Personal Finance

I received notice in the mail recently that the RBC 1% rebate has been paid out in all our 4 accounts that I moved their last year to take advantage of their 1% rebate deal.  Basically the offer was that if you transferred any money from other brokerages to RBC they would pay you 1% [...]

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As a quick clarification, the “relationships” in this title refers to any people who have an ongoing association with each other, not exclusively romantic relationships.
Thicken My Wallet recently wrote a great post on negotiation which addresses negotiation where you have an ongoing relationship with the other party.  Most of my negotiation posts have dealt with [...]

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I entered into a stock picking competition with a number of other bloggers at the beginning of this year.   I picked four small oil-related companies as part of my “swing for the fences” strategy.  So far it has paid off since my portfolio is up over 40% for the year.  In the last stock picks [...]

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Some time ago a reader, Ben, asked for feedback on a strategy he is considering which he describes as a variant on the Smith Maneuver.  My hat is off to Fraser Smith as he has successfully attached his name to something that is a fairly general strategy based on not much more than the Canadian [...]

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[edit July 30 -  Toronto garbage strike over?  Dave Miller cave-in]
As anyone who lives in Toronto knows – the City of Toronto outside worker are on strike, which of course means…no garbage pickup.  This may seem like a big deal but the city has set up some temporary garbage dropoffs so you can still get [...]

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On our recent visit to the zoo, we paid for the day with an Aeroplan gift card which I received from my sister.  Since I have more Aeroplan points to use up (I gave up my Aeroplan credit card a while ago) I thought I would go over some possibilities for converting the points to [...]

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I’m a big fan of Squawkfox and her blog. Although always entertaining, she’s not always right (alas, I seem to be the only one who can manage that). In a recent exchange I cited her wonderful article on debt as an example of something well-written that I enjoyed reading, even though I disagree [...]

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This is a very exciting contest! WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, Canadian Capitalist and Four Pillars have teamed up and are holding a joint giveaway for one lucky recipient to receive a FREE driving school in an open-wheel racecar courtesy of The Bridgestone Racing Academy!
You can learn more about the exact prize by clicking here: A Thrill Of A [...]

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The “debt snowball” method of debt repayment was popularized by “financial expert” Dave Ramsey.  The method was created for people who are having trouble paying off their debts and need some more motivation and a different strategy.  The basic idea of the snowball method is to pay off your loans in order from the smallest [...]

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I enjoy blogging. Twice each week, I have the chance to spend a bit of time articulating my position on a financial topic, then get a variety of smart people to respond with their $0.02 on the subject. Sometimes there will be a bit of back and forth on the day of the [...]

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The largest auto company in Britain at one time was called the Leyland Motor Corporation which eventually became British Leyland after being nationalised. In 1986 it became Rover Group.
It started in 1896 as the Lancashire Steam Motor Company in the town of Leyland and became Leyland Motors in 1907. The company was quite successful and [...]

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Dave Ramsey is a fairly well known personal finance celebrity who is somewhat controversial for his methods. His fans love him and his detractors can’t find anything good to say about him.  He created the Dave Ramsey baby steps and if you really keen – you can attend the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University. It [...]

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Money saving tips are something you run across quite frequently if you are browsing in the blogosphere (or talking to my parents).  Whether it’s big savings like negotiation tactics for buying a new car, buying a used baby stroller or small stuff like making your lunch and creative uses for used dryer sheets – everyone [...]

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My family loves GICs. As a group we’re pretty risk adverse, with my dad being the “crazy risk taker” for being heavily invested in mutual funds over the years (I think I’ve stolen that mantle from him with my real estate and leveraged dividend ventures however).
Much like mortgages, the posted GIC rates in banks are [...]

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Ok, I admit that watching slide shows of your Mother-in-law’s old vacations from 50 years ago isn’t for everyone, however recently my wife and I spent a couple of evenings doing exactly that with my mother-in-law.  This frugal tip might be one of the lamest I’ve heard in a while so I will be offended [...]

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I’m always interested in negotiation tactics. Some people recommend things like mirroring the other person’s body positions to create rapport or trying to hypnotize them by using words that sound like other words and nonsense like that. Maybe these things work for some people, but they seem too silly for me to even [...]

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One of the new economic and social buzzwords is “frugal” – there are frugal blogs, frugal people, frugal lifestyles.  Everyone is frugal these days ranging from people who have always been frugal their whole lives to people who have no idea what frugal means but just want to be part of the crowd.
One of the [...]

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One of my favourite investment topics is asset allocation – trying to figure out what your division between stocks and bonds should be in your portfolio.   I read a comment on this idea recently written by the excellent blogger Michael James who writes an excellent financial blog.
Normally when you are trying to figure out your [...]

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I recently saw Adam Sandler’s “Bedtime Stories”.  To get the obvious first question out of the way, yes, Mr. Cheap watches children’s movies.  And, no, I don’t have any kids.  I get a tear in my eye at the “When She Loved Me” sequence in Toy Story 2.  I watch “chick flicks” in addition to [...]

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