Another fun few weeks of US College basketball (and Canadian University ball this weekend) starts this weekend, with the entry tournaments for the NCAA March Madness Tournament and the CIS Men’s Basketball finals (in Toronto), so I am in Hoops Nirvana. The joy is watching to see if there are significant upsets in the first few rounds, and which “Cinderella Team” (i.e. a team with a low rank that still manages to get through the first few rounds) will capture our hearts.
It’s tax time too folks, you should have all of your tax receipts by now, so get your tax returns done, get your refund, or wait until the last day to make your payment to the CRA. If you wonder, “Should I do my taxes?”, the answer is Yes!
A second Friday the 13th? Thanks to a Friday the 13th in February, there is one in March as well. It is followed by a Saturday where the Formula 1 racing season begins, so it can’t be that bad a Friday, can it? The snow is melting in Ottawa (as well), which will make it a better Friday.
Watch next week, as I will celebrate 10 years of writing online. I’m not sure what that will entail, but remember I have about 2800 articles to choose from.
My Writings for Week Ending March 13th
I am still fighting off the remnants of that horrible flu that I picked up two weeks ago, but I did manage to write a couple of articles this week. :
- Financial Daylight Savings is me having a poke at the idea of how Daylight Savings makes days longer, and how debt is pretty darn similar to that (in terms of a BIG lie).
- Thanks for the $2000 CRA is pointing out to those who can get the new Family Credit, should make sure they are getting it. I checked over my return on Turbotax and sure enough, there it was (very nice). It would even be better without the $2000 cap, but it’s a good start.
This Week’s Finest Financial
Preet returned to Where Does All My Money Go, with a repeat of his YouTube video about What Happens if You Miss the RRSP deadline, and the answer is pretty straightforward. With that in mind, Barry from Money We Have wants to help us with 10 Signs You’re Living Beyond Your Means, if you need 10 signs, you are in pretty rough shape (in my opinion). If you are really thinking about interesting money strategies Frugal Trader from Million Dollar Journey updates us on his Smith Manoeuvre/Dividend Portfolio Update (although I don’t recommend using this interesting savings idea). Marie of Boomer and Echo asks another important monetary question, Are You Frugal – Or, Just Plain Cheap ?
The Canadian Couch Potato explains something I always wonder about, The Role of Preferred Shares in your investment portfolios.
I was proud to read about Why Canada is Winning the Drone Race (in Popular Science), Canadians know how! Will you be going out to buy your solid gold Apple Watch ? Not sure I am that interested in the technology, myself, but I’d gladly “review it” if someone wanted to send me one.
For all of you entrepreneurs and small business owners, Mark from the Blunt Bean Counter brings us Capital Dividends – A Tax Free Withdrawal from Your Company. In other important money matters Mark from My Own Advisor gives us his monthly February 2015 Dividend Income Report, a brave man publishing his financial exploits. With money in mind still, Mark from 2nd Career Search (who is semi-retired) gives us a Retirement Withdrawal Strategy, which is a hybrid idea, but I suspect there are very few “one size fits all” strategies here. Guess those articles really hit the “Mark” this week.
Michael James does take a few prods before he finally takes action against “evil doers” (at least in the banking world), but BMO finally crossed the line and thus he decided to go from BMO to Tangerine Chequing, good for him. Banking fees keep creeping up, and we all need to draw a line somewhere on when enough is enough.
Y O D A … Yoda
I was always a Weird Al Fan, but this performance (from Night of Too Many Stars on Comedy Central in support of Autism programs in the US) kicked him up a few more notches in my book
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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I find I don’t get my final tax slips until near the end of March. The stragglers are usually related to ETFs in non-taxable accounts. Thanks for the mention.
I keep thinking someone should at least send a “We Owe You a Receipt” e-mail, but maybe you need a checklist of accounts to make sure is up to date?