One of the scarier parts of being a parent is worrying about safety hazards to your child. Parenting Squad has a list of food choking hazards and surprisingly (to me) is that hotdogs are by far and away the worst for your kid.
Brip Blap had an absolutely brilliant story about a smart couple that got the upper hand in a real estate negotiation by using FaceBook.

Canadian Capitalist discusses the stock option tax break in the recent budget.

Kathryn from Million Dollar Journey says to succeed financially you must know yourself first.

The Financial Bloggers asks what will the Canadian prime interest rate be at the end of 2010?

Thicken My Wallet has some ideas about why some small businesses fail.

Carnivals

Budgets are Sexy!

Festival of Frugality

Money Hackers Carnival

Carnival of Road to Financial Independence

Festival of Frugality

Festival of Stocks

Carnival of Financial Planning

Carnival of Taxes

Carnival of Twenty-Something Finances

A reminder that the Canadian tax filing deadline is April 30, 2010. You must efile by this date or send your return in the mail on that date. As long as the postmark is April 30 (or sooner) then you won’t be late even though the government won’t get the mailed return for a few days.

I suggest that you get going on your taxes if you haven’t already done so. While the actual return might not take long, gathering all the relevant tax info can take a while. If you have to get any slips reissued then that will delay things as well.

If you are looking for tax software then check out my QuickTax Canadian tax software review. It’s not for everyone but it is pretty good software.

Plutus Awards

We’ve been nominated for a couple of categories of the brand new Plutus Awards.  If you are a blog fanatic then go on over and vote for your favourite blogs.  Four Pillars is in the Best Canadian Blog category and ABCs of Investing is in the Best Investment Blog category.

Some links from this week

• Tim Hortons Brews an Expensive DRIP and SPP | Canadian Capitalist
• 5 Ways to Reduce Financial Clutter | Million Dollar Journey
• How More Americans Are Moving Away From The Traditional Banking System
• New Mortgage Rules For Canadians Starting April 19th 2010 : WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com
• How to Budget Like an Olympian

Some Carnivals I have been in lately

Carnivals

Festival of Frugality

Tax Carnival

Carnival of Money Hacks

Hope everyone is having a good Valentine’s Day and Family Day (in Ontario) weekend.  I’m visiting family and it’s going quite well (so far, but it’s early).

Mr. Cheap has a huge book deal – and not just any book deal. Harlequin romance!  I’ve always gotten really annoyed with Mr. Cheap when we get together and he always wants to talk about the latest Harlequin romance novel he has just read, but now I am starting to understand where he is coming from.  Kudos, Mr. Cheap….kudos.

Some Fave Links For The Week

Foodies Across Borders (an excellent food blog) wrote about a super simple peppercorn chicken pasta.  It looked so good that I emailed it to my wife (my way of hinting) and we ate it for dinner that night.  It was awesome and easy to prepare.  She added some green onion but otherwise followed the recipe.

Fiscal Geek got his wife to do a guest post this week.  She reviewed the book “Get Financial Naked – How to talk money with your honey” and did such a great job that I suspect Paul will be out of a writing job soon. 

Kyle from Amateur Asset Allocator wrote a great review of “4-hour workweek” by Tim Ferriss.  I haven’t read this book since I thought the idea of a 4 hour work week was ridiculous, especially when written by a guy who spends about 90 hours a week talking about how he only works 4 hours a week.  After reading this review I might just read it.

Canadian Finance Blog wrote a post some of the bloggers that inspired him to start his blog and I was quite honoured to see Four Pillars on the list.  We don’t usually get a lot of comments on our regular posts so it’s nice to know that someone appreciates our efforts.

JD from Get Rich Slowly put together a great edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance.  Unlike most hosts, he actually read all the posts and made some good comments for each submission.  I might try that sometime.  Mr. Cheap’s interesting look at dating ROI made the top of the list!

One of the funniest guys on the internet (Len Penzo)  wrote about how much a longer commute is worth in terms of extra salary.  I love my short commute and it would take a lot for me to agree to a long commute.

Canadian Capitalist wrote about the whole MLS, real estate anti-competition thing this week.  I’m cautiously hopeful that this will result in a better real estate environment by the time I sell my house in 45 years.

Financial Blogger says that the jig is up for Canadian income trusts.  It’s about time – I’m sick of hearing about how idiotic investors depend on an investment that gives them back lots of their own money on a regular basis.  You can do this yourself.  In fact, give me your money and for a small fee, I’ll give it back to you in whatever size “dividends” that you desire.

