The snow flew this week in Ottawa, which of course, means that we might have a White Christmas here in the Nation’s Capital. Will that matter? It does to some folks. I am good with a green Christmas, and one day hopes to enjoy going to the beach on Christmas Day (and not have to wear a parka at the beach).

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, and the malls are getting to be pretty nasty places. There are only 13 days left until Christmas Day and only days stranded in this calendar year. If you want to put money in an RESP and have not reached your Max, now might be the time to do it! Maybe some TFSA room? Think about it and sit down and look where you could put some extra money (if you have some, that is).

The US Government released the Senate Report on the “Enhanced Interrogation” after 9/11. While I won’t comment on the report’s content, I do enjoy seeing the use of “Enhanced” being obfuscated by the intelligence services, as much as it has been muddled by the financial industry as well. Right now, you have an Enhanced Purchasing opportunity in the markets with stock prices falling all over the place. Isn’t Enhanced a proper word?

My Writings for Week Ending December 12th

The Time person of the year is the Folks Fighting Ebola, but remember Time also had Vlad Putin as their man of the year a while ago :

• The job news wasn’t Christmassy for November, with Unemployment Creeps Up for November, unfortunately. Here is hoping things get a bit better in the new year.
• I did a quick review of Quicken 2015 for Canadians, it is unfortunate that we don’t get all the whiz-bang cool features the US version does, but the tool still works very well.
• Just remember those wise words from Preet B. about stock market dips, “I’m an indexer, I have no interest in what the Indexes did today!”.

This Week’s Finest

There were many “enhanced” articles this week, and we note the return of Preet B. to the blogging world, all of this while the markets get a little skittish:

• Mark from the Blunt Bean Counter, had a guest post for us this week about Personal Pension Plans, an interesting idea for small business owners.
• Money Beagle goes old school in the job loss area with Why You Need to Accept Responsibility for Job Loss, that is some old school thinking.
• One security researcher claims that Paypal is Hackable with one Click? Yikes!
• Barry from Money We Have has some Bad Gift Ideas to Avoid this Christmas, although giving money is always good too.
• Our Big Fat Wallet seems to be making some contrary advice but read  Why Dividend Cuts Aren’t Always a Bad Thing, there are some good points.
• Million Dollar Journey brings us some very useful reminder with Year End Tax Tips: 2014, think you have remembered them all? Better check!
• Mark from 2nd Career Search wonders Will the Toronto Housing Market Bubble Burst? Might be some wishful thinking on his part.
• Our old friend from Canadian Financial DIY weighs in on the TFSA for Seniors discussions with  TFSAs creating a GIS crisis and “welfare for the wealthy? Not very likely
• I am mentioned in the Top 50 Canadian Personal Finance Sites, which is always nice to see.
• What is life like after $110 Million ? The Sad Story of Antoine Walker and how he managed to blow all that money.
• Kerry from Squawkfox has been on TV again with  Super Savers: Talkin’ on TV about the cost of raising kids
• Did I say Preet was back? If you go over to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com you will find a new look (no ads) and Why is employee financial education so important and so overlooked? (a Podcast)
• Michael James liked Gail Vaz-Oxlade’s book Money Rules when it came to spending however her Money Rules for Investing he is less happy with.
• Mark from My Own Advisor brings us another installment of his dividend investing progress November 2014 Dividend Income Update

---

Preet Returns

Preet has returned with an all-out media assault with new podcasts, blog entries, and this awesome video!

---

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.

---

Remember, my RSS feed is available too, and I have added an RSS Comment Feed. Please 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). 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!

This site is iPhone Friendly (and Android, iPod Touch and iPad Friendly). Enjoy it on the go, in a readable format for the device. If you are reading with an iPhone or Android device, drop a comment and tell me if this needs any improvements.