Canadian Dollars Blog

Petro Canada is now yielding above 3.5% dividend and trades a little over book value. I've added this one to my value screen. It's currently at 25.98. will look to add more on weakness

A private equity firm recently (a little over a month ago) decided to make an offer to purchase all outstanding shares of Connor Bros (CBF.UN.T) at the price of 8.50. As of the writing of this blog post, Connor Bros is trading at 7.99 which is effectively 8% below the closing price (expected sometime in November) I've been adding aggressively to my position in Connor Bros last month particularly when there was a lot of talk of the deal possibly collapsing. At one point it was irrationally selling below 7.00. Anyway, for those that are looking to make a quick buck (8%) with minimal risk, this one may be worth looking at. In addition to the 8% yield, the expected November distribution will be paid within 3 days of the closing of the deal. The big risk in all this is the fact that the deal could still fall through. Worst case if the deal doesn't go through the stock will likely tank below 7 but the distributions would continue. The silver lining in the clouds is that if the

A strong case can be made for ING which is one of the cream of the crop value stocks out there right now. Trading at a measley 1.8x P/E and trading below book value, this one looks like a potential long term winner. While they have recently cut their dividends for the upcoming year (this is prudent) and have asked for cash before as opposed to after any sort of blow up happens. Not that I'm expecting a blow up like other financial instutitions. The difference is that ING is very conservatively run and has no exposure to the subprime debt that has plagued other banks. As always do your due diligence. The trading price of ING makes it a very compelling long term hold. While there may be a bit of volatility in the short term, I believe they will weather out the storm and emerge stronger than ever in the coming years. Disclosure: I have a full position in ING. Initiated a purchase at $10.10

For what was intended to be a safe and defensive play last summer I purchased some General Electric (GE) stock. It's been a huge underperforming dog the last year. Fortunately I am still optimistic and intend to keep this stock in my core portfolio. I believe that if I maintain a long term horizon, this stock should recover. The question is how long will it take before it returns to > $40 a share. Patiently waiting.

Bought some Telus a few weeks ago at 39.99 a share. It hasn't gone anywhere recently but I intend to hold this until it hits my target. In the short term, even if the stock doesn't go anywhere I will still sleep well knowing that there is a nice dividend being paid. This is part of my core portfolio.

First off I want to say that I've changed my strategy for this website. Because of some new commitments and the fact that there are a wealth of excellent Canadian Financial Blogs out there, I will focus mostly on the trading aspect. Keep in mind that my strategy for long term financial success has not changed. I am still a firm believer of the Core and Satellite philosophy. In my core is a basket of solid high dividend blue chips and index ETFs. In my satellite holdings will be my trades which I intend to post here as they happen. Recent trades I've made include: HOD Hori. Beta. NYMEX Cr. Oil Br. Pl (ETF) I bought last week at 10.97 and sold this week for 12.65 for a nice 15% profit. I'm still bearish on crude oil and will look for re-entry points next week. Hurricane Ike and the unknown damages it will cause may create a temporary problem for oil shorts so that is why I decided to book the profits and sold. After all 15% in one week is not bad right? On Friday I dec

Well, February was again a very volatile month. So how did we do in February? RRSP: $42200 CASH: $15366 STOCKS: $33400 (outside RRSP) ------------------------------------------- TOTAL: $90966 (-2%) month over month For the month of February my networth decreased by about 2% due to more volatility in the market and a few unforeseen costs that I ran into. Namely, my car was in for repairs that costed me way more than I had originally expected. Also, I liquidated some old poor performing mutual funds that I had purchased about 10 years ago with advice from an advisor. I had neglected those funds for a long time and it wasn't until recently that I discovered that the MERs for those funds were ridiculous that I decided to sell them and purchase some index funds. Overall, I am still keeping a long term focus even though this past month was not as prosperous as I would have liked. Let's hope things improve in March! Thanks again for reading the Canadian Dollars Blog.