Some other pretty good links

The Oblivious Investor had a guest post asking Is Private Education a Good Investment? I’m not a big believer in the whole “good school” thing so you can probably guess which side I’m on.

No Debt Plan explains how he and his wife don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day…and yet somehow, they still love each other!  We don’t celebrate much either.

Million Dollar Journey aka Kathryn had some frugal Valentine’s Day suggestions which are worth checking out.

The Intelligent Speculator wrote about ETF creations/redemptions – investors being careful and looking for smaller fees.

Preet had some interesting thoughts about investing home bias.  It’s hard to believe that Canada is only 3% of world equity markets.  I guess currency is one reason to be overweight in your own country’s equity markets?

Money Matters talks about non-financial considerations when thinking about selling your home.

Some American tax articles

PT Money went on a guest post frenzy this week – he wrote about:

• E-filing taxes vs mailing taxes right here.
• How do I set up a 529 college saving fund on ABCs of Investing
• How to organize your files for tax time.

Finance Freelance Life says you can file your 2009 federal taxes for free.

Debt Free Adventure has determined 11 of the most commonly missed tax deductions.

Moolanomy compiled a pretty good list of American tax articles which feature tax tips for 2009 Tax Year.

Carnivals

Fun Tax Facts – Carnival of Personal Finance #242

Festival of Frugality #215 « Pragmatic Environmentalism

Tax Carnival #64: Groundhog Day – Don’t Mess With Taxes

Money Hacks Carnival #102: Build a New Blog Edition | Passive Income Now

Should You Prepare Your Tax Return By Hand Or Use Tax Software?

I got an iPhone this week – finally joining the mobile wireless internet crowd.  I have to say that it wasn’t as expensive as I thought it would be and the surfing is pretty good.  Full review coming up soon!

On with the links

Michael James had a great post on fine print in advertising – particularly car ads.   Some of the crap they say is so stupid it’s no wonder they all went bankrupt.
Mike Piper wrote a great piece on Insufficient Sample Size and how it could affect your investment decisions.
Book Review: Rob Carrick’s Guide to What’s Good, Bad and Downright Awful in Canadian Investments Today | Canadian Capitalist
Mega List of 2009 Tax Deductions and Credits
Review: Unconventional Success by David Swenson
What are Money Market Mutual Funds?
10 Ways to Cut Your Fitness Membership Costs | Squawkfox
Introducing Bundle – The Number One Source for How People Spend and Save Money : Generation X Finance
Lost and Found: Is the 2000’s the lost decade of investing?
How To Get Your Credit Card Interest Rate Reduced – Amateur Asset Allocator
The Financial Blogger » Blog Archive » A look into options strategies: Covered call
Tax Attorney Or CPA?
Roth IRA Contribution Limits For 2010
Real Rate Of Investment Return

Carnivals

Carnival of Personal Finance – Support Haiti Edition | Million Dollar Journey

I am the champion – my friends
<cue power cords>
And I kept on fighting – till the end -
<cue power cords>
I am the champion -
I am the champion
No time for losers
‘Cause Mr. Cheap is the champion – of the blogosphere -

After my post on Tuesday, Mike promptly left a couple of comments to the effect that he “didn’t buy it”.  Never one to agree-to-disagree, I proposed a wager, and after we hammered out the details I set about winning it.  It’s been said that academic politics are particularly vicious because the stakes are so small.  With the the stakes being a beer in this case, I set out to be as vicious as possible.

While I was confident truth, justice and the Canadian way were on my side, I did realize that I needed to reach a critical mass of readers to allow the necessary comment to be made (and truth emerge).  Much like Commissioner Gordon flashing the bat signal into the sky, I raised the alarm, e-mailing numerous PF bloggers from Canada and abroad that they were needed!  Telling them:

“If you have done something like this, please comment!  If you know someone who has done something like this, please forward this to them!  If you can publicize this in any way (tweet, blog post, forum post, whatever), please do!”

Sensing the desperation of a situation where Mr. Cheap may have to buy a beer for Mike, our community sprang into action!  (it brings a tear to my eye just thinking of it).  Reactions ranged from polite neutrality to questioning whether arguing about this was really the best use of our limited time on this planet (for the record, yes it is).  Unbelievably, one particularly blogger had the GALL (note correct spelling ) to throw his support behind Mike.  MIKE!!!  I shake my fist in the general direction of Ottawa.  I even sent a message off to Mrs. Pillars, trying to convince her to turn on her husband (wisely, she ignored me).

