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Random Thoughts

Ganja Tourism, Sneaker Smuggling, Solar Potential and #MoneyTalk

With the new Canadian cannabis laws coming into play (October 17th) it struck me as an excellent opportunity for Canada to enter the world of Ganja Tourism. We must remember that you may only smoke in your home (or a friend’s home), and given that most hotels have a strict No Smoking rule, where could these tourists imbibe ? I think this is a huge opportunity for AirBnB to create a Ganja Tourism section. The guests can buy their legal ganja, and then enjoy it in their friends home. We shall see whether this idea catches on.

I have been busy figuring out how to smuggle more shoes across the border, but #Moneytalk returns this week. Sneaker Smuggling is evidently something else we dastardly Canadians do to our friends down south. I must admit I am guilty of sneaker smuggling about 10 years ago I was on a business trip and bought myself a new pair of shoes and forgot to declare them when I returned. I am thinking of branching out and becoming a Weed and Feed smuggler (the weeds in my front lawn are winning the battle and I can’t buy the good stuff in Canada any more).

The 21st was the longest day of the year in the Norther Hemisphere, and thus summer begins! Yes the year is about half over, time to start planning for Christmas.

The National Energy Board published Which cities have the highest solar potential in Canada? Where is the best place in Canada to have Solar Power? Regina, of course! Ottawa is better than Montreal and Ottawa (by a small Amount). Surprisingly Yellowknife is up there on the list, and not so surprising St. John’s NFLD is way down there on the list. Might be good to turn all of Saskatchewan into a Solar Array?

My Recent Writings

Ganja Tourism

The next time someone asks which is the Best ETF, I think I have an answer

It has been a while since I wrote one of these so here is the long list of the topics I have hit since my last #Moneytalk.

Risk Profiles and E-series Orders Rejected shows that no matter how optimistic I get about TD Mutual Funds, I end up being wrong. My daughter is still working to clear up the no you can’t have E-series funds fiasco that was set up.

I do enjoy Doug Hoyes’ podcast (remember I was even a guest on it), but I also enjoyed his audiobook as well, and I reviewed it in, Straight Talk on Your Money. Well worth listening to and buying the book too. Hopefully a sobering set of stories for those that are sure they have their financial world figured out.

I actually had a Guest Post but by a friend of the site, Sean Cooper (who I still hate). Qualifying for a Mortgage: The 4 Factors Lenders Consider (and WHY!) is an essay on how to get a mortgage, worth having a look at.

Phishing Phor Phun and Prophit, is a cross-post from my technology site telling you just how vulnerable you are to a Phishing attack. The bad folks are getting quite good at catching you out.

My 5 Best Investments is really just a proud Poppa boasting about his kids, but also the fact that I was smart enough to invest in their educations.

Micro Blogging for Motivation

When was the last time you changed your banking password? You might want to check this one out to figure out what you should change it to?

Read More »Ganja Tourism, Sneaker Smuggling, Solar Potential and #MoneyTalk
Counterfeit Realities

Mothers Day, Counterfeit Reality, Higher Stress and #MoneyTalk

It is Mother’s Day on Sunday, normally the day with the most long-distance calls (if that data is still being collected). Traditionally, Father’s Day was when the most collect phone calls happened. To paraphrase Keith Hampshire “Be Good to Your Mother!”, remember everything she did for you?  Time to start paying back a little.

Counterfeit Reality

Do you realize that many articles you read are AI-created? Not here, as you can tell by my bad grammar and punctuation no computer could easily recreate my awkward writing style. Gartner in their Top Strategic Predictions for 2018 pointed to the dawn of Counterfeit Reality 1 (analysis by:Daryl Plummer, David McCoy). The funny part of this analysis is that with the explosion of fake news via AI will be tools to combat it. It will all become an AI arms race, with your brains being the target. The best recommendation was, “…Do not underestimate the number of counterfeit reality sources that exist in the world today….”. This is very important in the world of Financial News. So much of Financial Documentation in general and Financial Media in specific is becoming AI based.

How can you tell you are getting a Real Financial Reality? For lack of a better term, guess you will have to do some research. Just because it is on Face-hole doesn’t mean it is the truth.

A more telling statement about Counterfeit Reality is from the same report, “By 2022, most people in mature economies will consume more false information than true information” (research by Magnus Revang & White Andrews). If this is true, we end up with the liar paradox of “All financial blogs are liars, and I write a financial blog“. Good luck figuring out what is the truth, and what is fiction in the coming years sums it all up.

