Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for November 7th, 2008

The three year marathon that was the U.S. Federal election ‘08 has finally completed and we can get back to normal, but unfortunately as we can see from a cursory read of some of the Financial Blogs around, what is Normal any more? Oh and when does the sprint to 2012 start? Luckily we have a Quebec election to fill our time up with for now.

This Week’s Personal Finance Highlights

• Michael James showed his artistic side giving us a graphical rendition of Market Timing in Pictures that i is missing the Big Cajun Graph where the Sell is on the bottom and the buy is on the top (look at the pictures and you’ll understand that one).
• Nancy Zimmerman did a Case Study: What to do when you get screwed financially, that makes me cringe when I read what some people have had done to them. 
• No Debt Plan talked about the Frugal Life Skill: Learning to Fix Stuff Yourself, which I subscribe to in areas where I think I have expertise, however, in some areas, like my car, I leave that to the professionals.
• Money Smart Life asks Eight Financial Questions for Success in a Bad Economy, go ask yourself some of these questions, maybe you aren’t as prepared as you though?
• I wish the One Caveman good luck with his procedures, which he outlines in a post When Life Gives You the Opportunity to Start Over, Take It!
• For my fellow bloggers who might use Wordpress, TechCrunch posts this important warning about Fake Wordpress Site Releasing Backdoor Code. 
• Stats Canada mentions that there still are about the same number of Rural Folk in Canada (6 million) however due to the growth of Urban areas, the Rural folk are now a much lower percentage of the population.
• W Revenue dot Com quotes Gordon Gecko from Wall Street when he says Greed is Good, but asks about Profits Gone Wild: Government’s Role in Business . 
• On an odd note, Rolling Stone points out a downside of elections, sometimes you Lose Band Members? As April Wine said, “.. no one ever warned the boy, Rock N Roll is a vicious game…”
• For we religious folk that might want to make a wager, a bookie in the U.K. has put odds at 4-1 that God Exists, I think I’d put a few quid on that.
• The Canadian Tax Payers Federation wants Property Taxes pinned to the Rate of Inflation, which might be nice given in Ottawa the numbers being passed around are MUCH higher. 
• Finally the Canadian Capitalist and a few other bloggers have been looking at Manulife Income Plus: The High Cost of Peace of Mind. The N.C.F.B.A. met last night and there was the usual friendly banter but the discussion around this topic made me very concerned about what new tricks the financial services industry will pull out of their bag in the future? Read these posts carefully (Michael James has some data on it as well).