Autumn has arrived in Ottawa, which of course means that Winter is Coming, but unfortunately the financial pundits down south are also warning of Financial Winter, in the face of possible Fed Rate increases by December. If the US starts ratcheting up interest rates, Canada might follow suit, or might not, to make the dollar weaker? I can’t remember what is in vogue these days, a Weak Dollar helping trade or a Strong Dollar, helping trade?
If Financial Winter is coming, maybe it is time to think about whether you are ready or not?
The CRTC is trying to make sure our Internet Access (at home) is not only available from specific companies, however, the Monopolies (Bell, Telus, Rogers) are not playing very nice, as outlined in ‘We need to fix this’: Big telcos hoard fibre optic networks despite CRTC order. Companies like Teksavvy have been trying to compete, but continue to run into the Monopolies lack of co-operation.
Preet and Money
We see him here, we see him there, that Preet B. is everywhere!.
No More Half Measures (financially)
- Our friend the Blunt Bean Counter talks about an important topic of which 56% of Canadians don’t have in his article Canadians Don’t Have the Will. You should have a will!
- An example of possibly the lousiest thing a Grandson can do to his Grandparents, leaving them homeless. Couldn’t happen here? You sure?
- The latest Unifor negotiations with GM has proven the demise of the defined benefit pension plan (or at least the severe curtailing of it), as CBC points out in Unions face challenges in offsetting potential pension losses
- Mark from My Own Advisor points out The Best Budgeting Rules of Thumb, something to think about this coming Christmas season.
- In the world of technology and money, an interesting point from the Bank of England (run by a Canadian), who would like the next payment system to be blockchain-ready.Where does Blockchain come from? Bitcoin, and now as ARSTechnica points out a Federal judge says Bitcoin is money in case connected to JP Morgan hack
- Bloomberg points out that having a 6 figure salary, does not mean you are set financially, with their piece Make Six Figures? There’s a Decent Chance You’ve Got Almost Nothing in the Bank
- On the investing front, Boomer and Echo bring us Advice To Millennials: Starting Your Investing Journey, (remember the sooner you start, the better) but also Young and Thrifty helps out with My Top Seven ETFs for Young Canadian Investors
- Is Apple going to buy McLaren F1? That would be a very interesting technological merging of minds.
- If you had an account with Yahoo in 2014, and still have an account, you might want to change your password, and maybe shut down the account, as pointed out by ARS Technica in Yahoo says half a billion accounts breached by nation-sponsored hackers.
- Proliteracy gives us 6 Tips to Help you Make the Most of your RESP, which is important, if you want to help your kids education.
- Mark from 2nd Career Search is reacquainting himself with Canada, after moving back from down south, and for his American friends he points out NOT All Canadians are Nice, can you guess what jobs these Canadians might have?
- Crime and Money story of the week? Did a Royal Canadian Mint employee use his butt to smuggle out gold nuggets the size of small muffins? ‘nuff said.
- Michael James took a week off, but looking into his archives we find a great oldie but goody, Value Averaging Doesn’t Work, and it doesn’t.
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
- May 20, Victoria Day, The People’s Elbow, Haircuts and #MoneyTalk
- May 27, Loose Money and #MoneyTalk
- June 3, CRA Itunes Pmts, RESP Scams and #MoneyTalk
- June 10, Portal to Hell Opens in Ottawa, BoC FSR and #MoneyTalk
- June 17, Fathers Day, Trump Housing Bubble, and #MoneyTalk
- June 24, Brexit, Fete National, Enhanced CPP and #MoneyTalk
- July 1, Happy Canada Day and Best Mid-Year Financial Stories
- July 8, Brexit Market Mayhem, Millenial Bashing and #MoneyTalk
- July 15,Brexit Hurts, Loose Money, Postal Strikes, Recounts and #Moneytalks
- July 22,More Pensions, New CTC, and #MoneyTalk
- July 31, Unknown Long Weekend, Windows 10 and #MoneyTalk
- August 5, The Olympics, Topless Spelunkers, and #MoneyTalk
- August 12, Women Rule, Less Jobs and #MoneyTalk
- August 19, Obnoxious 30 Year Old Retirees, Olympics and #MoneyTalk
- August 26,Farewell, EpiPens, Ombudsman Report and #MoneyTalk
- September 9,iPhone 7, High Tuition, Loose Money & #MoneyTalk
- September 16, Unemployment Up, On the Money, Debt 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)).
The point about internet access. In Saskatchewan at there is talk of privatising SaskTel. Some people say the competition is cheaper we should have more competition . Others say it’s cheaper as they have to compete with SaskTel. Whatever. It always annoys me that Sasktel spends millions on ads when half of the population has no choice but to use them anyway due to lack of coverage. We are on an acreage 20 minutes from Regina not in the middle of nowhere ! In 12 years we have tried everything to get enough internet to work from home properly. It’s worse now everything is in the cloud and people want to webcam. Tried Satellite, dish on roof, we can not use the local tower as there are trees in the way down the valley. The suggestion was cut them down. Seriously 100 year old trees and not on our land anyway ? Now we just have a spare cell phone we hot spot off. We use the data on 3 phones but hit the cap and its slows down. Its costs us $350 a month and is still barely usable. How come we can send man to the moon and not fix this! Monopolies? I have talked with SaskTel business and said sell us more data, I don’t care if its $500 a month sell us more, this is business not kids streaming Youtube or Xbox! They won’t there is always a 12 or 15GB cap and its slows down to useless. No real reason just , we will not. Not we can’t. Just we will not . So if that’s the company that we the taxpayers supposedly own and should be working for us don’t expect any big company that has a monopoly to listen!