Loose Money, Free Stuff, Hockey and #MoneyStories

For all of you worried about interest rates jumping, you have another month’s reprieve with the Canadian Dollar rebounding (along with Oil Prices) and a “strengthening” of the economy, The Bank of Canada kept the overnight rate the

same for a while longer. Their exact statement about why they kept the rates the same is:

Overall, the risks to the profile for inflation are roughly balanced. Meanwhile, financial vulnerabilities continue to edge higher, in part due to regional shifts in activity associated with the structural adjustment underway in Canada’s economy. The Bank’s Governing Council judges that the overall balance of risks remains within the zone for which the current stance of monetary policy is appropriate, and the target for the overnight rate remains at 1/2 per cent.

So the Canadian economy seems to be “in the zone” for now, however, that zone continues to be the in dire need of stimulation zone.

The hockey season in Ottawa was a complete disappointment, and it’s unfortunate that the team owner, who seems to be more skilled at finding organ donors than winning coaches, has fired all the coaches. Since there are no Canadian teams left, it’s time to move on and find another team to support. Personally, I’ll be watching the Jays and Formula 1, as they are both thrilling and entertaining.

Under the your mileage may vary category, I submitted my tax on-line on this past Saturday, and when I checked at MyCRA on Tuesday, the return had been processed and I am due to receive my refund on this coming Monday. That is a very quick system, given these are the dog days of the Tax Year (i.e. the CRA is most busy).

Sorry to see Tom Mulcair get the boot from the top seat at the NDP, but someone was going to have to eat that stunning election collapse. The only question now is, will the NDP return to being the Political Party of the Oppressed and Downtrodden, and the conscience of Canada or continue their move to the center? The Liberals are hoping for the first one (I bet).

I have a special treat for you, at the bottom of this post another great John Oliver video, but this time on something very on topic, Credit Ratings.

My Writings for Week Ending April 15th

When people make statements like I Just Don’t Like Saving I kind of scratch my head and wonder how they got to that point, but surprisingly I hear this more often than you think.

You would think a giveaway would cause a flourish of comments, however, not on my site! No comments have shown up yet? This explains my inability to get a date when I was younger as well (I suppose), but remember I have 1 comment now, and 5 on-line Turbotax licenses to give away (thanks to my friends at Intuit ).

I have Said This Before

Experience is learning from your mistakes. Wisdom is learning from the mistakes of others

No More Half Measures (financially)

If you own a Small Business Mark from the Blunt Bean Counter continues on his tutorials for you folks with What Small Business Owners Need to Know – Shareholder Agreements. Lots of interesting ways to cut up a company, but make sure you are doing it the right (and legal) way.

Free stuff? Advice from successful investors? What else do we need? Mark from My Own Advisor gives us both with Market Masters Review and Giveaway. Free is always a good price for advice, and in this case it really isn’t Free Advice is it?

Barry from Money we Have seems to imply there are only 5 Ways to Make Saving Money fun? There must be more ways to make saving money fun?

Goldman Sachs will pay $5B for fraudulent sales of toxic debt, no one will go to jail, which really bugs me, because someone should really be going to jail here. You have kids that sold marijuana going to jail, but not these folk? Justice system seems a tad confused these days. As was foreseen by me, the NASDAQ confirms with Nortel Creditors Clash in Latest Round, and all we learn is that the big winners in these court battles are the Lawyers.

If you are curious about career choice advice Nelson (who seems to have moved in at Sustainable Finance) has for us 5 Life Lessons I Learned Working Retail. I was never a sales kind of guy (I was always sales support), but people who really dig selling stuff are a rare bread (and folk that are good at it are even rarer). Psychology and Money are linked? Absolutely! Blessed by the Potato has a good article to point this out with Conjunction Fallacy and Real Estate.

As an investor it is always good to hear other folks opinions on the on-line investing platform you use, and thus Robb from Boomer & Echo (soon to be Johnny Manziel’s new financial rep I hear) helps me out with TD Direct Investing WebBroker Platform Review. I like tech reviews, because inevitably I have missed a major feature I should be using, but by reading the review I am reminded to use it. If you are thinking about investing Million Dollar Journey brings us 5 Key Philosophies for Long Term Investing Success, a rewrite of an earlier article, but still worth reading.

How Much Do You Have to Learn to be a Good Investor? Michael James attempts to outline what you really need to know, because with investing a little information can be dangerous, but remember to be good at Investing, is the same as being good at Golf, start 10 years ago, and you’ll be great!

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Credit Reports

Tonight with John Oliver, hits yet another one right out of the park!

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2016 Random Thoughts

• 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
• January 29th, Doomsday Clocks, Rogue RRSP Receipts, Cash Crops and #MoneyStories
• February 4th Bouncing Loonies, RRSP Season, Superb Owls and #MoneyStories
• February 12th Lent is Here, Bricked iPhones, Love Day and #MoneyStories
• February 19th Digging Out, Ransomware, RRSP Time and #MoneyStories
• February 26th RRSP Time and #MoneyStories
• March 4th Welcome Americans and #MoneyStories
• March 11th Bank Rate Stays Put, Spring Forward and #MoneyStories
• March 18th Financial March Madness, Budgets and #MoneyStories
• March 25th, Easter is Here and some #MoneyStories
• April 1, Money Fools, Ronnie, and #MoneyStories
• April 8, Tax Time, Spring Delayed, Panama Papers 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, don’t 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!