North of 49�

Lotto 6/49 Jackpot Hits $29 Million

2006-06-06T00:04:46-08:00

A jackpot of $29 million! Wouldn't that be nice? That's the anticipated first prize in the upcoming draw on Wednesday June 7, 2006 in Canada's national lottery, Lotto 6/49. Should you, as a rational investor, buy a ticket?

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Does Your Bank pay 202% Annually on Savings?

2006-05-31T22:40:36-08:00

Recently, I wrote that HSBC Canada is entering the fray to fight for its customers' savings dollars - an area in Canada that has long been neglected by the Big Banks. Now they've gone a step further.

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The CPP - Boomers Pay for Now, and Pay for Later

2006-05-30T22:15:03-08:00

The Canada Pension Plan (CPP) was begun in the heady days of the late 1960s when jobs were plentiful and inflation and interest rates were low. The prospect of baby-boomers aplenty coming into the labour force meant that its genesis as a pay-as-you-go pension plan posed no funding problems in ...

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The Buck Doesn't Stop Here!

2006-05-29T07:16:43-08:00

A new report by Statistics Canada shows that Canadians spent a record $5.8 billion abroad on travel, education and health care in the first quarter of 2006.

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Benefit Levels Under the Canada Pension Plan

2006-05-28T15:15:27-08:00

What level of public retirement income can Canadians expect? The main source for working Canadians is the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). I chose this topic today because the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board released its annual report concerning the health of the funds within the Canada Pension Plan on May ...

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Real Estate Frenzy?

2006-05-23T11:36:59-08:00

Has the real estate market reached a fever pitch in Canada?

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Lessons from my Imaginary Portfolios

2006-05-16T08:15:08-08:00

As I reported earlier, my phantom portfolio, the Buffoonery U.S. Portfolio, is down about 13% in Canadian dollar terms since its inception in April 2005. On the other hand, my Buffoonery Canadian Portfolio is up almost 50% compared to the index of about 30%. What lessons are there in these ...

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The Buffoonery Portfolio U.S. - May 2006

2006-05-12T16:18:45-08:00

I am running two parallel portfolios in my efforts to beat the market by randomly selecting six stocks and comparing their return to a benchmark index. One tracks the Canadian market, one tracks the U.S. market.

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The Buffoonery Portfolio Canadian - May 2006

2006-05-09T15:49:12-08:00

Over a year ago, I set out on my quest to answer the age old question of whether one can do better by randomly selecting a small basket of individual stocks, as compared to the index as a whole. My theory is that I can do as well as most ...

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My Experience with President's Choice Financial

2006-05-07T21:26:05-08:00

I've been banking with PC Financial for about a year and a half now. Here's the report card. Two things motivated me to open an account with PC. The first was the lack of banking fees. I had been paying $28 per month with my old bank - that's $336 ...

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ICICI Bank Savings Account

2006-05-06T00:02:22-08:00

Until recently I had never even heard of ICICI Bank. However, with my recent review of interest rates at the major banks on savings accounts, theirs caught my eye. ICICI pays 3.50% annually on both Canadian dollar and U.S. dollar savings accounts. Although this may not be the highest rate ...

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HSBC Savings Account One-Ups the Competition

2006-05-05T13:26:08-08:00

Earlier this week, I reported that HSBC was introducing a new high-yield savings account to compete against the likes of ING Direct and President's Choice. Now, they've gone one step further and increased the rate on their savings account. HSBC now pays 3.10%, which is an increase from their original ...

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My Experience with Vonage

2006-05-05T11:26:00-08:00

I recently signed up with VOIP service provider Vonage. I have a cellphone that I use regularly, but I almost died last month when I got my bill for $300 (!) because I was over my allotment of minutes. I did not have a home landline at that time. My ...

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Leverage

2006-05-03T07:59:10-08:00

Archimedes said: "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. " The same principle applies to investing - but watch out you don't get crushed on the rebound. Leverage in investing involves the use of borrowed money. Instead ...

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HSBC Introduces High-Yield Savings

2006-05-02T14:10:54-08:00

Stung by high-yield accounts offered at smaller (at least in Canada) financial institutions such as ING Direct, President's Choice and others, HSBC has revealed its new high-yield savings account at an initial rate of 3%. This compares favourably with President's Choice, is slightly less than ING, and is better than ...

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The Difference with Canadian Mortgages

2006-05-01T13:41:58-08:00

There are some important differences between Canadian mortgages and those offered to our neighbours to the south. Although there are basic similarities, one of the main differences is the manner of calculating the payments. In Canada, the interest rate on the mortgage must be expressed as a rate calculated yearly ...

