Canadian Personal Finance Blog

As can be seen from this actual photo my daughter took this weekend, it’s always good to see what is behind you. The T-Rex looks quite vicious doesn’t it? If you are driving on Highway 6 near Hamilton you’ll know which T-Rex I mean.

Financially, you need to remember the very important advice once given me, about when a predator is chasing you. You don’t have to be the fastest, you just have to be faster than the slowest prey. Getting back into the equity markets the fastest may not be what your goal should be, maybe you should aim to be in before MOST of the folks get back in, or else you might end up someones lunch.

Go faster it is catching up!

The Market is like a T-Rex

It’s fast, it eats anything it can catch and it has really short arms, well, maybe that last one isn’t quite correct, but right now investors must feel like the T-Rex prey, because a lot of us are being chewed up, but then again, maybe if we just stand there, the T-Rex might run by us (if you don’t understand that reference, re-read Jurassic Park by the late Michael Crichton)?

For folks that are investing for the long term, continue not watching what is coming behind you, you shouldn’t be worrying, you are in the market for the long term, relax and it will all settle down, eventually. 

Just another pitiful analogy by the Big Cajun Man so he can include a funny picture his daughter made on the weekend? Maybe, but I like it.

My opinion is this will be another very volatile week with  some very bad news from some companies (like Nortel) and maybe some heartening news for a few others, but tighten your safety belts the ride is bound to get a lot more bumpy before it finally calms down.

TFSA Advertising In All Financial Institutions

If you haven’t received something from your bank about a TFSA account, be prepared to be barraged soon. Each bank or Insurance company is trying to get you back into their doors by offering this savings vehicle in some fashion or another. Many want you to buy Mutual Funds, others are setting up straight savings accounts and others will let you create a full service trading account. Which TFSA set up is right for you? Go find out, there is a lot of info out there about it, come January 1, you should be ready to get going on this.

Carnivals

This week I am mentioned in:

• The Digerati Life is hosting the Fierce Financial Tips: The Carnival of Personal Finance #178, Struwwelpeter Edition where my post about Pensions and Severance is featured.
• Weight Loss Journal is hosting Carnival of Weight Loss — Barack Obama Edition #3 where my article on Debt is Like Fat is featured as well.
• Greener Pastures is hosting the Carnival of Debt Reduction #165: A History of the National Debt where my article I Should Divorce My Wife is featured

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).

There was hopeful statements from analysts that there might be a “honeymoon” for the new president elect and that the death spiral that the Stock Exchanges have been doing might slow down or stop, but that does not seem to be the case, as stocks continued to drop for another day. Looks like the president elect will be handed the rancid entrails that is the U.S. economy and that will be his first job to clean up. I get the feeling that the “good will” from the election is not going to last long if there is an extended downturn in the economy (who said recession?).

More Given by Less

Stats Canada reported an increase in the total amount that tax-filers reported as charitable donations, however, fewer people actually gave that money.

Canadian taxfilers reported making charitable donations surpassing $8.6 billion in 2007, up 1.4% from 2006. At the same time, the number of donors fell 0.9% to just under 5.7 million. Data are based on income tax returns filed for 2007.

I am happy to see that I am above the Median of $250 for givers (i.e. I am in the upper half), remember with the holiday season coming, that means your fiscal end of year is coming for charitable donations and you might want to think about giving a little more?

More Given by More

When we look at the Stats Canada data on RRSP contributions by Tax-filers you see a different picture.

Just under 6.3 million taxfilers contributed to registered retirement savings plans (RRSP) in 2007, up 1.6% from 2006. Their contributions rose by 5.3% to $34.1 billion. These data are based on tax returns filed for 2007.

More money going into Mutual Funds and such, the data for this year will be very interesting, given the stories of Mutual Fund flush outs (i.e. folks selling big time), what this might show in the RRSP world. I actually have given more than any other year this year, but that has more to do with my lay off than any other reason.

The RRSP silly season doesn’t really start until February, but you could put more money in now and it would have longer to start growing? Just a thought.

End of Year Financial Plan

Do you have an end of year plan for your finances? Might be time to figure out what needs to get done before December 31st, since it is usually hard to get anything done after December the 15th. I have pointed out RRSP, but remember the TFSA is coming too, how will that change next year’s plans? The TFSA may well cause a big change in how Canadians save, let’s hope.

Yes the forecast “weather bomb” has appeared and dumped a bunch of snow on Ottawa, thus causing all drivers to lose their brains, forget how to drive in snow and the added excitement that even those who own snow tires most likely do not have them on their cars yet, so today will be a day for accidents and arriving very late at work, if at all (thus causing significant economic hardship for a lot of folks (ok, not really but I needed to connect it back to Finance somehow)).

This kind of weather excitement will cause the CAA to take hours to respond, due to their towing service being overtaxed pulling folks out of ditches, cause the police to answer hundreds of calls about accidents and will have Hydro crews out restoring power to lots of folks, so maybe it would be a good day to be Calm, and pleasant with everyone? Just an idea folks, we are all in it together!

It Snowed In Ottawa

Caution for Ontario Drivers

Put on your snow tires if you live around Ottawa is the first caution, because we really DO need snow tires up here (I don’t think I can convince folks from Toronto that, and if you live in Windsor or Niagara, yes, you can live with all seasons, I guess).

For those of us who can drive across a bridge to Quebec, here is an interesting quandary: Quebec has mandatory snow tire laws, are they going to enforce those laws for out of province vehicles? I would guess they might not, but you never know.

Markets Rebound

But is it a rebound or a respite? Very good question, we shall see,  I have gone back in a little with some index fund purchases, but I am still not sold that this is the bottom, as I mentioned yesterday, I’ll tell you in six months whether this is the stock market bottom. The run at the end of the trading day yesterday was qutie astonishing, but we have seen these kind of runs as sell offs as well.

Frank Folds

For those in Ottawa you will be saddened (or happy) that Frank magazine is shutting down. Frank was a satirical paper that had a lot of “insider” gossip from Parliament hill and was funny only when it went way off the normal path and made outrageous statements, that no normal human being would think was “real news”, however politicians always thought it was, and their reactions were priceless.

Many folks in Ottawa have learned that if you drive in Quebec and your “tag” (date of expiration) on your car is the current month, the S.Q. will pull you over and if your registration is expired, they will hit you with a whopping fine (for driving in Quebec with an expired out of province automobile registration).

Cell Phone Usage Ban in Automobiles in Ontario

Since we are talking about cars, the Ontario Provincial government will make it illegal to be talking on your cell phone while driving your car (without a hands free device), but they have also added if you are TEXTing, doing e-mail on a Crackberry type device or a gaming device. I must admit I am guilty of this on occasion ad I welcome this law to stop me from being so stupid, however, for those of you part of the Crackberry cult, put the darn thing down! No e-mail is so important that you must answer it while driving at 100 KM/hr with your children in the back seat!