///CPFC12///
As mentioned in yesterday’s article, CPFC12 (a.k.a. Canadian Personal Finance Conference 2012) starts tomorrow! Actually, there’s an optional social night this evening, but I didn’t sign up early enough to get a spot. It’s cool though, there’s a networking event tomorrow night. Also, Nelson, me, my partner, and Cat grabbed food last evening.
I’m honestly looking forward to the entire weekend but, as a betting man, I’m going to try and predict my favourite sessions:
- Breakfast and Registration
- Life Insurance 101 - Glenn Cooke
- Building Traffic to your Blog - Kerry Taylor
- Lunch
- Preparing for Media Interviews: Print, Radio, TV - Preet Banerjee
- From Blog to Book: Self-Publishing - Tim Stobbs
But seriously, every session sounds like it offers a unique value proposition; very cool!
///Catherine a.k.a. “wasiTACaroraCATisaw”///
Cat shows off her amazing sense of rhythm:
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///Mentions///
- Sir BCM liked one of my posts this week — the one about buying used cars and not being a sucker. BCM seems pro-used car but that’s a total guess on my part.
- A NEW BLOGGER APPEARS. Vicky from Vix Money complimented my George Foreman Grill skills in her weekly roundup.
- DQYDJ.net (Don’t Quit Your Day Job) a blog written by a Software Engineer, Electro-Mechanical Engineer, and an Economist, referenced Adina’s article on why the “personal” in “personal finance” doesn’t justify stupidity.
- 6400 Personal Finance‘s Carnival of Financial Discipline (the “Your Feelings Don’t Matter” edition) also cited Adina’s excellent piece from last week.
///Amendments and Addenda///
- Gene, in a comment on Monday’s post, mentioned that there’s a Canadian program for certain rural television viewers called the Local Television Satellite Solution or LTSS. It’s a weird, temporarily-available (but supposedly permanent once you’re in) program that seeks to make up for the fact that some people will have degraded service as a result of the Canadian digital transition. I hadn’t heard of this program, but I highly encourage everybody to look into it. I’m going to next week!
- Speaking of free TV, I’m gonna have an exciting offer to announce on Monday. It’s already available to the public, but I intend on spreading the word. It might even help some money-stupid Canadians to finally eliminate their cable bill!
///Tweet(s) of the Week///
Thanks to the anon hero who used my ING Orange Code. I will invest your money in spreading truth, with ads or improved design for TF
— TimelessFinance (@TimelessFinance) September 15, 2012
///Keyword Fun///
Money-Smart Keyword Award goes to:
best interest rates for savings accounts best tfsa
It’s Canadian Direct Financial at 3%, at least AFAIK.
Money-Stupid Keyword Award goes to:
the economy is bad and so are gas prices and so are food prices, i would like to get a $250.00 visa gas gift card and a $250.00 visa grocery gift card
I have a few questions. First, who types such a long string of text into Google expecting to get a reasonable result? Second, who wants a Visa gift card? The fees on those cards are obscene; ask for Ultramar or NoFrills gift cards. Finally, who doesn’t want free money? Did you think you’d find $500 in free money because you Googled it?
canada > america
Yeah, cause we Canadians put men on the moon, won the most Nobel prizes, revolutionized the concept of freedom, rebuilt Europe with the Marshall Plan (after saving Britain and France from otherwise certain doom), built the bomb that prevented any further world wars, and singlehandedly improved almost every human’s standard of living by leaps and bounds. You can (1) keep dreaming, hoser, or (2) take pride that Canada has played a role in most of the above achievements that was as big as any individual American state.
Legit Question Keyword Award goes to:
east side marios should i i invest
If you want to serve excellent food at a reasonable price, no. If you want to know whether the opportunity presents sustainable profits (despite the serving of bland, overpriced food which, at first brush, wouldn’t seem to make for a sustainable business model but, hey, we’re in Canada), then you should probably get a copy of their franchise disclosure and review it with an accountant.
lol wut? Keyword Award goes to:
flying turtle with city on its back
Notably missing keyword to SEO-optimize this post by increasing the keyword density
CPFC12
///YouTube///
Angry at the police for giving you a $137 ticket? One way to display your anger: pay in $1 bills. Oh, and symbolically fold each dollar bill into an origami pig. Then deliver the George Washington piglets in donut boxes.
Jimmy Kimmel trolls some iPhoneys.
This is a pretty fair representation of any debate I’ve seen or participated in.
///Quote of the Week///
“Once you assume a creator and a plan it makes us objects in a cruel experiment whereby we are created sick and then commanded to be well. And over us to supervise this is installed a celestial dictatorship, a kind of divine North Korea. Exigent — I would say more than exigent, greedy — for uncritical praise from dawn til dusk, and swift to punish the original sins with which it so tenderly gifted us in the very first place.”
- Christopher Hitchens, 1949 – 2011
///Links///
1. Mr. Garth Turner calls to account Susan Pigg, Toronto Star reporter, for her ridiculously biased, pro-housing articles. Much like Nelson and I did last week. The Star actually improved her headline and article after Nelson and I complained (I’m not saying we caused it, but it happened).
2. I admire folks who have the patience and gumption to live “small”. 275-square-foot apartments aren’t the tiniest suites I’ve seen, but they sound much more practical than sub-100-square-foot mouse holes. The linchpins, for me, are ensuite laundry and a full-sized fridge.
3. Young people can get 100% free post-secondary with merely a high school diploma – provided they were born and raised exclusively in Kalamazoo. Seriously.
4. …and ice cream financial institutions. Wait, what?
///lol-worthy///
In the words of Sally Field, “you like me, you really like me!” /wipes tear
lol well there’s no doubt you’re a rose among thorns when it comes to TF’s permanent writers.
It was referenced by me (The Software Engineer, or as the other two like to call me, “the dumb one”). I promise you we are in agreement on this – your site is a refreshing read.
Oh, I almost forgot, ignore everything up to this point: .
Great article, thanks!
Thanks for the kind words and I know (per her comment today) that the positive feedback means a lot to Adina, too.
I’ve been reading your site regularly as of late too, keep up the good work — I’m sure it’ll hit our weekly roundup (pending launch in the next two weeks) many times in the future.
Funny, most people who don’t like bank fees just go with a credit union or ING direct… I haven’t heard of someone taking deposits and paying 5.5% monthly interest in the form of gift cards until now! Even if he’s running at 50% margin on sales from those gift cards that’s costing him over 2.5% per month which is a pretty quick way to cripple a business.
It sounds like his loans are sharia-compatible though, which might be a growth avenue.
lol I guess for the “unbanked” it’s better than a payday loan store.
The 66% a year in interest paid is pretty crazy. It is, however, set off by a few more factors:
– the interest he collects on the loans
– the fact that the gift cards not only buy merchandise at his retail price (thus earning him a margin that offsets “interest”) but it creates a “currency” (the interest) that can be used EXCLUSIVELY at his store (until people like his “money” aka gift cards enough to start trading them, which could never happen until he started paying real money interest — in which case he’d be quickly bankrupted by the free market)
– the fact that this whole story has probably been 100% free marketing for his core ice cream business, regardless of whether his “bank” gets shutdown
btw I commented on your latest blog post but it didn’t show up; I think it may have gone to spam.
The pig money in the donuts box is awesome.
He should have made them take the pigs though. Really what does he care if they use it or not. Who said they had to unfold them t all really? Just use them in pig form haha
Yeah I lol’d. I would have felt bad for the guy behind the desk who just collects fines. But they don’t accept cheques and they charge a credit card “convenience” fee.