I love riding the TTC. It takes me to and from work and occasionally I get to witness the outrageous - whether it's a crazy man that's talking to himself or two friends talking about hot stock picks. I generally prefer the latter type of outrageous because the risk to me is very minimal. It usually starts like this. One guy is a bragger - he'll brag about how he made a killing shorting some stock or being able to time the market. The other guy, on the other hand just sits there an listens. You can immediately tell that the second guy is an investing newbie because he's listening intently to what the first guy has to say. You can see the disappointment in the newbie's face when he exclaims that he only achieved index performance last year. The bragger makes fun of the index performer and claims that the index performer doesn't have any skill at reading the markets. I knew it was going to 13,000 the bragger says in a loud voice. I knew Apple was overpriced

Less than 48 hours after the budget was revealed, there are already many criticisms of the proposed Tax-free Savings Account. Some argue that the amount is not enough, while others argue that all it does is make the wealth middle class richer. In today's Toronto Star, there is an article which compares the proposed system with the British Individual Savings Account (ISA) in which the critic writes: "But almost invariably, the only people who participate are the ones with lots of spare cash – the sort of people who already do save and who would have saved anyway. So it ends up being a giveaway to the wealthy middle class." This sort of thinking would also poo poo on the idea of RRSPs as well. What the author is failing to see is that in an age where the average Canadian saves next to little what they earn, there is a merit to programs like this. By sheltering the first $5000 every year, the policy clearly helps and gives Canadians an incentive to save up their money.

Twice a month, on a Wednesday, Hart House serves up a delicious multi-course meal for just $5! Note that this is not limited only to students. You should get there early as line ups for this amazing deal become insane very quick! Here is a list of upcoming dates: March 5th March 19th April 2nd All Five Buck Lunches occur on a Wednesday, from 11:45am - 2pm. For more information, contact the Hall Porters' Desk at Hart House. 416.978.2452. http://www.food-beverage.utoronto.ca/food/news/Five_Buck_Lunches.htm

Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) * This is the major measure relating to investors * Begins 2009 * Every individual 18 years and older obtains $5,000 per year (indexed) contribution room regardless of income * No upper age limit for earning contribution room or making contributions ( no 71 year rule as for RRSPs) * Contribution room not used may be carried forward indefinitely * Contributions are non-deductible; withdrawals are non-taxable (including investment income withdrawals) * Qualifying investments the same as for RRSPs * Attribution rules do not apply so one spouse may contribute to the other spouse’s TFSA Partial unlocking of Federally Regulated LIF’S * Effective date unknown * Individuals 55 or older with LIF accounts of $22,450 or less may un-lock * Individuals 55 years and older eligible for one time un-locking of half of their LIF holdings Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) Earned Income Exemption Increased * Implementation date unknown

There seem to be a host of new companies in Canada that have recently started operations in the 'community to community lending' space. For those not familiar with this type of business, it allows individuals to lend other individuals money at favourable interest rates for both the lender and borrower. The lender is able to earn a higher interest rate than they would in a 1 year GIC and the borrower is able to borrow money at a rate lower than what is given to them on their Mastercard and VISA cards. While on the surface this sounds good and all and the fact that many of these companies do offer credit checks (I would hope) and do proper screening, it makes me wonder. Have we not learned from the credit crunch issues in the states? Here's why I think this is troubling. First of all, Canadians have a record amount of debt. Folks! On average, we're saving less than we're spending. That would indicate why these person to person lenders are seeing a market - a m

How many times have you chewed gum only to be disappointed. Be honest. When you're in your car driving two hours to some destination, don't you just hate it when your gum loses it's flavour after about 20 minutes? If you're on the highway you have to quickly reach over and find somewhere to dispose of the flavourless gum. You could keep chewing it, but by now it's starting to taste like chewing rubber. Which, unfortunately isn't very appealing. What if some competitor came along, and decided to change the rules of gum. To break through and truly think outside of the box. This is gutsy of course and risky. Why mess with something that's established? Is it really wise to take on the Wrigley's of the world? If so, how do you decide how to differentiate yourself from them? To give yourself a true competitive advantage? Sure you could come up with another outrageous flavour that your competitor doesn't sell. But does that really work? Peopl

