Halloween is tomorrow, and it seems to have become yet another excuse for folks to lose their minds decorating their houses. I think a significant growth industry would be convertible home decorations, which can change from Halloween to Christmas with a simple switch. The lights should be easy enough, but I am unsure how you might change a 10-foot-tall inflated ghost into a 10-foot inflated Rudolph? Did you realize in 2011, 13.3 million Canadian homes gave out Candy? That is a lot of homes (and even more Candy).

Some very spooky food prices this week as well, OK, last week, but I note that no one seemed to really care that much about it. The election is, however, a hot topic with many of our regular contributors in terms of how the change in government will affect their lives (and yours as well).

Also, remember that on Sunday morning (really early) the clocks go back an hour, which means that if you don’t do anything, you will be early to work on Monday morning. The only way I remember is Spring Forward, Fall Back. The one nice thing about most technology is that they change their clocks themselves (except for older technology which changes on the wrong days).

For me, it is a lovely weekend ahead as well as the Rugby World Cup Final on Saturday, with New Zealand playing Australia. I think this time, I will cheer for the All-Blacks.

My Writings for Week Ending October 30th

It’s another fun Halloween ahead, or as we call it at my house, my youngest daughter’s birthday. Halloween is an OK time to have your birthday. You don’t end up getting short-changed on presents as much (like those unfortunate folks born on Christmas Day or around then).

• Canadians Paid 3.9% More For Food in September, and no one really seems to have cared one iota about it. Remember folks you can’t drink Gasoline
• If you live in Canada, You Pay Too Much For Your Telecom Needs, and things are not likely to get better any time soon.
• Is the The 4% Draw Down Theory still relevant in today’s retirement model?

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Facebook Post of the Week

What do you mean there can be negative interest rates? In Sweden this may well be the case!

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Money Stories and other Scary Tales

Mark from the Blunt Bean Counter got into the nitty-gritty for us about the new government and how changes will affect our income, with The Liberal Victory – How it May Affect TFSAs, Personal and Corporate Taxes. To sum up, I am out about $1300 to begin with, oh joy!

Next month is financial literacy month, and friend of this site Ellen Roseman pointed me to an E-Learning site for the young folks about Financial Basics workshop, and here you find the supporting documentation, good idea (from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada ). Ellen suggested I lead a group here in Ottawa, I pointed out that I am not sure young folk are ready for the “Full on Big Cajun Man Effect”.

Barry from Money We Have brings us an important point about Protecting Yourself From Credit Card Scams. They come in many shapes and sizes, and if something doesn’t sound right, maybe you shouldn’t give out your information until you are sure about things.  Speaking of Scams Ellen Roseman writes in the Toronto Star Beware phony CRA tax owing calls: Roseman, it seems the scammers are getting bolder, and bolder these days. Nelson seems to be writing more (with less obscenities) over at Sustainable Personal Finance and he asks Can You Retire Comfortably Only Saving 10% of Your Salary? I guess it depends on how much you make?

Robb from Boomer and Echo asks Is My Two-ETF Portfolio Too Simple? I don’t think so, but have a look at the ETF’s he chose as well, too simple might be only buying GICs or One Specific Bond, but the two ETFs he chooses are interesting, read and see what I mean. On the topic of interesting ETFs our friend the Canadian Couch Potato talks about a mega-ETF with Vanguard’s New World Order and its Vanguard FTSE All-World ex Canada (VXC), that could be one of the two ETFs, if you think about it.

Preet on CPP

Preet put this up on the Globe site last week, but I wait until it is on “the Youtube” before I put it on this site. No point in giving the Globe any more readers eh? Should you take your CPP pay outs early? When might that be a good idea?

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2015 Random Thoughts

• January 2nd Random Thoughts on 2014, Welcome to MMXV and #BestOf
• January 9th Frigid Temps, Plunging Oil, Paris and #BestThisWeek
• January 16th Canadian Economy on the Edge, Frigid Temps and #BestThisWeek
• January 23rd Looser Money, Plummeting Loons and #BestThisWeek
• January 30th CLBs, Weak Loons, Tax Time, Superb Owls and #BestThisWeek
• February 6th Superb Decisions, Gas Going Up, Rugby and #BestThisWeek
• February 13th RRSPs, Valentines, 50 Shades of Debt and #BestOfThisWeek
• February 20th Lent Begins, Freezing Temps, Apples and RRSP and #BestOfThisWeek
• February 27th RRSPs, Saint David, Right Arm and #BestOfThisWeek
• March 6th Illness, K-Cups, Interest Rates and #BestOfThisWeek
• March 13th March Madness, Taxes, Friday the 13th and #BestOfThisWeek
• March 20th Spring has Sprung, Ten Years, The Madness and #BestOfThisWeek
• March 27th Death of EPost, More Madness, and #BestMoneyStories
• April 10th Senators, Retiring Rich and #BestMoneyStories
• April 17th Playoffs, Tax Time, Beer tax and #BestMoneyStories
• April 24th RRIF Allowances, Bursary Changes, Budgets and #BestMoneyStories
• May 1st Tax Extensions, Golf Season, Bank Fees, May Day and #BestMoneyStories
• May 8th Alberta Valium, Mother’s Day, Che Guevara, Pay Day Loans and #BestMoneyStories
• May 15th Starbucks, Monty Burns and #BestMoneyStories
• May 22nd Coach Money, CPP Up 18 pct, Losing $15B and #BestMoneyStories
• May 29th Easy Money, Better Cell Deals, Dirty Football and #BestMoneyStories
• June 5th Starbucks, Hacked Government Folk and #BestMoneyStories
• June 12th Voldemort for PM, HSBC Cuts 50K, Hockey Talk and #BestMoneyStories
• June 19th Aeroplan Student Loans, Dad’s Day, Kill CSBs and #BestMoneyStories
• June 26th Summer is Here, Canada Day, Christmas and #BestMoneyStories
• July 3rd 2 Day Work Weeks, 4th of July, Greece, and #BestMoneyStories
• July 10th Glitches, Greece, Recessions and #BestMoneyStories
• July 17th Loosest Money, Weddings, Greece and #BestMoneyStories
• July 24th, Family Allowance, Diving Dollar, Access Sharing and #BestMoneyStories
• July 31st, Elections, Heat, Cheap Oil, and #BestMoneyStories
• August 7th, Cheap Gold, Cheap Oil, Weak Dollar, Election Week 1 and #BestMoneyStories
• August 14th, RDSPs, Thrifty NFLers , Election Ho Hum and #BestMoneyStories
• August 21st, Rhinos Return, No Good Debt, Election Banter and #BestMoneyStories
• August 28th, Boom Goes the Markets, Market Cheese, and #BestMoneyStories
• September 4th, Back to School, RESPs, Banks Behaving Badly and #MoneyStories
• September 11th, That Day, I Miss Jack, Easy Money and #MoneyStories
• September 18th, Surplus, What Surplus, NBA Frugality, National Debt and #MoneyStories
• September 25th, The Pope, Autumn, Elections, Volkswagen and #MoneyStories
• October 2nd, An Older Canada, Farewell Max, and #MoneyStories
• October 9th, Turkey Day, Elections and #MoneyStories
• October 16th, CPFC15, Election Day, Jays and #MoneyStories
• October 23rd, Election Reflections, Loose Money and #MoneyStories

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