The Stanley Cup Playoffs and Random Thoughts

For we hockey lovers the orgy of hockey that is the first couple of rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs has begun, and we can watch as much hockey as we want, whenever we want. My favorite team isn’t in the playoffs (no, not the Blue Team, but Les Habitants), but that won’t stop me from watching as many games as I can possibly see.

In the world of finances, your taxes are due fairly soon (very soon if you are in the United States), and have you gotten your taxes done? The longer you wait, the longer your rebate might take (of course, if you owe money, you should wait until the last minute to submit).  I am using Turbotax again this year, and I do owe the kind folks who gave me a copy to review, an actual review of the product (here is a hint, I like it).

In Ottawa, the Civil Service cuts continue to pile up, with many folks being told last week and this week, and still more will be told their fate next week (and still others may only hear near the end of the year). Looks like the job-hunting services will be doing a roaring business over the next few months. Interesting that the Ottawa area elects a fair number of Tory MP’s, does seem a little ironic.

Weekly Recap

Some diverse post Easter topics this week:

• Happy Easter and Sunday’s Best gave you my Easter wishes as well as a quick run down of what has been going on, on my Twitter feed.
• Some very good news on the job front with An Easter Bunny Bounce for Jobs in March, but with the government lay offs coming, that may dampen this good spring news.
• I am planning my fall spending thus the post RESP: You do Realize it Only Pays for 1/2 , was written. Sad to say, but it isn’t enough, if your kids go away to school.
• A great comment on the previous post, provoked a Mea Culpa from me on CO-OP Degrees a Parent’s Financial Best Friend, since I graduated with one of those degrees.
• I actually wrote The Leather Coat: An Easter Story a few weeks ago, and was debating about whether to publish it, I decided I wasn’t going too far off topic with this story of hope (for the future).
• Budget(s) Week, Bye Bye Penny and Random Thoughts In 2012 there was a federal budget that started the phase-out of the penny. The penny was superfluous at best, and is now history in Canada.

And thanks to those who added me on Twitter. Check out my facebook page as well.

Links for the Week

The week after Easter can be a time for restarting or renewing, but unfortunately on the markets it was a wild and wooly roller coaster ride as well:

• Mr. Money Mustache  has an interesting paradigm shift with What if Everyone Became Frugal, how would our society manage?
• The Blunt Bean Counter who must be enjoying the apologies from the Blue Team executives and players, also gives us Confessions of a Tax Accountant Week 5.
• Larry MacDonald  makes a psychological observation about whether you are a social person and active investing with Investing and Sociability.
• Lou from Lou’s land gives us a tongue in cheek view of Stupid Studies about Autism, glad to see you hold the folks who do these studies with the same contempt that I do!
• Michael James gives his opinions on spurious or Useless Investing Ideas, and how they seem to be everywhere these days.
• Canadian Capitalist gets out his magnifying glass and has a look at the Performance of the Horizons Enhanced Income Equity ETF (HEX), always good to read an informed opinion.
• Our Financial Kin at My Own Advisor gives us his monthly update with March 2012 Dividend Investment Update, good for him, I don’t have the guts to talk in public about my investments.
• Boomer of Boomer and Echo is thinking about the future and retirement thus giving us help with Decoding Your Company Pension Plan.
• Red Vines and Red Wines points about that while April is Autism Awareness Month it is not a Celebration of Autism.
• Miranda at Planting Money Seeds, gives us an Update: We got our $307 Back on a deal gone bad on E-bay, good to hear that you can get your money back in those situations.
• Gail Vaz-Oxlade talks about 5 Rules to Save Money on Interest, yes I normally pan numbered lists, but I like Gail and she has been very kind to me, so I will cut her some slack.
• Preet had his site hacked badly (it was locked away by OpenDNS) but he is back and safe with an off topic fun post about Tunezy – The Future of Music? He is Betting Yes!

Budgetary Quotes for 2012

“Goaltending is a normal job, sure. How would you like it in your job if every time you made a small mistake, a red light went on over your desk and 15,000 people stood up and yelled at you.”

• Jacques Plante (the man who popularized the goalie mask)