By 2 Cents on May 4th, 2011 | Category: 20 Cents |  I’ve been pretty distracted lately with the whole house-hunting/moving to a new city thing, so I haven’t been able to follow the financial world as closely as usual. In spite of being out of town and preoccupied a fair bit in April, I was able to dig up some real gems for this month’s round-up. I hope you enjoy them!
1. Regular readers will recognize David Stockman’s name as I’ve referred to his writing a few times. He has some very strong views on the U.S. fiscal situation and the role of the Federal Reserve in the economy and the markets. He expressed those views again last month in a New York Times Op-Ed on The Bipartisan March to Fiscal Madness. Whether you agree with all of Mr. Stockman’s analysis or not, it’s nice to read some straightforward give-your-head-a-shake prose that’s not oozing [...]
Read on and enjoy … 20 Cents from April 2011
By 2 Cents on April 1st, 2011 | Category: 20 Cents |  So March has come to an end, and with it, the first quarter of 2011. This month brought plenty of earth-moving events for the economy, the markets, and for me personally. We’ve had several long-standing governments fall, as well as upheaval in many others.
We watched our Japanese friends struggle with a mammoth earthquake, tsunami, and ongoing nuclear disaster. Political discourse seems to hit new lows around the globe each day. And yet life goes on and those of us who are lucky enough not to have been directly affected by these events feel just a little luckier, and hopefully, very thankful to be out of the fray.
As always, the ten servings of two cents I’ve compiled this month are quite varied and completely inadequate in capturing of all of the great articles out there. Nonetheless, I detect a sort of “think outside the box” [...]
Read on and enjoy … 20 Cents from March 2011
By 2 Cents on March 2nd, 2011 | Category: 20 Cents |  I don’t know whether it’s some kind of recency bias or just a coincidence, but I found many of the articles in today’s roundup on the last day of February. Maybe everyone was saving their best for last. Either way, I hope you find the articles in today’s collection as informative and thought-provoking as I did!
1. Let’s start today with a wonderful article from my hometown newspaper. Anne Jarvis of The Windsor Star has some thoughtful insights on the cultural shifts that have led to many of us Living Beyond Our Means.
2. Miranda Marquit of All Business asked Has Personal Debt Really Been Going Down? This is based on U.S. credit card stats, but considering that the Canadian savings rate is now below that of our neighbours to the south, I’m sure we can draw similar conclusions north of the 42nd parallel.
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Read on and enjoy … 20 Cents from February 2011
By 2 Cents on February 2nd, 2011 | Category: 20 Cents |  So the first month of 2011 is already over. How are those 2011 goals coming along? Are you still on track? I’ve had a couple of setbacks myself, but I’m not taking it lying down. I’m taking some corrective actions and I hope to be able to report that they worked!
Without further delay, here are a few of my favourite articles from January of 2011. This is a mere sampling of the great information out there. I highlight lots of other articles each day on Twitter. You can follow me @BalanceJunkie.
1. At Today’s Economy Blog, Kevin Press wrote about Muskoka Chairs and Unanswerable Questions. The article captured the retirement anxiety many of us feel at this time of year as financial services firms “pose virtually unanswerable questions about how much you need to save for retirement that leave people feeling like [...]
Read on and enjoy … 20 Cents from January 2011
By 2 Cents on December 31st, 2010 | Category: 20 Cents |  I hope you have all been enjoying a relaxing holiday season. I’ve been keeping a much lighter writing schedule over the past couple of weeks, but I’ll be back at it by Monday. In the meantime, I did take a break from festivities long enough to put together this great collection of articles from the final month of 2010. Enjoy!
1. The Oblivious Investor had a great post on Annuity Payouts: Why Are They Higher Than Bond Rates? Annuities are one of the elements of financial planning that I don’t know a great deal about, but I intend to learn a lot more this year, and this article was a good start.
2. Jim Yih asked Is Understanding Economics Important to Personal Finance? Of course, I think a basic understanding of the economic climate is a good idea, [...]
Read on and enjoy … 20 Cents from December 2010
By 2 Cents on December 1st, 2010 | Category: 20 Cents |  This is a special edition of our monthly 20 Cents roundup. Balance Junkie was born one year ago today. It’s been a pretty eventful year in the financial world, and I’m grateful to everyone who has shared their thoughts here over the past 12 months.
I hope to continue to grow our community in the coming year as well, but I’ve been told I need to be a little more forceful with self-promotion. It’s not something I’m terribly comfortable with, so if you know anyone who is interested in personal finance, economics, and life balance, please don’t be shy about mentioning BJ or forwarding articles you find particularly interesting. If you want to suggest anything you’d like to see more of on BJ, go ahead and send me an email.
I’d like send out a special note of thanks to Balance Junkie readers and to my [...]
Read on and enjoy … 20 Cents from November 2010: BJ First Anniversary Edition
By 2 Cents on November 1st, 2010 | Category: 20 Cents | I hope everyone had fun on Halloween. (I’ll probably be living with a sugar hangover for the next couple of days.) There were too many great articles this month for me to include even a fraction of them here, so I tried to choose a selection that included some new sites that you might not be familiar with yet, as well as some continuing favourites.
As always, if you want to know more about what I’m reading, you can follow me on Twitter @BalanceJunkie. Enjoy this month’s collection!
1. Jackie from Money Crush had some sage Advice from Yoda as part of her 31 Days to a Better Bank Balance project. I wasn’t into Star Wars at all until my 3 boys came along, but now I’m very fluent in all things related to the saga. Yoda is without a doubt [...]
Read on and enjoy … 20 Cents from October 2010
By 2 Cents on October 1st, 2010 | Category: 20 Cents | Another month has passed all too quickly and it’s time to round up a few of my favourite articles from September. How quickly 2010 is slipping away! It seems like just yesterday I was writing up a few ideas on 2010 What Ifs for the New Year. Now it’s time to start thinking about what 2011 might hold!
I read a lot of great articles everyday. I can’t include all of them here, but I usually highlight them on Twitter. You can follow me @BalanceJunkie.
1. Canadian Finance Blog has recently launched Money Index, a website that aggregates all kinds of financial content for you. It’s a great resource for anyone interested in personal finance and investing. I’ve added a widget to get you there on the right sidebar. In case you’re interested, you can find Balance [...]
Read on and enjoy … 20 Cents from September 2010
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