Canadian Capitalist » Miscellaneous

H&R Block At Home 2011 Tax Software Giveaway

Canadian Capitalist — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:29:52 +0000

If you use H&R Block At Home to file your taxes, this giveaway is for you. Thanks to H&R Block, I’m giving away five (5) coupons that are good for downloading one copy each of H&R Block At Home desktop software (valued at $29.99 plus tax). Please note that the downloaded software will only work on PCs. A Mac version of the software is not available.

Entering the giveaway is real simple. Just leave a comment in this post and don’t forget to include a valid e-mail address. If you are reading this through your favourite RSS Reader or via-email, you have to click on the headline, get through to the website and scroll down to the bottom of the page and type in your comment.

Some quick rules:
(1) No purchase necessary. A skill-testing question may be required.
(2) Deadline for entries is 8 p.m. EST on Thursday, February 16, 2012.
(3) One entry per person please.
(4) I treat your privacy very seriously. Your email will be used for the sole purpose of contacting you if you happen to win.
(5) I’ll pick five (5) entries at random and announce the winner after the deadline. Thank you for entering and good luck!

PS: My weekly links post will be published over the weekend.

PPS: The winners in the TurboTax giveaway are Henria O., Chris and Andrew F. Thank you to everyone who entered.

Related Reading:

H&R Block At Home 2011 Tax Software Giveaway is brought to you by Canadian Capitalist -- Helping you to invest & prosper.

This and That: Pension Return Assumptions & TurboTax Giveaway

Canadian Capitalist — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:28:08 +0000

Aggressive Pension Return Assumptions: The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Zweig points out that many private pension plans have unrealistic expectations of double digit returns from stocks. On the other hand, Berkshire Hathaway, whose pension plan is overseen by Warren Buffett, expects stock returns to range between 8% and 9%.

Pricey Dividend Payers: This column in the New York Times points out that investors attracted to dividends should note that the sectors that a rich in dividend-payers such as utilities, REITS, health care and consumer staples are now trading at rich valuations.

Canada’s Housing Bubble: The Economist magazine weighs in on housing prices in Canada pointing out that the ratio of housing prices to income is now 30% above the historical average.

Modest Housing Returns: Larry Swedroe points out that a long view of history shows that returns from residential real estate are rather modest. In any case, he suggests that we think of housing as a consumption item rather as a pure investment.

TurboTax Online Giveaway

With T-slips and tax receipts starting to roll in, it is time for a tax preparation software giveaway. Thanks to Intuit, I’m giving away three (3) coupons that are good for any version of TurboTax Online (valued at $17.99 for Standard and $32.99 for Premium). As always, entering the giveaway is real simple. Just leave a comment in this post and don’t forget to include a valid e-mail address. If you are reading this through your favourite RSS Reader or via-email, you have to click on the headline, get through to the website and scroll down to the bottom of the page and type in your comment.

Some quick rules:
(1) No purchase necessary. A skill-testing question may be required.
(2) Deadline for entries is 8 p.m. EST on Thursday, February 9, 2012.
(3) One entry per person please.
(4) I treat your privacy very seriously. Your email will be used for the sole purpose of contacting you if you happen to win.
(5) I’ll pick three (3) entries at random and announce the winner after the deadline. Thank you for entering and good luck!

Related Reading:

This and That: Pension Return Assumptions & TurboTax Giveaway is brought to you by Canadian Capitalist -- Helping you to invest & prosper.

Under 40? Forget Retirement Planning

Canadian Capitalist — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:36:58 +0000

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s speech in Davos last week set off a mini firestorm when he briefly touched upon the need to make social programs sustainable as the population ages rapidly:

We have already taken steps to limit the growth of our health care spending over that period. We must do the same for our retirement income system. Fortunately, the centerpiece of that system, the Canada Pension Plan, is fully funded, actuarially sound and does not need to be changed. For those elements of the system that are not funded, we will make the changes necessary to ensure sustainability for the next generation while not affecting current recipients.

Newspapers immediately started speculating that the Federal Government is contemplating raising the age of eligibility for Old Age Security (OAS) from 65 to 67. Other rumours suggested that the Government might lower the threshold at which OAS benefits are clawed back. We might have to wait for Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to table the budget document for insight into exactly what the Federal Government is planning to do.

The current brouhaha clearly illustrates the futility of detailed retirement planning for anyone under 40 years of age because a lot can change in the quarter century left until retirement. Perhaps, as the rumours suggest, Old Age Security will be radically altered by the time today’s 40-year olds retire. There may even be significant changes made to the Canada Pension Plan. Therefore, younger Canadians should spend most of their energies in building a strong financial base — establishing a savings habit, investing the savings prudently, paying down debt etc. — and worry about the minutiae of retirement plans as they get closer to retirement.