On Tuesday evening I was given an invitation to attend an event sponsored by a wealth management company (that shall remain anonymous). If wasn't for the fact that I literally work across the street from the event, and that the starting time was right after when I had finished work, I really wouldn't have attended or given it a second thought. So I attended. The topic was "How to Recession proof your portfolio". Knowing full well that the company is a wealth management company that would obviously be shilling their products, the main thing that drew me to the even was the complimentary food and to hear what sort of information they were planning on dishing out to the sheep, so to speak. The company in question is one of those fee based wealth based management companies who charges a flat fee (percentage) of your assets. If you hold primarily fixed asset class investments, the percentage will be low but if one chooses something that has a more global scope and en

There's an article over at Forbes about how Google is crying foul over the Microsoft bid for Yahoo . This is a very interesting read and I encourage anyone that's following this story to go and check it out. The questions that Google raised about Microsoft are similar to those that European regulators are mulling in evaluating Google’s proposed acquisition of online display advertising specialist, DoubleClick. U.S. regulators approved the deal late last year, but the European Commission has yet to decide and has expressed concerns about possible anti-competitive aspects of the deal. The commission is expected to weigh in by early April. We're definitely in interesting times right now. Particularly if you are a YHOO investor, your stock has already been up 50%. With the two giants MSFT and GOOG fighting over YHOO, there's clearly only one winner behind all this bickering - YHOO!

At a recent gathering with some buddies, the topic of what to get our significant others came up. One friend lamented, "Oh man it feels like Christmas was just last week now I have to spend a lot on my significant other again." Notice the wording. He says he has to spend a lot on his significant other -again-. Why is that? Is it for fear that she won't love him if he gets her a 'cheap' gift. Do we live in such a materialistic society that the value of a present is directly related to how much one loves another person? I casually suggested to my friend that maybe he consider doing something less expensive but romantic nonetheless. He said, well all her girlfriends are expecting to get something nice. She's competitive that way. She doesn't want to be the one stuck with a lousy gift. Wow, I thought to myself. I'm glad I'm not with someone like that. It's kind of sad when I think about it. Somehow money equates love. No wonder there

Just read this article , and while I don't really agree with most points here, the author does raise some good and interesting ones. Microsoft wants Yahoo because it fears that Google is widening the gap between it and the two also-rans in multiple segments of the online universe. The danger is that, once combined, Microsoft will discover that the gap between Google and Yahoo is even greater than thought. A corollary hazard is this: Combining two lagging companies does not necessarily produce one dynamic competitor. What do you guys think? I think the deal will go through. Yahoo is not showing very good growth and let's face it. It'll take years for their stock to hit the low-mid 30's again. Seriously. If the deal fails, well Yahoo will go back down below 20.

Did you know that you can request your record of CPP contributions? Apparently you can do this once a year. They will mail you a record of all the CPP contributions you've made. Ever. According to the website, after you make your request, after answering a few questions to identify yourself, they will mail out your statement within 5 to 10 days. By default, they will use the address you have on your file with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) I recently requested my statement just to make sure everything looks good and correct. You can also request your record of CPP contributions here through the government of Canada website.

After years of talking about combining businesses, it looks like Microsoft (MSFT) has tabled an offer (after Yahoo's (YHOO) less than stellar 2008 forecast and job cuts sent their stock in a tail spin) Late yesterday, Steve Ballmer sent the following letter to the Board of Yahoo: January 31, 2008 Board of Directors Yahoo! Inc. 701 First Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94089 Attention: Roy Bostock, Chairman Attention: Jerry Yang, Chief Executive Officer Dear Members of the Board: I am writing on behalf of the Board of Directors of Microsoft to make a proposal for a business combination of Microsoft and Yahoo!. Under our proposal, Microsoft would acquire all of the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 based on Microsoft's closing share price on January 31, 2008, payable in the form of $31 in cash or 0.9509 of a share of Microsoft common stock. Microsoft would provide each Yahoo! shareholder with the ability to choose whether to recei

Well, January was certainly a volatile month. We ended 2007, at around 90K in networth. How did we do in January? RRSP: $33800 CASH: $22156 STOCKS: $36942.67 (outside RRSP) ------------------------------------------- TOTAL: $92898 What this means is that for the month of January, my networth actually increased 3%. My savings rate would have been even higher had it not been for the numerous dips that we experienced in the past few weeks. Overall, I am still relatively happy about the month despite the fact that many of my defensive stocks took minor nose dives. I stress that these are paper losses, as I have not sold any of my current holdings. I am in the market for the long term and I believe that those that are patient and who buy defensive stable stocks, will be rewarded wonderfully in the long run. The key thing is to stay disciplined and continue holding solid dividend paying stocks. Lets hope that the month of February is more prosperous. Thanks again for reading the Canad

