Messenger version) but I really am not sure why. I preach that you should stay the course and not make rash decisions, so the worst thing I can do is to sit in my office and every 10 minutes glance over to see how my stocks are doing. For a while I turned it off (and I must admit I did turn it off from 2001 to 2003, because that was just too much to watch). I also remember the heady days of the late 90’s watching stocks jump $2 and $3 a day and having no idea why (and in hindsight, neither did anyone else).

I think it is the part of me that enjoys watching sporting events like Baseball. It is so long and so boring, but occasionally something amazing happens and you don’t want to miss it. Maybe I am hoping to turn and see that suddenly I can retire because all my stocks have doubled (ok, quadrupled at least), but it’s an interesting behavior that I really don’t understand.

Do you stock watch? Why?

Count Floyd Says No Surprises

“AAaaaa-ooooohhhh kids that is some scarey stuff to hear…”, Count Floyd aka Joe Jim Flaherty the Federal finance minister said. Evidently he has reformed and will not be giving us any nice tax breaks or cut spending in the upcoming budget, reports the CBC. An $11.6 Billion surplus is expected for the past year, which he could put on the National Debt (and drive it below $500 Billion) or maybe he’ll put it in the Government’s secret vault and save it for a rainy day?