Random Thoughts: Evict those #Occupying

The #Occupy movement has been taking some serious licks this week all over North America, but they continue to fight (still not really sure what they are fighting about, but it’s entertaining none the less). The fight now moves into the courts as municipalities attempt to take back their parks from these nefarious interlopers or at least clean the parks up a little. Here in Ottawa, they want the park back for Winterlude, which sounds fair, and if those folks are still there in February, good luck to them (sleeping in a tent in Ottawa during February strikes me as a real statement of your defiance (or stupidity, depending on your point of view)).

The markets continue their roller coaster ride, causing no end of consternation (even though many companies are announcing record profits). The markets seem to have adopted the Gasoline Price model, where the prices of things going up and down have very little basis in fact, they just simply go up and down randomly.

Are you preparing for Christmas? SO far we haven’t done much around the house, but we are listening to Christmas tunes hoping they will somehow get us in the spirit of the season. Maybe we should be thinking about an #OccupyXmas campaign to join in the festive fun?

In Ottawa we have daily stories about our transit system and the problems the Drivers are having with the ridership, and such, I have shied away from that topic, but when I start taking the bus in the winter, be sure you will hear from me, but this week I did talk about:

• We did have a an asteroid miss us by not much and on Sunday I commented on that and recapped my Tweeting for the week as well.
• Were you thinking about computers this holiday season? Then be careful prices may be going up somewhat due to a shortage of hard disk drives.
• With the plethora of new ads on the radio about financial service firms, I pointed out the financial services you can do yourself and maybe ask why these new firms keep cropping up?
• I created a paradox by my comments about free advice: worth every penny because you got that advice for free, so should you follow it? Hmmm….
• To get into the holiday spirit I asked home many days ’til Christmas? With a few zingers from myself and Mrs. C8j.
• We Shall Remember On this day we shall remember those who paid the ultimate price for their country.
• Good on ya Jim So Jim Flaherty has had to retreat from his aggressive debt payment plans, due to the Canadian economy being sluggish (OK downright comatose). 
• Money Perspectives With everything in life sometimes it is important to remember that you need to have perspective of the size of your task in comparison to the pay back for doing that task.
• Change Your Bank!Change Your Bank! If changing banks is going to be a long drawn out process, maybe you have been at the same bank too long. 
• Labour Numbers not good for October in Canada Our friends at Stats Canada had some less than good news on Friday about the latest set of Labour Numbers for October 2011, we are losing jobs again.
• We Shall Remember and Sunday’s Best Another week of fun and excitement with the world economy up and down luck a drunken sailor on a pogo stick, but I digress. 
• Congrats Mark Carney on Your New Gig! Yup the Bank of Canada head has got a new Gig (part-time, so he’ll keep his old job (that is how to get rich, have two high paying jobs at once)). 
• Random Thoughts: Referendums, Greeks & Movember ? Sums it up from a while ago.

And thanks to those who added me on Twitter I am now over 950 folks who follow me, wow!

With Wall Street still being #occupied, what else could my favorite writers talk about? Certainly not that, but then again:

• Larry MacDonald is over at the Globe and Mail these days talking to folks (maybe the next Financial Studs Terkel?) with early retirees hope to spread their wings and travel good luck in the mainstream media Larry
• Michael James goes back to basics and gives us some tips on getting started with index investing
• Canadian Capitalist wonders if we should switch to Vanguard Canada ETFs? Naturally the answer is not as clear cut as you might think.
• Sandy at Yes I am Cheap puts out a riveting post talking about leaving her day jobs in stepping out on faith, would I have the guts to do this? Hell no, but good luck!
• Our amigo My Own Advisor helps us getting started with DRIPs and SPPs – Part 2, if you like dividends, have a read
• Boomer of Boomer and Echo urges us to stay the course with our investments if you thought it was a good idea last month, what has changed?
• Mike at Money.Smarts sounds like me with his statement don’t listen to the business media for investment direction free advice again, is worth every penny you paid for it.
• Canadian Couch Potato asks an interesting question about ETFs, Do ETFs need an Index? I don’t think they MUST be it’s easier for me to understand them if they do.
• Miss T. at PrairieEcoThrifter gives a good piece of advice that I plan to follow Plan to Retire Happy, of course why wouldn’t I be happy when I retire? Let’s not answer that and leave it as a rhetorical question.

Other Bookkeeping

Remember

We used to say we may be poor, but we’re proud, which would say that the pants might be torn, but they are clean.

Author: Joseph McNeil The spirit of the Greensboro 4 lives on