Statistics Canada released the inflation report for April 2005 yesterday. Inflation came in at 2.4% higher than year-ago prices. The report said that prices of gas (up 15.3%), new homes (up 5.8%), restaurant meals (up 3.1%), fuel oil (up 31.6%) and property taxes (up 4.3%) rose, while computers (down 20.1%), women’s clothing (down 2.9%) and [...]
Entries from May 2005
Canadian Inflation Report
May 21st, 2005 · No Comments
Tags: Canadian Interest
Best Canadian Investment Blogs
May 19th, 2005 · 11 Comments
I am really honoured to find this blog listed among the best Canadian Investment Blogs in MoneySense magazine, a leading Canadian finance publication. The article by columnist Larry MacDonald is in two parts: the first mentions really good commentators like Bill Cara (check out Mr. Cara’s post about the mention), Irwin Michael and Norm Rothery [...]
Tags: Miscellaneous
Retirement Account Decisions
May 18th, 2005 · 3 Comments
I started at a new job recently and one of the benefits is partial matching of contributions to my retirement account. Problem is, the plan administrator offers a wide selection of more than 80 funds and I had to decide which fund(s) to buy in a day or two. It is going to take me [...]
Tags: Personal
Reptilian Behavior
May 17th, 2005 · 3 Comments
Behavioral Finance is a fascinating subject that studies why most people make poor financial decisions like buying greedily at market tops and panic-selling at market bottoms. Turns out it is our reptilian brains that makes us irrational beings.
Another recent story suggested that women make better investing decisions than men. More men than women cite greed, [...]
Tags: Investing
Will Boomers Cash Out?
May 16th, 2005 · 4 Comments
In a recent interview with MarketWatch.com Prof. Jeremy Siegel says that as the aging baby boomers retire in the next 20-40 years, stocks could suffer a meltdown, unless investors from developing nations step-up and buy the equities that the boomers are selling. Is this scenario possible?
Donald Luskin, on the other hand, suggests that investors should [...]
Tags: Investing
Excel India Fund
May 15th, 2005 · 2 Comments
The Toronto Star (Bypass registration here) has yet another story on investing in India and mentions the only India focussed mutual fund available in Canada: the Excel India Fund. The story quotes the fund’s CEO: “We’re the only game in town”. That may be, but there are other India-focussed funds available which have a longer [...]
Tags: Investing
Checking out RiskGrades
May 15th, 2005 · No Comments
The WSJ Sunday has a story on various tools that investors can use to measure portfolio risk. I decided to try out RiskGrades to find out how much risk I am taking with our personal portfolios and the Sleepy Portfolio.
RiskGrades assigns a number to each security depending on how risky it is (Cash has a [...]
Tags: Investing
Investing in Taiwan
May 14th, 2005 · No Comments
BusinessWeek magazine is running a special report on the importance of Taiwan to the global economy. In technology, Taiwan plays a leading role in making chips, notebook computers, LCD monitors, PDAs, digital cameras and servers. The lead story notes that the revenues of the top 25 key tech companies should hit $122 billion this [...]
Tags: Investing
Should I get a VoIP Phone Service?
May 13th, 2005 · No Comments
Recent events in Canada have made a VoIP phone service an attractive option. The CRTC has ruled that the large local phone companies like Bell and Telus would not be allowed to price their VoIP services below cost to stifle competition. Their smaller rivals like Vonage, Primus, Yak and the cable companies will be allowed [...]
Tags: Spending
Avoiding Retirement Mistakes
May 12th, 2005 · 2 Comments
While retirement seems so far out in the future, like a majority of Canadians, we don’t have defined benefit plans to rely on. The Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security may or may not be there for us. So, we are very keen on avoiding mistakes in saving for our retirement.
Money magazine has published [...]
Tags: Investing