By 5:49 pm a calm settled onto the electronic battlefield.  I now know what veterans describe where, in the chaos of combat a hush falls.  I had at no point doubted myself (NEVER!) but the thought had crossed my mind that the needed comment might not arrive in time.  If it arrived at 10:01 am, all would be lost and I’d be out a beer.  I refused to lose faith in our community, which clearly needed to make the right choice and agree with me.  All that was needed was for one person to arrive and say “yes, ye gods, Mr. Cheap is right!”  And cutting through the electrons of our virtual community such a person arrived.

I’m not saying she came on a winged horse or carried a spear.  It’s certainly not my assertion that the shimmering haze rescinded a little as she appeared into the chaos, bringing a shining light of truth.  Maybe she wasn’t there to decide which warrior was to die, or to carry anyone off to their eternal reward in the afterlife.  There certainly was the aura of an epic hero about Melanie however.  With her title,the reformed spender, she is upfront that in her past hasn’t always been as noble as she is today.  Maybe, like Yin and Yang she needs her past failings to be the unwavering beacon of good she is today.  Regardless of where she came from, or where she was going, she surveyed the carnage and pronounced:

With that she departed and Mike yielded.  Perhaps she went back to Newfoundland, perhaps back to the halls of the Valkyrie, perhaps we’ll never know.  Wherever you are Melanie, know that I’ll be thinking of you as I sip every extra-sweet sip of my beer of victory…

For those who read through this post and are thinking “geez, Mr. Cheap is an unpleasant winner”, it should be noted that I’m a pretty sore loser too.

A Haitian man carries his dead daughter.

I’m sure by now everyone has heard of the huge earthquake in Haiti which has devastated the country and killed many thousands of people.  I wanted to write a post to try to urge people reading this to consider donating to help the people of Haiti.  We have donated $250 to the Canadian Red Cross and $250 to Doctors Without Borders which I think are worthwhile charities for this situation.  Money is the best donation – items like food, clothing etc are too difficult and slow  to process and transport.

If you want to donate then check out the Canadian Red Cross site.  If you are American then I suggest you check out an American donation information page.  For more info on Canadian charities then check out Canadian Capitalist who has assembled a list of Canadian charities.

I’m not much of a giver when it comes to charities.  I usually give a bit of money each year – mainly to people I know who participate in fund raising activities such as a run/walk.  I like to see some effort behind the fund raising.

In 2008, for some reason I didn’t donate a single dollar.  I was somewhat embarrassed about this since I know I am a lot better off than most people who will benefit from any donations.  In 2009 we decided to pick a donation amount for the year ($400) and split it up among different charities.  I pretty much had to force myself to make the donations and I still didn’t quite reach the $400 mark.

I have no difficulties donating money for tragedies like the Haiti earthquake. There is no doubt in my mind that the victims are real and very much in need.  Any donation WILL make a big difference which isn’t always so obvious with most charities.

One of my concerns with charities is of course – how much of the money is actually being used to help vs pay for salaries/more fundraising?  This concern is still valid for the Haiti relief effort and I’m sure there will be mistakes made given the lack of preparation.  There isn’t much I can do about this concern other than hope for the best and donate to a charity that I’m familiar with.

One of the things about this sort of scenario is that the victims are easy to help.  Their short term needs are fairly basic:  clean water, food, shelter, medical care.  I’m not saying those things are easy to provide but at least if you can provide any or all of those basics then you will be making a big difference.

This isn’t always so obvious with most charities.  If you provide free food long term to people are you helping them or in fact hurting them?  Things like cancer research are worthwhile endeavors in my mind but who does it help?  Donating money for medical research should indirectly help someone (perhaps even yourself) in the future but it likely won’t help anyone who is suffering from an illness or injury right now.

You can’t make all your donating decisions (or any other kind of decision) based on short term results but it does make it easier to pull the trigger on a contribution.  Seeing a picture like the one at the top of this post is heartbreaking.  That dead little girl is probably only a few months younger than my own daughter and unfortunately she didn’t make it.  By donating, I’m hoping to prevent more deaths like hers.

More posts on this topic

For those interested, Million dollar Journey is offering to match donations to Doctors Without Borders.
How To Donate To The Haiti Earthquake Relief Effort – Amateur Asset Allocator
Cash Money Life — Money Management, Small Business, Career
Safe Ways to Help Haiti
Canadian Financial DIY: Haiti Earthquake Relief Charities
How to Help Haiti
Help Haiti Through The Red Cross
» How to Support Haitian Relief Efforts @ fivecentnickel.com
Help for Haiti: Here Comes the Blogosphere | Balance Junkie
Donate To Doctors Without Borders to Help Aid Haiti

Time for another roundup of posts – lots and lots this week.

