Random Thoughts

For a while it has miffed me that every time I have ranted about PayDay Loan places, Google Adsense (my major advertiser) decides that the article should be surrounded by advertising for those very same PayDay Loan places, but evidently this will be changing! Google will be removing PayDay Loans from their Adwords networks, but I remain skeptical. My guess is that the High Risk Loan industry will just market themselves in a different manner, but, good on Google for taking this step (wouldn’t it be nice if the CRTC did the same thing for those ads on TV?).

Are you curious whether your boss or your neighbours (or even family) are mentioned in the Panama Papers? Now, you, can search and see what is going on at ICIJ Offshore Leaks. Yes, I did search, but none of my relations seem to be mentioned. As I have mentioned, I aspire to be in that kind of a database (i.e. having that much money).

Fort MacMurray is still under threat of forest fires, but it is good to hear the damage to the city is not as extensive as it might have ended up. Remember you can donate to help at many different outlets (including most on-line banking web sites).

I didn’t realize that there are over 500 Billionaires (with a ‘B’) in the United States. #TIL

My Writings for Week Ending May 13th

I guess the fires in Fort Mac had me thinking about house insurance and claims, and thus the two posts from this week were in that area.

Home Insurance Gotchas was from my archive of unfinished stories, outlining the importance of making sure you are always following the rules of your Home Insurance Policy. If you think something is covered by your policy, it never hurts to ask your agent whether it is covered or not (finding out later it is not, is a likely outcome if you do not ask).

In Home Insurance Follow Up I point out again, that exceptional things in your house need to be identified in your Home Insurance Policy, or you may not get them replaced, should there be a fire at your home. Ask your agent if you are unsure what is or is not covered (I seem to be repeating myself here).

Evidently in Ottawa there is a full moon tonight, and it is Friday the 13th as well, for those interested in that type of stuff.

Where do Bitcoins Come From Mommy?

For those curious, here is a tweet about where some of them come from.

A 360-degree tour of a secret bitcoin mine https://t.co/bIPsBQFfpW via @BBC_Future pic.twitter.com/df2I6svg9X

— Alan Whitton (@alan_whitton) May 11, 2016

Read More »Panama Papers, Google & PayDay Loans, Full Moons and #MoneyTalk

Loose money policies continue, but we still can talk about other things like hockey, free stuff and tax season as well! Tight money would be a bad thing.

Is April Fools a time to be money fools? No, not really….

The Madness has begun down south, no not the GOP Primaries, the NCAA Men’s basketball championship has begun, and Yale has the biggest upset so far. This is a fun time for me, as I love watching live sports, and if I could figure out a way to do that without a TV Cable package I’d cut the cord tomorrow.

In other madness, Oil prices continue to climb, and that has caused the Canadian Dollar to rise as well, and having a Loonie that is above 70 cents the US is a good thing (in my opinion).

It is not only Holy Week next week (the week before Easter in the Christian faith), but also it is Federal Budget week, woo hoo! What new and exciting financial features will the Easter Bunny be hiding under our financial pillows? We will have to wait until Tuesday March 22nd to find out, but there are already hints of many fun financial Easter Treats for us:

• A much larger deficit than previously thought due to either bad accounting by the Tories, bad economy, low oil prices, etc., etc., . We will owe more money after this budget.
• Higher taxes for higher income folk, but that was already promised during the election campaign
• More spending on infrastructure might help the economy, and will hopefully fix the pot-hole problems in Ottawa.

At the bottom of this fine article,there is a video of Financial Pundits discussing what else might be in the budget, so stay tuned.

My Writings for the Week Ending March 18th

Winter has been washed away mostly in Ottawa, however, there is still potential for more snow soon (it isn’t quite spring yet). A three-article week this week to help celebrate St. Patty’s and my 11th year of writing. That is a whole heck of a lot of words.

Statistics Canada’s report on employment shows that Unemployment Continues to Rise but the employment numbers aren’t too bad (they are not great, but not bad). I have started reading the more detailed reports and in there you find much more interesting information.

The National Balance sheet is an interesting report from Stats Canada is another really interesting report to read, chocked full of interesting numbers, but the one that had me wondering was the Disposable Income vs. Debt numbers, have a look. Any time you can mention Tennessee Ernie Ford, that’s Gold!

Yes, I have been doing this for 11 years, hard to believe, but I have slowed down a little bit, but while I continue to have fun, I think I’ll keep doing what I am doing.

A Friday Thought

In life, as with exams, answer the easy questions first, let the hard ones ruminate for a while.

Read More »Financial March Madness, Budgets and #MoneyStories

Another historical piece, when President Trump as elected SO many Americans said they were going to move to Canada, never really happened, that I saw.

Welcome our American cousins, and all those who are claiming that if Donald Trump (or Hillary Clinton) gets elected they will move out of the United States of America. We Canadians welcome you with arms wide open, however, please leave your arms down there (thank you). It is always interesting to hear folks down south claiming they would move up north, a few good examples were:

• If Obamacare passes! So you are running away from socialized medicine to move into a country with socialized medicine?
• If gun control laws are passed? Canada you want to move to? The big one up north?
• If marijuana is legalized?
• I am not even going to mention abortions

Should be an interesting choice down south, guess I should look into Wall futures? Remember that Toronto in the 60’s was a haven for Draft Evaders from the Viet Nam war, and that time was viewed as a Golden Age for Toronto, so who knows, maybe this is a good thing for Canada?

For any folks thinking of moving here, the topic for March is either, the Weather or Taxes! Luckily we have plenty to complain about on the tax side of things, with the Ontario Government slapping new taxes on many things, and the newly crowned Liberal Federal Government (or am I supposed to call them The Trudeau Government) talking of more taxes needed as well, the cold might not seem so bad. You see what I did there, I did the old switcheroo where it sounded like I was going to complain about how cold it was, and instead, I zinged in with a Tax Complaint (that is a very Canadian thing too).

It is Tax Time again!

My Writings for Week Ending March 4th

We leaped out of February into a short beginning of March, with RRSP season leaving us, but Tax Season is now in full bloom.

With this being a leap year did we have an extra day for RRSP contributions? Maybe, a few folks said it didn’t matter, but if you only worry about your RRSP at the end of February, you may have a financial planning problem, as I pointed out in Leap into Your RRSPs and Financial Planning

As I have mentioned many times I have a massive backlog of unfinished ideas, and I found one and added a bit of polish and a lot of sarcasm poking fun at Financial Services Web Pages

A Friday Thought

The hardest times to say the word no, are usually the most important times to say it.

Read More »Welcome Americans and #MoneyStories