I received the following in my mailbox today: Dear canadiandollars, We want to remind you of some changes that have taken place this week. Our 'Quiz Quest' promotion, where members could win daily or weekly PiggyPoints in our different Zones has now come to an end. The quizzes that are affected by this change are the Shop & Earn Quiz, Sports Quiz, Travel Quiz, Movie Quiz and the Quirky Quiz. Now that 'Quiz Quest' is over, we will no longer be awarding everyone PiggyPoints for getting the right answer. But don't worry; the quizzes aren't going away completely. You can still answer the quiz questions and be entered into a weekly draw to win 1,000 PiggyPoints for each quiz. This change was meant to take place as of Monday, January 28th, but due to a small problem with the website, you may have noticed over the weekend that you didn't get your PiggyPoints when you were supposed to. Please note that we will be crediting all members who completed quizzes over

I was looking across the board for techs and retail since I feel those are going to be hit the hardest if there is a recession to come and didn't see any hot deals yet. Pretty much most of them are priced with recession fears already built in, except maybe LULU, NILE and UA. LULU doesn't report until well after the Feds make a decision, so best to wait and see before spending (read: gambling) on LULU. UA, I noticed that they are sponsoring all the real world stars on Gauntlet 3 or 4 (whichever is current) with all UA apparel. Now, Gauntlet is a MTV show, so I can't imagine it being cheap (it's not a matter of we'll throw in free clothing). Gauntlet was already filmed a while ago, so that advertising spending will be reflected either in this earnings, the previous or next. I am starting to understand why the analysts were fearing UA advertising overspend. Anyhow, more research here is needed. AAPL, P/E at 28 ... I still think that's a steal, but again I'm not

There's a long lineup at my local library in the mornings at 9am. On weekends the lineup can extend to 30 or more people. Why are these people lining up? Are they eager to pick up some books? Are they there to see a famous author? Sadly, no. They're there for the free newspapers. You see when the doors finally open 90% of the people in line head straight for the free newspapers in the magazine section. It can appear like a madhouse in that area as people of all ages scramble in a somewhat uncivilized manner to get their newspapers. As quick as they arrive, 90% of them leave almost immediately too (within 5 minutes of entering). They want their free newspaper and nothing more. I think it has to do with the social interaction that some people (especially older members in line) enjoy. You see a lot of these people that go for free newspapers appear to be regulars and they know each other. To them it's a social thing. It allows them to talk with like minded other peo

Today McDonalds stock dropped 5% due to lackluster last quarter earnings. Sales in the USA were flat and as s result, the street punished the stock. Many view McDonalds as a defensive stock even in tough times. Why? I believe the rationale goes like this. People have to eat (even in tough times nonetheless). But here are two main reasons why I don't believe McDonalds is a truly defensive stock. 1. Few people purchase the higher margin healthy items. I haven't been to a McDonalds in ages, but last time I checked their healthy choice menus are considerably more expensive than their sandwich of the day or value menus. In tough times, people are less likely to be eating the higher priced healthy items? Why? It's a simple issue of cost. $5-6 for a salad? You thow in a drink and that 'value' meal at McDonalds is almost a $10 meal once you factor in taxes. People prefer the normal fries, pop and burger combination. They are cheaper and arguably taste better eve

Those that read this blog regularly, know that I am a very frugal person. When it comes to finding the best deal on a product, I usually go out of my way (within reason of course) to get the best price for an item. When I say within reason, I mean that I won't drive half way across the city just to save 50 cents on some granola bars. It's simply not worth the time or effort. If I am debating between purchasing two products with one costing slightly more but is better quality than the other, I will often pay the premium for the better quality. For example, if I go to a discount grocery chain to purchase red peppers, and all of them are mushy (ready to expire literally any hour from now) but they are dirt cheap, I will walk away and go to a better grocery store and pay more for better quality red peppers. Or, if you're not picky and don't need a specific vegetable, you could always buy an alternative vegetable that is in season and save the trip to the other store al

