I was saddened to read about the demise of the first job for many kids, the paper delivery person. When I was 10 years old I started delivering the Montreal Star, and then I moved to delivering the Montreal Gazette and then I delivered the Sunday New York Times for a while. These jobs taught me discipline, taught me about money and most likely contributed to my torn rotator cuff. With the ever-changing media environment, delivery of papers was going to disappear, but I am still saddened to see it happen.
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Table of contents
Do you want to know about Bitcoin? There is a great video at the end of this article that will help introduce you to the most over-hyped investing idea since Bre-X (or Nortel)). Did you realize there are over 500 types of Cryptocurrency? If you want to keep up with them, go to 500 coins and check a few of them out. Choice of the week? Etherium !
More Bitcoin interesting news, a Miami Bitcoin Conference has stopped taking Bitcoins as payment due to high fees and problems. You still think investing in this is a good idea after reading that? You might be a die-hard Bitcoin lover.
My Recent Writings
A slower week for me, and I fell back on the old click-bait, flim-flammery title trick with Stock Picks 2018. As most of you know, I am an Index Investor so how can I put out stock picks? For that you must have a read.
Micro Blogging on Finance
A very interesting Tweet, that tweaked my memories of when I was a roaming Co-Op Student. Every 4 months I had to move and that made me a Minimalist. Everything I had, had to fit in the trunk of a Mercury Zephyr (admittedly bigger than most cars today). In an esoteric way moving was good (for me), however, for folks like Squawkfox and this Twitter Handle it is a life wrenching horrible event.
Just a Regular Genius
To paraphrase Mr. Trump, I am just a regular genius, I know what is smart, so that must make me smart too, right? Here is some smart financial stuff.
- Kerry from Squawkfox pointed me at a very good (and sobering) report POLICY BRIEF – WHY IS UPTAKE OF THEDISABILITY TAX CREDIT LOW IN CANADA? EXPLORING POSSIBLE BARRIERS TO ACCESS from the school of public policy. I have written previously about needing to apply for the DTC even if you aren’t sure you will get it, it seems there are a lot of folks who aren’t applying.
- The Minimum Wage battle continues in Ontario, but to give another viewpoint on the topic, the CBC points out, Canada’s top CEOs earn 200 times an average worker’s salary: report , but do they deserve that much money? My opinion is, no, but I worked for Nortel and saw what greed does to a company.
- Blessed by the Potato has a DIY vs Robo Quick Challenge, and it is a pretty in depth comparison. Well worth a read if you think you might want to take the plunge into DIY investing.
- Doug Hoyes has a new podcast out where he outlines, Which Debts Should You Pay First? If you are not sure listen to the podcast, and you should really just subscribe to it on iTunes, makes life easier that way.
- I might be celebrating a birthday about now, and you know what you can do on your birthday when you pass the age of 55? Make sure you don’t slip on the ice and break your hip is high on the list! Tried to find a good article on this, but most seemed to imply you should either get loaded or spoil yourself, both I have done. There is allegedly a photo of me and a Gorilla on one birthday (OK a guy in a Gorilla suit), so maybe I’ll just take it easy.
- Do you think that the price of something implies its real value? If so, best read Michael James’ review of the book Dollars and Sense (and possibly give your head a shake).
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Bitcoin
I stumbled over this very interesting overview on Bitcoin (from 2011, so some of it is dated, and the price is completely wrong), DEFCON 19: Hacking the Global Economy with GPUs or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Bitcoin. Watch and get a better understanding of why you should stay the hell away from this concept, unless you want to gamble (like Lottery gamble). Yes, it is funny to hear the speaker say, “Crazy Bitcoin prices like $30 a Bitcoin”, but listen to all the scams that in the early days caused sudden and drastic value drops, and that is when it was worth $30 a Bitcoin!
The New 2018 Random Thoughts
- Polar Vortexes, Minimum Wage and #MoneyTalk (January 4th)
End of 2017 Random Thoughts
- Winter, Inflation and Christmas are Here and #Moneytalk (December 22nd)
- Canadians Owe More , Polar Temps, CPP Survivor Benefits and #MoneyTalk (December 15th)
- DTC Changes, Christmas Present Ideas, Fraud and #MoneyTalk (December 8th)
- Unlocking Phones, Raiding Parents’ RRSP, Household Debt and #Moneytalk (December 1st)
- What is your price, Black Friday, Phoenix and #MoneyTalk (November 24th)
- We Shall Remember, Paradise Papers, Tax Cheats and #MoneyTalk #FLM2017 (November 10th)
- Fall Back, Farewell PC Financial, and #MoneyTalk #FLM2017 (November 3rd)
- Mortgage Tests, Thanks Gord and Bombardier and #Moneytalk (October 20th)
- Halifax Ikea, New Tax Plans, Pumpkin Spice ETFs and #MoneyTalk (September 29th)
