- Lotto 6/49 Jackpot Hits $29 Million
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?
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
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!
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
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?
Has the real estate market reached a fever pitch in Canada?
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- Lessons from my Imaginary Portfolios
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