Related Reading:

Under 40? Forget Retirement Planning is brought to you by Canadian Capitalist -- Helping you to invest & prosper.

Economic Impacts and Social Values of Credit Unions

Canadian Capitalist — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:01:00 +0000

[Note: The following is a guest post by Norm Klatt, Senior Vice-President at Concentra Financial, which made a winning bid of $5,000 in the Bloggers for Charity initiative. I thank them for the generous donation to charity.]

In today’s uncertain economic times, there’s value in taking a closer look at a group of reliable financial institutions that are operating within an under-utilized and largely misunderstood alternative business model. These organizations, which began in December 1900, are positioning themselves to re-assert their differences and become more prominent in the financial industry.

This alternative business model is a co-operative; the institutions are credit unions.

Adhering to a basic philosophy that the most important business strategy is to serve the member/owners has enabled credit unions to develop into the competitive organizations they are today. Understanding of, and adherence to, the co-operative principles is the raison d’etre for Canada’s credit unions.

If you weren’t already aware, 2012 has been designated International Year of Co-operatives by the United Nations. What better excuse to share some numbers about Canada’s 419 credit unions. According to the Credit Union Central of Canada, credit unions in Canada employ over 25,000 individuals to serve the 5 million-plus member/owners. This service is delivered in over 1730 credit union branches located in all areas of the country from the largest cities to small rural settlements. Credit unions hold over $117 billion in assets. Together, they constitute the second largest lender to small businesses in Canada…a significant contribution and critical to the economic strength of the country.

But, when talking about credit unions it is important to look behind or perhaps beyond the economic impact. In addition to lending to the businesses that fuel the economy, credit unions are critical to the community itself. In many instances, if it were not for the credit union, the community would not have access to a financial services provider. More often than not, employees of credit unions also live in the community they serve. This allows them the advantage of being able to understand the needs of that community and support the objectives that are important to its growth and well-being.

Credit unions epitomize ‘co-operative’ social responsibility by making a real and sustainable difference in the lives of their member/owners and their community. They lead the way in community giving and volunteerism; through donations, services, scholarships and volunteerism, credit unions contributed more than $37.5 million to individuals and organizations in their communities in 2010.

The small community of Churchbridge, Saskatchewan is a great example. One of the flagships of their community is the town’s public swimming pool. When the staff of Churchbridge Credit Union learned of the need to replace the worn, 40-year old relic, they dove right in as it were. By pioneering initiatives such as staff and board matched donations, holding community BBQs and offering town residents a 0% interest free loan program to encourage participation, over $32,000 was raised. And if that wasn’t enough, staff members voluntarily sat on the planning committee and worked on the building and on the fundraising efforts to support. A true community approach for the 900 residents.

There are success stories like this one all across Canada. With help from local credit unions, many communities continue to prosper, both economically, and in corporate giving thanks to the creation of the co-operative principles over 100 years ago. Those principles are still alive – and are a viable alternative for us all in 2012 and beyond.

Related Reading:

Economic Impacts and Social Values of Credit Unions is brought to you by Canadian Capitalist -- Helping you to invest & prosper.

Merry Christmas 2011

Canadian Capitalist — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:53:59 +0000

As you may have noticed, things are slow around here on the blog. The main reason is that I’ve been busy on a book project that I’m working on with a few other bloggers. I’m hoping that it is mostly out of the way now and I can go back to my regular posting schedule in the New Year.

Thank you to all the readers who entered in the Quicken Home and Business 2012 Giveaway. The winner, chosen at random is Philip S. I’ve contacted Philip with instructions on where to download Quicken. If you really, really must have a copy of Quicken, Intuit is selling it for $49.99 ($60 off the list price of $109.99) at participating retailers such as Staples, Best Buy and Future Shop between Dec. 26, 2011 and Jan. 6, 2012. (Thanks to gene for sharing this deal with readers.)

Before I sign off for the year, I want to take a moment to wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year. May 2012 bring joy and happiness and prosperity and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the Mayans, like most forecasters, were entirely wrong in their predictions.

Related Reading:

Merry Christmas 2011 is brought to you by Canadian Capitalist -- Helping you to invest & prosper.

Bloggers for Charity Update and Quicken Giveaway

Canadian Capitalist — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:57:51 +0000

The Bloggers for Charity initiative attracted a top bid of $5,000 (Five thousand)! A big thank you to Concentra Financial — the winner of the auction.

