Comments on: Top personal finance stories for 2008 (so far)

By: admin

admin — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:01:19 +0000

Glad to be on the wrong side of that predication.

BCE was pretty vague on the revised deal terms- expect a much leaner BCE going forward but the big thing is that the shareholders got close to what was expected and BCE management leave with some of their reputation intact.

By: WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com

WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:18:55 +0000

3 dividend payments = $882,254,640 fyi. This is almost equivalent to a $41.66 deal price if they did pay dividends. In my books, the deal was ‘effectively’ re-priced, albeit only slightly.

By: MillionDollarJourney

MillionDollarJourney — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:01:32 +0000

Looks like the BCE buyout is happening at full price!
http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080704.wbce0704/GIStory/

By: WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com

WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:13:40 +0000

Financing group announced deal will go ahead at $42.75, deal closes Dec. 11. But no dividends (and not making up the last two dividends skipped). That dividend is not small either. I’m sure that gets glossed over and the optics of the deal closing at $42.75 is the focus of the news.

By: Potato

Potato — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 02:52:24 +0000

In the immortal words of Chief Wiggum: “No, dig up stupid!”

Predictions… well, I’m guessing right now that oil stocks are not trading as though oil is going to stay in the $140 range for long… the iShares XEG ETF hasn’t gone up as much as oil has. Part of that is probably that some of the companies are not pure producers, and refinery/retail is probably hurting a little. Nonetheless, to my way of thinking there’s some fixed cost to getting the oil out of the ground, so if at $100/barrel they’re making $20 profit, then at $140/barrel the profit would be $60/barrel, increasing more at the top end… So I suppose my prediction is that the oil stocks will continue to do well (and also that oil itself will be above $130/barrel next year as long as Nigeria remains unstable).

Of course, I’m not quite confident enough in that to buy a “full position” in the ETF (partly because I’m afraid I might just be justifying chasing performance), so I just put a little money in the TD energy fund, creating more demand for a fund with a 2.17% MER. D’oh!

By: This and That

This and That — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:35:35 +0000

[...] Thicken My Wallet’s take on the top personal finance stories of the year so far. [...]

By: GIV

GIV — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:13:20 +0000

Very true about death of suburbs. I’m already seeing those stories. If it’s not “real estate values in cottage country are tanking because people don’t want to spend $80 to go there and back every weekend” it’s “that monster home you bought in Milton was a bad idea because now it costs you $15 a day to get to work”

And yes, Lost will be one giant tease.

By: Canadian Capitalist

Canadian Capitalist — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:12:48 +0000

Thanks for the mention Thicken. I’m not sure that the fund industry is dying. Far too many are still unaware of how much fees they are paying and for the ones that are wising up, the industry will point out that fund fees are falling (though in reality, it is falling marginally). And, of course, in the grand old tradition of Bay Street, we’ll still be sold on what’s “hot” today. Though, in fairness, as investors, we should also share some blame for creating the demand for these products.