This was my first year attending the financial forum expo. Not sure what to expect, I managed to get down to the expo around 1pm. I gave my registration slip to the registration desk and they printed out a badge for me. I'm not a big fan of badges, so I mostly kept the badge in my bag except when asked by booths to scan it. As you can see by the above picture, the expo was a lot smaller than I had originally envisioned. I've been to many conferences and events at the Metro Convention Centre in the past and this was definitely one of the smaller events. I think in total there were less than 100 booths. The Canadian Banks with relatively strong wealth management solutions were present: BMO, TD Bank and Royal. Absent were CIBC and Scotia. Given the trouble that CIBC has been having with managing their own investments, it's probably wise of them to sit this one out before giving out advise to would be clients. Also present were a lot of brokerage houses like ETrade, ING

As per my earlier post about the Financial Forum Expo (Canada's Leading Forum for Savings, Investments, and Trading Stocks) , today is the final day of the forum. I've never attended a financial forum before, so I'm not sure what to expect. Admittedly, I am quite excited to attend as savings, investments and trading stocks are three things that I enjoy a lot. Yes - I still like the idea of trading stocks, despite the massive correction that we've experienced in the last couple of weeks. There are a few interesting keynote presentations that I hope to have a look at. I'm guessing that there will be a lot of freebies (pens, pads, magnets, newspapers) with lots of booths trying to pitch their products. If anyone has been to any of these Financial Forum Expos in the past, please leave me a comment. I'd love to hear about what to expect. On Sunday, I'll do a full review of the expo and assess whether it's truly worth attending or not in the future.

Earlier this month, I wrote a post about the benefits of obtaining one's credit rating . As a user of bzzagent, I was recently invited to take advantage of a Capital One Credit Card. Initially, I was skeptical about the promotion. When I read that if a bzzagent is approved for a card, they will receive a $75 credit on their credit card. I quickly debated the pros and cons. Did I really want another credit card for a mere $75 gain? I thought about it and decided to apply for the card early last week. Just today I received a piece of mail from Capital One. Unfortunately, the letter seemed kind of thin. It definitely didn't have a credit card inside. No worries, I said to myself -- maybe they just need more information before they could approve my credit card. Instead, what I read shocked me. In the letter they told me that they were unable to grant me credit at this time because of my credit standing. I was shocked. This was the first time I had ever been turned down

What do you consider a good day in the markets? When a stock rallies up 30%? How about 5% for the day? Not bad for a single day right? What if you found a stock that rose 10 billion percent in a day? Yes BILLION. Sounds crazy to be true right? Well anyway, I was looking at Google's top winners and top losers for the day and by accident, I stumbled across this top winner (click the image to enlarge) To put things in perspective, if you purchased this share yesterday, you'd have 8 billion in your pocket today. Obviously this is a typo on Google's error. It looks like they caught it pretty quickly. In less than 10 minutes, the problem was totally fixed and the stock showed the correct price. In any case, I'm glad that I was able to grab a screen capture of the error! :)

Well folks the party is officially canceled at Apple. Head for your coat. The door to the left is the exit. I was hoping that AAPL would pop a bit after earnings, but it looks like the drop came much earlier than I had originally thought. In after hours trading the stock is down 17+ points. Why? They guided slightly less than what the street was expecting. With Yahoo reporting today that they are laying off a sizeable amount of their work force, it makes you wonder - is the party over in general?

With the subprime worries and realities growing out of control, it's not surprising to see a lot of stable Financial and Insurance companies taking massive hits across the board. Just last week, Citigroup wrote off a colossal 18.1 billion amid the subprime fallout. Is the worst already out there? Will things get worse? The short to medium term outlook is muddy at best. The economy and the markets have taken some massive hits in the past week with recession concerns. In fact, some analysts even claim that we are in the midst of a recession right now. Will they do better? With all this negative buzz out there, does it make sense to try to understand a stock like Citigroup? Let's look at some fundamentals. Their P/E is at an almost all time low of just 7.1. Their price to book ratio is 1.11. At these prices, I'm sure a lot of value investors are salivating. But hold on, with all the turmoil due to sub-prime difficulties, are things going to get better or do you thin

