Canadian Capitalist

I’ve been impressed with the many free offerings from Google in the past and I regularly use Picasa, Google Desktop Search, Blogger and Google Earth. Recently, Google unveiled the next version of Desktop Search and in typical Google fashion, they have made the product better (like the ability to search PDF documents). They have also [...]

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As a new parent, I read the Financial Tips for Expecting Parents column on CNN Money and the New Parents’ Top 10 Mistakes on MSN Money with great interest. Both columns stress the need to:

Get adequate life insurance for both parents.

Get disability coverage for both parents. (I am glad we had disability coverage when [...]

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Jeff Rubin, of CIBC World Markets, predicts in a guest column in today’s Report on Business (no available online) that the TSX will hit 18,000 by the end of the decade, driven by bullishness in the energy sector. He says that energy stocks are currently pricing in $40-range oil and $5-range natural gas prices. CIBC, [...]

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Scott Burns argues that the main reason many young working families are broke is that they have children. The data in his column is revealing (and scary): if the cost of living of a young married couple is 100, having one child increases the index to 127, two children to 147 and keeps increasing as [...]

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BusinessWeek magazine is running a cover story on the meteoritic rise of China and a lesser extent India on the world economic stage and what it means for the global economy. China is already the manufacturing factory of the world, as a trip to the local Wal-Mart would indicate. Less obvious is India’s emergence as [...]

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I’ve been critical of our healthcare system in an earlier post. However, some parts of our healthcare system are working really well. When my wife recently had a baby, we received high-quality care from doctors and nurses during labour, delivery and post-partum. And we didn’t pay a penny from our pocket for the privilege. It [...]

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I’ve been busy for the past couple of days expanding the size of our family. Hopefully, I should be back to blogging in a few days. I hope everyone is having a great summer.

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The Globe and Mail listed five reasons why oil prices are high in today’s lead story. Seems to me that all five reasons are due to transitory factors.

This post on Random Roger’s Big Picture blog points out the importance of making allowances for mistakes in investing. Roger points out that if an investor decided that [...]

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The Globe and Mail newspaper’s lead story today refers to the not-so-surprising fact that the federal government is well on its way to post another surplus for the current fiscal year. In April and May 2005 alone, Ottawa posted a surplus of $3.1-billion. A strong economy and high energy prices are likely filling up Ottawa’s [...]

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A column (BugMeNot) in today’s The Toronto Star warns against underestimating the costs involved in owning a home. Costs involved in home ownership include (in addition to the mortgage):

Property taxes

Initial expenses like furniture, lawn tools etc.

Home Maintenance and Repairs

Higher home insurance

Heating

Electricity

Water and Sewer

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