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Claim Charitable Donations On Only One Spouse's Tax Return
2008-03-04 23:15:00
The CRA allows you to pool together the charitable donations you and your spouse make and claim them on one tax return if you so desire. This is desirable since it would increase the tax savings for the household overall. For example, let's assume that a married couple John and Mary (living in Ontario) both make eligible charitable contributions of $200 to registered Canadian charities for the 2007 tax year. If they were to each claim the donations on their respective tax returns they would each generate a tax savings of $43.10 each for a total household savings of $86.20. If they were to instead claim the charitable donations on only one of their returns they would generate a total tax savings of $135.92. This is because the first $200 generates a non-refundable tax-credit equivalent to the lowest marginal tax bracket in your province and any amount over $200 generates a credit based on the highest marginal tax bracket in your province.Let's do the math:Scenario 1 - Each spouse d...
More About: Return , Donations

Charitable Donations Tax Credit
2008-03-03 21:16:00
You might have figured out by now that the Government incentivizes behaviour with tax treatment. In other words, if they want to encourage something they will reduce taxes associated with that behaviour (like saving for retirement). If they want to discourage something they might apply extra taxes (sin taxes like on cigarettes).Well, giving to charity is something that they would like to encourage so they provide a special Charitable Donation Tax Credit which can help to reduce your tax bill. The first $200 dollars receives a tax credit which is basically equivalent to the lowest combined marginal tax bracket in your province. Every dollar above that limit will generate a credit which is basically equivalent to the highest combined tax bracket for your province. There is a limit as to how much you can claim which is 75% of your net income for a given year except in the year of your death and the year before your death in which case it is 100% of your net income.Frugal Trader from T...
More About: Donations , Tax credit

Convert your RRSP to a Defined Benefit Pension when you retire (?)
2008-02-29 04:52:00
I think that in the DIY investor world, the propensity to convert an RRSP to a RRIF is strong. The same is probably true for those who use an advisor as well. In fact, approximately 75% of RRSPs are eventually converted to RRIF (Registered Retire ment Income Fund) accounts. The title of this post isn't entirely accurate (you can't actually convert your RRSP to a defined benefit pension plan per se), but you can convert your RRSP into a structure that mimics a Defined Benefit Pension Plan through the use of a life annuity.Defined Benefit pensions are envied by some since you eliminate a lot of unknowns for your retirement income planning such as the risk of running out of money. The major counter argument is that with a RRIF account you can possibly increase the pot and potentially have a higher overall retirement income by earning a higher internal rate of return than is normally afforded by an annuity. As always, there is a tradeoff - you are trading the risk of running out of mon...
More About: Convert , Retirement planning

TFSA Tax Free Savings Account Strategies
2008-02-28 04:12:00
I'm trying to think of some various strategies for using the TFSA:1. If you have a non-registered account with corporate class mutual funds and they have a t-class available for ROC distributions, you could elect to start the ROC withdrawals and slowly convert the portfolio into the TFSA account. Eventually your ACB will be ground down to zero in the non-registered account, but you will also be transferring to a tax-sheltered environment without having to pay the higher fee associated with corporate class funds.2. There is a huge opportunity for estate planning as you can pass TFSA assets tax-free to your spouse, and then to your children. Assuming the children will be building up unused room then might even have the means to accept the transfer right into a TFSA of their own.3. You can maximize your RRSP and put the refund into the TFSA.4. You can contribute to an RRSP in a high-income year and make a withdrawal in a low income year (capitalizing on the differential between tax ra...
More About: Free , Strategies , Retirement planning , Savings , Account

TFSA - Tax-Free Savings Account Announced in 2008 Canadian Budget
2008-02-26 22:44:00
Starting in 2009, Canadian residents who are over 18 years of age will be eligible to contribute $5,000 per year to a TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account). Unused contribution room will be carried forward. Any investments inside this account (which is registered) will be tax-exempt and allowed to grow on a tax free basis.In fact, to understand this account, think of it as like an RRSP except your contributions are not deductible. Conversely, the withdrawals are completely free of tax as well. The other major difference is that when you do make a withdrawal - you are credited with an equal amount of new contribution room being generated!Other notes:Income earned inside the account and withdrawals from the account WILL NOT affect eligibility for federal income-tested benefits and credits (this is a good thing)You can contribute to a spouse or common-law partner's TFSAAssets in the plan are transferrable to the TFSA of a spouse or common-law partner upon death.You can hold any investment i...
More About: General , Budget

