Archive for the ‘Best of’ Category

Best of: Don’t Pass it to the Other Team!

The CIS championships return to Ottawa for the last time this weekend (they go back to Halifax for a while after that), and with that in mind we go back in time to one of my favorite old postings Don’t pass it to the other team sound advice from an excellent (if not hard-edged) coach (Dave Smart of Carleton). You can find this post and several other of my favorites at My Favorites page (well worth a read).

As a note, I still dabble in helping out with basketball (although I suspect I am a much better assistant coach/team manager than I am head coach), and hopefully will get to 1 or 2 games this weekend (will be attending a coaching clinic on Saturday morning, hopefully there will be other useful messages that I can translate into the world of personal finance). Also Carleton’s string of 5 championships in a row was broken, however they are defending champions again this year, so we shall see how this weekend goes. (I am a Carleton fan, but a Waterloo Alumni, luckily my Alma Mater is not playing this year).

Don’t Pass it to the Other Team!

So one of my sidelights is coaching basketball, and I love going to clinics from coaches who talk about coaching and plays and stuff (I’m an old gym rat at heart). Last Saturday I was lucky enough to hear from Dave Smart who is the head coach at Carleton University (the Ravens have been Canadian Champions the last 3 years running), and he was fascinating to listen to. Coach Smart admits to being a perfectionist and telling it like it is, and one of the expressions he tells all of his players is “Don’t Pass the ball to the other team“.

The first time you hear this expression it sounds obvious, of course, who would do that, but what Coach Smart was trying to say (I think) is most basketball players watch their own players, but rarely see the other team’s players. If you watch the defensive players, you won’t pass it to them! Simple, right? No! You know where the offensive player is going to go, you don’t know where the defender is going, and you need to watch them!

What does this have to do about finances? (Darn good question, get ready for a stretch here) Don’t take your eye off things that you can’t control, the stuff you can control, your savings, your retirement, your investments, your debt reduction plan, if they are under control that is good.

You have to plan for the things you don’t control, and that means:

• Reduce DEBT! You can’t control interest rates, you can’t move forward with your car in reverse. Debt reduction is first and foremost. Everything else can be dealt with much more easily if you are carrying little or no DEBT!!!
• Have contingency funds in place for:
  • Car repair. I am guilty of that one, car repair bills always throw me off kilter
  • House repair. I am going to get a major bill to replace the roof and furnace on my house, but they had to be done. If your house is new, you’ll need to replace these things in 15 years, but in 15 years, if you haven’t saved any money for it, it’s going to HURT!
  • Catastrophic illness. I have long term disability insurance with my company just in case. If I had a stroke tomorrow, my family would at least have an income of some kind.
  • Loss of employment. If you lose your job, how long will you last? A priest once told me everyone is 12 weeks away from living on the streets, make sure you are not one of those folks
  • Death! Term insurance to protect your family, and a will to protect them even more (thanks Dividend Guy, for pointing out I missed that).

These are SOME of the unknowns, that you need to watch for, and not pass the ball to them!

Hope for the best, and plan for the worst!

For my regular readers, I am so lazy swamped over the holidays that I am taking some time off and putting up a “Best of” anthology until the New Year (January 4th to be exact). Enjoy two Best of posts a day over the Holidays and have yourself a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

For me the year 2009 was a roller coaster of ups and downs both financially and in my life. As some of you know I worked at Nortel for 20+ years and got laid off at the end of 2008, but I was lucky enough to find a job this year, and I have no complaints about 2009, other than the normal rants my regular readers have seen.

I have picked out three posts that sort of sum up Nortel and me in the past year. I don’t bare any ill will to the folks I worked with at Nortel, they were great, but I still have a festering loathing for the upper management team(s) and some in specific on how this all “went down”. My guess is that Karma, or God or whatever force that makes things equal in this world will get them eventually.

Interesting that I never really had a specific post stating I was back at work, I simply slid it into a Random Thoughts posting.

A Questionnaire for Everything (2009/01/06)

In August as part of the entire severance process that I lived through with my now former employer a few odd things happened and this incident really was the most odd…..

To read complete post click here

Sometimes It’s Better to Be Lucky (2009/01/15)

With Nortel’s bankruptcy protection announcement yesterday there is a sickening scenario for some very unlucky folks (many I know personally). Today’s title comes from one of my favorite expressions, “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than talented”, and that is how I feel right now….