Quicken Giveaway

If you use Quicken money management software to track your finances or you want to give it try, this giveaway is for you. Thanks to Intuit, I’m offering one (1) download copy of Quicken Home and Business 2012 that has a list price of $109.99 to a reader of this blog. As always, entering the giveaway is super simple. Just leave a comment in this post and don’t forget to include a valid e-mail address. If you are reading this through your favourite RSS Reader or via-email, you have to click on the headline, get through to the website and scroll down to the bottom of the page and type in your comment.

Some quick rules:
(1) No purchase necessary. A skill-testing question may be required.
(2) Deadline for entries is 8 p.m. EST on Thursday, December 22, 2011.
(3) One entry per person please.
(4) I treat your privacy very seriously. Your email will be used for the sole purpose of contacting you if you happen to win.
(5) I’ll pick one entry at random and announce the winner after the deadline. Thank you for entering and good luck!

Related Reading:

Bloggers for Charity Update and Quicken Giveaway is brought to you by Canadian Capitalist -- Helping you to invest & prosper.

This and That: Interest rates, MF Global and more…

Canadian Capitalist — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:55:54 +0000

Before we dive into today’s round-up, an update on the Bloggers for Charity initiative. The top bid is currently $400 by Straight Talk Investing’s Dr. Dale Rathgeber. Thank you Dr. Dale! If you’d like to outbid Dr. Dale, please contact me directly.

Keeping Steady: The Bank of Canada decided to keep interest rates level this week. The Bank’s statement seems to suggest that interest rates are stuck at neutral but did note that it is monitoring economic developments carefully. The Prime Rate to which variable-rate mortgages and lines of credit are tied stays at 3.0 percent.

The Mystery of MF Global’s Missing Millions: MF Global was a large brokerage firm that recently filed for bankruptcy. Clients of the brokerage whose money was supposed to have been segreagated were stunned to discover that $1.2 billion of their funds was “missing”. A recent column in Thomson Reuters explained that the shortfall can likely be attributed to an aggressive circumvention of securities regulations.

Shootout over MERs: The National Post’s Jonathan Chevreau singles out Investors Group for it’s fee-laden mutual funds. Personally, I just wish that Canadians vote with their wallet for low(er) fees and mutual fund companies will quickly get the message.

How to lower your MERs?: If you are wondering how you can stop hating Investors Group and start loving lower MERs, you’ll find Rob Carrick’s recent column useful. In it, he highlights the mutual fund companies that offer low fee products.

Around the blogs

Preet Banerjee points out that Management Expense Ratios are *not* tax deductible but advisory fees charged directly *maybe*.

Canadian Financial Stuff featured a very funny post on financial bloggers. As someone who orders food at every meeting now, I take strong exception to his depiction of bloggers as tea drinkers!

Million Dollar Journey is celebrating the five year anniversary of his blog by giving away $1,000 worth of prizes. Congratulations!

My Own Advisor offered a review and three-part series of posts of favourite takeaways from the Millionaire Teacher.

Money Smarts Blog wonders if it is worth keeping a PC Financial accounts for the points alone?

If you have a contrarian bent and want to take advantage of the turmoil in Europe, Larry MacDonald has some ETF suggestions.

Michael James on Money says that dividend portfolios that contain 20 stocks, on average, do not incur much of a penalty in terms of returns.

Boomer and Echo offers some tips on protecting yourself from identity theft.

Related Reading:

This and That: Interest rates, MF Global and more… is brought to you by Canadian Capitalist -- Helping you to invest & prosper.

Check Online Banking Agreements before Using Mint.com

Canadian Capitalist — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 05:32:39 +0000

[A quick update on where the bidding stands in the Bloggers for Charity auction. The top bid now is $400 by Dr. Dale Rathgeber. If you'd like to make a bid, you may want to hurry. Bidding will close on December 16, 2011.]

A recent discussion on Canadian Money Forum over the advantages of using a financial aggregation service such as mint.com to track expenses reminded me of this earlier warning from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) about the possible risks involved in disclosing online banking and credit card information to third parties:

Consumers should be aware that if they disclose their online banking information to any other party, including financial aggregators, they may risk losing their protection against unauthorized transactions. Some financial institutions’ user agreements clearly state that users will be responsible for unauthorized transactions if they provide other parties, including financial aggregators, with their passwords and account information.