James Simons made $1.7 Billion in 2006 as a Money Manager
2008-02-26 03:24:00
James Simons is not that well known considering he:A) Earned $1.7 Billion in 2006B) Guided his hedge fund to an annualized net rate of return of 36% for the 19 years ending 2006First let's explain how his 2006 pay packet was derived. His hedge fund charges a management fee of 5% plus a performance fee of 44%. That's pretty steep. What's even more astonishing is that the fund earned a gross return of 79% in 2006. The fund, the Renaissance Technology Corp. Medallion fund, is closed to new investors and was managing roughly $6 billion in 2006.Some other information that is worth noting:Simons earned a bachelor's degree in math from M.I.T. and later a Ph.D in math from the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught math at M.I.T. and Harvard, and once worked as a code-breaker for the Department of Defense. He is the co-developer of the Cherns-Simons theory (a mathematical theory). His hedge fund management company employs over 80 Ph.Ds. It has been rumoured that the trading a...
More About: Money , Manager , Made , James

RRSPs Don't Always Make Sense
2008-02-25 06:15:00
I realized there have been a few posts within the blogosphere this past week about when using an RRSP might not be a good idea. I'll weigh in on this in a separate post, but in the meantime you can read the following posts from other bloggers who have hit on the main points:Larry MacDonald's Investment Ideas blogThe Canadian Capitalist blogAlso, for anyone who is interested in putting a face to a name, I'll be appearing on MoneyLine with Linda Leatherdale this Wednesday, February 27th at 7pm EST on Rogers Cable 15 (it might be a different channel in your neighbourhood). It's an hour long call-in show. The topic for the show? RRSPs naturally! :) Subscribe to the free Email Updates to learn more about personal finance.If you use a feed reader, you can click here to add my RSS feed.If you like this blog, you might like my book:  RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans
More About: Sense , Make , Retirement planning

Was selling Manhattan for $24 such a bad idea?
2008-02-22 02:35:00
The sale of Manhattan by the natives to Peter Minuit in 1626 often includes a mention of the estimated sale price. The actual exchange was apparently for some trade goods which is estimated to have been worth $24. Often the view that the natives were short-changed is expressed in the same breath. I don't know what the value of Manhattan would be today, but if we assume that $24 grew at a real rate of return of 5 - 6% (extrapolating the long term rate of return for real estate as sourced from Dr. James DeLisle's paper: 'Real Estate: A Distinct Asset Class or an Industry Sector?', 1995), we might have a better idea...$24 x 5% real rate of return x 382 years = $2.98 Billion$24 x 6% real rate of return x 382 years = $111.44 BillionIt's amazing the impact of 1% isn't it? :)If we try to figure out what $24 dollars was worth in today's dollars back in 1626 we just calculate using the long term rate of inflation which most seem to agree on as being roughly 3%. Applying the math, we f...
More About: Selling , Idea

Dow Jones rejects Google
2008-02-21 03:16:00
My brother sent me a link (which you can read here) that mentioned that Google was not included in the Dow Jones Industrialized Average (DJIA) during recent changes to the index. The link gives the story and also posits that the real reason for the omission was not the official reason given, but rather that the Dow is actually a price-weighted index as opposed to being a market-cap weighted index like virtually all other indices.A price-weighted index means that the index constituents are assigned a more significant weight in the index if the stock's price is high. Originally there were only 11 constituents but now there are 30. It used to be you would just take the price of the 11 stocks and divide by 11 to give you the average but the Dow Jones Index was created in a time where there were no stock splits. Now, to account for splits and reverse-splits they publish what is known as the Dow Divisor - which is just a number that replaces the original 11 (or 30) that reflects the chan...

Viaticals Continued: The Transition to Life Settlements
2008-02-20 02:18:00
As a follow up to the recent post on viaticals, let's look at 'life settlements' (not to be confused with structured settlements). The concept is basically the same, where an investor can purchase a life insurance policy from someone who might be willing to exchange the death benefit for a lump sum while they are alive. The difference is that a viatical is defined as such an arrangement where the life insured is diagnosed as terminally ill with only a few years left to live. A life settlement, on the other hand, applies to life-insureds who may have many more years left to live (i.e. a senior citizen with a slowly-progressing degenerative condition, or even just someone who is very old). It's big business in the States, mostly on an institutional level. It is pretty much prohibited in Canada save for a few provinces although Canadian investors can invest in packaged life settlements issued in the States. Here is some of the terminology to be aware of:Viator: The terminally ill l...
More About: Life , Transition , Settlements

