It’s becoming evident that Canada Post’s Epost service is losing its appeal among customers. I received a note from Bell, stating that they will no longer be using Epost to send my bill, and that I should retrieve it from their website instead. As a major client of Canada Post, it’s possible that Bell’s move might inspire other companies to abandon the service. I don’t hold the service in high regard, personally, as it doesn’t integrate with Outlook or any other email reader.
The March Madness Tournament is known for producing unpredictable and exciting results due to its win or go home format. The recent upsets have left many brackets in shambles. It’s unfortunate that the Buffett Bracket, which was a lucrative offer by the Wizard of Omaha for anyone who could predict a perfect bracket, isn’t happening this year due to legal issues. The chances of that is:
To calculate the total number of ways to fill out a bracket take the total number of possible outcomes for each game (2) and multiply it out 63 times: 2 x 2 x 2….x 2, or 2^63. The odds come in at one in over nine quintillion – odds that don’t seem very promising.
And my favorite team at March Madness? The UC Irvine Ant Eaters with their 7’6″ Center Mamadou Ndiaye, great team name and a mountain in the middle, wow.
Do you have your taxes done? It is time to get it done, no time to lose on this important task. It’s also Palm Sunday this weekend, so if you were thinking of going back to Church, might want to start this week, and beat the Easter rush.
My Writings for Week Ending March 7th
Only in Ottawa would you have folks so excited about a hockey game that they throw hamburgers to celebrate (and the players eat them):
- So my First Real Post from 10 Years ago, was more of a warning for the folks who might read my ideas, not to follow the advice, and please don’t sue me for that advice or opinions.
- So the Best Financial Decision Ever that I made, I was worried might be the biggest blunder I might have ever made, but luckily it ended up working out quite well for me and my family.
- Over on LinkedIn I updated an older story back from when I was hunting for a new job Your Facebook Page IS Your New Reference, and it is still very true today, many employers do extensive Internet searches on candidates.
- Spring has Sprung, Ten Years, The Madness and #BestOfThisWeek
This Week’s Finest Financial
Mark from Blunt Bean Counter has a Guest Post about The Trials and Tribulations of an Infant Business, where the writer laments about having to incorporate to be eligible to apply for contracts with the Canadian Banks, however the same is true for any Federal Government contract as well. On Wall Street (speaking of business) Robo-advisor Growth Hits Money Mangers, do you trust a human or an algorithm?
Barry from Money we Have touches on an important topic in my world Canadian Student Loan Options, and for those saying their kids will have to finance their post secondary education, a must read. Another way to pay for University is working the graveyard shift for UPS, or is it? Outlined nicely in the Atlantic’s article Manual Labor, All Night Long: The Reality of Paying for College. Robb from Boomer and Echo points out How Parents Can Give Their Kids a Financial Leg Up, which never hurts (to keep them from moving back home).
Remember that router you got for your house from Bell or Rogers? Did you change the security settings? PC World points out 700,000 Routers ISP Gave to Customers are Vulnerable (where Vulnerable means WIDE OPEN).
With tax season coming Preet continues his collaborations with Tangerine with What is the Difference Between a Tax Deduction and a Tax Credit , Tangerine Preet continues to educate us. Evelyn Jacks brings us a scary thought which is What if your Refund is a Balance Due ? (Hint PAY IT!). I submitted my kids taxes and the E-filing on Turbotax is so simple, I hadn’t realized I’d done it until I looked at the confirmation page.
Michael James points out that Trying Harder at Stock Picking Doesn’t Help Much, and his golfing analogy is spot on (trust me I try real hard at golf, and one day I will break 120). Michael’s article was a commentary on the comments at Mark from My Own Advisor’s question of Why buy individual stocks at all, where folks took Mark to task about being a Debbie Downer about stock picking. Everyone knows some acquaintance who made it big on a penny stock or the like, but we also all know of someone who won the lottery and/or got bitten by a shark, and the trading houses bank on the Active Trading Millionaires as much as the Lottery commissions bank on the “5 Degrees of Lottery Winners” as well. Did you realize there are Index Investors for Preferred Shares? The Canadian Couch Potato asks Are Preferred Share Indexers Dumb Money ?
Tangerine Preet
A very good question Preet asked is how much it costs to move? The easy answer on moving is: it always costs more than you think, and it always takes much longer than you guessed.
I used to use ePost but ultimately you always ended up being re-directed to the biller’s site any ways to view and download the bill. So now all my bill notices are sent to my regular email, and then the rest is essentially the same as ePost. I really don’t see the point ePost.
I like ePost. Too bad.
I never made it big on penny stocks so I was done with them a long time ago. Now, dividend stocks, well, different story 🙂
Thanks for the mention!
Mark
I don’t know if it is dying, but it can’t be doing that well if Bell is walking away from them.
The timing of your talk of the demise of ePost is funny for me because I just signed up recently. My employer started to use it for pay stubs and T4s, and I use it now for city taxes. Thanks for the mention.
Yeh, I am still not completely clear on why folks view the EPost system as being “safer” to use, but still not sure about it as a service.
Thanks for the mention, with so many people in debt, I wouldn’t be surprised if the next generation requires more student funding for their education.
Does seem to be a vicious circle, don’t it?