What might Counterfeit Reality in the financial world look like? Maybe we can talk about how investing in any of the 900 cryptocurrencies (at last count) is a great idea. I’m just saying, folks, if I was going to send Hype to pump up an investment, that is where I would start.

If you believe that this is in the future, think again, the Associated Press is already augmenting their writing staff with AI (according to the MIT Tech Review). Maybe Financial Blogger won’t be a job of the future?

The Bank of Canada announced a 20 basis point increase on the Stress Test Rate, that is to be used to figure out whether you can afford a mortgage. The rate is now 5.34%, according to the CBC. This means if you want a mortgage you will have to prove that you can live with a mortgage rate of 5.34%, can you?

I did enjoy a Twitter discussion this week about Financial Media Whores, well worth checking out and I will be talking more about this soon.

1. [“Counterfeit Reality” is the digital creation of images, video, documents or sounds that are convincingly realistic representations of things that never occurred or never existed exactly as represented (according to Gartner)]↩

My Recent Writings

I did write about Get Your Taxes Done Dammit ! However, you are late now. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t file your taxes, just that you might have to pay penalties if you owe money. It really isn’t that hard, time to get that done, and if you are due a rebate, think how next year you can stop loaning the government money (for free).

Micro Blogging for Motivation

I do wander around the financial internet and found a very interesting article outlining a long list of things to do. Normally, I hate list articles, but this one was OK by me.

Read More »Mothers Day, Counterfeit Reality, Higher Stress and #MoneyTalk
Decisions

Decisions, Bitcoin, Inflation and #MoneyTalk

This past week my wife and I celebrated our 32nd year of living in Ottawa. When we first moved to Ottawa in 1986 I was sure we would be here for only a year or two. All our friends and my wife’s family are near Toronto, so I was sure we would decide to move back, at some point. The problem was that decision was never made, so by not making that decision, we decided to stay in Ottawa. In life not making decisions, is still a decision (and some folks never quite figure out that philosophical point). Keep this in mind when you cannot decide things financially, your lack of decisiveness is a decision.

DecisionsFor those unaware Michael James (friend of this site), knows his algebra, computers and cryptography, so I have waited for him to write about Bitcoin, and write he did this week. As usual his article is pointed, and excruciatingly on the mark for those who want to dabble in Cryptocurrencies. Yes, I have called you an idiot for investing in Bitcoins, but now you are hearing from someone who is an expert in the area, he thinks you are an idiot too. No he doesn’t call you an idiot, but you can plainly read that is his sentiment.

The Bank of Canada says Inflation has returned (given gas is $1.35 a litre in Ottawa, I tend to agree with that statement). Even though they held their overnight rate at 1.25% they also warned that Inflation is here and they will need to react to it soon (in a separate statement):

Assuming our forecast remains on track, it is Governing Council’s view that interest rates will need to move higher over time to keep inflation on target.

Does this mean that Interest Rates will be going up soon? The Magic 8-Ball of Personal Finance replies, “Signs point to yes”.


My Recent Writings

Does a Credit Card Appear Out of Nowhere? That is the question that came to mind when my daughter told me about a credit card that appeared on her on-line banking page, but she never did apply for one. How is that possible? Best read and see how that happened.

Micro Blogging for Motivation

John Young and I were at the University of Waterloo at the same time, we caroused a few times together, and he is even somewhat related to me (he is my wife’s cousin), but the fact that he ran the Boston Marathon is amazing. The fact he is going to then run many more marathons this year, is even more amazing. What does John normally do? He is a Math Teacher.

Read More »Decisions, Bitcoin, Inflation and #MoneyTalk

Stock Picks

Stock Picking Update, Crypto Credit, and #MoneyTalk

At the start of the year I actually published a Stock Picking post about what to buy this year. It was mostly me being snarky about stock picking done by other bloggers, but I started to think I should continue to eat my own dog food, and figure out what my stock picks did, in terms of return.

Stock Picking
Here is where my stock picking stands now:

Jan-01 Apr-01
VDY $1,000.00 $950.00
TDB911 $1,000.00 $1,013.30
TDB909 $1,000.00 $998.00
TDB902 $1,000.00 $1,015.50
TDB900 $1,000.00 $954.50
Value $5,000.00 $4,931.30
Loss or Gain  0.00% -1.37%

Losing about 1.4% is nothing to brag about, but, given the volatility of the market it isn’t too bad either. My guess is this could be a volatile year. We shall see what the summer does my stock picking prowess.

