If you were feeling optimistic about life and such, remember the Doomsday Clock is still set at 3 minutes to Midnight (where Midnight is the Big Casino for humanity). The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists site many things that are going on in the world that should have us worried, but surprisingly the sales of bomb shelters have not increased (unless you count some of the Condos in Toronto?). It sounds like the explosion of the Housing Bubble is not the only Big Bang we should worry about.
Cannabis leaf” by Oren neu dag
Evidently, RBC has some explaining to do as they seem to have sent out incorrect RRSP receipts to the wrong customers, which is an interesting double negative. Not only was the information incorrect on the receipt, it was sent to the wrong person with information from other folks (Social Insurance Numbers and the like)? That is what I call getting it as wrong as possible, but, I am confident there are worse examples.
Will legalized marijuana sales become a cash crop for our government? A lot of folks think so, but I am skeptical. The number of money folks seems to think legalized pot will create are optimistic, but IÂ will be pleasantly buzzed if the prognostications are correct. Pass the Doritos, please.
My Writings for Week Ending January 29th
Winterlude has come to Ottawa, so everything has started melting (keeping with the Ottawa tradition). We should rename Winter, Winterlude and we could save a fortune on snow removal.
Marijuana may not be a huge cash crop, but Cauliflower sure seems to be a wallet buster these days in terms of prices, as we saw in Food Prices up 4.1% for 2015
Was I making up this whole Bimodal Financial Planning thing? Kind of, I was mostly stealing a concept that the Gartner Group is espousing for Information Technology groups, but I feel it might catch on in the financial world was well.
A Topical Tweet
Are you following this version of Stats Canada? You should:
Tonight’s Financial Forecast: Dark
Robb E. over at Boomer and Echo points out what I have noticed, Indexers Are Terrible At Indexing, with some examples from the Canadian Couch Potato. Everyone worries about the ups and downs of the market, not all of us have the luxury of Preet where we can say, I am an Indexer, I don’t Care What the Market did Today. Blessed by the Potato has a good old-fashioned rant with The Big Short and Canada’s Housing Bubble, where he calls out experts about the Housing Bubble in Canada.
For senior citizens like me, sometimes we need hints about things and Mark from My Own Advisor has a good set of them with 12 signs you can retire now (or you need to wait). Don’t keep working if your pension is max’ed out in term (max period of work). Should you “go for the gusto” or work hard so you can stop working hard sooner? Speaking of retirement Million Dollar Journey wonders about Early Retirement on Non-Eligible Dividend Income, an interesting follow on to their previous discussions about retiring with Tax Eligible Dividend Income.
Steadyhand has some good advice for those of us who love to read what the Central Banks (i.e. Bank of Canada) are saying about the economy, Stop pushing the button. Your central banker can’t help. I plead guilty on this one. Miranda Marquit is over at Financial Highway trying to help out new investors with Investing 101: Start Small and Be Consistent, consistency is always important in most things (but don’t let it turn into zealotry).
How easy is it to have your identity stolen? Michael James points out that it is pretty darn simple in his expose Identity Theft for $6668.49! Interesting that Rogers tried to recuperate their loss by billing someone after they seem to have known this was a compromised account? Funny how that works. Canadian Financial DIY is looking at new technologies with BMO’s SmartFolio Robo Investing Service Offers Convenience but Needs Improvement, glad to hear it is usable at least.
Mostly Money Video Podcast
Preet seems to be re-energized in terms of video podcasting as he has published another Video Podcast entry Employer Matching Retirement Contributions , I caution to remember never to get too highly vested in your employer, you might be putting too many eggs in one investment basket (speaking as a former Nortel Employee).
2016 Random Thoughts
- December 30th, Top Canadian Personal Finance Posts for 2015
- January 7th, Market Meltdown, TFSA, WildCard Weekend and #MoneyStories
- January 14th, Cheap Oil, Cheap Dollar, Dead Folk, and #MoneyStories
- January 21st, Loose Money, High Household Debt, Weak Loons and #MoneyStories
My Twitter feed is where I re-tweet many great articles by some of my featured writers (and make the occasional odd or off color commentary on life (in 140 characters or less)). I am also on reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest , Flipboard, Instagram and other Social Media sites (look for the BigCajunMan userid) as well. If you have social media accounts, do not forget to vote for my posts (see the nifty dashboard on the bottom of each article, where you can cast your votes).As they say in Quebec, vote early and vote often!
Thanks for the mention! Hope you had a great weekend. John certainly had a heckuva rant.
Mark
Potato’s essay was epic. Thanks for the mention.
Truly a ranting 🥔 is a 🥔 worth listening to… He was so hot he fried himself ðŸŸ