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Canajun Finances Home » Spooky Prices, Falling Back, and #MoneyStories

Spooky Prices, Falling Back, and #MoneyStories

Halloween is tomorrow, and it seems to have become yet another excuse for folks to lose their minds decorating their houses. I think a significant growth industry would be convertible home decorations, which can change from Halloween to Christmas with a simple switch. The lights should be easy enough, but I am unsure how you might change a 10-foot-tall inflated ghost into a 10-foot inflated Rudolph? Did you realize in 2011, 13.3 million Canadian homes gave out Candy? That is a lot of homes (and even more Candy).

Clock

Time to Fall Back !

Some very spooky food prices this week as well, OK, last week, but I note that no one seemed to really care that much about it. The election is, however, a hot topic with many of our regular contributors in terms of how the change in government will affect their lives (and yours as well).

Also, remember that on Sunday morning (really early) the clocks go back an hour, which means that if you don’t do anything, you will be early to work on Monday morning. The only way I remember is Spring Forward, Fall Back. The one nice thing about most technology is that they change their clocks themselves (except for older technology which changes on the wrong days).

For me, it is a lovely weekend ahead as well as the Rugby World Cup Final on Saturday, with New Zealand playing Australia. I think this time, I will cheer for the All-Blacks.

My Writings for Week Ending October 30th

It’s another fun Halloween ahead, or as we call it at my house, my youngest daughter’s birthday. Halloween is an OK time to have your birthday. You don’t end up getting short-changed on presents as much (like those unfortunate folks born on Christmas Day or around then).


Facebook Post of the Week

What do you mean there can be negative interest rates? In Sweden this may well be the case!


Money Stories and other Scary Tales

Mark from the Blunt Bean Counter got into the nitty-gritty for us about the new government and how changes will affect our income, with The Liberal Victory – How it May Affect TFSAs, Personal and Corporate Taxes. To sum up, I am out about $1300 to begin with, oh joy!

Next month is financial literacy month, and friend of this site Ellen Roseman pointed me to an E-Learning site for the young folks about Financial Basics workshop, and here you find the supporting documentation, good idea (from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada ). Ellen suggested I lead a group here in Ottawa, I pointed out that I am not sure young folk are ready for the “Full on Big Cajun Man Effect”.

Barry from Money We Have brings us an important point about Protecting Yourself From Credit Card Scams. They come in many shapes and sizes, and if something doesn’t sound right, maybe you shouldn’t give out your information until you are sure about things.  Speaking of Scams Ellen Roseman writes in the Toronto Star Beware phony CRA tax owing calls: Roseman, it seems the scammers are getting bolder, and bolder these days. Nelson seems to be writing more (with less obscenities) over at Sustainable Personal Finance and he asks Can You Retire Comfortably Only Saving 10% of Your Salary? I guess it depends on how much you make?

Robb from Boomer and Echo asks Is My Two-ETF Portfolio Too Simple? I don’t think so, but have a look at the ETF’s he chose as well, too simple might be only buying GICs or One Specific Bond, but the two ETFs he chooses are interesting, read and see what I mean. On the topic of interesting ETFs our friend the Canadian Couch Potato talks about a mega-ETF with Vanguard’s New World Order and its Vanguard FTSE All-World ex Canada (VXC), that could be one of the two ETFs, if you think about it.

Preet on CPP

Preet put this up on the Globe site last week, but I wait until it is on “the Youtube” before I put it on this site. No point in giving the Globe any more readers eh? Should you take your CPP pay outs early? When might that be a good idea?


Questrade Lowest trade house in Canada

2015 Random Thoughts


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Feel Free to Comment

  1. Thanks for the mention, Alan! It’s interesting to hear some reactions to my two-ETF portfolio – people seem fixated on the “two” funds and ignore the fact that they hold nearly 5,500 stocks from around the world.

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