Opinion

I’ve been planning a post on the concept of unintended consequences for the last two years.  I keep coming up with different perspectives on it, put off posting, and continually rework it.  I don’ t think there’s any way I’ll be able to do the idea justice in under 1000 words, so I going to [...]

{ 9 comments }

Stuff White People Like is an amusing blog that mocks the cultural norms of the “educated elite”, a group that often denies having any such norms (yet, we clearly do).  Similarly, Canadians both deny having a culture (some Canadians, without a trace of humour, claim they don’t have an accent) and hold particularly trivial things [...]

{ 22 comments }

When I was growing up, the 80’s cartoons each had standard issue goods guys and bad guys.  Autobots battled Decepticons, G.I. Joes battled Cobra, and He-Man battled Skeletor.  I think I outgrew cartoons (at least this style of animation) when the villains’ consistent focus on “evilness” began to ring false.  The most extreme case of [...]

{ 15 comments }

I mentioned in a recent post how stories influence public policy. Social supports are sold on the idea of a poor downtrodden individual who has a run of bad luck, and putting a system in place to catch them before they hit bottom. It may be a woman with children trying to escape [...]

{ 8 comments }

Mike and Trent are in Las Vegas and Mike has just lost a hand of blackjack after Trent advised him to double down.
TRENT: I’m telling you, baby, you always double down on an eleven.
MIKE: Yeah? Well obviously not always!
TRENT: Always, baby.
MIKE: I’m just saying, not in this particular case.
TRENT: Always.
MIKE: But I lost! How can [...]

{ 8 comments }

Bell and Rogers get a lot of bad press.  Ellen Roseman frequently posts problems customers have with both companies.  Some might argue that by virtue of their size, companies such as these will, by chance alone, have customers who accidentally get treated badly (unavoidable circumstances and all that).  That is, a small business with 400 [...]

{ 16 comments }

Sorry to our readers who got a VERY early edition of this post in their RSS feed.  Mr. Cheap accidentally hit “Publish” when he meant to hit “Save”.

“Margaritaville” (originally airing March 25, 2009) was the 3rd episode of the 13th season of South Park and it provided an amusing perspective on the current financial crisis.   [...]

{ 5 comments }

I was surprised that the part of my post about negotiation on Tuesday that drew the greatest number of comments was “It’s a really scummy thing when people do this to you, and it’s just as scummy if you do it to them” in relation to dirty tricks pulled by car dealers (and my advocating [...]

{ 16 comments }

My favourite Jerry Seinfeld joke is:
“According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”
Like most people, I always *HATED* [...]

{ 8 comments }

Almost two years ago Promod Sharma at Riscario Insider wrote a post, partially in response to something I had written, about “Who can you trust?“.  Promod suggests referrals as a way to trust someone you start doing business with, and in the comments I mused about following the reasoning of people you first encounter, and [...]

{ 6 comments }

I went out for lunch with a couple of fellow grad students recently and our conversation reminded me of a topic I’ve been meaning to post on.  One of the students has been ranting for months about a change in policy with how TA work is handled which may affect the immigration process for international [...]

{ 5 comments }

If you haven’t already entered, definitely check out the Four Pillar’s Great Canadian Book Giveaway.  It’s possible to get two entries, so if any of the books look interesting, get your name in!  Contest runs until Saturday, Feb 7 at 8:00pm EST.
My father generally doesn’t like change in his life.  We joke that if something [...]

{ 18 comments }

This post will upset some readers. I won’t insist that readers promise not to be offended or anything like that, but if you’re not in the mood to read something that may get you worked up, you might want to skip today’s post. If you’re angry and don’t have the time to write [...]

{ 34 comments }

Some time ago, while writing a reassurance post about the stock market melt-down, Mike pointed out that for most people our career is our biggest asset.   I think Mike made a good point: given the choice between the loss of an investment portfolio or the loss of a career, the career is more valuable.  However, I [...]

{ 6 comments }

I was in Niagara Falls recently, and saw a big sign in a store window that proclaimed “Christian Owner”.  I’ve written on the topic before, but I found it unbelievable that someone would even CONSIDER putting up such a sign.
The most charitable interpretation of this sign would be that it somehow relates to the store’s [...]

