11 More Sleeps, 7 Days Left, Hobbitses and Friday #Shoutouts

Only 11 more sleeps until Christmas, and the excitement continues to climb, as Santa prepares for the big day. Evidently the 11th was the busiest day in history for FedEx, so I guess Santa needs some help now and then as well. More importantly 12 more sleeps until Boxing Day sales, and the mayhem that will ensue.

If you are a lover of Mayan Culture remember that next Friday is the Apocalypse, so plan accordingly. In an interesting side story a “Hazardous” asteroid will be making a close pass of the earth, is this the beginning of the end? Should we be bashing our neighbours heads in and eating the goo inside (to quote Kent Brockman of the Simpsons)? If I was that kind of blogger, I would have “This is the End” from the Doors playing in the background, luckily I am not that kind of blogger. I will be having Tequila and Tacos next Friday in preparation (however, that is not really Mayan, but it’s as close as I get).

That nasty Hobbitses movie starts today as well. For those who have not read the books, this is a prequel to the Lord of the Rings, however, the book the Hobbit was actually released before the Lord of the Rings. Should be interesting to see if Peter Jackson can bring to the Hobbit what he did for the Lord of the Rings.  Read this book, it’s shorter than the trilogy and it might help with the movie as well, my favorite character is easily Smaug, and I look forward to see what he looks like in the movie.

Watch for the festive Christmas video at the end of this post?

Weekly Recap

It’s cold, foggy and snowy in Ottawa, just how Christmas should be, but I didn’t talk about the weather (much) this week:

• Advent, McAfee, Chanukah and #OldieButGoodie Tweets for a Sunday is my best of tweet post, but has a few interesting quips about Chanukah and Anti-Virus Tycoons.
• Yes! More Jobs in Canada in November 2012 is another optimistic story from Stats Canada about jobs in Canada in general (not such good news for the Ottawa area).
• If You Saw What You Looked Like at 65 Would You Save For Your Retirement? Merrill Edge put out a fun tool to show you aging, which would hopefully cause you to call them to set up a retirement account, I added my own picture to make it clearer.
• Where the Hell is that Receipt? points out that not only do you have Christmas to worry about, you also have to worry about end of year tax stuff too! Yea!!!
• The $150 Christmas Challenge is a guest post talking about one of the ways folk try to stay frugal at Christmas.
• Hockey, Cliffs, Layoffs and #MoneyTalk Will Hockey happen this year? Jason Spezza, Leafs, Sens face-off on Fiscal Cliff. Multi-millionaires need to act and stop being so boring.

Links for the Week

With the world ending as we know it in a week, you would think there might be a sense of urgency with our favorite writers, but not this week, maybe they are saving it for the final week:

Top Stories of the Week of December 14th 2012 The Second Week of Advent and Christmas is 10 days away (HOLY COW!)
Passive Investing: The Movie The Canadian Couch Potato found a movie that talks about Passive Investing, and it is well worth watching (if you are thinking about this investment strategy).	5 Financial Tips for New Moms & Dads Gail Vaz-Oxlade tries to help out new parents with some helpful hints. My tip is figure out quickly that “Money does not equal Love”, so buying your kids thousands of gifts isn’t good for your finances or for your kids!	Sleepy Mini-Portfolio Q4 Results The Capitalist returns showing the results from his passive mini-portfolio, which I use for one of my RRSPs as well, so quite interesting stuff.	New Tools for Shafting Shareholders Michael James points out there is research going on about changing the “power” of each share sold depending on how long you hold it. Sounds fair doesn’t it? Kinda no.
How Not To Move Back In With Your Parents – Book Review and Giveaway The Blunt Bean Counter does a review of this Rob Carrick book, I should buy a copy for my kids as a preventative measure.	Your advert here send an e-mail for info to bigcajunman at canajun finances dot com !	Turning Down Financial Opportunities is NOT the Same as Not Having Them Miranda says that if you turn down financial opportunities, you don’t get to bitch later about how you have no money (within reason of course).	November 2012 Dividend Income Update Mark from My Own Advisor gives us a year ending update on his dividend income endevors (very brave).
Are We in a Bull or Bear Market? Kanwal from Learning Investing Online asks that very question, and of course the answer is, does it matter? If you have a strategy for investing, Bull or Bear shouldn’t really matter, should it?	Internet Explorer tracks cursor even when minimised Do you read the Register for your technology info? You should, because you learn interesting things about the guts of some of the technologies you rely upon.	Elements of a stable financial system Evidently Mark Carney can’t get to the UK fast enough, given the Physics of Finance quotes a speech from Michael Cohrs from the Bank of England and the need for more regulations in the system. C’mon free enterprise has given us our current predicament, and how bad could that be?	When investment fees aren’t such a big deal, Klout gave me a Cadillac, and more (PODCAST) Santa Preet has another podcast for your listening pleasure, where he stops harrassing poor door knockers, but then boasts of getting a free Cadillac (on loan)? Dude, humility, once you can fake that, you are in!