First off, I think Apple is a great company. It's been a phenomenal turnaround story but in the short term, I think Apple will be in for a very bumpy ride. I will attempt to explain why. As you might have noticed, Apple got punished this past tuesday (-5.45%) and especially after-hours (-3.57%) despite all the product announcements from Steve Job's keynote at MacWorld. In past MacWorld events, it would generate a nice intraday pop for the Apple stock. Read on and you'll find out why this didn't happen this time around. First a little primer. A long time ago, I dated a girl for a short time who said and did some of the dumbest things you could imagine (not quite the calibre of Britney Spears, Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan, but still up there). She had this "what can you do for me right now (or in the future)" way about her which I think is pretty stupid socially, but when you're looking at stocks,strangely enough her way of thinking has great merit. Wi

With the average person spending more than they make, it's important to identify which areas of your spending are needs vs. wants. Narrowing down all the wants that you're spending your money on may reduce your spending, but believe it or not, there is still a way of cutting back. You can look at your needs, and look at ways to specifically cut back (without changing your lifestyle) Here's a few quick tips. Heating is a necessity especially in those cold months when you can't just leave your pipes unheated. Doing so may cause your pipes to freeze which will cost you more money in repairs in the long run. So how does one save on heating (which is a need)? Try lowering your thermostat 3 degrees in the winter. Put on an extra sweat shirt or sweater to give yourself the much needed warmth. With the cold winter months here, we opt to eat out much less than usual. Instead, we invest more time in doing grocery shopping so that we can make wholesome meals at home to ea

A friend of mine who recently started investing called me up the other day and asked for advice. I immediately reminded him that I'm not a financial advisor nor am I a financial planner but could provide him with advice on what I would do if I were in his situation. To summarize the call, my friend was basically panicking the whole time. He had been watching cbc news the last 3 days with the TSX and DOW dipping every single day. With staggering losses across the board, you'd be hard pressed to find a balanced portfolio that wasn't affected. He asked me bluntly. Is now a good time to sell? I don't want to lose any more money, he said. As I knew about his situation from before (he's specifically saving for retirement), I told him to hang in there and be disciplined. In times like this one of the most important things to remember is too stay disciplined and keep a long term strategy (provided you are investing for the long run) and understand that there are bli

Here's a pretty decent article on what's going on with the market . Unlike this post, the article is a little on the medium-long side, but very insightful. The sell-off came as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke called on Congress to pass, as soon as possible, an economic stimulus package that would include a tax rebate and possible tax breaks for new investments. The White House indicated it supported a stimulus package as well, but one worry was that disputes over whether to make the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent could derail the process. I encourage everyone to give it a good read. Thanks again for reading the Canadian Dollars Blog.

A payment that is often overlooked by many that have mortgages is the sneaky little bugger known as the mortgage life insurance premium. If you were pressured into signing up for this emotionally, as most people are, don't feel as though you are alone. The way mortgage life insurance works is it automatically pays off your mortgage in the event that you die. While on the surface this sounds good for your dependents, probing deeper you realize that this insurance can often cost upwards of $50 a month per 100K of mortgage principle. If you do the math, you will find out very quickly that after 15 years, you've paid regular monthly insurance premiums and your mortgage may have been reduced to 25,000. While the principle has obviously dropped, the monthly premium has not. What does this mean? Well, when and if you die, it will generate a relatively small payout to your dependents or heirs. The other sad part is that you've lost the opportunity to invest that money. So wha

Coupons are everywhere these days. You get them in your mailbox. You get them in your newspapers. You can even get them on the Internet. With all the choices available to us, how do we maximize our savings with coupons? In today's post, I will discuss some great strategies for helping you to lower your food bill through coupons. Tip #1: Organize your coupons If you're like me and get tons of coupons from multiple sources, you really have to organize them thoroughly. Some might laugh and say why are you organizing coupons for $0.50 off? What's the point? Here's the point. Each individual coupon may not save much in the grand scheme of things, but think about all the coupons you use in your lifetime. If you use tons of them, you can get some serious cost savings. As soon as coupons come in, I organize them as such: If it's a coupon I can definitely use, I will keep it. If it's a coupon I don't need (eg. cat food) I usually toss it. This is what

