Tag: Finances Posts

We live in interesting times. The United States is only a few weeks away from what potentially could be one of the largest defaults in world history. Given how the Republicans do not want to increase taxes and that the Democrats do not want to decrease spending, the only machinery that can prevent this default is currently seized up. Obama was so upset the other day during negotiations that he just up and left. Moodys once again threatened to lower the outlook on US treasuries. Given that the US is on the verge of a default, they are a little late to the game, but even so it’s also a rather historic negative outlook on the United States. Interest rates are near an all time low, which means any movement in the upward direction will hurt bond prices. That means that other than short term bonds, most bonds are extremely […]

I did a post a while ago detailing my plans to finally give up my no-fee bank account at PC Financial and move to a full service bank in preparation for my trip. How come, you ask? First, the idea of having a no-frills bank while in another country just seems far too risky. If I hit a snag, I definitely want to be able to pick up the phone and call someone for help. While PC Financial does offer phone service, in my experience very basic things like obtaining certified cheques or doing wire transfers are often a pain. While PC Financial is a subsidiary of CIBC, it’s still a small arm of it, so who knows how many foreign bank machines will accept a PC Financial card. Second, since I do all my business banking at TD Financial, it just seemed to make sense to go there. The […]

I’ve been meaning to do a posting about the Garth Turner event the other day, but haven’t gotten around to it. While Garth is a good public speaker, I didn’t really learn anything at the event that I didn’t already know or believe. Yes, Garth believes real estate in Canada is in for a rocky ride, as do I. Yes, we are about to head into a period of asset deflation following by price inflation. I’ve spent the last six months reading tons of books on investing and retirement, partially because I’m interesting in the subject, and partially because I’ve been a bit bored and felt like learning something new. I’d wager that I know more than the average person at this point about investment strategies and ways to build a nest egg. But truthfully, even armed with all that knowledge I sometimes feel like we’re in a world without […]

As you can see, things around here have changed. I finally got around to doing something I’ve wanted to do for quite sometime – I’ve removed all my old entries. Obviously I have backups of everything I wrote, and can reimport things at a later time. But truthfully, pretty much everything I wrote in the old days is all over the map, and I’ve been thinking about starting to write consistently in a few different areas. In terms of the look and feel, this is the default 2010 theme with WordPress 3.0. I debated spending some time re-theming this site again, but just don’t really feel like spending the time and effort this time around. So for now, I’m just going to use the default theme and place my focus on generating content for a change. The two areas I’ll probably focus on in the short term are food/cooking and […]

I read this interesting article today that basically said that most people in the United States were only 11 days away from financial ruin. That is, if they were to lose their jobs tomorrow, they only have enough money to last for about 11 days: More than a third of adults could survive financially for only 11 days if they were to lose their job or be too ill to work, according to a survey. The finding gives a worrying insight into the lives of millions who are living on a financial tightrope. Researchers looked at how much people spend every month and how much they have in savings. It found a massive gap between the two, which means most would be crippled by a sudden change in their circumstances. I’m actually not surprised about that statistic, and in fact, my financial situation isn’t that much better. In terms of […]