The Long Weekend with no Name, Defaults, and #BestFinancialForTheWeek

Welcome to August 2014, and for those in Ontario who are soon to celebrate a long weekend, I have one query, what is this weekend called? It has many names, “Colonel By Day,” “August Bank Holiday,” or “August Long Weekend” how can a glorious long weekend not have an official title?

Argentina is now officially in default, to compound the bad news for that country (given they lost the World Cup final), but what does this mean? My feeble understanding of global economics suggests some creditors will not get paid, but who loaned them the funds in the first place? China? The U.S.? Russia? Maybe it is like Canada, where the country’s citizens hold a great deal of the Government’s debt like this issue. I suspect this will not make things better in the perplexed and scary world we live in.

For those who enjoyed Tom Clancy’s writings, the Ebola epidemic (not the correct phrase I know (the book I am referencing is Executive Orders)) in Africa lends itself to some interesting discussion points. The U.S. doesn’t comprehend how close they were to having someone infected with this disease from landing on their soil (an American Doctor has succumbed to the disease, but he was only diagnosed (i.e. he collapsed) while leaving one plane to then get on a plane destined for the U.S.. Let us hope the SARS protocols are put in place. The Canadian immigration folks will help if this outbreak turns into a more global problem.

For those not following me on Twitter, you have missed one of my favourite quotes from Gail Vaz-Oxlade, and it was aimed at me. We were discussing retirement and such and her final response to me was:

@bigcajunman luckily, you die; I live a long unhealthy life as a woman

This is in response to me whining about not having enough money to retire with, so I guess I should stop saving? No, she didn’t mean that, but it was fun to rib her about it.

My Writings for Week Ending August 1st

I had a drier writing week, with only two pieces. I have written or started about six ideas, but none of them were worth publishing yet (that means I have about 160 titles and ideas still to finish off).

• Financial Anarchy Day is another one of my many rants about the media and retailers attempts to make us go nuts and yell “FESTIVAL!!!” and spend like crazy people (Star Trek reference, for those who are unsure). I am not saying you should go watch the movie mentioned though, it is more of a Metaphor than a Recommendation.
• Sometimes I get fed up with the “Make Money on the Market Using This Fool Proof Technique” e-mails that clog my inbox, so I figured I’d write the most outrageous Stock Picking Idea I could, and then someone points out in the comments there is one even more outlandish one out there, wow.
• I did find in my archives one of my favorite phrases “Don’t Mistake Activity for Achievement” (a quote from John Wooden), just because you think you are working hard, doesn’t mean you are achieving your goals.

This Week’s Finest

This is very much a summer of discontent. Let us hope that level-heads prevail in the various troubled areas of our world. I include a GIF to help you ponder these articles:

• Bet you didn’t know that Baseball has a Hall of Very Good (no relation to the MLB Hall of Fame).
• I wonder if these new self-driving cars will have a “rubber neck” feature, where the car will slow down if there is an interesting accident to see in the opposite direction?
• A problem the Blunt Bean Counter discusses, that my kids will never have an issue with is One Big Happy Family – Until We Discuss the Will, unless they want to fight over my Strat-o-Matic games collection or all my vinyl records? Other than that, there ain’t gonna be no estate, I am going to be Dead (ask Gail VO) and Mom will spend it all on Extravagant Vacations!
• Given 50 Shades of Grey may be coming out in theatres soon, I give you an excellent exercise Who Said It: Christian Grey or Pepé Le Pew? (The Answers) you’d be surprised how suave Pepé sounds next to Mr. Grey.
• The Canadian Capitalist is alive and well, but he is in a semi-retirement state right now, but in his archives is an interesting piece from 6 years ago Is Canadian Real Estate Overpriced ? Sound familiar?
• Bitcoins are always a fun topic and Popular Science has a piece about how Arizona’s First Bitcoin ATM Went Kablooey, not sure if Kablooey is an exact technical term, but still interesting.
• Mark from 2nd Career Search is learning that It is Hard to Find a Job Without Taking a Salary Cut, which is very true if you are unemployed, if you have a job, it’s a little easier to find comparable pay (since you can say NO! to anyone who offers you less money).
• Gail Vaz-Oxlade not only thinks I will die soon, but also that Saving Together is Easier, luckily with my iminent demise I don’t have to worry about that.
• With the new/old Ontario Budget, Evelyn Jacks points out Ontario Budget: Tax Planning is Critical for High Earners, alternately you could earn more than $509K and not worry about it?
• Is Mr. Money Mustache Ruining Your Marriage ? I have never heard anyone claim that a financial blogger was destroying their marriage, and now I aspire to do the same thing, but how? Good on you MMM!
• Risk is everywhere, it is even risky taking a shower these days, but Canadian Couch Potato asks the right question, Do You Really Know Your Risk Tolerance?
• Mark from My Own Advisor, must be feeling claustrophobic, as he is now writing about My Life in a Box . If he started to think outside of the Box, then he might feel less boxed in? If it is a nice big box maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, I suppose.
• Is your toaster safe to connect to the Internet? Is your refrigerator secure from internet hackers? Evidently not, Internet Of Things Contains Average Of 25 Vulnerabilities Per Device, wow!
• Did you see Preet on the National a few nights back? Here is a link to the panel discussion, Is There a Pension Crisis Looming, because the CBC site seems to not like me linking the video in directly.
• You don’t really need a cool stock picking heuristic like Biorhythms if Michael James is right about Stock Prices Only Going Up, just buy, buy, buy!!! (NO! That is not what he is saying, read it and figure out what he is really saying).

