Victoria Day, The People’s Elbow, Haircuts and #MoneyTalk

It’s the Victoria Day weekend, except for those in Quebec who celebrate La Fete Des Patriotes. If you’re in Ottawa, this is the first weekend you should be planting things. If you planted anything earlier, you’re most likely unhappy due to the frosts we had over the past two weeks.

I have decided I want to be Floyd Mayweather’s new barber as he has haircuts 3 times a week, and he pays $1000 each time (oh and he is bald, it seems too). This sounds like my kind of career, whether Mr. Mayweather pays this or not, I suppose he is helping the economy by spreading his wealth around? Luckily football players like Cam Newton don’t waste their money on 24-Karat GoldClassic Oldsmobile 442 Cutlass, it’s an investment (?!?!?).

I think Terry Mosher’s (Aislin) comic sums it up nicely, at least the house of commons isn’t dull and boring any more. I have heard that a red card should have been given for flopping though, but that is for others to discuss, I simply enjoyed the Media’s painful overstatement when things started,”… there seems to have been a brawl in the house of commons…”.

If you use Linked-in (as I do), hopefully you have changed your password since 2013 (or so)? If not, think about it, because that old password is out there and available to some nasty folks (and don’t choose any of these). Unfortunately if you were a Mobilicity subscriber, you are now a Chatr customer (whether you wanted to be or not).

My Writings for Week Ending May 20th

Do you like using new technologies and wonder why you can’t use Interac with your Apple Pay on your iPhone 6.0, well good news for you in Apple Pay and Interac Together (but is this a good thing)? Is NFC really secure?

Went back into my large archive of semi-complete articles with Hippocratic Finances, can you argue you are doing no harm with your finances?Vic

A Retirement Thought

“If I’d known I was gonna live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself”
— Eubie Blake

Here is another thought:

Debts and weights are easy to gain, hard to lose.

No More Half Measures (financially)

Do you run a small business? Mark from the Blunt Bean Counter continues to try to help you out with some good advice, this week he points out What Small Business Owners Need to Know – Severance Costs Can be Expensive. If you thought finding employees was expensive, wait ’til you have to make them go away.

How do the banks figure out how much you mortgage you can afford? The Globe tries to explain with The missing pieces in banks’ real-estate math, the math is simple, how much can we squeeze out of you + 10%? (cheap shot). Speaking of banks, Updated Skimer malware infects ATMs worldwide, in case you felt safe using a banking machine (as well).

When did Pull and Pray become the contraception of choice for the young folk? Even more disturbing, single men change their sheets on average 4 times a year? Am I now an ethical investor because I invest in Pfizer and they have now banned the use of their drugs in executions? Guess that balances out the ED drugs they sell? Yes, I should sell my Pfizer and buy more of my US Index Fund, but it is fun having money in male reproductive process enhancing drugs (speaking of pull and pray). Speaking of cheap prescriptions (at Costco too) Nelson at Sustainable Personal Finance asks Is Shopping At Costco Really Saving You Money? Costco has a good credit card deal as well, and Robb from Boomer and Echo gives us Confessions Of A Rewards Credit Card Addict.

Preet returns with another Podcast with Socially Responsible Robo-Investing. Does it make sense? Or just a marketing gimmick? You should be subscribed to this on iTunes. There are downsides to doing your own investing, and Mark from 2nd Career Search brings his unique perspective on things (as he is semi-retired and doing exactly that), in his piece The Downside of Managing Your Investments for Retirement. Speaking of financial plans Frugal Trader brings us Net Worth Update May 2016“ Smiling Saver“ Student Loan Edition (+100%), another interesting case study on folks getting on with their financial live. Do you realize some people are not aware that Jim Cramer doesn’t beat the market? Wow, is all I can say to that.

Do you enjoy prognostication? If you do, have a read of Michael James’ piece What Will Happen to the Canadian Dollar? He gives you his views on money prognostication and the talking heads that make a career of being wrong more often than I am. Do you know if your car will last another year? Mark from My Own Advisor is kind of doing that kind of prognostication with What did I decide to do with my old car? You won’t be too surprised to read what he did.

Here is hoping that the Raptors manage to make it a 4 game series (they look like they might lose it in 3).

---

Summer Reading List

I don’t actually like reading much (ask anybody who has asked me to review their book), however, I do like Audio Books (I made it through all of the Game of Thrones books), so maybe I’ll see if Audible.com has any of these books available:

---

How Windy?

I have been to the weather station at the top of Mount Washington, but this seems a little extreme

---

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
• April 15,Loose Money, Free Stuff, Hockey and #MoneyStories
• April 22,Disabilities, Tax Time, The Queen and #MoneyStories
• April 29,Pitter Patter Tax Time, RESPs are For Rich Folk and #MoneyStories
• May 6, Fort Mac, Mothers and #MoneyTalk
• May 13, Panama Papers, Google & PayDay Loans, Full Moons and #MoneyTalk

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!