Does a Credit Card Appear Out of Nowhere?
Get practical advice on financial decisions for young adults, focusing on the balance between credit card payments and savings.
Canajun Finances
Home » Archives for Canajun Finances bigcajunman »
bigcajunman
Stock Picking Update, Crypto Credit, and #MoneyTalk
At the start of the year I actually published a Stock Picking post about what to buy this year. It was mostly me being snarky about stock picking done by other bloggers, but I started to think I should continue to eat my own dog food, and figure out what my stock picks did, in terms of return.
Here is where my stock picking stands now:
| Jan-01 | Apr-01 | |
| VDY | $1,000.00 | $950.00 |
| TDB911 | $1,000.00 | $1,013.30 |
| TDB909 | $1,000.00 | $998.00 |
| TDB902 | $1,000.00 | $1,015.50 |
| TDB900 | $1,000.00 | $954.50 |
| Value | $5,000.00 | $4,931.30 |
| Loss or Gain | Â 0.00% | -1.37% |
Losing about 1.4% is nothing to brag about, but, given the volatility of the market it isn’t too bad either. My guess is this could be a volatile year. We shall see what the summer does my stock picking prowess.
It is Friday the 13th today, it must be true that someone has done something odd financially today, because of this date. If you have, shame on you!
I was intrigued by a statement I saw on Reddit, that the RBC will no longer allow you to buy Crypto Currency with their credit cards. The statement doesn’t give a reason, and simply does the Canadian thing, and apologizes for the inconvenience. I am a big fan of brevity, but that is astoundingly terse for that kind of decision. My guess is they just don’t trust the Crypto-currency marketplaces enough to allow their credit vehicles to be used there. If I can’t use credit cards to buy cryptocurrency how do I pay for it? Gold (Au)? Cash? Other cryptocurrencies? Intriguing.
In other financial news I threw up in my mouth when I read Mackenzie fined for excessive promotional spending. The money spent is your Management Fees, and that is where that extra money goes? I still feel nauseous . Your retirement money is giving folks iPads? Wow.
My Recent Writings
What is a Serial Refinancer ? You know someone like this, they keep building up credit card debt, then either getting consolidation loans or adding it to their HELOC or worse their mortgage. This is serial murder for your finances.
I don’t think folks understand that with investing, when you sell is more important than what you buy. I attempt to elaborate on that with 2 Key Investment Strategies. Being a Millionaire “on paper” means nothing, until you have the money in your hands, you are not a millionaire.
Micro Blogging on Finance
More women are filing for bankruptcy, is this a win for women? Truth of the matter is, I don’t think so, but there is a podcast to talk about that one this weekend.
Our #bankruptcy study revealed more women are filing insolvency. To discuss why this is happening, we have guests @GailVazOxlade, @squawkfox, and @alison_petrie3 w/ co-host @sharonhoyes on this Saturday's podcast! Subscribe so you don't miss it: https://t.co/WlupwSpVii
— Hoyes Michalos (@HoyesMichalos) April 5, 2018
Read More »Stock Picking Update, Crypto Credit, and #MoneyTalk
2 Key Investment Strategies
There are two key investment strategies that all folks need to have, that are obvious, but rarely ever spoken about. The second strategy is the one that most folks seem to forget about.
A Buy Strategy
Why are you buying? What is the reason you are investing? Is this for a retirement fund, emergency fund, or just savings in your TFSA ? You need to answer that question and that is the cornerstone of your buy strategy.
When are you going to buy can be important, but market timing isn’t going to work out. When are you going to start investing is more important in your buy strategy.
What are you going to buy? Stocks, mutual funds, index funds, ETFs, and GICs are just some of the investment vehicles you can use to invest your money. Depending on what you buy, you will then need to think about how often and when you buy.
How much are you going to buy? How much money do you have to invest? Another important aspect of your buy strategy.
The other aspect of your key investment strategies is one that far too many folks don’t have.
Read More »2 Key Investment Strategies
Serial Refinancers
What are serial refinancers ? These are folks who keep consolidating their debt with consolidation loans, but never deal with the core issue of why they can’t stop getting farther into debt. Much like serial… Read More »Serial Refinancers
RDSP, Easter, Thanks Rusty and #MoneyTalk
My wife found a great article about RDSPs, What happens to our sons and daughters with disabilities when we die from Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network. The title is quite literally what most parents of kids with disabilities wake up worrying about at 2 AM (or at least the ones I have spoken to). It points out that the RDSP program has only a 29% participation rate (for folks who have DTCs), which is depressing. What is the cause of this? Maybe it is hard to set up, or maybe folks aren’t aware of it? I asked my Member or Parliament that question, haven’t heard anything back.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Table of contents
Easter is here, and for most of us it is a time of reflection and then a feast. If you are not so inclined remember it can be a time of reflection and starting new things like:
- Seeing which credit cards you don’t use, and then cancelling them. I don’t want to hear from anyone about how this hurts your credit score, that is nonsense. If it does, you have 1 less way to get further in debt, so it is a fair swap.
- Look at your health situation, and then plan an exercise or diet regimen (that you can live with for the rest of your life) and implement it. You can plan your retirement all you want, but if you are dead before it happens, you have wasted your time.
- An easy one is look at all the worrying you did in the past little while, did it change anything, aside from ruining a good night sleep? Maybe it is time to find a way to stop that? Talk to a professional if you really have problems in this area (I speak from experience).
Baseball begins again, on a sad note with the passing of my original baseball hero Rusty Staub. Mr. Staub was a class act, I met him once many years later in Pittsburgh, and he kindly listened to me blather about my childhood memories and thanked me for telling him. We shall miss Le Grand Orange.
In an odd financial twist, my first bank account was a Young Expos bank account, with the Bank of Montreal. Mr. Staub was the spokesperson for that account.
While my beloved Montreal Expos still are not on the field, I am starting to become a Blue Jays fan (don’t worry I will never be a Blue Team Hockey fan, my Montreal DNA will not allow it). Hope the games speed up a bit this year, I am tired of watching 4 hour games.
The repercussions of the Facebook data debacle continue on, but luckily their founder is showing a great deal of humbleness in Vanity Fair. He isn’t wrong, but does that mean he should crow about how stupid people are? Doesn’t mention how their Android app used the Operating System “flaws†to track calls and data transfers either, so maybe it isn’t completely your fault?
My Recent Writings
Didn’t write much this week. I have started a whole bunch of things, but nothing worth reading yet. I keep meaning to finish my writing, but life does get busy.
Micro Blogging on Finance
A heart wrenching story about what folks have to do day-to-day just to keep their kids safe.
Never got an answer from my MP from this tweet either.