I have a strong belief that Microsoft (MSFT) could acquire Facebook. This might seem like a crazy idea, but please hear me out. Pattern: Large company makes a significant investment in another company that is potentially distressed, later to acquire that other company entirely. As we saw today, Bank of American (BAC) is set to acquire Countrywide Financial (CFC) and I believe we'll see this with Microsoft (MSFT) acquiring Facebook. Here's why this fits our pattern AND makes sense for Microsoft: #1: For one, they are trying to compete with Google, not just on the search frontier, but now the entire Web frontier. One of the two (sorry Yahoo (YHOO), sorry Al Gore) wants to "own" or be the web and to do that they a majority of the user base (to sell to) and they really need to own the web experience (to keep them coming back). #2: It's no secret that Microsoft is making serious efforts to compete with Google (GOOG). They've already showed their hand, and opened

For those of you that drive a lot in winter, there are a lot of myths and misconceptions out there about what the best configuration for winter tires is. Some people with front wheel drive cars claim that one should optimize their winter driving by only replacing the front two wheels with winter tires. People with rear wheel drive cars have also suggested only replacing the rear two wheels. Well, you know what? Both these theories are wrong. While the idea of only replacing two of the four tires may sound desirable in terms of storage and saving money, it is a bad idea in practice. This is because if you use two dissimilar types of tires on your vehicle, you'll have a vehicle that has a "split" personality. One end of the vehicle won't react and perform the same as the other in the dry, wet, slush and snow conditions you'll encounter before the end of winter. The biggest danger comes in emergency situations. With different tire configurations, your vehicle wi

One of my readers, Josh recently sent me an email asking for my advice. Here's what he wrote to me: I'm a self-employed male in my mid 30's, no kids and no debts. RSP is already maxed out. Currently, my major assets are as follows: House is worth $330K RSP portfolio is $65K Non-RSP portfolio is $40K Savings is 35K Total of RSP and Non-RSP portfolio is $105K, which is composed of 25% bonds, 25% Cnd. Index, 25% S&P 500 Index and 25% International Index. I gross around $70K a year from my job. However, I don't see myself working in the near future since it is really a dead end job. I don't have a company pension so I'm trying to create a nest egg on my own. What I like is to have some sort of investment that will provide a steady stream of income once I stop working one day. $20k a year would be the minimum. Any ideas? So what Josh is looking for is a minimum of 20K a year. For those that are totally risk adverse, I would say one would need to save about 5

With many people struggling with credit card debt issues, prepaid credit cards are rising in popularity. Although physically very similar to a credit card, there are some significant differences that may make them useful for certain groups of customers. First off, prepaid credit cards do not actually offer any sort of loan or credit facility. How these cards work is that the card must first be loaded up with money before it can be used. The traditional ways of filling up a card are usually through bank transfer, debit machine, internet or telephone. When the money is added to the card, one is free to spend up to that amount on the credit card. You might be asking yourself, if I have to go through the hassle of loading up a card by filling it up with my own money, what, if any benefit is there in doing this? Well, one of the main advantages is that it allows one to use a credit card in transactions where credit cards cannot be used. An immediate example I can think of is e-commerce

I'm paying about $30 a month for my gym membership. I had thought about canceling it and just using the mini gym in my apartment more, but decided against it because I love the gym that I go to and everything that it offers. While some people may say that some gyms are big type scammers, I disagree. They are only scammers in the sense that they make or encourage you to sign up for a year long contract. Unfortunately most people that join in January stop going after February. These are the people that usually complain that the gym is scam. To everyone out there that is thinking about signing up for the gym, make sure you read the fine print. In addition, make sure that you are only signing up for the plan that you need. If you don't plan on using the personal training sessions, don't pay extra for them. Alternatively, if you don't plan on using the tanning machine, why pay extra for that? Make sure you know all your options. Most gyms will give you a week o