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The Impact of Foreign Exchange Conversions in an RRSP Trading Account

2005-04-20T07:58:05-08:00

Long title, long article. Sounds like an economics paper. Until now, I had never sat down to figure out my true cost of trading US stocks in my RRSP account. What an eye-opener! An RRSP account cannot hold foreign (non-Canadian) currency. So when you buy a stock denominated in a ...

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My BP U.S. Stocks

2005-04-19T07:50:46-08:00

I "bought" the US portion of the Buffoonery Portfolio the other day. It happened to be at the beginning of the recent slide in stock prices. However, the theory that I'm testing is that it doesn't really matter which stocks you pick - you're as likely to do better than ...

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How to Pay No Income Tax or GST

2005-04-18T07:20:12-08:00

Easy. Just become appointed as the Governor General of Canada. Under a specific exemption in the Income Tax Act (section 81(1)(n)) and in the Excise Tax Act, the Canadian Governor General pays no income tax or GST. Zero. Nada. Nil. Wouldn't that be nice? Adrienne Clarkson, the current Governor General ...

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President's Choice Financial

2005-04-15T07:52:23-08:00

A few months ago I got fed up with paying extravagant fees to my bank just for the privilege of being able to write cheques. So I decided to give "my" bank a little healthy competition and split my accounts up. Here's a bit of background. I've banked at the ...

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Choosing My U.S. Portfolio

2005-04-11T07:10:31-08:00

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My Canadian Stocks

2005-04-10T20:41:09-08:00

Now that I've selected my Canadian stocks, it was time on Friday to "buy" them. I selected the price at noon EST for each stock, and bought as many shares as I could without going over my $5,000 per stock limit. The number of shares and total cost are (including ...

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The B.P. Portfolio Canadian Stocks

2005-04-08T06:52:20-08:00

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Freetrade.com Packs It In?

2005-04-07T06:38:29-08:00

One of the more interesting business models of the internet age is that of freetrade.com. Freetrade.com is an internet brokerage firm. Nothing new there. What is new is the fact that they charge no commissions. Huh? That's right, no commissions. In the land of free enterprise (that's the U.S. of ...

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The Buffoonery Portfolio

2005-04-06T07:14:26-08:00

For all those out there who are real "stock pickers", confident in your ability to beat the overall market index like a drum, I'm starting my own stock selection process. I'm going to start tracking a new index - the Buffoonery Portfolio (**note to buffoons: follow my stock "selections" at ...

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"Death" Insurance

2005-04-04T06:27:16-08:00

Life insurance - talk about a misnomer! Fire insurance policies pay when there's a fire; auto accident policies pay when there's an auto accident; disability insurance policies pay when you're disabled; but life insurance policies pay out when you're ... dead? "Life" insurance should really be called "death" insurance. There ...

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The Rule of 72

2005-03-31T11:43:23-08:00

There is a rule of investing known as the "rule of 72". It's a simple yet powerful rule of thumb that states that a principal sum will double at a given annual compound rate of return in the number of years expressed by the formula: 72/rate = years to double ...

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Prime Minister Martin to Gomery: FORDQ!

2005-03-30T06:10:23-08:00

As virtually everyone in Canada knows, the Gomery Commission has been investigating the so-called "sponsorship scandal" within the federal government. Tens if not hundreds of millions were spent by the government on advertising contracts to Quebec advertising agencies for little or no value. It continually amazes me how diligent the ...

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"Where Are The Customers' Yachts?"

2005-03-28T18:10:05-08:00

This is my favourite investing book title of all time. The book was written by Fred Schwed, Jr. in 1940 and many of its anecdotes and admonitions are as true today as they were 65 years ago. Its title is taken from an investor's experience as he was being shown ...

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Registered Education Savings Plans - My Child Isn't Going to College!

2005-03-27T18:27:57-08:00

Recently, I went over the basics of registered education savings plans (RESPs). This time, we'll delve a little more deeply into the intricacies of RESPs - specifically, what happens if your child decides not to attend post-secondary school? Well, all is not lost. There are four types of payments that ...

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Need Help With Your Tax Return?

2005-03-24T12:58:34-08:00

It's that time of year when everyone is rushing around looking for tax slips, filling in tax returns, and finding out how much of a refund they have coming back (or, horror of horrors, how much they have to pay). Many people have very simple tax returns, with just a ...

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