With my new look, I am giving you a new concept for Friday too (OK it looks the same, but so is the new website look as well, but it will change slowly). The new look has put me back in Google’s good graces, and it does seem to load a little faster, but there are more changes coming, stay tuned.

I have been enjoying a week off, as a transition back into work, after a rough 6 months of language training (yes I know most of you think it’s a vacation, but it was not easy for me). Vacationing seems to mean catching up on all the stuff I kept putting off for the past little while, it’s almost like you should take a week off to prepare to go on vacation (if that makes any sense).

I am having a slight Olympics hangover, with not much sport wise to watch on TV, and a possible NHL strike looming on the horizon, that will mean I only get to watch NFL football games every single night of the week, how is a man to survive?

Money wise not too much new, other than the market upswing seems to be in a bit of a holding pattern, but that does not mean we are recovering, just that we don’t know where we are right now. The U.S. elections should be telling to see which way the economy is going to go in general, but I am not sure what a vote for either party really means either. My guess is the Republicans get into power, scrap Obama-care, and start spending like drunken sailors on stuff, whereas a reelection of Obama would mean the continued 4 year stalemate seen in the U.S. Government, but is either of these things bad? I have no idea.

Weekly Recap

Even on vacation, I managed to write some interesting copy:

• With my Sunday’s Best post for this week, many interesting older posts that have appeared on my Twitter feed over the past few weeks, and a fond farewell to the Olympics as well.
• Stats Canada gave us good/bad news with the latest Labour Figures which showed us Leaking Part Time Jobs, which is not a good thing, although we are still creating full-time jobs.
• What did the Olympic Closing Ceremonies Teach us Financially? I have no idea, the post has very little to do with the title on this one.
• No one wants to keep customers, hence the Have You Spoken to Our Customer Retention Group, post, where I rant about the crappy deals you get as an existing customer for any service in Canada.
•  Feeling a little sorry for myself I came up with Back to School (A monetary nightmare) things aren’t that bad, but it is a little much as well.

And thanks to those who added me on Twitter I am now over 1140 folks who follow me, holy liftin! If you join my “Twitter Posse“, you might notice I am also re-Tweeting some posts from the French Media as well (hell, if I am learning the language, shouldn’t we all?).

Check out my Facebook page as well (but no I didn’t buy Facebook stock). The page includes many different posts, not just my own (kind of like this Friday post, but all week-long), and I have changed it a little bit too (note the new background).

#Shoutouts for the Week

More folks have returned from vacation, so a few more #shoutouts to send to my financial homefolk :

• Michael James brought back bad memories with CRA Processing Reviews, which I have lived through once, and am living through now. Let’s hope I get two times lucky!
• Mark from My Own Advisor asks the lyrical question How Many Dividend Stocks is Enough? Good question big guy.
• Preet puts his head into the hornet’s nest with Why women inch ahead of men in the investment game, me I am staying out of who is smarter in the investing game (but I can assure you it is not ME).
• Our friend from Glenn had a guest post on Canadian Capitalist with Buy term invest the difference? Not if you look at the numbers, big #shoutout to Glenn, well worth a read.
• The Blunt Bean Counter goes Corporate on us with Governance Issues Private Corporations need to Review on an Annual Basis.

Other Bookkeeping

My Kind of Vacation

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Have a look at my micro-blog on Twitter, where you can see a whole plethora of good articles and pithy comments by me as well. Twitter feed where I re-tweet many great articles by some of my featured writers (and make the occasional odd or off colour commentary on life (in 140 characters or less)). I am also on Digg as Big Cajun Man, on reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest and other Social Media sites (look for the BigCajunMan userid) as well.

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