This past week has been a real test for investors. Particularly those that are long term investors. With the markets showing deep red the last couple of days, it's easy to lose sight of your long term goals. Before hitting the bail button and selling all your stocks and moving to money markets, one should carefully assess what their objectives are. If you are a short term investor, you should be well aware of the risk of placing money in the markets. If capital preservation is the main concern, a money market fund or fixed income would be the best choice at the expense of growth. Those with a longer term investing horizon should still think long term and should avoid feeling down. Everything will be fine in the long term. Just hang in there especially if you have solid stable blue chips in your portfolio. If your portfolio is filled with hot stock tips and penny stocks, I can't offer much advice except to say - be prepared to weather the extreme highs and the extreme low

It's the beginning of the new year and what better way than starting off the new year than to fulfill one of my new year's obligations immediately. I just filled out my credit report request and have mailed it off. Today I will talk about the benefits of obtaining one's credit score/report. There are two major credit bureaus that will do this for you in Canada: TransUnion and Equifax. Provided that you fill out the correct form and provide two pieces of identification (the details are specified on their websites), you can obtain your credit report for free. Not that if you wish to receive your credit report online, there is a nominal fee for this service. If you're like me, and love a good deal, just submit your request through snail mail. It'll only cost you a postage stamp. So what is a credit score and why does it matter? Credit reports are important because of what's listed. If your credit score is really low, this could be the result of an unclean cre

If you're like me and live in a big metropolitan city, you spend a lot of time commuting to and from work. On most days I can be spotted either reading a book or listening to my ipod. Depending on my mood, when I'm listening to my ipod I'm either listening to music or podcasts. In today's post, I will discuss some of my favourite financial podcasts (in no particular order): 1. The Economist A brief 10-15 minutes in length and updated weekly, I enjoy this podcast because it is very direct and is a no-nonsense summary of the week's economic news. The global scope of the topics they discuss is very refreshing when compared with my reading my local newspaper. I used to be a subscriber to the Economist, but discontinued my subscription due to not having enough time to read it from cover to cover. However, whenever I am at the library, I always pick up the latest copy to read because it is that good. 2. The Disciplined Investor Hosted by Andrew Horowitz, I really

Just last week, I blogged about Intel hitting $30 . Today Bank of America downgraded Intel. The stock dropped 6%. "Bank of America analyst Sumit Dhanda said in a note to investors that his previous bullish outlook on the company was predicated on sales growth, margin improvement and an attractive share valuation. But his analysis now suggests that these factors have limited power in the near term, he said." Here's why I think the move is ridiculous. While others are out there panicking, I decided to take advantage of this buying opportunity. As I stated in my previous posting , Intel has a huge competitive advantage over AMD, who is crippled with debt. In my opinion, the downgrade is strictly a move to lower the price of the shares so that they can accumulate more. I strongly believe that technology still has legs and should continue to steam ahead in the short term. As a result of this, I picked up some more shares of Intel (INTC) this morning as this was an extrem

Well, it's the beginning of another year and it's time once again to think of and write about some New Year's resolutions. In the past, I've told a lot of my close friends my resolutions, but never bothered to write them down. As a result, half way through the year, I tend to forget some of them and just carry on with my day to day life. This year things will be different because I am planning on writing all my resolutions down in my blog so that I can come back and review the goals later. Without further ado, here are some of my top financial goals of this coming year. 1. Grow my Overall Net Worth by 25%. This should definitely be achievable if I continue to live frugally and stay focused on my long term goals. Based on the my year end net worth , I am hoping to save approximately 25K to reach this goal. I plan on doing at least one trip in 2008, so I have been saving money for it. Despite this and the fact that a recession might be looming, I am still very focu

If you're like anything like me, you love a good freebie. When an opportunity arises for one to take advantage of a freebie online, I always think about the ethical implications of requesting a sample. A lot of retailers are luring people by offering freebies to not only drive traffic to their website but to also convert the traffic into potential customers. As a result, smaller companies will usually have a finite number of free items to give out. With all the freebies available on the Internet, it is the responsibility of the customer to do so wisely and ethically. The following are a list of ethics that I personally follow. 1. Only Order what You Need This is pretty much common sense. Only order things you genuinely have a need for or use. If you're lactose intolerant, there's no need for you to request a free sample of 2% milk. Alternatively if you don't own a Blu-ray player, there's absolutely no reason for you to request that Blu-ray demo! 2. Read the F