Elections, Farewell Knowlton, May Done, and #Bestof-Financial

The “I’ll pick the one that stinks the least” Ontario Election continues with the mud flying and the Tories making an earth-shattering breakthrough: the best thing to do is not let Tim Hudak talk, show his face on occasion and gag him, seems to work too. If we could get the other party leaders to follow suit, then I’d be happier. My deepest sympathies to those luckily folks in the GTA that have the added joy of having the “Holy Crap They Are Going to Re-Elect Rob Ford” Mayoral Election at the same time.

One of the voices of Canadian News was silenced last week with the death of Knowlton Nash, the voice of the National for many years on the CBC. Somehow I can’t see Knowlton reporting any Rob Ford stories. He seems above that kind of stuff. He was from a different generation. It would be nice if the “journalists” of today embraced some of Knowlton’s ideals.

The month of May comes to a close, and that can only mean one thing, Back to School Sales!!!

We drove through quite the odd Sun Thunderstorm, where it rained and was sunny and the glare from the rain on the road was quite blinding, but this interesting photo came on the right.

My Writings for Week Ending May 30th

June is almost here. That means less than six months to Christmas, folks:

• Our Friends at Stats Canada ended last week with a stinker of a message with CPI Jumps to 2.0 in April 2014 in Canada, which might mean our friends at the Bank of Canada pondering actions to slow things down a little bit.
• I am starting to sound like a broken record, luckily this generation doesn’t know what that means, so I guess I’ll just keep repeating Debt Won’t Just Disappear, no matter how hard you wish.
• When I was looking at my first house the warning I kept getting from folks was not to end up House Poor, but that expression seems to have disappeared.

This Week’s Finest

If you are going to Twitter Bomb your favourite candidate in this Provincial Election, make sure you have the right person (some lucky Kathleen Wynn in the US is getting lots of nasty comments on Twitter) :

• According to the Harvard Business Review Sitting Is the Smoking of Our Generation, wow that means that when I started working, people that smoked while sitting at their desks, were in twice as much peril? Holy cow!
• If you went to a Ball Game this summer with $20 what could you get? CNN Money gives us Ballpark Hot Dogs and Beer with a helpful graphic to tell you. Arizona seems to be the place to visit! I remember getting my Dad a beer at Jarry Park with a hot dog and the whole thing cost $3.00 (and it was thought of as expensive then).
• Looking for ETF’s to add to your portfolio? Mark from My Own Advisor (a lover of all things that collect dividends) gives us Top Canadian Dividend ETFs for your portfolio
• Mark from 2nd Career Search has run up the white flag of surrender in his search for accommodations in Toronto, Toronto will Have to Wait, but maybe he’ll trip over something when he isn’t looking.
• For those who haven’t noticed I have tried to answer every comment that has been left for the past little while.
• Larry Fink who runs BlackRock is very unhappy about the short-sighted planning in most companies, and he talks about it in the Globe and Mail World’s largest asset manager rails against companies’ short-term thinking
• In 5 years the largest market for electric cars will be? China, according to Blomberg’s article BMW Sees China as Biggest Electric Car Market by 2019 which may end up being a good thing.
• Robb from Boomer and Echo brings back an old chestnut with How Index Funds Compare to Equity Mutual Funds, well worth having a look and seeing if you are making your Mutual Fund provider rich, or yourself?
• Forbes claims that we are spending about 119 minutes on our mobile devices a day, seems a little low, but then I remember that Michael James has his Cheese Helmet on and refuses to use mobile devices, so that may help lower that number, Mobile: A Trend that is Reshaping Communication.
• Speaking of my favorite Cheese Helmeted Financial Blogger Michael James points out CPP at Age 60 Anchors Canadians’ Thinking which is quite true, but remember we are all living longer, and we all love our jobs now too (#SARCASM ALERT)
• There are Known Unknown, and Unknown Unknowns, but The Five Biggest Threats to Human Existence only addresses the Unknown, Unknowns, from Popular Science’s point of view at least.
• Accountants (like Proctologists) have the most interesting stories to tell and Mark from the Blunt Bean Counter has another interesting post with Using a Corporation to Hold Your Investments, I would never have thought of doing that, and maybe that is a good thing.
• Barry from Money We Have is enjoying a bit of down time, but even on vacation he asks intriguing questions like Do You Avoid Insurance ?
• An astounding piece from the Globe and Mail Forty per cent of Canadian teen boys admit to searching for online porn, in a follow up piece I will be writing, the other 60% are liars. I will also be writing about the Pope’s Catholic tendencies and Bears possibly defecating in the woods.