To read complete post click here

A Year Ago (2009/07/30)

This is the one year anniversary of my lay off notice from Nortel. A lot has happened in the past year (unfortunately not a job offer for me, but I am still optimistic), that have me thinking that for something bad, it may end up being a good thing…..

To read complete post click here

Random Thoughts: Back to Work Edition (2009/08/07)

For my regular readers you will know I have been on the hunt for a new job for over a year now, but I am pleased to say that I will be embarking on a new career as of Monday, which is a great relief to me (and to my wife who will gladly have the house back in a regular working order soon enough)……

To read complete post click here

For my regular readers, I am so lazy swamped over the holidays that I am taking some time off and putting up a “Best of” anthology until the New Year (January 4th to be exact). Enjoy two Best of posts a day over the Holidays and have yourself a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

The year slowly draws to a close, but fear not good reader, I still have a few more morsels of financial fun for your reading satisfaction. Tomorrow will be a real corker, but I don’t want to get you too excited so here are three more interesting post from the past year.

Taboo Subjects With Kids (2009/12/01)

Larry MacDonald asked me a few questions for an article he is working on, and it caused me to think a bit more about a subject that it is important as parents to talk to our kids about. This subject is taboo in most families and is certainly not a normal dinner table topic, and I must say that as a child growing up my parents never brought this subject up, and I must also admit that most of what I learned about it initially I learned “on the street”……

Click here for the complete Post

Men’s Health  (2009/12/17)

More studies are coming out that are pointing out that thanks to Erectile Dysfunction medications (like Viagra) men seem to be getting healthier…….

Click here for the Complete Post

Sometimes the Problem Changes (2009/10/20)

As part of my every day life, I help out at my Church with the computers (remember volunteering is a good thing to do), and one of the weekly events that should happen is back up of the computers at the Church (as it should for all of us, are you doing backups?). For the longest of times I used a CD-RW (read write CD) to back up this data, but over time the data set grew, and eventually we had to use 2 CD’s to accomplish the task……..

Click here for the complete post

For my regular readers, I am so lazy swamped over the holidays that I am taking some time off and putting up a “Best of” anthology until the New Year (January 4th to be exact). Enjoy two Best of posts a day over the Holidays and have yourself a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

The year ticks down, I trust you have completed all of your essential end of year stuff, and yes here is some other interesting things to think about too!

Eating Your Own Dog Food (2009/06/30)

Interesting turn of phrase I have seen used to mean a few different ideas in the software development world and in a few other places as well……

Click here for the complete Post

Don’t Buy the Model Home  (2009/03/18)

I was chatting with my fellow financial bloggers a few days ago and mentioned to Larry MacDonald about how I had purchased one of the model homes in my area and the issues I had run into having done this and he encouraged me to expand on this for a post here….

Click here for the Complete Post

Registered Disability Savings Plan(2009/11/04)

This relatively new savings vehicle introduced by the Government a while ago, has been taking a while to appear as a Savings Vehicle in many of the banks. I have been checking with TD for a while, but they have finally come out with their version of the RDSP . …….

Click here for the complete post

For my regular readers, I am so lazy swamped over the holidays that I am taking some time off and putting up a “Best of” anthology until the New Year (January 4th to be exact). Enjoy two Best of posts a day over the Holidays and have yourself a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Well that was a blur wasn’t it? The toys, the noise and excitement and then the Boxing Day sales, that will now go on for the next 4 months, isn’t capitalism a wonderful thing? For most of us, we get Monday off as “Boxing Day”, but fear not good reader, I still have my shovel out digging up old “nuggets” from the past year.

The Most Hideous (2009/02/09)

I opened my Ottawa Citizen on Saturday and I saw this picture and I was hit by a combination of revulsion, anger, and lurid curiosity…..

Click here for the complete Post

Boxing Day: Just Because it’s on sale  (2008/12/26)

… doesn’t mean you have to buy it!

This is the mantra you should be repeating to yourself as you walk through the Boxing Day sales.

Click here for the Complete Post

Car or Bus? (2009/08/11)

That is one of the big questions I have to think about given my new appointment.

In my previous job, there really was no reason to take the bus because: …….

Click here for the complete post