{ 48 comments }

A number of personal finance bloggers and gurus have made the statement that our school systems do an awful job of providing basic financial literacy and this needs to be fixed. When “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” Robert Kiyosaki makes this statement, he means that the school system should teach people to be entrepreneurs, not [...]

{ 21 comments }

Some time back Ben Stein, who I think is great for the most part, wrote an article on “How to have a business conversation“.  I’ve had this post bouncing around in my head for a while and after a weekend where I got rammed from *behind* by a woman with a stroller (who then muttered [...]

{ 7 comments }

A recent Toronto Life article takes a look at a popular Toronto public school and the efforts that some parents will make to get their kids enrolled in it.  Since I don’t live to far from this school, the name (Jackman) is very familiar to me.  Anyone who has looked at any real estate listing [...]

{ 26 comments }

Online opinions and reviews are everywhere.  If you are doing some online shopping then it’s almost impossible to go to a site offering merchandise that doesn’t allow people to write reviews on the products.  You can comment on blog posts, newspaper articles – the “people” definitely have a voice where they didn’t before the internet [...]

{ 19 comments }

Both of my uncles (by marriage thankfully) are huge bullshitters (as defined by “To attempt to mislead or deceive by talking nonsense“). I found it bizarre when they’d say things, I’d look it up later, and without fail it would be incorrect. With one of them, it’s so consistent that I can rely [...]

{ 8 comments }

Enter in the Giant Book Giveaway if you haven’t already!

There are definitely times when it pays to buy quality.
I used to really like BiWay (a chain of el-cheapo Canadian discount apparel and general goods stores – think half-way between K-mart and a dollar store).  I used to proudly tell my friends “BiWay is *my* [...]

{ 35 comments }

As much as it can be uncomfortable to be the “odd man out”, I think it actually leads to benefits in many situations.
When I was at university for my undergrad, I found it quite cosmopolitan (and it was compared to the small town in Northern Ontario I grew up in). Next door to me [...]

{ 14 comments }

When people get indoctrinated into MLM (multi-level marketing, where you make money by getting other people to join and pass you a share of their earnings – the people who start it make all the money and the people who join later pay all the money) they’re warned to beware of dreamkillers.  What’s a dreamkiller?  [...]

{ 26 comments }

In class one time a woman was complaining about how hard it is to recruit participants for her experiment. The professor told her that she just had to approach people who fit the profile she was looking for and ask them. She was clearly uncomfortable with this idea and protested “what if they [...]

{ 20 comments }

This post is part of the Personal Finance Network’s first group project – “Summer Fun Guide“. We’ve each done a post related to summer fun and you can find links to the other PFN posts at the bottom of this page.

Recently we went on a vacation which required a somewhat lengthy plane ride to [...]

{ 13 comments }

When I was a kid a local convenience store offered a reward program that was a sheet that you got stamps to place on it (one stamp for every dollar spent). They said that the reward for a completed sheet would be announced later and started giving them out. Some friends and I [...]

{ 14 comments }

Some time back I went to a book signing that Kevin Smith was doing to promote his book “My Boring-Ass Life” . The plan was that I’d tell Kevin that one of his previous books was my first inspiration to lose 70 pounds (it’s true!), he’d ask me for details, and after chatting for [...]

{ 14 comments }

I boycott companies often.
I don’t make a big stink about it (like picketing out front, setting up a website, or anything), but if I’m unhappy with a product or service and the company won’t fix it, I stop shopping there. I’m like the soup nazi as I’ll give different punishments for different crimes (sometimes [...]

{ 27 comments }

Occasionally you come across an article that gives you an epiphany and shifts your view of the world. One such article for me was Tom Sloper’s excellent #1 lesson for aspiring game designers. While its interesting in and of itself (assuming that you’re interested in video games), I think the core idea extends [...]

{ 18 comments }

I love free giveaways, and last Sunday Harvey’s (a Canadian burger chain) was giving away its original burger free from 10:30-3 pm. I swung by, looking forward to munching on the beefy goodness, and gave up when I saw the lineup was out the door and down the sidewalk. Not being willing to [...]