The NHL Over Time

A perfect graphic showing how the NHL has moved and expanded since it started:

Two Seasons in Canada, Winter & Blackfly Season

The National Film Board reminds us about those pesky insects:

Blackfly by Christopher Hinton, National Film Board of Canada

My Twitter feed is where I re-tweet many great articles by some of my featured writers (and make the occasional odd or off-colour commentary on life (in 140 characters or less)).

Random Thoughts for 2014

Lots of these kinds of Best of articles in 2014. Here is a list of them.

• World Cup Side-Effects, Seinfeld Cars, and #BestofFinancial What happens around the World at half time of the World Cup Final? Is it like Flushed away? Is there a sudden tsunami? Who knows?
• Cuba, Rubles, Christmas and #BestThisWeek – getting close to Christmas but Ian McKellen can teach us about impulse control.
• Snow, Christmas, Enhanced and #BestThisWeek talk of more festive ideas, like how to save money at Christmas.
• A Gentleman, Day of Disability, Christmas, Rugby and #BestThisWeek noted the passing of Jean Beliveau and John Oliver’s views on Lotteries.
• Black Friday is Here, Advent, and #BestThisWeek speaks of the blessed Black Friday and associated sales but also includes a Fanfare for the Common Man.
• Lake Effect Snow, Web Cameras, Travel Insurance and #BestThisWeek November brings snow in Toronto, as we see, and other financial ideas.
• Asteroids, Tax Cuts, Lemurs and #BestThisWeek how many times has the Earth almost been hit by an asteroid? Too often to remember.
• Lame Ducks, Financial Literacy, Working for Free and #BestThisWeek lame duck leaders never really get that much done, no matter how they negotiate.
• Happy Halloween, Income Splitting and #BestThisWeek a wonderful financial time of the year is Halloween? Maybe income splitting is a better subject.
• Ottawa We Shall Remember, Bank of Canada and #BestThisWeek after a bad week in Ottawa, with senseless violence.
• Crashing Markets, Ebola, Low Loonie, Cheap Gas and #BestThisWeek even in 2014 the markets were a little volatile.
• Hockey, Turkey, Leaves, Carry On Bags and #theBestFin4TheWeek is it right that the hockey season starts before Thanksgiving?
• October, Hello Ebola, Give Blood and #theBestFin4TheWeek October arrived unexpectedly this week, almost unnoticed. As we have entered the final (calendar) quarter of the year 2014, it may be time to start considering a year-end review of your financial plans.
• Autumn , United Kingdom, Beer Money, and #theBestFin4TheWeek the colours in Ottawa during Autumn are truly spectacular.
• Pins, Alibaba , Apple Pay , Lecosse , and #theBestFin4TheWeek remember when Alibaba the IPO happened, those were heady days.
• Home Despot, iPhones, and #theBestFin4TheWeek
• Back to School, Tim Burger King, Knee Defenders and #theBestFin4TheWeek will the dutchie ever come back? I can only hope.
• Broken Humerus, Ebola, Anniversaries, Blood and #theBestFin4TheWeek remember when we thought Ebola was going to wipe us out?
• It is Done, Ice Bucket Challenge, Media Perceptions and #theBestFin4TheWeek
• WW1 Centenery, More Hacked Passwords and #theBestFin4TheWeek
• The Long Weekend with no Name, Defaults, and #BestFinancialForTheWeek
• Unmasking Super Heroes, Dogs of Summer and #BestOfFinancialForThisWeek
• All Stars, Al Stars and the #BestOfFinancialForWeek the world cup was a big thing in 2014 as was Bastille day too.
