By 2 Cents on January 31st, 2011 | Category: Life Balance |  To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
~e.e. cummings, 1955
Update: This article was selected for the Best of Money Carnival – 10 Investment Lessons Edition posted at The Dividend Guy, as well as the Carnival of Money Stories #92 posted at Sweating the Big Stuff. Thanks!
Have you ever taken an online personality quiz? There are all kinds out there. My son recently made me take one related to an online video game to determine what type of wizard I might be. Guess what? I was a Balance Wizard. Who’da thunk it?
Normally, I roll my eyes at these tests. Most of them are just for fun. But what about [...]
Read on and enjoy … Can a Personality Quiz Change Your Life?
By 2 Cents on January 28th, 2011 | Category: Book Reviews |  Play the song that is natural for you to play, in the way that is natural for you to play it, and in front of the fans that most need to hear it.
~ Scott Ginsberg
Update: This review was included in the Totally Money Blog Carnival #4 posted at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff. Thank you!
Scott Ginsberg has branded himself as “The Nametag Guy.” In fact, he’s all about branding, marketing and finding every way possible to make yourself more approachable. He writes a lot. His latest book, -Able offers “35 strategies for increasing the probability of success in business and in life.”
35 Ways to Be More Able
Each of the 35 chapters offers specific strategies to be more “able” in a certain area, and each offers a catch-phrase designed to crystallize the [...]
Read on and enjoy … Book Review: -Able
By 2 Cents on January 26th, 2011 | Category: Spending |  It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.
~Albert Einstein
Last week our electricity meter was taken out and replaced with a smart meter. I live in Ontario, the first Canadian province to install smart meters for all homes and small businesses. The program has cost about $1 billion and has been the source of much debate and political posturing.
I guess I should have done the research before the meter was installed, but human nature and my nature being what they are, I didn’t fully comprehend what the program was all about or how I felt about it until it actually happened. It looks like this type of program is going to be rolled out in British Columbia as well, so I thought I would write about the experience to give others an idea of what may be coming to their [...]
Read on and enjoy … Are Smart Meters a Dumb Idea?
By 2 Cents on January 24th, 2011 | Category: Retirement |  The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.
~J.K. Galbraith
Update: This article was included in the Canadian Personal Finance and Investing Carnival #14. Thanks!
January is already coming to a close and February will soon be upon us. In the Canadian financial realm, that usually means a mad dash by financial advisors and journalists to remind us that we only have a few weeks left to make the obligatory contribution to our RRSP, or face the reality of dining on Tender Vittles in our golden years. This year, however, there seems to be a bit of an RRSP backlash, with more than one article taking a not-so-fast tone to contrast the steady “RRSP now” drumbeat pounded out by some members of the financial services industry and media.
Recently, Jon Chevreau of the Financial Post reviewed [...]
Read on and enjoy … 5 Reasons to Skip the RRSP Contribution this Year
By 2 Cents on January 21st, 2011 | Category: Economics |  Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the THINKS you can think up if only you try!
~ Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Thinks You Can Think
Update: This article was included in the Umpteenth Weekly Carnival of Wealth at Control Your Cash. Thanks!
John Mauldin’s weekly e-letter is a must read for me. His yearly economic outlook letters, even more so. The second part of this year’s outlook came out on January 15th. In it, Mr. Mauldin is Thinking the Unthinkable, and that makes it a perfect subject for the first Friday Food for Thought of 2011.
For new readers, Friday Food for Thought is just an occasional feature at Balance Junkie where I devote a Friday post to an article I found interesting or thought-provoking. Sometimes I’ll choose a longer, more complex article [...]
Read on and enjoy … Unthinkable Thinks from John Mauldin
By 2 Cents on January 20th, 2011 | Category: BJ News | Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark; professionals built the Titanic.
~Author Unknown
Have you ever read a blog post and thought, “Hm. I could do better than that.” Well, now’s your chance to show off your writing chops. Credit Cards Canada is hosting the first ever Personal Finance Guest Blogging Contest. It just got under way January 10th and entries will be accepted until January 31, 2011.
Write a Blog Post and Win $1000
Best of all, if you win you’ll pocket $1000. There are 13 prizes in all, and Balance Junkie is proud to be a contributing sponsor. I’ll be one of the judges as well, and I’m looking forward to reading some great personal finance posts!
You don’t have to have a blog to enter. Anyone can submit a post and anyone can [...]
Read on and enjoy … Enter the Personal Finance Guest Blogging Contest
By 2 Cents on January 19th, 2011 | Category: Planning |  You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it.
~Charles Buxton
One of the things that’s been on my to do list for about 5 years now is to organize all of our personal and financial information in one place. That way, if something ever happened to me, my loved ones wouldn’t face the added burden of trying to figure out where our accounts, investments, and passwords are located. I have yet to check that one off my list.
I receive quite a few requests for book and product reviews here. As you may have noticed, I review a lot of books, but almost no products. I made an exception for Information Safe.
I found this piece of software pretty interesting, since it’s designed to accomplish the very goal I’ve been putting off for so long: creating a one-stop storage [...]
Read on and enjoy … Organize Your Personal Information with Information Safe
By 2 Cents on January 18th, 2011 | Category: Economics |  If inflation continues to soar, you’re going to have to work like a dog just to live like one.
~George Gobel
This is an excerpt of an article that was originally published yesterday as exclusive content on another site. You can read the whole thing on Seeking Alpha.
The Food Crisis of 2011 (Excerpt)
Our overview of 2011 What Ifs concentrated on the concepts of bifurcation and biflation. Those themes are already playing out just a couple of weeks into the New Year. Inflation in all types of commodities has ramped up even further, leaving countries like China, India, Brazil, Thailand and South Korea to deal with more than their fair share of these inflationary forces. Meanwhile, easy monetary policy in the U.S. and Europe just adds fuel to the inflation fire.
The [...]
Read on and enjoy … Why Are Commodity Prices Rising? Let Me Count the Ways
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