Ottawa We Shall Remember, Bank of Canada and #BestThisWeek

The week was going along just fine until the events of the 22nd showed that no matter how wonderful a place you live, there are always lunatics and zealots who want to ruin it all. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the two brave young men, killed this week, let us hope their deaths are never forgotten, We Shall Remember.

Glad to see the normal reserve of the Canadian TV Media, not wanting to report all the wild stories of the day on Wednesday, but when they started to report “American Claims”, that got a little worrisome. Keep it Classy CBC and CTV, we have journalistic integrity in this country, and I was proud of (most) of your reporting.

For those wondering the Bank of Canada did keep their key overnight lending rate at 1%, however, they did make one interesting statement,

Weighing all of these factors, the Bank judges that the risks to its inflation projection are roughly balanced. Meanwhile, the financial stability risks associated with household imbalances are edging higher. Overall, the balance of risks falls within the zone for which the current stance of monetary policy is appropriate and therefore the target for the overnight rate remains at 1 per cent.

My Writings for Week Ending October 24th

The dark days of the fall continue on, with the days shortening, and we get to enjoy the “go to work in the dark and come home in the dark” that we northerners have this time of year.

• Reversing Mutual Fund Transactions was me venting about how TD kept undoing excellent trades, because my trading profile did not reflect my reckless nature (of wanting to purchase bond funds). I am a wild child, when it comes to investing.
• I finally swallowed my pride and called AOL to cancel that monthly fee I kept swearing about and thus I wrote Tales of Financial Persistence, because I did have to wait on my speakerphone for over 2 hours to get through. Let us hope the charges stop appearing.
• Redux: Real World Example: Kids Allowances is me going back to one of my first bits of writing, and commenting about how a simple idea about making allowances easier to administer, taught me more about money, and such.

This Week’s Finest

Ebola continues to be mostly on the front pages, while the market correction of the correction, continues to make it to the back pages?

• Autism Funding in BC (a new friend of this site), wrote a while ago about the Best Single Investment for your child, which is an RDSP, and there is some very good news on the TD Waterhouse RDSP front as well.
• Michael James points out that the Stock Market is not a physical system and thus the concept of Stock Market Momentum, is a crock of beans (I am paraphrasing here).
• I distinctly said, “No salt in my Pina colada”
• Bloomberg argues Why the Stock Market Rally is not Good News, as it didn’t let folks get back in to make some profits? You snooze, you lose?
• Robb E. from Boomer and Echo asked a rather suggestive question What Are You Doing with This Stock Market Pullback? Pulling out is not a good contraceptive idea, but that has nothing to do with this article.
• Financial Bloggers hate banks the same way Personal Trainers hate McDonald’s, they know they wouldn’t exist without each other, they are sort of frenemies.
• Barry from Money We Have (oops) gives himself a tall task by writing about Guaranteed Ways to Go Broke, I don’t know, there might be a way not to go broke using his methods, but I am not suggesting you try them either.
• The dangers of sitting at home and only watching the News Channels is you can get a might paranoid, as Mark from 2nd Career Search outlines in Staying Upbeat with Ebola, ISIS, Stock Market Correction
• Our management had to suggest that spandex was not appropriate to wear to work and to work in, no we are not a gym. Could they make the same suggestion about wearing flip-flops and sandals with brown socks now?
• Million Dollar Journey helps us Get Exposure to the Canadian Energy Industry using ETFs, useful for those who think that maybe it might be time to pick up some bargains in the Energy field.
• To cheer us all up Mark from the Blunt Bean Counter did some number crunching and figured out that In Ontario: You are Rich if You Earn $220,000, that is when surtaxes and such start sucking the life out of you.
• Mark from My Own Advisor had a guest writer this week talk about Pooled Registered Pension Plans (Questionable) help on the way, and wondered if this is really a good thing for our aging population? I think only time will tell on this one.

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Best Football Ref Call Ever

However an honourable mention goes to this one, for most honest ref:

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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.

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