Over 1 in 3 new homeowners in the States owe more than their houses are wor
2008-02-15 02:48:00
This is a bit of a scary thought, but of all the people who bought homes in the United States within the last two years, 39% of them owe more money on their mortgages then their houses are worth. 39% is getting awfully close to HALF. Of course this is a very scary thought - and here are two main factors as to why that might be:1. Falling house prices2. Small or no down paymentsBack when you actually had to have a down payment you had immediate equity in your house. But since zero-down mortgages became available you started out with zero equity. These mortgages were used partly because people just thought housing always went up - and some mortgage brokers may have been chasing commissions (once the mortgage is in place - they are out of the picture). The housing bull market (until now) had been the longest in history - and many first time homeowners weren't old enough to remember the last housing market decline - perhaps they were under the illusion that housing markets didn't decl...
More About: Houses , Homeowners

Viatical Settlements: Making money on the terminally ill...
2008-02-14 05:33:00
A bit of a morose title I suppose, especially with it being Valentine's Day... Nonetheless, a viatical settlement is the transaction that takes place when the owner (and the life-insured) of a life insurance policy sells the insurance policy (and beneficiary designation) to an investor for a set amount when the life-insured is diagnosed terminally ill (within two years of dying).Let me explain with an example. Let's suppose John is diagnosed with a terminal illness and is expected to die in two years time. He owns a $500,000 life insurance policy. Therefore his beneficiary will get $500,000 when John passes. But John is in need of money now so that he can pay for a full time nurse in a full time nursing home (for potentially two years). There are some clauses within insurance contracts that allow for a certain percentage of the death benefit to be paid to you before you die if you are in such a situation - let's say the amount that can be paid is 10% - so in this case John *might...
More About: Money , Settlements

Spiders, Vipers and Diamonds: Some Investing Lingo
2008-02-13 01:15:00
I've heard people from different industries talk about how many acronyms they have to put up with, and I'll put forth that there can't possibly be an industry with more acronyms, short forms, nicknames, etc. than the financial services! Here are three colloquialisms relating to indexing products:'Spiders ' aka SPDRs: Standard & Poor's Depositary ReceiptThis is an exchange traded fund that tracks the S&P500 index - Gross Expense Ratio is 0.10%. These days, the term 'spiders' also refer to the depositary receipts that track specific sectors within the S&P500 - for example, you can hold a spider that tracks:Consumer DiscretionariesConsumer StaplesEnergyFinancialsHealth Care Industrials Materials TechnologyUtilitiesThe average expense ratio for spiders that track individual sectors is 0.23%. 'Vipers ' aka VIPRs: Vanguard Index Participation Receipts Basically the same thing except these ETFs are actually a new share class of existing Vanguard Funds' Index Mutua...
More About: Diamonds , Investing

A Touchscreen Blackberry and another iPhone price drop?
2008-02-12 04:02:00
There have been rumours for sometime about a touchscreen Blackberry , and it would seem that we are one step closer to that reality as it has been reported that RIM has filed a patent for an upcoming touchscreen device. Of course, to be successful in the corporate world, a touchscreen keyboard will never work fast enough (for now) to keep mobile professionals happy. However, other rumours indicate a slide out keyboard may also be in the works. Also of note, is that time to market is expected to be relatively quick - i.e. this summer! This is timely for me as I recently lost my Blackberry in the snow at a friend's house. I think I dropped it on my way to the door from my car, and while I was in talking to one of my friends, the other half of the couple was shovelling. Needless to say, my blackberry is in a huge snowbank. Instead of wading though the massive snowbanks, I'll just wait for the snow to melt and pick up the remnants (I can get a free replacement with the insurance I have...
More About: Iphone , General , Price , Touchscreen

Flow Throughs versus Super Flow Throughs, Shares versus Limited Partnership
2008-02-11 03:12:00
A couple of months ago I wrote a few posts on Flow Through Shares (and limited partnerships). For a brief explanation of what a Flow Through Share is, click here to read my original post. Additionally, you can read a follow up post on one way some aggressive investors have incorporated them into their portfolios through 2 year ladders.First, I want to re-iterate that any flow-through investment is generally a very risky proposition - so make sure to consult with a qualified financial advisor if you want more information - they are certainly not for the faint of heart!There are a couple of notes that I wanted to add to the original discussion: 1) The difference between Flow Through Shares and Flow Through Limited Partnerships and 2) The difference between Flow Through Shares and Super Flow Through Shares.A Flow Through Share is just an investment in one company. A Flow Through Limited Partnership is a group of companies that qualify for the tax credits that are lumped together for th...
More About: Versus

