It’s currently autumn here in Ottawa and I’m excited to see the leaves changing color and feel the chill in the air. The Members of Parliament have returned to work for their 20-day session before Christmas and I’m sure there’s a lot of activity going on down on Rideau Street, with repairs being carried out on the Houses of Parliament and other buildings. However, what happens in the House of Commons remains a mystery to me. Fortunately, we also have a municipal election coming up and my lookalike Jim Watson is expected to win re-election, but I must admit, I’m not too fazed by that. I know that I need to lose some weight if I want to be mistaken for him again, along with shaving off my beard, but that’s not going to stop me from trying!

The United Kingdom remained together, but what will this mean in terms of powers given to Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands? Should be an exciting bit of Political Flim Flammery, as what keeps happening with Quebec Sovereignty. Stay tuned; I am sure that will also get back on the front burner.

The Ottawa Senators sold the naming rights to Canadian Tire for the arena in Kanata, and then the Sens made a tremendous announcement this week. At the Canadian Tire Center (during the exhibition season at least), you will be able to pay for your concessions (including beer) with Canadian Tire Money! Suddenly Sandy McTire can buy me a brew for all the stuff I have bought at his store. In celebration, the Sens beat the Leafs twice, causing Leaf Nation to explode in a flurry of finger-pointing.

My Writings for Week Ending September 26th

Autumn is in the air, which means leaving and figuring out how to get my car back into my garage.

• Inflation is supposedly running at 2.1 %, according to Stats Canada, but if you read between the lines, there are some things that are sky rocketing in price, that will affect your life a lot more.
• For those who enjoy the titillating stories about naughty photos of folks in Hollywood, remember If They Can Get Celebrity Nude Photos, what else can they get? Maybe it’s time to figure out who “They” are?
• If you are a big fan of the Tap and Pay world you will be happy to read about NFC and Android Phones for Payment, it just makes me more paranoid.
• For those curious, I am reading The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism (amazon link) a very good book if your life is touched by someone with Autism. In my car I am listening to A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book One (amazon link) but it is taking a while to get through it all.

This Week’s Finest

Some of the finest rain will fall this Autumn in Ottawa.

•  Evidently Alibaba’s Jack Ma was Happiest When He Made $20 a Month, and he is lamenting being a Billionaire, sorry Jack, those are the breaks.
• Bet Crooks follows up on my Free is a Good Price with a very helpful article on How to Set Up Your Equifax with the Home Depot Security Code.
• Mark from 2nd Career Search asks, Why Worry about the Latest Credit Card Security Breach ? It does seem like everyone already has our information (many times over).
• Speaking of security breaches, the IEEE Spectrum gives us Home Depot: Everything is Secure Now, Except Maybe in Canada , evidently the Malware in the terminals in Home Depot’s in Canada won’t be remedied until the new year.
• So I have said previously I am a bit Xenophobic when it comes to investing in China, and when I read about the China Watchdog Finding $10B in Fake Currency Trades, it doesn’t help my prejudice.
• Barry at Money We Have wants to help us out with 11 Ways to Save Money Every Day, some useful hints there.
• Do you have options with your Pension or Company RRSP, on where to invest? Million Dollar Journey has some very good examples for Choosing Mutual Funds in Employer Pension/RRSP.
• Modest Money brings some more light on the NFC topic with A Future Without Contact, you need to read more about the “tap and pay” technologies, this is convenient, but how safe is it?
• Debt Roundup points out that Upgrading Your Phone Costs more than you think, every time I have changed phones that is very true, but I only change when my contract comes due.
• I must admit I had to read Mark’s post from the Blunt Bean Counter this week to fully grock his point, but it is important if you own a business to read Corporate Small Business Owners: Beware; the Capital Gains Exemption is not a Gimme, luckily if I ever sold this business Capital Gains would be non-existent.
• The BBC Technology folks have a little fun with a fun article about an Algorithm Being Appointed to the Board of Directors of a VC firm, it’s not a joke? What?
• Now Michael James has some interesting questions about whether we should change minimum RRIF rates, or more precisely, why we haven’t already changed them. I suppose you could figure out a way to channel your RRIF withdrawals into your TFSA (if you have room)?
• Mark from My Own Advisor, seems to be in the same reading circle as a few other Financial Writers, as he reviewed Wealthing Like Rabbits Book Review and Takeaways

Stop liars Cold

In 1 minute this helpful video helps you make sure that what you are being told is not a lie, very useful, stuff and it will only take a minute of your time.

How Old Am I?

This was HIGH TECH in my day, look, no punched cards!!

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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.

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)).