Good Guy Djokovic

If you made millions a year playing tennis, how would you treat the folks who work at the tournaments? Novak Djokovic earns full marks for this act of respect for the kid who was in charge of keeping him dry at the French Open:

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Random Thoughts for 2014

Lots of these kinds of Best of articles in 2014. Here is a list of them.

• Cuba, Rubles, Christmas and #BestThisWeek – getting close to Christmas but Ian McKellen can teach us about impulse control.
• Snow, Christmas, Enhanced and #BestThisWeek talk of more festive ideas, like how to save money at Christmas.
• A Gentleman, Day of Disability, Christmas, Rugby and #BestThisWeek noted the passing of Jean Beliveau and John Oliver’s views on Lotteries.
• Black Friday is Here, Advent, and #BestThisWeek speaks of the blessed Black Friday and associated sales but also includes a Fanfare for the Common Man.
• Lake Effect Snow, Web Cameras, Travel Insurance and #BestThisWeek November brings snow in Toronto, as we see, and other financial ideas.
• Asteroids, Tax Cuts, Lemurs and #BestThisWeek how many times has the Earth almost been hit by an asteroid? Too often to remember.
• Lame Ducks, Financial Literacy, Working for Free and #BestThisWeek lame duck leaders never really get that much done, no matter how they negotiate.
• Happy Halloween, Income Splitting and #BestThisWeek a wonderful financial time of the year is Halloween? Maybe income splitting is a better subject.
• Ottawa We Shall Remember, Bank of Canada and #BestThisWeek after a bad week in Ottawa, with senseless violence.
• Crashing Markets, Ebola, Low Loonie, Cheap Gas and #BestThisWeek even in 2014 the markets were a little volatile.
• Hockey, Turkey, Leaves, Carry On Bags and #theBestFin4TheWeek is it right that the hockey season starts before Thanksgiving?
• Autumn , United Kingdom, Beer Money, and #theBestFin4TheWeek the colours in Ottawa during Autumn are truly spectacular.
• Pins, Alibaba , Apple Pay , L’Écosse , and #theBestFin4TheWeek remember when Alibaba the IPO happened, those were heady days.
• Back to School, Tim Burger King, Knee Defenders and #theBestFin4TheWeek will the dutchie ever come back? I can only hope.
• Broken Humerus, Ebola, Anniversaries, Blood and #theBestFin4TheWeek remember when we thought Ebola was going to wipe us out?
• All Stars, Al Stars and the #BestOfFinancialForWeek the world cup was a big thing in 2014 as was Bastille day too.
• Tennis, Racing, Inflation and #BestofFinancial Canada Day is the start of the summer for most Canadians, and financial stories too.
• The Stand, Football Biting, Naughty Banks and #BestofFinancial even in 2014 the banks were misbehaving with shenanigans.
• Elections, Dad’s Day, World Cup, Friday the 13th and #BestofFinancial somehow the Liberals won the 2014 Ontario Provincial Election
• No Rate Hike, Better Performance, Montreal Grand Prix and #Bestof-Financial back in 2014 we were worried about rates, but they were already pretty low.
• Elections, Farewell Knowlton, May Done, and #Bestof-Financial Knowlton Nash was the voice of news for Canada for a while.
• Rain, Budgets, Bloggers Meeting, May Day and #FreeFormFridays When financial bloggers meet what happens?
• Beware the Financial Jabberwock, Netflix Expansion, Model Trains, Backups and #FreeFormFridays a thematically odd article.
• Easter is Here and a Saturday #BestOf for the Weekend a time of renewal, new beginnings in life and financially as well.
• RIP Flaherty, Heartbleed, Tax Time, Quebec Elections and #FreeFormFridays the former finance minister did a lot of good for the economy.
• #Selfies, Quebec Election, Big Joe, Awareness, and #FreeFormFridays would Big Joe Mufferaw have been a good fit for the Redblacks? We’ll never know.