Random Thoughts: Saint Patty’s Hangover

No Charlie Sheen Quote Here

A week of earth-shattering and shaping events in the news has caused the markets to go off in all directions, with stocks on a roller coaster of activity. The Japanese attempt to only have a Three Mile Island and not a Chornobyl on their hands, while in the Middle East, things continue to make life interesting and drive the price of oil up. There are no words from Charlie Sheen, and no comments on my inane post about him either, it just goes to show that the posts I figure will cause a backlash never do.

March Madness basketball starts, and it will have most of my attention for the next few weeks, so expect more than normal basketball-related posts. Lent continues as well, I trust all my Lenten Financial Challengers are keeping up their pledges.

Hopefully, you didn’t overindulge on Saint Patrick’s Day, but if you did, sit back with a cup of black coffee and enjoy some of the finest Personal Finance blogging (as if that was an actual hangover cure). Hopefully, you also bought The First Round yesterday.

Random Thoughts: Slash Into Lent is a recap of the previous week’s best.

Remember you should have drunk a lot of water last night:

• The Lenten Challenge Week 1 showed we have a small, but dedicated group of folk involved.
• We learned from our friends at Stats Canada that More Folks Working in February 2011, which is good, but with Auto plants being shut down, that may change.
• I wanted to see if anyone cared anymore and I guess from the response of Some Things Charlie Sheen taught me about money I guess Charlie is off the front page now too.
• The importance of Don’t get too distracted financially is that no matter how things go in your life, you should try to keep with your financial plan.
• For those of you who only thought of Saint Patrick as the patron saint of Ireland (he who drove the snakes out) I pointed out that he is also Saint Patrick Patron Saint of Engineers and then I went off on a whole drinking theme, which does show where my mind is at sometimes.

As a note, I actually enjoy all comments (even the ones that question my sanity), and will try to respond to most comments, so please feel free to comment away.

With the news this week, other bloggers concentrated a little more closely on the Front Page issues:

• Mike over at Money.Smarts Blog suggests How to Set Up the Safest, Simplest and Cheapest RESP Account, and he should know, shouldn’t he?
• Michael James states something we all thought but is now down on paper: US Internet Overusage Fees 1/10 of Canadian Fees, so that pain back there is not just Taxes?
• The Canadian Couch Potato asks Can Your Funds Outperform Over a Lifetime? You can guess what the answer to that question might be.
• Canadian Capitalist says that MorningStar Grades Canada an F in Mutual Fund Fees, which Michael James also pointed out this week. Why is anyone buying these funds is my only question?
• Sustainable Personal Finance if it is possible for A $12.43 Electric Bill for a 2600 Square Foot Home, but thinks about things you can do to lower your bill anyhow.
• Larry MacDonald asks is there money to be made from Japanese Bargains and Stimulus, which is an interesting question right now.
• Anybody up for a Quiz? Sandy at Yesiamcheap gives us Test Your Knowledge of Personal Finance, tricky set of questions for us.
• Preet was back in the Globe and Mail making A Challenge for Your Next Raise: Don’t Spend it Before it’s Made, which is true in my case, but luckily my raises are so darn small, it don’t matter!
• Jim Yih points out that You Should Incorporate Your Money Values Into Your Allowance Program, for your kids of course.
• Boomer and Echo (with a spiffy new format) challenges us to Choose Your Retirement Date, I choose tomorrow, do I win?

Carnivals this Week

I also had some submissions accepted to various carnivals, so go have a read of these as well:

• Don’t Mess with Taxes hosted Tax Carnival #83 : March Tax Madness, and was kind enough to include my post You Can Call the CRA.
• Tom at Canadian Finance also hosted Totally Money Blog Carnival #10 Daylight Savings Time, with my post So High Taxes Are Good For Me?

Remember

“You can tell a man who boozes, by the company he chooses, and the pig got up and slowly walked away…”

Author: Benjamin Hapgood Burt