Where do we begin? Well I learned from the movie "The Sound of Music"  that the very beginning is a very good place to start. So let's go back to the beginning of money.
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Something I've been studying a lot the past 6 months is the US monetary system. I think it is such an interesting topic to explore because it is primarily responsible for our views of what money is. Yes you and I might live in Canada (or any other country for that matter) but like it or not the US monetary system controls many (probably all) of the worlds financial markets.

People don`t have a clue what money is. Most people know that it is a currency that allows us to buy and sell stuff. We k...
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Did you know that Canada is weird when it comes to security regulations? Well it is. Canada is the only G8 country who doesn't  have a national security regulator. To understand what I mean, take a look at the USA: they've got the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). Canada has by contrast the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) except the CSA doesn't have any real power. They're kind of just a volunteer board of people from all the separate jurisdiction regulators. The true regulatio...
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So I'm going to try this blog thing again. I don't plan on posting everyday, but hopefully a couple of times a week.
Thanks Doug for challenging me on this.
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Today the Bank of Canada announced that they will hold the overnight lending rate at 0.25%. Their press release describes a positive outlook for economic recovery, even better than their October review, however they say the economy is still dependent on monetary and fiscal stimulus. Interest rates will stay low for another term. The next interest rate review date is April 20th.

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I generally have a negative view of investing in mutual funds. When I was a mutual fund dealer with one of Canada's top financial institutions, I remember the feeling I had when trying to sell people mutual funds. I would go through the typical "know your client" questions to get an idea of an individual's investment objectives and risk tolerance but when it came down to picking the specific funds it felt like a roll of the dice. The task was always to make a the best informed decision on whi...
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 Well 2010 is now here. As those who have been following thus far would have noticed, I took a break during the Christmas holidays, but we're back at for the new year.
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season with friends and family. I am excited about the year ahead, and the growth that can be realized. I hope you will join with me and make 2010 the best year ever.


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Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said yesterday that he is concerned about Canadians going into deep debt during this time of low interest rates, and when interest rates go up, families would have a hard time managing the debt loads. His idea would impose larger down payment requirements on home purchases (from the now low 5% minimum) and possibly shortening the maximum length of amortization down from the current 35 years.
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I thought this was really interesting: Canada's Debt Clock
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I think Robert Kiyosaki is awesome. For those unfamiliar with him, he is a world best selling author, who teaches financial thoughts and ideas, and is generally big on increasing your "financial intelligence." I like Robert so much because he does a great job at explaining complex economic/money matters in everyday simple terms. 
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The simple answer is: "from nothing." The more accurate answer is debt.

To explain this one, I will describe the Canadian Monetary system, which the basic principals can be transfered to pretty much every other nation's money system.

In an earlier post I talked about today's bank notes is called "money" only because the Government says it's money. Without the backing of the Government, Bank notes would simply be worthless pretty pieces of paper. But where does "money" come from? The Bank of Can...
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 The US banking system is a mess. At the root of the mess is the Federal Reserve. The "Fed" ironically is neither federal owned or controlled, and it doesn't have any money reserves. It is instead a privately owned banking cartel, and is probably the most powerful player in the global economy. When I discuss "the game of money" the reality is that the Fed sets a lot of the rules, and should therefore be understood as the biggest player in this game of ours called money.

Many people do a good j...
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Canada's finance minister, Jim Flaherty said on Friday that although there are signs of Canada's economy strengthening, but not enough to stop the stimulus spending plans.

This is consistent with the Bank of Canada announcing they will keep the overnight rate at 0.25% last week.

Put these two recent announcements together, and the possibility of future inflation becomes easier to understand. It sounds like we have some interesting times yet to come. Despite these words of an uncertain economic ...
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A common expression we hear is "money can't buy you happiness." Sometimes when I hear that saying, I think to myself "maybe, but I'd be willing to try." The connection of money to happiness is an interesting discussion. There was an article earlier this year that really got me thinking about it, and every once and a while I come back to the subject.

To begin, I had to work out what happiness really means for me, and here's some of the key points

• Self Opinion: Having a good self esteem and being...

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Yesterday in Ottawa, where I live, was the first big snow storm of the winter. Approximately 20 centimeters of the fluffy white stuff was dumped on our nations capital, and the city worked hard to keep the streets safe and clear. More than 500 pieces of snow removal equipment were on the streets clearing snow, and the city estimates that the cost to taxpayers was approximately $1 million dollars. $1 million dollars...that's a lot of money. Was it well spent? I'd say "mostly."

I find it interes...
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archived from December 9th, 2009

The Bank of Canada yesterday announced that they will keep it's overnight lending rate at 1/4 per cent and is expected to remain until end of second quarter 2010. The rate has remained unchanged since April 21 2009.

Have you ever stopped to think on why they change the overnight rate? What is the overnight lending rate anyway? One of the functions of the Bank of Canada is to set monitor and control certain economic conditions in order to promote growth and stabi...
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archived from December 6th, 2009

Recently I have been watching the huge amounts of US stimulus spending, the expanding of the US Monetary supply and waiting for the rise in inflation as a result. It's amazing to see gold trading at it's all time highest prices, currently trading over $1200USD/ounce. The rise in price is actually a reflection of the weakening US dollar. We've seen this also in Canada as the USD has weakened slightly to the Canadian Dollar. All of this is happening because the U...

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archived from December 8th, 2009

Have you heard the saying cash is king? We have been told that cash is king, and I agree with the statement for the lesson it's trying to teach. This saying is trying to teach us that having sufficient cash flow is chief because cash flow is what allows us to meet our daily financial needs and saves us from having to use credit cards and other forms of debt. With enough cash flow we can live debt free. When we are tight on cash flow, some sort of surprise expen...
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