By 2 Cents on April 30th, 2010 | Category: Economics | Some of the secret joys of living are not found by rushing from point A to point B, but by inventing some imaginary letters along the way.
~ Douglas Pagels
Update: This article was a Best Overall Carnival Post nominee in the Money Hacks Carnival #114 posted at Nerd Wallet. Thanks!
Today’s Friday Food for Thought is based on a recent article from The Economist that discussed the waning popularity of shareholder capitalism as advanced by Jack Welch and others. In this model of capitalism, “a firm’s sole aim should be maximizing returns to its shareholders”. This brand of capitalism has dominated the business landscape for the past 25 years or so.
Stakeholder capitalism, by contrast, is more concerned with the needs of customers, employees, suppliers, and society at large. Roger Martin, dean of [...]
Read on and enjoy … Shareholders vs. Stakeholders: Skipping Steps Is Costly
By 2 Cents on April 29th, 2010 | Category: Saving | I believe that thrift is essential to well-ordered living.
~ John D. Rockefeller
Updates: This post was chosen as the winner in the Best of Money Carnival #49 posted at Canadian Finance Blog. Thanks Tom! It was also included in the Carnival of Personal Finance #255 at Well Heeled.
Recently, Canadian Capitalist wrote about Auto & Home Insurance Premiums Going Up In Ontario and Rob Carrick lamented the sizable increases in home insurance premiums. Insurers are telling us that they are paying out more in claims and that their costs are rising. There’s not much we can do to get them to lower their premiums, so we might as well control what we can. Here are 10 ways to save on insurance:
1. Bundle & Save
[...]
Read on and enjoy … 10 Ways to Save on Insurance
By 2 Cents on April 27th, 2010 | Category: Economics | The only reason a great many American families don’t own an elephant is that they have never been offered an elephant for a dollar down and easy weekly payments.
~ Mad Magazine
Update: This article was included in the Carnival of Financial Planning #142 posted at The Digerati Life. Thanks!
I’ve heard a lot of people on both sides of the border extolling the virtues of the Canadian mortgage and banking system over the past year. Our mortgages are recourse loans, mortgage interest is not tax deductible, and our banking regulations are more stringent. We crafty Canucks have even managed to inflate a housing bubble during the worst recession since the Great Depression. Wait. Is that good?
If it sounds like that makes no sense, maybe it’s because it shouldn’t. Recessions are supposed to be a pause that refreshes [...]
Read on and enjoy … CMHC: Fannie Mae Canadian Style?
By 2 Cents on April 26th, 2010 | Category: Financial Literacy | The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.
~ Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy
As I mentioned in our last update, April is Financial Literacy Month in the United States. In Canada, the Task Force on Financial Literacy has been busy holding consultation meetings in cities across the country. Before I get to the roundup of great financial literacy articles, I’d like to remind you that you can win a copy of Your Money Ratios by Charles Farrell. Just comment on the book review by the end of the day this Friday, April 30th. I’ll randomly select the winner on Saturday and announce the winner on Sunday.
Here are some of the financial literacy articles I’ve found around the web since our last update:
Ellen Roseman testified at [...]
Read on and enjoy … Financial Literacy Update #4
By 2 Cents on April 23rd, 2010 | Category: Book Reviews | Don’t lapse into a high school math class coma; this is easy to grasp . . . If you know how old you are and how much you make, you can master your retirement planning.
~ Charles Farrell, Your Money Ratios
If you’re not a math fan, you might be turned off by the very title of this book: Your Money Ratios: 8 Simple Tools for Financial Security. Ratios? Simple? You’re kidding, right? This book is probably full of the charts and mathematical formulae that I happily put aside after graduation. It’s for all those propeller heads who are turned on by calculators, computers and endless numerical analysis.
I had some of the same apprehensions when the publisher of this book offered to send me a copy for review. Many of my concerns were put to rest once I began reading. Although I received a complimentary copy [...]
Read on and enjoy … Book Review: Your Money Ratios
By 2 Cents on April 22nd, 2010 | Category: Investing | Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you’re generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don’t make.
~ Donald Trump
Update: This article was included in the Carnival of Financial Planning #139 posted at Green Panda Treehouse.
Investing can be very confusing. At any given moment in time, you can find very smart people who will tell you that now is a great time to invest in stocks. These are the bulls. At the very same moment, you can find very smart people who will tell you that now is a terrible time to pile into stocks. These are the bears.
Today I’m going to present you with the opinions of [...]
Read on and enjoy … Bulls vs. Bears: Who’s Right?
By 2 Cents on April 20th, 2010 | Category: Economics | Truth is not determined by majority vote.
~ Doug Gwyn
Update: This article was included in the Money Hacks Carnival #113 at Learn Save Invest. Thank you!
This is the third and final post in our mini-series introducing some basic thoughts on capitalism. In the last installment we asked Is Capitalism Broken? Whether you think our economic system is fatally flawed, functioning well, or in need of some repairs, most of us would probably agree that there’s room for improvement – although I’m sure a few might want to debate whether our current system should even be called capitalism.
It seems to me that there are 4 main qualities that are lacking in our current version of capitalism. I’ll briefly describe each here, although if I thought about it long enough, I’m sure I could find a few more missing [...]
Read on and enjoy … Capitalism: The Missing Links
By 2 Cents on April 19th, 2010 | Category: Investing | Character is doing the right thing when nobody’s looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that’s right is to get by, and the only thing that’s wrong is to get caught.
~ J.C. Watts
By now, you’ve probably read about the fraud charges leveled against Goldman Sachs by the SEC south of the border. I was watching news coverage on CNBC on Friday. I would normally prefer to get the Canadian angle from BNN, but our recent budget cuts mean that I can’t get that channel anymore.
Sue Herera is one of my favourite CNBC journalists as she seems to be one of a select few on that channel who has maintained some level of professionalism. She tends to address issues authentically, refusing to join in when her co-anchors shout down their guests and colleagues. Soon after the Goldman story broke, she [...]
Read on and enjoy … Is the Stock Market Rigged?
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