Stupid Canadians, Spring melt-offs and Random Thoughts

Are Canadians stupid monetarily? I didn’t get too many replies to my query in my post yesterday, but I will stick by the statement that Canadians are mostly uneducated about money (and should seek out places to learn about money). Stupid has connotations of folks who know they are doing it wrong and don’t care, I think folks don’t understand (but if they did, they would try not to “financially run in the hallway with sharp scissors”).

In Ottawa, Spring appeared for a while, and thus, there is water everywhere, and everything is melting. This will cause folks to find out whether their foundations leak and cause the Ottawa sewer system to flush millions of litres of effluence into the Ottawa River (if you live downriver from Ottawa, you might want to keep that in mind if you want to swim or go fishing).

Financially, Ontario and Quebec will be bringing down budgets for the current year, and the “Harper Government” will also be bringing a budget (I wonder if they will be robo-calling to find out my opinion on their programs). Yes, the robocall scandal continues to heat up, it should be interesting to see who in the Tories is going to have to fall on their sword to make this one go away.

Je continue mes etudes en francais aussi.

Weekly Recap

It’s another interesting week with some odd reactive posts from me, but hey, that is what makes reading this site so interesting:

• I borrowed the title of The Tyranny of Choice, but I am trying to say that while having more choice is good, too much choice is bad too.
• Continuing on with the Choice issue I rambled on about Choices: ETFs, Mutual Funds, Index Funds, etc., and folks really don’t know what all of these things are, do they? One of my favorite songs by DEVO was “Freedom of Choice” (as an aside).
• Would you take A Bird in the Hand or a Tax Refund Later? Evidently most would take it later (for those who are reading here).
• A comment caused me to ask Are Canadians Financially Stupid? I don’t think stupid is the right word, but we do have a lot to learn.
• Leaping Saint David’s Week in Lent and Random Thoughts Celebrate Saint David’s Day & Leap Day with Canadian politics & weather: snowstorms & tornadoes. Max. 2x Saint David #saintdavid

And thanks to those who added me on Twitter I am now over 1000 folks who follow me, holy cow! Check out my facebook page as well (but no I won’t be buying Facebook stock because of this either).

Links for the Week

This week there have been a lot more giveaways, and with our Greek friends causing more financial grief, there was a lot to write about:

• The Blunt Bean Counter gives us Confessions of a Tax Account & An Ode to Leaf Fans, normally I wouldn’t have something that mentions the “blue Team”, however, for this I will make an exception.
• Larry MacDonald gives us an investing tip with Dividend Investing is Good strategy as payout ratios climb. I like Dividend investing anyhow, but this is good news for me.
• Mr. Money Mustache espouses frugality and one of his credo is about saving electricity So he Bought a $40 Light Bulb, which sounds a little over the top.
• Michael James talks about Early Retirement, which is interesting because he did retire and then un-Retired, go read and find out why.
• Canadian Capitalist talks about how Purchase Protection is a Good Credit Card Benefits, which I must agree, given how many power supplies I have had replaced by the Costco Concierge service.
• Our Financial Kin at My Own Advisor talks about his February 2012 Dividend Update, which is brave, I don’t think I’ll tell you guys about my investing (the snickering alone would make me curl up in a ball).
• Boomer of Boomer and Echo  wonders if it is worth Borrowing to Invest? The answer is, it all depends!
• Miranda at Planting Money Seeds, talks about the running theme for the week Investing Idea: Dividend Stocks, more talk of dividends? Interesting.
• Gail Vaz-Oxlade is “celebrating” Women’s Money Week with a post about Relationships and Money, which is always a contentious issue with the couples I know.
• Preet seems to be out-sourcing his blog and this week’s post is from Ross Taylor about Strategies for pricing your home to get top dollar, guess Preet is pretty darn busy these days.

Is Spring Springing?

One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of March thaw, is the Spring.

• Aldo Leopold (seems to have a lovely turn of phrase here)