• Brazilian Defeats, Tour De Chunnel, and #BestOfFinancialForWeek you mean Brazil can lose at the world cup?
• Tennis, Racing, Inflation and #BestofFinancial Canada Day is the start of the summer for most Canadians, and financial stories too.
• The Stand, Football Biting, Naughty Banks and #BestofFinancial even in 2014 the banks were misbehaving with shenanigans.
• Elections, Dad’s Day, World Cup, Friday the 13th and #BestofFinancial somehow the Liberals won the 2014 Ontario Provincial Election
• No Rate Hike, Better Performance, Montreal Grand Prix and #Bestof-Financial back in 2014 we were worried about rates, but they were already pretty low.
• Elections, Farewell Knowlton, May Done, and #Bestof-Financial Knowlton Nash was the voice of news for Canada for a while.
• Internet Memory, Grand Prix of Monaco and #FreeFormFridays the Internet has memory?
• Time Off, Elections, Victoria Day and #FreeFormFridays Victoria Day is always a fun weekend.
• Frosts, Elections, Farley Mowat and #FreeFormFridays it does get cold in May!
• Rain, Budgets, Bloggers Meeting, May Day and #FreeFormFridays When financial bloggers meet what happens?
• Beware the Financial Jabberwock, Netflix Expansion, Model Trains, Backups and #FreeFormFridays a thematically odd article.
• Easter is Here and a Saturday #BestOf for the Weekend a time of renewal, new beginnings in life and financially as well.
• RIP Flaherty, Heartbleed, Tax Time, Quebec Elections and #FreeFormFridays the former finance minister did a lot of good for the economy.
• #Selfies, Quebec Election, Big Joe, Awareness, and #FreeFormFridays would Big Joe Mufferaw have been a good fit for the Redblacks? We’ll never know.
• Don Quixote, Tax Time, Cheap Mortgages and #FreeFormFridays gotta hate tax time.
• Spring Has Sprung, March Madness, Celebrity Blogger and #FreeFormFridays talking about Spring in March in Ottawa can be a bit early.
• Pi Day, March Break, Two Ferns, Snow and #FreeFormFridays given pi is infinite, how much pie can we expect?
• Quebec Elections, Eating Sugar, Suing Parents, Big Rocks and #FreeFormFridays those elections in Quebec are never dull.
• Saint David’s Day, Big Posts, RRSP Time, the Dating Game and #FreeFormFridays always a good time to put a Welsh Choir Clip in an article.
• Hockey Day, Tax & RRSP Time and #FreeFormFridays Hockey day in Canada? Well it does happen, right around RRSP time too.
• More Olympics, Budgets, Love Day and #FreeFormFridays Valentine’s Day: Celebrating Love and Dealing with Financial Whining.
• Olympics, Not Super Bowls, Creationism and #FreeFormFridays 2014 Olympics Opening Ceremonies and Soshi Stadium’s Doppleganger: The Super Bowl.
• Senators, Weak Loonie, Superb Owls and #FreeFormFridays Rugby is a Hooligan’s game played by a Gentleman.
• Polar Vorteces, Olympics, Mayors and #FreeFormFridays The Polar Vortex brings Winter in Canada. But don’t worry – -30C highs in Ottawa in January are normal.
• Giveaways, Oil tanks, Eagles and #FreeFormFriday Have you checked your oil tank if you heat with Oil? What will your insurance do if the tank ruptures?
• Truly Canadian Issues, Ultra HD TV, Car Loans and #FreeFormFriday Get your lock de-icer and unlock your Super Mailbox cubicle like I did – Canadian Tire to the rescue!
• Some #RandomThoughts from 2014 Some of the best of, best of posts on my random thoughts weekly post.
• CPP Reform, Snow, Christmas, Boxing day and #FreeFormFriday Did the CPP reform of 2013 fix much? Kind of, but Christmas was coming too.