• Million Dollar Journey came up with his 2010 Financial Goals
• The Financial Blogger tells us what will happen with mortgage rates in 2010
• Canadian Capitalist did a Winning The Loser’s Game Book Review
• Don’t Forget About The Free YNAB Giveaway over at the Wisdom Journal. Ron is giving away one copy of this fantastic budgeting software in a drawing
  to be held February 1st. All you have to do is leave a comment to enter!
• The Five Best International Mutual Funds For Your IRA
• What the New Changes in Credit Card Rules Mean for You
• S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats – A look at the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats, what has changed for 2010, and it’s viability as an investment.
• How to Get Your Free FICO Credit Score
• January’s Returns Predict Rest of Year’s Performance 74% of the time
• Areas to Automate Your Finances
• Is A Safe 8% Return Realistic?
• How Does The CARD Act of 2009 Affect Credit Card Holders?
• New Law Makes it Harder for Teens to Get a Credit Card Starting February 22
• Top 10 Money Movies of the Decade
• Dividend growth
• 5 Tips for Making Extra Money
• 5 Steps to Get You Hired as an English Teacher Abroad
• How To Make Money With A Blog: A primer on how to start a blog, promote it, and make a nice side income.
• You Need a Budget (YNAB) 3.0 Personal Finance Software Review
• SuperFreakonomics book review.
• 2010 Roth IRA Conversion, Important Things to Know — The rule for IRA conversion changed for 2010. Learn everything you need to know and see if you can take advantage of this opportunity.
• Does the World Need Yet Another Credit Option?
• Your Spouse: Financial Teammate or Financial Enemy?
• 10 Frugal Ways to get Fit this Winter
• Real rate of investment return.
• Do home mortgage interest rates affect house prices?

Carnivals

Festival of Frugality

This article is pretty neat – Wise Bread has some suggestions to uglify your stuff so it doesn’t get stolen.

Canadian Mortgage Trends had a good piece on the mortgage renewal ripoff offers.

Million Dollar Journey updated his 2008 goals and did very well.

No Debt Plan Wrote that sometimes you just have to ask: Steak and Customer Service

The Financial Blogger is writing a blog buying series which is quite interesting.  Here is Assess the value of a blog.

Canadian Capitalist has some investing advice for Kevin O’Leary.

Lots more links

101 Ways to Cut Your Spending This Year
2010 financial goals
Delaying Roth IRA Contributions One Year Could Cost You $74,000
Why I Don’t Want to Retire Early
How To Make Money With A Blog
New Year’s Resolutions are Bull$%@&
401k Hardship Withdrawal Rules
Adjust your 2010 Tax Withholding and Stop Loaning the Government Money
10 Frugal Ways to get Fit this Winter
First Class Airline Miles Credit Cards – The Best of the Best
How to Choose High Yield Savings Accounts
How to add something POSITIVE to your credit report
Best Retirement Plans for Small Businesses
Cloth Diapers vs. Disposable Diapers
Do I Need an Accountant or CPA for My Taxes?
Roth and Traditional IRA Contribution Limits for 2010

Carnivals

Carnival of Personal Finance

I hope all the readers of Four Pillars have a great holiday – don’t eat/drink too much and we’ll see you soon!

Tiger Woods…”links”…linkstuff?  Haha – get it?  Ok, I have to admit I’ve been following the Woods sordid saga pretty closely.  My only question is why did he bother get married?  I had to wonder at the comments of one of his “friends” who was annoyed that he was seeing other girls as well.

On with the links (the other kind)

Larry MacDonald of was kind enough to mention this blog in another Globe and Mail article.  I gave some advice about RESPs.

Canadian Capitalist lists some 2009 year-end financial deadlines.

Million Dollar Journey talks about selling hope via lottery tickets.

The Financial Blogger explains how to make 6 figures a year.  I checked out his post and unfortunately, his method involves a heck of a lot of work.

Thicken My Wallet wonders when his dividends will go up.

Studenomics wrote a lengthy post comparing buying vs renting a house.

Where Does All My Money Go had an interesting post on the modified Dietz return calculation which is used to calculate portfolio performance.

ABCs of Investing explains what private equity is.