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Stock Picks

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.

Stock Picking
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  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.

Read More »Stock Picking Update, Crypto Credit, and #MoneyTalk

RDSP clarifications Registered disability savings Plan

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).
Rusty Staub
Farewell Rusty, hope you hit them all over the Right Field Scoreboard at Parc Jarry

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.

Read More »RDSP, Easter, Thanks Rusty and #MoneyTalk
Spring Financial Cleaning

Facebook, Spring is here and #MoneyTalk

Spring is here ? That is a question most of us are asking in Ottawa. Previous years we have had warmer temps and things starting to grow, but not yet this year. For those thinking financially, good time to start thinking about doing your taxes, and what to do with your refund, if you are getting one.  Possibly the RRSP to TFSA pas de deux?

Spring is here
Saw this in My Backyard, I think I agree

Will you be removing your Facebook account? Remember that we are on Facebook as well, but yeh lots of folks are talking about Facebook betraying them? Really? What did you think they were going to do with all the data they had? You were all Facebook had to sell, and that is their business. Yes, I have a Facebook account, yes I share photos and make personal quips on it, but do they have all my data? I hope not.

A more colon tightening expression could not have been thought up, yet I received an email with the title, “3 Reasons Your Retirement Is One Big Math Problem”. If you are trying to convince people they can’t do their own retirement planning, that is the headline you want. People are paranoid about anything to do with Math, and will run from it like a frightened deer, if it is mentioned. The headline while truthful is almost a false flag to convince them they need to get a retirement financial advisor. No, you don’t need that, it’s arithmetic really, which wasn’t that hard, was it?

What do I have planned for the coming personal finance year? Not sure, still working on that.


My Recent Writings

I am still astounded it has been 13 years since I started writing here, but Still Financially Crazy after 13 Years does outline some of my favorite topics. There are more than 3000 articles here, need to make it easier for you folks to be able to find them, I think.

K. Trevor Wilson is a very good comedian, and not a bad financial advisor, as I point out in More Financial Advice from a Comedian. It really is cheaper to go see a comedian than it is to go to a financial advisor, think about it.

Micro Blogging on Finance

I am trying a small experiment with the tag #FinancialDeepThoughts where I precurse something from my archives with a quote from a smart person. See what you think.

A more colon tightening comment is this one.

https://twitter.com/ScottTerrioHMA/status/976507934929666050

Read More »Facebook, Spring is here and #MoneyTalk

DST

Steady Interest Rates, Spring Forward and #MoneyTalk

Interest rates continue to stay at 1.25% for the overnight rate, (March 2018).I suspect that, given the economy’s current state, we won’t see another rate hike for a little while. Their statement seems to imply that they are unsure where things might be going in the next little while.

DST
Time to Spring Forward

Inflation is running close to the 2 per cent target and the Bank’s core measures of inflation have edged up, consistent with an economy operating near capacity. Wage growth has firmed, but remains lower than would be typical in an economy with no labour market slack. Inflation is fluctuating because of temporary factors related to gasoline, electricity, and minimum wages

Bank of Canada March 2018

This seems to point a wagging finger at Ontario’s minimum wage increase, but it asks why wages normally don’t go up given how few unemployed folks are out there. We seem to live in interesting economic times.

Belated Happy International Women’s Day! As the father of 3 wonderful women, and the proud son of a trailblazing woman (my mother had a Statistics Degree in 1951, which was a rarity), I stand in awe. Do we have wage parity? Nope. Do we have gender equality? Nope. I think we still have a lot of work to do.

It is not only Tax Season again; it is that weekend when the clocks go forward (in most places in Canada and the US). There is talk of sticking with Daylight Savings Time, we shall see where that might leads, but if you won’t put your clocks forward you will be late all day Sunday.

My Recent Writings

Luckily I got something interesting in the mail to write about this week, with RDSP Statement of Grant Entitlement . Once you have gotten through the DTC maze, set up an RDSP and started putting money in it for your loved one, this is the most important document you will receive every year (aside from any reassessment notices from the CRA of course).

Micro Blogging on Finance

If you somehow think that the Government is going to escape the Phoenix Pay system debacle unscathed, I don’t think the media in Ottawa is going to allow that to happen.

Read More »Steady Interest Rates, Spring Forward and #MoneyTalk

Budgets, Phoenix Death, Inflation and #MoneyTalk

How does a system named Phoenix go down in flames? The $1B payroll system, will be repaired enough to work (at much further cost), and then it will be replaced by something else? It was obvious that the current Government wanted this albatross from around their neck, but is this enough? We shall see if this helps or hinders them.

An interesting budget. It’s interesting that fiscal conservatism (note the small C) has gone right out the window in North America as a whole. Balanced budgets are a thing of the past, I suppose? There is an extension of the RDSP qualifying plan holders program, which will help families still trying to figure out the RDSP Statutory Guardian world (it is really not easy, and it is expensive too).

Last week Stats Canada published the January Consumer Price Index numbers, and as usual they are interesting.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 1.7% on a year-over-year basis in January, following a 1.9% increase in December. Excluding energy, the CPI increased 1.7%, matching the gain in December.

Interesting that energy did not cause issues this month.

CPI Inflation Phoenix
CPI by category compared to last month

Looking with a little more detailed eye we can see year over year:

Main upward contributors:

  • Gasoline (+7.8%)
  • Food purchased from restaurants (+3.7%)
  • Homeowners’ replacement cost (+3.5%)
  • Air transportation (+12.2%)
  • Purchase of passenger vehicles (+1.4%)

Main downward contributors:

  • Electricity (-5.0%)
  • Travel tours (-2.5%)
  • Digital computing equipment and devices (-4.9%)
  • Video equipment (-10.0%)
  • Natural gas (-3.0%)

Gas is really up year over year, but not really month over month. Eating out continues to rise in cost too.


My Recent Writings

I found something in my backlog of over 300 unfinished titles, with, Credit is the Lubricant for the Wheels of Business, which really should have been title Credit is the Opiate of the Consumer. Banks, and stores want you to use credit but trussing yourself up with easy credit is a dangerous game to play.

Micro Blogging on Finance

Will Payday loans go away? Not likely, according to Hoyes Michalos.

Read More »Budgets, Phoenix Death, Inflation and #MoneyTalk
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