Frigid Temps, Plunging Oil, Paris and #BestThisWeek

The Winter has come to Ottawa, with frigid temperatures, that remind us that the concept of Global Warming is a bit of a misnomer, but climate change might be nice (a little warmer in January please). When your wheels freeze squared you know it is a cold day in Canada.

Thanks to a glut of oil on the market, gas prices continue to plummet to 20th Century levels. Here in Ottawa, we have seen 88.6 cents per litre gasoline and there are rumours of even deeper price cuts coming very soon. This is not very good news for the Canadian economy, with many layoffs in the Oil Patches, and Oil related businesses. What is causing this? I really don’t know, but it is causing troubles for countries like Russia and Venezuela, I wonder if someone is trying to make this happen? Interesting political intrigue if that is the case.

Normally I wouldn’t write about the horrific events in Paris, but seeing as I am a member of the media (note the small m) I am appalled by the events. Je suis Charlie, has become the battle cry for those in France, and I am glad to see the outpouring from the Political Satirists around the world. When 12 people are murdered in this fashion, for the reasons put forward, it is simply an abomination.

Site note: If you feel so inclined my site now has a cert, so you can now read https://www.canajunfinances.com if you so choose. I am still knocking the kinks out of things, but it should work just fine for you.

My Writings for Week Ending January 9th

The raw cold reminds me why I love the summers so much, and how I should cherish those days:

• Last week I wrote a quick note about Quicken and transferring Mutual Funds which really wasn’t about Quicken, it was more of a step by step on how to transfer I series Mutual Funds at TD to the much lower MER E-Series Funds
• Happy Financial New Year is me again reminding you of the importance of starting the new year on the right foot (or left foot if you wish) and some of the things you should be thinking about.
• Are the money media folks going into Financial Jargon Overload ? I think some of the TV outlets are way over the top, but most financial writers try to not overdo some of the more, shall we say, trite claptrap we here in other areas.
• Random Thoughts on 2014, Welcome to MMXV and #BestOf how well did 2014 really go?

This Week’s Finest

The finest thing this week was the Junior Canadian Men’s Hockey team winning the world championships, but there was a great deal of other brilliant articles as well:

• Michael James gives us a glimpse of his investing track record, so we can better understand his thought processes now, with My Investment Record to 2014. I applaud his honesty, most of my great “Stock Picks” have been the result of blind luck.
• Matt over at One Million and Beyond did not have a great year last year, and he writes about it in 2014 the year that kicked my ass , read it, he talks about stuff that guys my age need to worry about.
• Starting the year and what to do financially seems to be a popular topic, as Million Dollar Journey gave us a Financial Checklist to Start 2014, always good to read many different sites to see different perspectives on things.
• Found an old chestnut from Daily Finance, 11 Personal Finance Equations Everyone Needs to know, remember that the Canadian Amortization equation is a little different.
• The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is on in Vegas (a geeks heaven) and evidently Optical Sensors and Wearables are in Vogue this year. Some amazing ideas always come from here (and some weird one offs as well).
• For the lovers of Africa or Lions,  here are some cool photos from Mark and Lori’s most excellent African adventure. Who says that Accountant aren’t mad crazy folk?
• Barry from Money We Have gives us 7 Things to Stop Wasting Money on, surprisingly deluxe cheese straightener and Uncle Cy Chia Pets is not on the list?
• You do realize that half the traffic on the net are automated bots, right? You don’t? Well Meet the Bots that Made Half the Internet Traffic (last year). An interesting discussion, but I thought over 1/2 the Internet traffic was Netflix and the like?!?
• Mark from My Own Advisor brings us  What you really need to know about permanent insurance , which hopefully clears up some of the confusion over long-term insurance.
• Mark from Second Career Search points out that even though the markets are quite volatile currently now is Not The Time to Panic, in fact no time is a time to panic (I have found in my life).

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Facebook Fun

You do know that I have a facebook page as well, one of my favorite posts there is this:

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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)).