I looked up the terms and conditions of TD Canada Trust and RBC to check if disclosing id and password to aggregation services will completely void security guarantees against unauthorized transactions. TD Canada Trust’s online guarantee states: “TD Bank Group is not responsible for unauthorized access to accounts online or losses that occur as a result of you voluntarily disclosing your Access Card number, Connect ID, MyInsurance username and passwords, or the careless or improper handling, storing or disclosure by you of this information”. If I am reading this right, it means that a banking client will only be responsible if an unauthorized transaction were to occur as a result of disclosing ID and password to, say, mint.com but other unauthorized transactions would be covered by the guarantee.

The terms and conditions of RBC’s online access are very explicit regarding aggregation services (perhaps because RBC itself offers one called myFinanceTracker). RBC says that a client may choose to share her password with an aggregator but RBC will not be responsible for any losses that may result from the client sharing the password.

It seems to me that the online access terms of TD Canada Trust and RBC are not as draconian as I had assumed (i.e. disclosing passwords will invalidate security guarantees against *all* unauthorized transactions). Nevertheless, Canadians interested in signing up for Mint.com or similar aggregators should first check their online access terms and conditions to make sure they will not be losing protection against unauthorized transactions.

Related Reading:

Check Online Banking Agreements before Using Mint.com is brought to you by Canadian Capitalist -- Helping you to invest & prosper.

This and That: Dollar Liquidity Swaps, European fix and more…

Canadian Capitalist — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 03:46:56 +0000

The big news this week was the co-ordinated move by central banks in the US, Europe, Japan, Canada, England and Switzerland to enhance their capacity to provide liquidity support to the global financial system. If, like me, you are wondering what the heck the Central banks mean by dollar liquidity swaps, here is a very good explanation from CNN Money.

Radoslaw Sikorski is the Foreign Minister of Poland. In a recent speech in Berlin, he outlines how Europe could get past its current crisis through closer fiscal integration. It’s a brilliant speech and worth checking out for an excellent insight into the European crisis.

Segregated Funds often become popular when the stock markets start to wobble. Preet Banerjee points out that you should double check the contract to make sure you’ll actually be getting your money back.

Jon Chevreau made a very good point about ETFs: it is not trading volume of the ETF itself that matters, rather it is the liquidity of the underlying basket of securities.

Bloomberg ran an excellent story on how China’s housing boom has created large numbers of “housing slaves” who are struggling under crippling mortgage debt and are upset about a modest drop in home prices.

Here’s another column comparing returns from housing with that of the stock market while completely ignoring that the bulk of the returns from real estate comes in the form of rental payments.

Blog roundup will return next week. Have a great weekend everyone!

Related Reading:

This and That: Dollar Liquidity Swaps, European fix and more… is brought to you by Canadian Capitalist -- Helping you to invest & prosper.

This and That: Europe, Housing Prices and more…

Canadian Capitalist — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 03:31:26 +0000

The top bid in Bloggers for Charity is now $250. The top three bids were made by Glenn of InsuranceSquared, Dale Rathgeber ($200) and The Cynical Investor ($88.88). Thanks guys! Do I hear a bid for $300?

Events in European financial markets continue to dominate the headlines. It appears that the contagion is spreading now to the core of the Euro zone. The Economist magazine explained what’s going on — higher bond yields, trouble at European banks and the spectre of a credit crunch.

The Economist magazine also published a column comparing housing price valuation in different countries. It found that according to its measures, housing is undervalued (when compared to rents and income) in the US, Germany and Japan. It also found housing is significantly overvalued in Canada. The magazine’s interactive tool allows you to examine and compare housing prices indicators over time and between markets.

A new report from BMO Economics makes a strong case for diversification by sector, by asset classes and across international markets.

Perhaps this is a wee bit off-topic but a recent New York Times column on decluttering caught my eye. We could definitely do with getting rid of unused items.

Around the blogs

Trying to invest like the rich is like trying to become a surgeon by walking around in scrubs says Michael James.

My Own Advisor explains why he signed up for the MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus MasterCard.

Jim Yih of the Retire Happy Blog explains the basics of estate planning and probate in this article.

Canadian Couch Potato panned a recent article by a well-known commentator that encourages performance chasing.

Million Dollar Journey weighed in on a Canadian Money Forum discussion on whether it is realistic to earn $90,000 in salary by age 30.

Christmas is just around the corner and Canadian Financial Stuff has some tips to plan for the holiday expenses.

The Bank Nerd rounded up the best financial websites for Canadians.

Congratulations to Squawk Fox who got married on a shoe string budget.

Money Smarts Blog has a very good tip for these turbulent times: tune out the financial media.

Related Reading:

This and That: Europe, Housing Prices and more… is brought to you by Canadian Capitalist -- Helping you to invest & prosper.