After-Hours Trading Explained
2008-02-08 03:37:00
Every now and then you will see or hear about some frenzied "after-hours trading" or "pre-market activity" for certain stocks. You might also be wondering why you can't get in on the action yourself. I thought I would give a brief overview of after-hours trading today.What is it?After-hours trading is supposed to refer only to the trading that takes place after the market closes (after 4pm), but it seems to be generally recognized as all trading that occurs outside of regular market hours (9:30am - 4:00pm). There are numerous names for it: After-hours trading, extended hours trading, late trading, and pre-market activity (in the mornings).How did it originate?It started out as trading between institutional players and high net worth individuals, but with the advent of ECNs (Electronic Communication Networks) and the quickly growing online investing industry, eventually it became available to the regular retail investor in the late 90's.How do you participate?Th...
More About: Trading , Hours

Charge Cards versus Credit Cards
2008-02-07 20:56:00
I remember one of the first things about money I remember learning from my father was that there was a difference between charge cards and credit cards. I don't know why this has always stayed with me, but it has. And everyone now and then I will hear the words charge card and credit card being used interchangeably - but there is a difference between the two.Everyone is familiar with credit cards - they are fairly ubiquitous. I'll instead point out the main difference of a charge card from a credit card: a charge card is meant to be paid off in full every month. They originated as early as the 1890's according to some articles I've read. They were normally used by merchants for their customers as a way of allowing them to make purchases more easily "on the spot" and then pay at the end of the month. Back then the charge cards could only be used at one place - of course these, days you can use them at many different merchants.Instead of charging you interest on carrying...
More About: Credit Cards , Credit , Charge , Versus , Cards

Do you have to be rich to run for president?
2008-02-06 03:40:00
It's certainly not a requirement, but I read an interesting article in Money magazine that gave a bit of background on the net worths of seven of the original candidates. Here are the highlights...Mitt Romney - $202 Million (Net Worth in US Dollars)John Edwards - $54 MillionRudy Giuliani - $52 MillionJohn McCain - $40 MillionHillary Clinton - $39 MillionFred Thompson - $8 MillionBarack Obama - $1 MillionClick here to link to the online version of the article. It provides a bit of background behind the numbers and is an interesting read...  Subscribe to the free Email Updates to learn more about personal finance.If you use a feed reader, you can click here to add my RSS feed.If you like this blog, you might like my book:  RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans
More About: President , Rich , General

What do Martha Stewart, Paul Gauguin, and Brian Dennehy have in common?
2008-02-03 02:51:00
Entrepreneur Martha Stewart , actor Brian Dennehy and French impressionist painter Paul Gauguin were all stockbrokers early on in their lives! In fact, Martha Stewart and Brian Dennehy both worked for the same Wall Street firm (no longer in existence).From what I have read, the firm went under due to a scandal that involved some of the firm's principles receiving kickbacks from a company whose stock they were selling. I was not aware of Stewart's history on Wall Street and I'll have to re-read all the articles about her insider trading conviction!Stewart's conviction was for selling shares of ImClone stock on inside information. From what I understand, her daughter had dated the CEO of ImClone and he and other company executives sold off many shares the day before an FDA ruling on one of their drugs was announced (in which a certain drug was not approved for use). But it seems that Stewart received the inside information during a call from her stockbroker's assistant in which he...
More About: General , Common

Writing Covered Calls Just Got A Whole Lot Easier!
2008-02-02 01:38:00
For those who are familiar with writing covered calls, keep reading because if you've ever wanted to implement a disciplined covered call writing strategy you can do so with a new ETF that was launched in December.If you are not familiar with covered calls (or the basics of options) then I *strongly* recommend you take a look at a series of guest posts I wrote for The Million Dollar Journey. Read the series by clicking here - then come back and read the rest of this post.First, allow me to point you to the BXM - the BuyWrite Index on the S&P500. This index tracks holding the S&P500 index and writing a monthly call option on the index in perpetuity. Blindly writing covered calls like this trades a bit of upside potential for reduced portfolio volatility and some downside protection. For example, here is the performance and standard deviation data from June 1988 to December 2004 - just over 17 years:S&P500 Index Annualized Return: 12.1%S&P500 Index Standard Deviation:...
More About: Writing , Calls , Covered