{ 12 comments }

I recently came across two similar approaches to “becoming an expert” in a field. Both are somewhat similar, and both are in harmony with my experiences in life.
Two way to become an expert on any topic are:

Read a book every month on the topic for one year.
Study the topic every day for 30 minutes.

A [...]

{ 13 comments }

I love to save money and phone service is typically one of those big bills none of us like to pay each month. A little over a year ago, I was preparing to move in with my then girlfriend, and thought an excellent idea would be to move my number over to a VOIP [...]

{ 26 comments }

Katrina Onstad wrote a very interesting article about babies and their parents in a recent issue of Toronto Life. She looked at the phenomenon of parents who are too focussed on trying to project their own tastes and styles through their kids. There were several little “stories” sprinkled throughout the article told by [...]

{ 42 comments }

“All agreements must be win-win or we don’t do them!”
Some people like to insist on deals being a win-win. That’s awfully nice of them isn’t it? Both sides have to get something out of it. Kind of like… every deal. Right?
There’s certain language that makes me cringe and put a [...]

{ 4 comments }

I wrote on my old site about positive thinking, and how I believe it actually does effect what happens to us in life. I don’t buy into any of the spirituality or mallarchy that some people surround it with, I just thinking there’s a psychological element that gives us the same result.
I have similar [...]

{ 7 comments }

For a while I was trying to launch a consulting / contracting career where I’d go and work on-site doing technical work for companies for a few weeks at a time then move on to the next place. I read everything I could get my hands on about consulting, especially technical consulting. One [...]

{ 8 comments }

Throughout my undergrad I lived in residence for 4 of my 5 years (I changed majors half way through and extended my program). By a strange twist of fate, the same custodian ended up working in every building where I was living, so we got to know each other pretty well by the end [...]

{ 16 comments }

Since I got a good response to my last “Mr. Cheap Asks” post, here’s another (it’s nice to have a think-tank ready to weigh in on my challenges in life). For those who don’t like reading comments, the consensus on the last question was that corporations usually can’t borrow money unless they have a [...]

{ 13 comments }

Apparently it’s quite rare for actors to get paid in the Toronto theatre scene. Every production basically says “work for us for free, you’ll get exposure, then you’ll be able to get good pay from the next production that hires you”. When the next production starts, they say the same things, and actors [...]

{ 22 comments }

A comment John T. Reed makes is that if you’re unable to look a grown adult in the eye, listen to them passionately argue why you should do something, then say “No” to them, you shouldn’t be a real estate investor. It’s an easy thing to hypothetically say “sure, I’d just say no”, but [...]

{ 19 comments }

SWM seeks a good woman who:

Knows how to keep books, do taxes, and earns a good income
Knowledge of Canadian investment or real estates laws and taxation rules would be a plus
Can manage rental property duties such as:  screening tenants, small repairs, renovation estimates, managing contractors, rough property appraisals, negotiations, etc
Lives frugally, doesn’t like expensive food, [...]

{ 23 comments }

I hate tipping of any sort and I wish the practice didn’t exist. Don’t get me wrong, I tip at restaurants and bars like everyone else but I don’t like it.
I’ve heard that tipping is a way to make up for a lack of a decent wage for waiters, delivery persons [...]

{ 56 comments }

I was recently tagged by my blog partner Mr. Cheap in his post – Courses I’d Like To Take. I’ve managed to take the fun and creativity out of this meme by putting serious courses with boring names – but that’s what I came up with
Following in the tradition of Mr. Cheap [...]

{ 13 comments }

Ok, I’ve been tagged by my buddy Brip Blap to publicly declare a goal and hopefully by making it public I will be able to stick to it. So even though he conveniently didn’t make a declaration himself , here’s mine…
Lose 10 pounds!
This isn’t a difficult goal since I’ve done it before [...]

{ 29 comments }

Still don’t know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild
A million dead-end streets
After much soul-searching (and spending half of every other day fixating on how much I didn’t want to be there) I quit my new job on Monday. To be fair to them, they were an amazing group of friendly, [...]

{ 17 comments }

Just wanted to let you know there will be no post on Friday. I’ve been out of town and very busy and I haven’t gotten my post ready.
Monday I’ll have my last post for baby items – then a few posts on other baby related costs like wills, insurance, resp etc.
I wanted to [...]

{ 3 comments }