Misc.

Book giveaway: How to Profit in Gold

Posted by on January 24, 2011 in Misc.

The good folks at McGraw Hill have graciously given a copy of Jonathan Spall’s How to Profit in Gold to be given away. Unfortunately, I am a bit behind in a review. From the inside cover, the books is described as “How to Profit in Gold is a comprehensive tutorial on making gold a profitable [...]

Happy Holiday and see you in 2011

Posted by on December 13, 2010 in Misc.

Holiday and year-end work obligations have resulted in little to no time being spent on this blog.  This means I am putting in an 11 month blogging year.  I wish you the best for a safe and happy holiday. Thanks for reading and commenting and see you in the new year.

Book review: The RESP Book

Posted by on November 2, 2010 in Misc.

There are typically two popular methods of writing a personal finance book aimed at the average investor. The first is in the form of a narrative using fictional characters- see the Wealthy Barber as exhibit A. The second is to simply present the facts and advise in a concise and pithy manner. After all, money [...]

Tough times for insurance companies part 2

Posted by on October 14, 2010 in Misc.

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is a new accounting standard coming into force in January 2011 (except for the U.S.; think of IFRS as the metric system of measurement for accountants; it works for everyone but the Americans). Only geeky accounting folk are excited about the introduction of IFRS. But for investors, it may have [...]

Practical record-keeping tips

Posted by on September 29, 2010 in Misc.

Dividend Dollar asked recently what type of filing system I use to keep tracking of tax deductions. I have blogged on record keeping before when preparing your taxes. My essential point was that you do not have to unleash your inner librarian to be a good record keeper; planned chaos is ok as long as [...]

Why do ebooks cost so much?

Posted by on August 10, 2010 in Misc.

Remove the costs of binding, packing and shipping and you would think that an e-book would be a relative bargain wouldn’t you? Although an e-book priced at between $12.99-$14.99 is a significant savings over a conventional hardcover retailing over $25, it is not exactly super cheap either since you have to factor in the cost [...]

Pension reform: what choices do we have?

Posted by on June 28, 2010 in Misc.

In the after-math of the Great Recession, governments in the western world are grappling with how to reform the pension system (aka social security in the U.S.). The particular issue is that in most plans current funding would not adequately pay out those retiring or would pay out those retiring in the immediate future but [...]

Is BP done?

Posted by on June 9, 2010 in Misc.

In world quick to jump to conclusion, speculation has arisen whether the clean-up costs of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will undo BP. Some have estimated that the total cost to BP resulting from the oil spill (direct clean up costs, damages from lawsuits, fines from government) could reach $40 billion or [...]

Does the tax code penalize savings?

Posted by on June 3, 2010 in Misc.

Larry McDonald has a mini crusade on adopting a flat tax. The proposal most likely encounters more political issues than purely economic ones. But a flat tax is one way of looking to solve the large economic issue. Mainly, we are a society wedded to the urgency of consuming now and have become terrible savers [...]

Free stuff! QuickTax tax preparation software

Posted by on March 1, 2010 in Misc.

The good folks at Intuit have provided to me their QuickTax tax preparation software (standard version). The software includes up to 8 returns and allows for importing of data from Ufile and other tax software. Retail value is $39.99. If you want to win a free copy, simply post a comment. Canadian residents only are [...]

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