Money Movie Giveaway Winner for January!
2008-02-01 05:59:00
The winner of the first of six Money Movie Giveaways for 2008 is "The Reverend" - congratulations!The Reverend has his/her choice of the following six movies:1. Wall Street2. Boiler Room3. Casino4. Ocean's Eleven (The Original from 1960)5. Trading Places6. Glengarry Glen RossWhatever movie the Reverend chooses will be removed from the list for March's draw (which will be for a chance to win one of the remaining five titles). Make sure to stay tuned in! I'll be contacting The Reverend directly and sending the movie on Monday.I'm also pleased to announce that traffic to this blog is up over 70% from last month - thanks to all the new readers who have made that possible and I hope you are all enjoying the content...If you are looking for something more substantive to read, then you might enjoy the interview I had with a former lawyer who runs the blog Thicken My Wallet (love the title): You can read Part I here and Part II here.  Subscribe to the free Email Updat...
More About: General , January , Winner

Selecting a Financial Planner
2008-01-31 03:54:00
A reader asked a question regarding how to select a financial planner. I've been humming and hawing trying to figure out the best advice to provide on how to go about doing this. I decided to do a Google search on that very question. There were a number of things I noticed:1. There are lots of "checklists" out there on how to pick a financial advisor.2. Many of those checklists are written by financial advisors.3. Just as many of those checklists are written by financial advisor association groups. (Who basically steer you to one of their members)4. I couldn't find any truly good lists/articles (mind you I only looked for about 10 minutes, but it was all the same stuff over and over).There were some common themes such as trustworthiness, fee structures, designations, references, etc. Yes those are important, but how would you know what's what in the first place? The other major theme is that they all assume that you should just download all your financial responsibility...
More About: Financial , Planner

The RRSP Book Gets National Press
2008-01-30 03:34:00
I was quite surprised to see that Tuesday's National Post included a 3/4 page article on yours truly! I had a great chat with Jonathan Chevreau after he agreed to take a look at the RRSP book. You can read the article that appeared in the paper here. (I say 'surprised' because I didn't think it would be such a lengthy article.) Mr. Chevreau even posted a follow up article on his blog, The Wealthy Boomer. You can read the follow up by clicking here. You'll note that there was a fair bit of coverage on some of the products I use (or don't use). I had some phone calls with mutual fund providers and ETF manufacturers today as a result - slightly different conversations though. :)If you would like to order your own copy of The RRSP Book - click here to visit the secure website for purchase. *Don't forget, only one more day to enter the Money Movie Giveaway! All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on the contest post and you are entered to win a free DVD. Click here to ...
More About: General , Press

Build Your Own Principal Protected Notes
2008-01-29 03:24:00
*An intermediate level topic today. Principal Protected Notes have many critics - mostly because of the fees and all the clauses that seem to favour the issuer as opposed to the investor. For those who are not familiar with Principal Protected Notes (PPNs), essentially they are investments that will guarantee your principal investment for a set number of years, while at the same time allowing for the participation in the gains of riskier investments (if they make money).So on the surface, it would seem that you are getting the best of both worlds. You are guaranteed not to lose money as long as you hold your investment for a set period of time (normally around 5-7 years), and if the "linked" investment (like the broad Canadian index, or a foreign market index, etc.) makes money, then you make money too.There are many tradeoffs however. A GIC would outperform the PPN if the markets go down since all that is guaranteed is your original investment. Often, if the linked m...
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Are you saving comfortably? Maybe it's time to up the ante...
2008-01-28 03:06:00
Usually when the new year rolls around, I will suggest to my clients who are saving through PAC plans (Pre-Authorized Contributions) to increase their regular contributions by a set percentage (usually by inflation if not more). The main reason is that they have normally gotten used to their regular savings activities, and while there may have been some "teething" problems at the beginning, maybe now it is not "cramping their style" anymore.For example, let's say someone set up a $100/month savings plan at the beginning of 2007. Come the New Year, I would ask them if they would like to try saving $110/month for a few months. The next year, we might increase to $121/month (a 10% increase over 2008), and so on. These baby steps are much easier to adjust to and over time it can make a big difference to one's retirement planning.For example, let's look at someone who saves $100/month starting at age 18 until age 65, assuming a 7% rate of return (no tax calculation...
More About: Time , Saving , Retirement planning

