Black November, Bitcoins, Tablets, Unloseable Lottery and #FreeFormFriday

So Black Friday is upon us, however, it seems to be losing a lot of it’s “thunder” thanks to the “sales” starting earlier and earlier (I think I heard of a pre-Black Friday sale in September). Are you getting a great deal today? Maybe, but know what you are buying and it’s value, before you indulge into an orgy of spending you will regret later.

Bitcoins, the new “big thing” on the web have been appreciating in value (and for what reason I have no bloody idea), but an interesting story has arisen of a chap in the U.K. who threw out a hard drive that, “… had 4M Pounds worth of bitcoins on it…“, so now a landfill site in Newport is the site of a huge “Hard Drive Hunt”. The funny thing is, this is actually financial news, wow!

 

I checked out my statistics about found out that more than 35% of my readers access this site using either a Tablet or “High End Mobile Devices” (Smart phones I assume). That’s interesting to me, since I do use a “Mobile Theme” that allegedly makes it easier to read the site, but if anyone on a Tablet or such wants to comment about readability or such, I’d be be very interested to hear from you.

My Weekly Recap

My Writings for Week Ending November 29nd Christmas Come for the Holiday but Don’t Leave Unable to Pay!
Money has No Owners Admittedly a heavy philosophical idea for the start of the week, but the urge just hit me.	If I Were the Government Surprisingly, in comparison, the government’s spending and balance sheet look better than many Canadian Families finances.	At The Mercy of Foreigners!!! A somewhat selacious title, because Canada’s national debt is not really held that much by “foreigners”, from what I can tell mostly by Seniors!	Things to Buy on Black Friday I like deals, but spending for the sake of spending is another thing. Spend in moderation and only buy what you need.

 

Choice Picks for the Week

If a Dalek dies on Gallifrey did the latest Dr. Who episode change all that? You had to watch “The Day of the Doctor” to understand that one (time travel and such):

• Grinchy old Kerry from Squawkfox brings us 5 Days of Holiday Bull$hit, and it seems even she is getting a little tired of the crass commercialism that is the Christmas Season. Kerry isn’t actually Grinchy she is quite festive, but I think is just at the end of her rope on this.
• The Canadian Couch Potato is espouses pulling off the Bandage Quickly, if you have deferred sales charges with your mutual funds (i.e. get out of them and get into an ETF or Index Funds without DSCs).
• Say you got laid off, you felt it was a wrongful dismissal sued your former employer and your settlement was your old job back, would you go back to that job? The Blunt Bean Counter brings up some interesting issues that arise in these situations.
• Gail Vaz-Oxlade who isn’t Grinchy or Bitchy (in my books) reminds those in debt to Make a Debt Repayment Plan (Gail has been doing a whole series for Financial Literacy Month).
• Mark at My Own Advisor asked What’s in your Portfolio? to Larry MacDonald (our old amigo), go read how Larry invests. Others have answered this question for Mark as well.
• A very useful RESP Savings Calculator from Get Smarter About Money, go have a try, I think these kind of tools are very useful.
• Michael James breaks one of his own rules and comments on Crazy Arguments in Support of Leverage, and these are some very interesting ways to lose yourself a lot of money, that is for sure.
• Thought for the week, “Great men are forged in fire. It is the privilege of lesser men to light the flame, whatever the cost.” -Dr. Who

Word Puzzle Answer

You got this one for sure:   Working THROUGH Debt

An Un-Loseable Lottery?

Seems that way, don’t it?

What Dr. Who Special

You mean you missed it last weekend? Here is the trailer, look for it on BBC America or Space in Canada

Did you Say Weird Al?

Indeed Weird Al has a very funny video, although I am not sure why I think it is so funny:

 

Overdrafts Summed Up Nicely http://t.co/RJJQAQSQYu #OBG #OverDraft #Sh*tMyDadSays

— Big Cajun Man (@bigcajunman) November 26, 2013

 

Sometimes things go wrong; that’s normal. But we have a saying in Tibetan, ‘Nine times fail, nine times try again’.

— Dalai Lama (@DalaiLama) November 26, 2013

 

Other Bookkeeping

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