June 2008
Top 5 mistakes people make when they start a business
Posted by admin on June 12, 2008 in Misc.
I welcome my guest blogger today, Heather Johnson, on the topic of the top 5 mistakes people make when they start a business. Heather is a regular commentator on the subject of small business. Heather welcomes your feedback at heatherjohnson2323 at gmail.com. Thanks for the contribution Heather! One-third of all start-up businesses ultimately fail. This [...]
Starting a business on a shoe-string budget
Posted by admin on June 11, 2008 in Misc.
I started my practice on a shoe-string budget. I can’t remember what I spent but it wasn’t much (see below). If I had to take a guess, it was under $5,000. No fancy paintings on the wall. No fancy computers. Hell, I didn’t even buy furniture (I will explain). The key to me was to [...]
Building wealth through owning a business: learning from the self-employed
Posted by admin on June 10, 2008 in Misc.
For the next three days, I am running a mini-series on entrepreneurship, small business and personal finance. Even if you never dreamed of owing your own business, being an entrepreneur has taught me many lessons on become a better investor so I hope you can pick up some tips along the way. According to book [...]
To advisor or not to advisor? Thoughts from the advisor’s side.
Posted by admin on June 9, 2008 in Investment Advice
Passive investing and the ease in which people can now find unbiased financial information has, in the eyes of some, made the investment advisor/investment planner unnecessary. This school of thought, of which Canadian Capitalist and Michael James are large supporters, argues that most people are better off planning their own portfolio by buying exchange-traded funds [...]
The end of suburbia
Posted by admin on June 6, 2008 in Misc.
My monthly column on Geezeo is up where I predict that high energy prices will be the end of suburbia as we know it (as well as other assorted changes in our life). If you haven’t visited the site, please do- it is an interesting personal finance tool. While on the topic of energy prices, [...]
Why I became a passive investor
Posted by admin on June 5, 2008 in Investment Products
Several years ago, I bought a international mutual fund. One of those 5 star-rated funds. The mutual fund manager had about 10 letters after his name denoting his many designations. Must know what he is doing with all that education. Glossy brochure. It performed better than the MSCI World Index (which tracks the World’s biggest [...]
Inside the World of Peer to Peer (p2p) Lending
Posted by admin on June 4, 2008 in Misc.
Welcome to this month’s edition of the Insiders series where I speak to the insiders behind a particular industry to get another perspective on some personal finance phenomenon or trend. In the past, I have interviewed representatives from the investment planning, hedge fund and mortgage industry. This month I am pleased to welcome Colin Henderson, [...]
Bondholders Rights vs. Shareholders Rights
Posted by admin on June 3, 2008 in General Information
BCE still could be the largest private-equity privatization in history but it is stuck in legal and financing molasses (one of the most concise summaries of BCE’s privatization woes was made by Michael James on Money). The point of this post is not to address BCE per se. Others have discussed this topic to death. [...]
“I have been sued!!! What do I do?”
Posted by admin on June 2, 2008 in Misc.
I have been sued twice in my life. Both lawsuits were over the same business deal (without going into detail, it was in connection with a transaction I was not involved with when it occurred) and my naming as one of many defendants was frivolous (I’ll explain why this happens below). The suit against me [...]