Money Movie Giveaways! Win a free DVD!
2008-01-24 16:55:00
I mentioned that I would be running some exciting promotions on this blog and here is the first! I'm going to be giving away a DVD Movie about Money every two months - and the movies were all featured on the Forbes list of "Top Movies about Money".1. Wall Street2. Boiler Room3. Casino4. Trading Places5. Glengarry Glen Ross6. Ocean's Eleven (The original from 1960)Every two months I will be running a give-away and picking a winner at random and they will have their pick of one of the above listed movies. Once a winner picks a movie, it will be removed from the list. So the first winner will have their pick of any of the above listed movies. If he/she picks Wall Street (for example), then March's winner will have their choice of the 5 remaining titles, etc. I will announce winners at the end of January, March, May, July, September, and November - for a total of 6 winners.To enter this month's contest, you just have to leave a comment on this post before midnight, January...
More About: General , Giveaways , Free

The Toronto Maple Leafs are Hockey's Most Valuable Team at $413 Million
2008-01-24 02:50:00
Ah yes, the business of sports is a whacky one. Athlete salaries are reaching new highs every year as are the brands of the teams themselves. The Toronto Maple Leafs are hockey's most valuable team according to Forbes magazine. (This clearly has nothing to do with how well the team is performing.)Here is a list of the the most valuable teams of different sports:7. US Auto Racing - Roush Fenway NASCAR Team - $316 Million 6. Hockey - Toronto Maple Leafs - $413 Million5. Basketball - New York Knicks - $608 Million4. Baseball - New York Yankees - $1.2 Billion3. World Football - Manchester United - $1.4 Billion2. American Football - Dallas Cowboys - $1.5 Billion1. World Auto Racing - Ferrari Formula One Team $3 BillionI was in the auto racing industry in my prior life, and am still passionate about racing. For anyone who is interested, I've included a neat video that tries to determine what is faster: An F1 car, a super-bike or a power boat. If you'll note the attention to detail and q...

Why Do Analysts Work For A Living?
2008-01-23 02:23:00
I studied neuroscience in university and I was supposed to be a bio-tech stock analyst when I first got into the financial industry - but as I was studying for the preliminary exams I found myself more attracted to the financial planning aspects of finance. I'm pretty happy in retrospect that I picked financial planning...I'm jesting that analysts shouldn't be working for a living if they truly believed what they preached - since they should be able to make money in all conditions and environments, right? Of course they are only putting forth the views they have based on the information available to them - and I'm sure they do a much, much better job at that than I could ever do. But the problem then, must be that they do not have all the correct information in front of them, right? I'm not doubting their intelligence and powers of deductive reasoning - just pointing out a logical argument.A case in point, here are some predictions from the same analyst (some consider him to be...
More About: Living , Work , Anal

TSX Drops 600 points in one day and I'm not worried
2008-01-22 00:02:00
The TSX dropped 604.99 points today for a percentage loss of 4.75%. If this kind of movement has caused you to second guess your asset allocation you're probably not alone. Which brings me to the real point of today's post. It's not to try and show off my nerves of steel, but rather to point out a personal belief that most people over-estimate their risk tolerances.I'll put forth that my premise for saying this is simply because if you had your risk tolerance nailed down before the market volatility hit, you would not be considering making any changes to your asset allocation going forward if you rely on a financial advisor and/or take a passive approach to long-term investing.I think the problem with getting the right asset allocation is that sometimes people try to emulate a "model investor" when they are setting things up (perhaps by taking a risk tolerance questionnaire). Couple that to the fact that the market conditions at the time of set up probably skew your an...
More About: Points , Worried

$5,000 to Children in Canada who Don't Smoke Throughout Highschool...
2008-01-19 20:47:00
*Note: Do you own due diligence, and the opinions expressed in this piece are for informational and entretainment purposes only. The math has not been verified by an outside source and it is possible that my calculations are completely wrong.* I heard on the radio yesterday that there was a new Canadian charity (The R.E.W.A.R.D.S. Foundation) which has been set up that promises to pay kids $5,000 upon graduating from highschool if they remain smoke-free. Upon hearing about this new initiative, my reaction was, "Hey, that's a great idea! Free Money!". While the website indicated that they are looking for sponsors to foot the bills entirely, in the meantime the program users have to find sponsors who will commit to making donations to the foundation while the student is enrolled. So it is not as great as I initially thought. There are some conditions however, and after doing some digging I made a note of some points that I think need to be addressed before a program li...
More About: Children , General , Canada , Smoke , Highschool