It is Friday the 13th today, it must be true that someone has done something odd financially today, because of this date. If you have, shame on you!

I was intrigued by a statement I saw on Reddit, that the RBC will no longer allow you to buy Crypto Currency with their credit cards. The statement doesn’t give a reason, and simply does the Canadian thing, and apologizes for the inconvenience. I am a big fan of brevity, but that is astoundingly terse for that kind of decision. My guess is they just don’t trust the Crypto-currency marketplaces enough to allow their credit vehicles to be used there. If I can’t use credit cards to buy cryptocurrency how do I pay for it? Gold (Au)? Cash? Other cryptocurrencies? Intriguing.

In other financial news  I threw up in my mouth when I read Mackenzie fined for excessive promotional spending. The money spent is your Management Fees, and that is where that extra money goes? I still feel nauseous .  Your retirement money is giving folks iPads? Wow.


My Recent Writings

What is a Serial Refinancer ? You know someone like this, they keep building up credit card debt, then either getting consolidation loans or adding it to their HELOC or worse their mortgage. This is serial murder for your finances.

I don’t think folks understand that with investing, when you sell is more important than what you buy. I attempt to elaborate on that with 2 Key Investment Strategies. Being a Millionaire “on paper” means nothing, until you have the money in your hands, you are not a millionaire.

Micro Blogging on Finance

More women are filing for bankruptcy, is this a win for women? Truth of the matter is, I don’t think so, but there is a podcast to talk about that one this weekend.

Read More »Stock Picking Update, Crypto Credit, and #MoneyTalk

RDSP clarifications

RDSP, Easter, Thanks Rusty and #MoneyTalk

My wife found a great article about RDSPs, What happens to our sons and daughters with disabilities when we die from Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network. The title is quite literally what most parents of kids with disabilities wake up worrying about at 2 AM (or at least the ones I have spoken to). It points out that the RDSP program has only a 29% participation rate (for folks who have DTCs), which is depressing. What is the cause of this? Maybe it is hard to set up, or maybe folks aren’t aware of it? I asked my Member or Parliament that question, haven’t heard anything back.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Table of contents

Easter is here, and for most of us it is a time of reflection and then a feast. If you are not so inclined remember it can be a time of reflection and starting new things like:

  • Seeing which credit cards you don’t use, and then cancelling them. I don’t want to hear from anyone about how this hurts your credit score, that is nonsense. If it does, you have 1 less way to get further in debt, so it is a fair swap.
  • Look at your health situation, and then plan an exercise or diet regimen (that you can live with for the rest of your life) and implement it. You can plan your retirement all you want, but if you are dead before it happens, you have wasted your time.
  • An easy one is look at all the worrying you did in the past little while, did it change anything, aside from ruining a good night sleep? Maybe it is time to find a way to stop that? Talk to a professional if you really have problems in this area (I speak from experience).
Rusty Staub
Farewell Rusty, hope you hit them all over the Right Field Scoreboard at Parc Jarry

Baseball begins again, on a sad note with the passing of my original baseball hero Rusty Staub. Mr. Staub was a class act, I met him once many years later in Pittsburgh, and he kindly listened to me blather about my childhood memories and thanked me for telling him. We shall miss Le Grand Orange.

In an odd financial twist, my first bank account was a Young Expos bank account, with the Bank of Montreal. Mr. Staub was the spokesperson for that account.

While my beloved Montreal Expos still are not on the field, I am starting to become a Blue Jays fan (don’t worry I will never be a Blue Team Hockey fan, my Montreal DNA will not allow it). Hope the games speed up a bit this year, I am tired of watching 4 hour games.

The repercussions of the Facebook data debacle continue on, but luckily their founder is showing a great deal of humbleness in Vanity Fair. He isn’t wrong, but does that mean he should crow about how stupid people are? Doesn’t mention how their Android app used the Operating System “flaws” to track calls and data transfers either, so maybe it isn’t completely your fault?

My Recent Writings

Didn’t write much this week. I have started a whole bunch of things, but nothing worth reading yet. I keep meaning to finish my writing, but life does get busy.

Micro Blogging on Finance

A heart wrenching story about what folks have to do day-to-day just to keep their kids safe.

Never got an answer from my MP from this tweet either.

Read More »RDSP, Easter, Thanks Rusty and #MoneyTalk
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