Olympic Hockey, Back to School, Big Wireless and Friday #ShoutOuts

Only in Canada would there be that much excitement out of a bunch of 20 and 30 year olds playing ball hockey in Calgary. Yes, it is the “Olympic Team Meetings” however it’s quite interesting to see that Mike Babcock circumvented the “no ice practicing” by having the lads go out and play some ball hockey, I am always impressed by him as a coach (even if he is a McGill grad).

Back to school has begun in earnest in our house with my remaining daughters going back to school (I already have 1 in the work force), and my son starts school again this coming Tuesday. Back to school can be quite expensive, especially if you are outfitting a new apartment or bedroom with furniture, or paying for a plane ticket to a place far away (I suppose it could be more expensive, but Ottawa Halifax is not a cheap flight (but still better than the 13 hour drive from Ottawa)).

I am really getting sick and tired of the Canadian Wireless Service Providers “scare tactics” talking about how Verizon will screw us all, and how Canadians get the best deals from the current Wireless model. Yes, Verizon is a monster US company, but having more competition in this market place is never a bad thing. To get a good deal in Canada you must follow a script for customer retention deals, or be willing to walk away (I was impressed that my post had a visceral response from an ISP worker). I don’t buy the advertising blitz by the current ISPs stating the Wireless World will collapse if Verizon is allowed in (and I really don’t buy we are getting great deals, either).

My Weekly Recap

The house is now much less crowded:

My Writings for Week Ending August 30th I like Crowded House the band, not a crowded house
Two Sentence Financial Horror Stories From my Quicken giveaway contest I got two posts, which I didn’t even have to write, maybe I’ve been going about this all wrong.	Two Sentence Financial Horror Stories Part Deux Someone complained of my use of Franglais, however, the Part Deux was more of a hommage to Hot Shots Part Deux	Live Now Pay Later Really does sound like the battle cry for this generation, in that we are all spending our futures right now.	The Smith Manoeuvre (revisited ) I don’t think I understand this concept, and frankly after a cursory reading of the idea, I don’t think I want to know about it, because it assumes you can make money investing (and I don’t think I have proven I can do that).	Despicable Acts and Friday #ShoutOuts A recap of last week’s finest articles.

 

Links for the Week

RBC announces huge profits this week, do I need to remind you that while I hate banks in general and their service fees, I do actually invest in them for that self-same reason :

Top Stories of the Week of August 30th At Least My Service Fees Go Towards the Profit Line of a Stock I own
Winning the Loser’s Game Michael James reads a new edition of a book that points out that you can’t win trying to beat the market, the game is stacked against Joe Home-Trader, so maybe you shouldn’t play the game?	4 Ways to Get the Impulse Monkey Off Your Back Gail Vaz-Oxlade wants to help you stop buying without actually giving it a whole heck of a lot of thought.	My Dumbass Financial Moves Mark from My Own Advisor takes a page from my book and comes clean on some of his dumber financial moves. Blogging is cathartic at times, baring your financial soul allowing others to mock your shortcomings.
Gone Golfing The Blunt Bean Counter is still on holidays, and all I can think of is that terrible running joke Chevy Chase used to do on SNL stating that “General Isimo Franco is still dead”. Hopefully he’ll be back from vacation soon (the Blunt Bean Counter that is not General Franco).		Could Tweeting About Your Job Get You in Trouble? Miranda writes at Financial Highway about something that is very true in most cases that I am aware of, try to never tweet about your job or your co-workers, unless you want to lose your job.

Raptor Alert!

It’s like when Oxygen meets Magnesium ! OMG! Raptor video!!!