Canadian Personal Finance Blog

A week where we looked closer at topics that is near and painful to my hear:

• Monday was a discussion of Investment Planning and my normal honesty that I am as good a golfer as I am an investor at times.  I do however have a plan that I am living up to right now, and am glad I have not bailed out the way I might have in my younger days.
• Horror Stories from the Financial World was Tuesday’s post, where I talked about a pay per use card that still charged 365% interest if you paid it off the wrong way.
• Wednesday we went to one of my favorite topics, which is getting Free Banking and how if you are persistent and are willing to move banks, you can get Free Banking from the major banks (in Canada at least).
• Finally I talked about Bank Fees in general and my views in that area.

In some of the other blogs I read usually:

• The Canadian Capitalist mentioned one of the new sites set up to stop telemarketers in specific and crap like that in general. I tried it out, but I am still getting called for now.
• Michael James spoke of his loathing of the Penny , this is not something new for him, ever since I have known him he has hated the penny.
• It looks like the BCE purchase is going to go through, which may mean a rise in the stock price over the next little while, we shall see.
• An interesting article about how Nortel might be worth more broken into it’s parts than it is worth as a whole?

Enjoy your weekend, I will be hanging out in gyms all weekend watching U15 girls play basketball.

We interrupt this discussion about Personal Finance quarterly statements for a quick look at the past week:

• The Canadian dollar is back at par with it’s American cousin. This is better for the Canadian manufacturing world, however, is it enough? The interest rate drop being assumed by the financial markets we find out about in a few weeks so stay tuned.
• Today is BLACK Friday! Which does not mean that the Mist is going to take over your small Maine town, it is allegedly the biggest shopping day in the U.S. and the “Black” actually means, this is the day that retail stores in the U.S. finally go into profitability today (i.e. Black). Go see the Mist anyhow.
• It snowed like heck the past day or so in Ottawa, which means more and more folks slamming into each other, towing companies phones ringing off the hooks and the sales of snow tires and snow tire installation sky rocketing as well. Do you use snow tires? If you live in Raleigh Durham, I know why not, if you live in Ottawa, what was your reason again? Best line read is, “It’s about the cost of your insurance deductible to buy snow tires, think about it”.
• Retail sales are down 0.2% in September, which is interesting, given all the “hub bub” about cross border shopping, you would have thought that the stores were abandoned, but that is not the case yet.
• I continue to enjoy some time off work, that is another interesting end of year “finance” thing to look at. How much vacation do you have left for this year? Does your company pay you out for unused vacation, or do you lost it? If you lose it, USE IT! If they pay you out, that is another idea to keep in mind as well (could you use an extra week’s pay)?

Have a fun weekend all, the Personal Finance Quarterly report seminar continues on Monday with Debts (something almost as scary as a Stephen King Novella).

An interesting week with lots of interesting posts and ideas:

• Nortel’s accounting scandal continues to dog this former High Tech darling with 4 more former VP’s of finance for lines of business indicted by the SEC this week. The former Bay Street darling is down to $16.49 ($1.65 pre reverse split) per share with no bottom really in sight? Hope none of you are getting burned on this one.
• On the good things to invest in front Dividends Matters does an analysis about whether the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is a good dividend investment.
• Our friend over at the Canadian Capitalist has an Ontario pre-election opinion on Daulton McGuinty and his taxing ways. Remember to read and form your opinions about the candidates and then VOTE!!!
• I must be rubbing off on Larry MacDonald he has an excellent Rant about his laptop computer breaking, hey Larry, ranting about things is MY angle.
• My home life continues to be a huge money drain with the September Monetary on slaught continuing with large money lay outs for Sports, and School highlighting the out flows.

Articles This Week

• How do you retire with kids at home?
• New House Prices Easing
• Voice Over IP: Is it Worth It?
• Monday, Back From Vacation
• Givings: Does Direct Withdrawal Cheapen The Giving?