The Money Writers

Photo courtesy of tomeppy
A few years ago I paid some stupid tax.  Suffering from an incurable form of car fever, I went out and financed a late model, used Chevy Silverado pickup truck.  It ranks right up there with the dumbest financial moves I’ve ever made.  I fell victim to the “I work hard, so [...]

For those of you just joining us, this is my portfolio that is leveraged with money borrowed from my home equity line of credit (HELOC). As the money borrowed is used to invest, the interest charged is tax deductible. For more detail, check out the modified smith manoeuvre strategy.  It almost sounds like a giant [...]

Original Post on The Sun’s Financial Diary
What Is Going on with Gold?
The stock markets are pretty volatile these days with huge up-and-down swings happening almost on a daily basis (the past month has produced 5 of the 10 largest drops of the Dow). At the same time, gold, which I follow quite closely, also had [...]

As an addendum to the regular posting schedule, here are a few interesting posts from last week that I meant to share on Saturday but that I’m just getting around to posting today. I “star” a bunch of articles in Google Reader to highlight in the linklings, but I’ll tell you - it’s hard [...]

Original Post on The Sun’s Financial Diary
First Snow of the Season
It’s not even November yet, but we already have our first snow of the season! I don’t remember when we had the first snow last, but sure not this early.

I am staying at home today with the kids to help them recover from the heavy [...]

We are currently examining the economic policies of the presidential candidates. First, we looked at some of the economic policies of Barack Obama, and today we’ll take a look at John McCain’s plan bring the economy out of its current slump. Both candidates have stark differences when it comes to their philosophy for changing the [...]

There’s a new online social community dedicated to financial information that launched quite recently and has quickly become a familiar name and location for personal finance bloggers to visit.

Tip’d joins several other financial web resources out there such as

PF Buzz, developed by Pinyo, a fellow personal finance blogger who writes for the [...]

Original Post on The Sun’s Financial Diary
What to Do with All the Free Scottrade Trades?
In early September, I put up a post on the new Scottrade 7 commission free trades promotion. Because I have been a loyal Scottrade customer for many years and generally quite happy with their service, I wanted to share the promotion [...]

Last April, I went to Finovate Startup in San Francisco. I was introduced to around 40 companies at the time, and I met a number of their founders personally. One of them was Credit Karma. You may remember that in the past, I told you how you can get, free credit scores [...]

During a recent interview, I was asked if the credit crisis has had any affect on our credit card arbitrage. I hadn’t even thought about it because so far, it hasn’t.
Of course that could always change with one trip to the mailbox! I thought about many of the different angles that I have dealt [...]

This is a guest post by FWP. FWP from the Financial Wellness Project shares her stories, lessons, and progress reports as she attempts to get a handle on her finances and make sense of money while still living a ‘rich’, enjoyable life. Please consider visiting and subscribing to the Financial Wellness Project and share in [...]

When I wrote about investing in the stock market last week I raised some questions from people about whether we were getting out of the market and trying to time the market.  I thought I’d address those questions so that I don’t give the wrong impression.
Retirement Accounts
Basically what I did was pretty much stop contributing to [...]

 
Photo courtesy of dcJohn
In one week our country’s citizens will exercise their right to vote and elect someone President of the United States of America.  It’s been called the most important job in the world.  Millions of dollars have been spent advertising each candidate’s position, and attacking the positions of their opponent.  Some have [...]

With the big hype around the upcoming Tax Free Savings Accounts, I decided to do some research to see which banks and discount brokerages will be offering the product.  I imagine that as we get closer to the launch date (Jan 2009), we will see more of them popping up.
As of today though, here are [...]

Original Post on The Sun’s Financial Diary
I’m Back!
It seems that it was just last week I announced here that I am going to take a vacation in China. But good time did go very fast and my month-long break came to an end yesterday. We flew back from Beijing on Sunday, October 26. The plane [...]

If you’re stuck in a rut, allow a little change to enter your life. It may do your mind and body some good.

Find your inner zen anywhere. Photo by iandeth.

Some of you already know that I went on a short trip out of town to reconnect with friends and family. I actually went [...]

When I was learning to drive, my mom decided she would teach me herself to make sure that I was well educated and wouldn’t get in an accident when I was of age to get my license. She told me to be the key in the ignition and turn the car on. Check. [...]

Photography: Water Bottles by LeeBrimelow
Now that we joined Costco and are having a blast with the Grocery Game we’re shopping in a whole new way. You have to set some rules for yourself, or bulk buying will end up turning into bulk spending! Here are some tips and tricks for successful bulk buying.
1. Take [...]

This is a guest post by John, who writes over at Mighty Bargain Hunter.  John is a father of one and a card-carrying member of Generation X.  If you enjoyed this post, he would just love for you to subscribe to his feed.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you [...]

What is the name for what’s going on with the economy these days? We’re still technically not in recession and I think shrieks about a depression are overdone.  A crisis?  Whatever it is, it continues and I see no signs that it will abate before long.

I had managed to stay calm about the crisis even [...]

 
Photo courtesy of rochelle et. al.
Besides having a solid emergency fund, one of the best ways to hedge against financial ruin while surviving a layoff is to have one or two (or three) side hustles.  Side hustles are a little different from traditional part time jobs in that they generally involve you starting up [...]

With the economy struggling many people are looking for ways to make some extra money.   I’ve written in the past about how to make money at Halloween, most of them require advance planning so it’s a little late for those this year.
So if it’s too late why am I bringing it up?  The morning of [...]

With the Canadian Dollar at 4 year lows relative to the U.S Dollar, it seems like just a few months ago where the Canadian dollar was at par with the U.S Dollar.  Oh wait, that was a few months ago!  Since the middle of July, the loonie has dropped more than 27 cents (as of [...]

After my screed from yesterday I started wondering what everyone else is doing with their retirement accounts - 401(k)s and IRAs.  Personally I passed on the IRA this year (I wasn’t eligible for a normal IRA, just a Roth) and I have upped my 401(k) to ensure the maximum contribution this year.  I did this [...]

Last Sunday, the Red Sox lost game seven of the American League Championship Series. I remember thinking, the worst part is that my sports experience over the next 6 months will be watching Matt Cassel. The Patriots had just gotten destroyed by San Diego ad the injuries were starting to pile up on [...]