Canadian Capitalist

I am introducing a new weekly feature to answer reader questions publicly. It helps me to publish a meaningful post and you get the extra benefit of feedback from other knowledgeable readers. You are welcome to contact me via email at ccapitalist(at)yahoo(dot)ca with “Reader Question” in the subject line and I will try my best [...]

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Margot Bai, the author of this new book kindly agreed to send me a copy for review. The idea behind the book is to show people how to save money by spending smartly on their biggest expenses like a home or a car, unlike other popular books that suggest that you should cut out small [...]

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About one year back, I did a review of The Smith Manoeuvre (SM) book and noted that the book should have talked about the pitfalls involved with the strategy. Many financial planners have left comments disagreeing with my review (though I reviewed the book, not the strategy) and I challenged one planner to show me [...]

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If you shopped at Winners or HomeSense last November, check your credit card statements for suspicious activity. Though Canadian banks are saying that there are no signs of fraudulent activity so far, stolen credit card information linked to TJX (the parent company of Winners) was used to make purchases in the US and other places.
Jack [...]

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RE/MAX Canada made news today by reporting that the average price of a home appreciated 264 per cent over a 25-year period, rising from $76,021 in 1981 to $277,000 in 2006. An executive with the real estate company had this to say:
Conventional wisdom used to be that real estate was a relatively safe, long-term investment [...]

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I’ve already downloaded QuickTax for doing our 2006 taxes (you can still get a $10 discount on QuickTax by downloading through the TaxWiz website) and I am not very keen on test-driving competing tax software products this year. The major products and their list prices appear to be the same as last year.
QuickTax Standard - [...]

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I found this mortgage tidbit in Rob Carrick’s latest book How to Pay Less and Keep More for Yourself (book review) fascinating:
As of mid-2006, the total amount of outstanding mortgages was worth roughly $660 billion, with about $80 billion of that representing new mortgages and the rest representing existing mortgages. Of that $580 billion or [...]

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The publicist for the author Sandra Sexton kindly sent me a copy of the book for review. Subtitled Learn what every Canadian should know about RSPs, stocks, mutual funds & more!, the author says that the book fills “a need for simple, concise, unbiased information for the novice investor.”
The book starts off on a correct [...]

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If you shop at Winners or HomeSense stores, you should be aware that hackers may have stolen your credit or debit card information. The parent company TJX Companies Inc. said in a press release that the full extent of the theft and affected customers is not yet known.
Another serious security breach involves CIBC (TSX: CM), [...]

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You might be reminded of the “hands in my pocket” commercial (or Rick Mercer’s “knee in my package” skit, as one commenter recently pointed out) when you think about our chartered banks. The banks tend to have a finger in every financial pie and some of their massive profits come directly out of the pockets [...]

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