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Lame Ducks, Financial Literacy, Working for Free and #BestThisWeek

This week our friends down south, castrated (politically) their President by electing a Republican majority in both the Senate and the Congress, creating a truly lame-duck president. There is talk of “working together for a better America” right now, but by January, there will be talk of impeachment, and attempts to undo Obama care as well, which should make for a very interesting couple of years. US politics are always a much more interesting topic than Canada (although we do have a few nasty stories in Canada this week about Harassment, and elections over-spending too).

Me and Mrs. C8j on Vacation MANY Years Ago

For Montreal Expos diehards like me, MLB threw us a few more crumbs of hope, with the Blue Jays playing some exhibition games at the Olympic Stadium in the Spring. Might go down to watch, but I also remember just how old the concrete is at the Big Owe, so maybe I’ll just watch it on TV.

Remember that November is Financial Literacy month here in Canada, so look for Tweets with the #FLM2014 on them, for interesting stories about financial literacy. I am also growing back the Big C8j Mostache for Movember (I shaved it off, and four people thought I was Jim Watson, and no I can’t help you with the parking problem on your street in the Glebe).

Stephen Poloz the new Bank of Canada Czar had a novel way for todays youth to get jobs, that is to work for free. I have always wondered about this whole Intern Works for Free scam that has been going on at many companies, but Mr. Poloz thinks his exact quote is:

“When I bump into youths, they ask me, you know, ‘What am I supposed to do in a situation?’ I say, look, having something unpaid on your CV is very worth it because that’s the one thing you can do to counteract this scarring effect. Get some real-life experience even though you’re discouraged, even if it’s for free,”

I see where he might be coming from, and it does somewhat make sense (i.e. better to have experience working for free than, “I sat at home and played X-Box” as a statement about that time in your CV ) maybe he could have put it in a way that the media talking heads didn’t have such an easy talking point?

Mrs. C8j and I were immortalized on the Twitter, talking about my retirement plans (currently, not being dead by age 65 is the first thing on the list). Nice picture of us on our last vacation together in 1992 (yeh, that’s 22 years ago). The tweet is at the bottom of this article.

My Writings for Week Ending November 7th

Christmas ads are in the air, it’s dark at 4:30 PM, must mean it is Autumn in Ottawa.

  • Given this is financial literacy month, I felt it important to start with some Key Financial Rules, and then lampoon them as best I could. Remember a penny saved, is still worthless.
  • Most folks don’t think about how much it costs when you buy something with a credit card, but you are paying for that privilege, but luckily that transfer fee is now frozen The Cost of a Credit Card Transaction, outlines that.
  • Keeping in mind it is financial literacy month, maybe you want to ask, What is Financial Literacy ?

This Week’s Finest

Ebola has taken a back seat to the American Elections, crashing commercial space vehicles, and AC/DC’s drummer going off the deep end:


Deep Thoughts

Some more deep ideas, what happens when you drop a bowling ball and a feather in a vacuum ? Just watch and find out:



Random Thoughts for 2014

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


Remember my RSS feed is available too, and I have added an RSS Comment Feed as well. Have a look at my micro-blog on Twitter, where you can see a whole plethora of good articles and pithy comments by me as well.

My Twitter feed is where I re-tweet many great articles by some of my featured writers (and make the occasional odd or off colour commentary on life (in 140 characters or less)). I am also on reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest and other Social Media sites (look for the BigCajunMan userid) as well. If you have social media accounts, don’t forget to vote for my posts (see the nifty dashboard on the bottom of each article, where you can cast your votes).As they say in Quebec, vote early and vote often!

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Feel Free to Comment

  1. American politics amuses me. It’s truly amazing how quickly our neighbours to the south forgot their previous president who many felt was the worst one ever. They seem to have a short attention span.

    1. bigcajunman – Ottawa, Ontario – A simple blogger writing about his financial experiences as the Father of a wonderful son who is on the Autism Spectrum. Also writes about security and WordPress technology.

      Yes, I believe YOU are the photographer.

  2. Barry Choi – Toronto – Barry Choi is a personal finance and travel expert who makes frequent media appearances in Canada and the U.S. You can follow him at his personal site Moneywehave.com or on Twitter: @barrychoi

    Thanks for the shout out.

    Compound interest is my best friend forever. Seriously I love her!

    1. bigcajunman – Ottawa, Ontario – A simple blogger writing about his financial experiences as the Father of a wonderful son who is on the Autism Spectrum. Also writes about security and WordPress technology.

      Remember to show her respect, and remember her on the holidays too 🙂

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