Free Association Friday

Yes we have reached the end of the week, and my brain is filled with Basketball thanks to a tournament that my wife and I are convening this weekend, so this is going to be a very free association post.

Our friends at Stats Canada say that if you were a Real Estate agent or the like your industry grew by over 30% in the past 3 years. No real surprise in that one, given the sky rocketing price of homes in some cities in Canada, that is for sure. Remember that Real Estate agents can be bargained with, as can most folks in the service industry, even banks too! As I said here, don’t stand for high user fees or service fees.

More and more accounting irregularities at big companies (Dell and Imax for two). I remember the folks that took Accounting at my University, they didn’t seem like a bad bunch, but holy cow, I wouldn’t want to be an accountant right now. They may start moving into the realm of Lawyers for loathing soon.

Remember your taxes and that as a Canadian you will need to be filing soon. I haven’t heard back yet, but I was hoping that the NDP would send me $10 just out of charity because I e-filed.

The Buzz about a possible BCE takeover bid, drove up the shares about $1 yesterday which isn’t a bad thing, however, what will it mean for Canada’s main telecommunications services company? We’ll have to see in that area.

One of my hobbies since I was a kid was playing Sports Strategy games, specifically from the Strat-O-Matic game company. I was surprised to see that the founder is now looking to sell off part or all of the company. I know that if I had won the lottery that would be a company that I might consider buying, just to keep it all going. It’s funny I tried to get a friend’s son interested, by buying him a game one year, and he wasn’t very interested. I had so much fun playing those games with my friends, maybe I’ll try to get my son interested.

My Musings from the Week

• Zen, Thomas the Tank Engine and the Art of Financial Planning If this was actually a plan, it’s quite complicated, but at the end of it all, it really doesn’t seem to go anywhere, does it?
• Welcome to the World and Powerpoint as a Financial Planning Tool I have added a Babel Fish translator facility to the web site, if folks stumble across this site and English is not their mother tongue.
• File Taxes Electronically Get a Break! Remember when we had to pay to E-file our taxes? 
• Palm Sunday Next Week Lent is slowly coming to a close (but remember it ends Sunrise Easter Sunday, in case you were wondering).
• Ontario Budget Highlights?
• Ontario Budget 2007: Coming Into Focus
• What is a Leading Indicator?
• What another Budget? Ontario’s Stealth Budget
• So much for the good news… CPI for February
• Budget Day!!! Whoo Hoo!!! Tax Breaks out of Hell?
• Sunday: Lent Continued
• A new budget coming? Or an Election?Can you have too many tax cuts?

Enjoy the weekend folks, and think of your friends locked in dingy gyms, being yelled at by irate parents.