Obliterating Rock, Floods, Senators and Friday #ShoutOuts

If you are reading this after 4:35 PM May 31, 2013 I guess we survived another close fly by of a “Civilization Killer” lump of Rock. QE2 will (hopefully) fly by and we will have dodged yet another End of the World scenario from the Cosmos. As we are learning there are a lot of these big lumps of rock out there flying around, hopefully we have a good list of all of them?

Toronto got another dose of nasty weather this week, with the Don Valley Parking Lot, being renamed the Don Valley Swimming Pool. If the last time they had bad snow they called in the Army, I suppose with this round they called in the Navy? Sorry, that is just a native Montrealer laughing at Torontonians expense (yes, Montreal has it’s own issues say with overpasses dropping on unsuspecting drivers (much like the poor Coyote in Looney Tunes)).

The Ottawa Senators (the hockey team) are done for the season, so that means talk in Ottawa is now about the Senators (aka JurASSic Park). More fun and games going on in the “Friends and Family club” portion of the Canadian Government.

 

My Weekly Recap

The Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer are here again, let’s hope my car’s air conditioning holds out for one more year, but I didn’t write about that this week:

My Writings for Week Ending May 31st It’s June? The Year is Half Over? WTF?
Best of: Real World Example: Kids Allowances Do you pay your kids allowance? If you do this might be a way to automate it.	Term Insurance Over 50 One of the joys of being over 50 is you might get some senior discounts, but that does not apply to Term Insurance policies.	What the Hangover Taught Me About Money The part about not messing with Mike Tyson’s white tiger is important as well.	The Process is Not Necessarily the Solution I should really add this to my TO DO list as well.	It’s up on the roof I think it is safe to say that my retirement plans are up on the roof.

Links for the Week

Lots of interesting info flying around this week, as those who are regular readers I have been going off the beaten track on some of my links, in most cases it is stuff I think is interesting:

Top Stories of the Week of May 31st Will Alfie returns to the Senate? Hell, he’d at least be able to pay a $90K Fine!
Canada’s disability savings fund called a ‘fiasco’ The CBC hops on the “RDSP is confusing” bandwagon, with an expose of a Grandad trying to set something up for his Grandson. Wonder if the CBC has read my posts on RDSP?	Financial Literacy Matters More Now Evelyn Jacks points out that now more than ever financial literacy matters, which is very true (the alternative is not very pretty, that is for sure).	How is your Retirement Savings? Krantcents a frequent commenter asks the question that is on all our minds.	 How I Became a DIY Investor My Own Advisor lets us “look under his kimono” (financially speaking) and understand what led to him becoming a DIY investor.
Transferring Property Among Family Members – A Potential Income Tax Nightmare The BBC comes back with another warning about something that sounds simple but it does not seem to be (as tax issues are want to do)	Gold Plated Pensions: Have We Seen The Last Of Them? Robb from Boomer and Echo asks an interesting question, are the days of Gold Plated Pensions over, in the stark reality of the Boomer generation and the legacy their pensions are leaving?	 Eating Yogurt Does Weird Things To Your Brain Seriously, Popular Science found a study at UCLA which says that if you eat yoghurt, strange stuff goes on in your brain, and no it does not make you more cultural either!	My Furrowed Brow Gail Vaz-Oxlade speaks of the line that appears when she is particularly annoyed, however she is now looking at Botox?? WTF Gail?
Hertz in the Currency Exchange Business Michael James noticed that Hertz’ currency exchange seems to give them a few more dollars than they are owed (at least in Europe).	 Carrick on money: When it’s cheaper to shop Canadian Rob Carrick mentioned my post last week (and I got a significant jump in reader count!), so I trust you are reading him as well!	Why We Chose Scotiabank’s Scotia Total Equity Plan (STEP) Tom Drake from Another Canadian Finance Web Site talks about why he went with the STEP thingy from Scotiabank	Lend money to friends or family and you might lose both Polonius and Preet agree, neither a borrower nor a lender be!

 

Other Bookkeeping

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Silly Blooper Video

Hey this is the bottom of a very long post, and you should be rewarded with a long-ish video of cool news bloopers, shouldn’t you?