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Don't feed the debt monster - slay it
- Posted March 31, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Don't feed the debt monster - slay it

By Dale Jackson

A new mode sweeps the US and now it seems that Canada is catching up - people are laying off their credit cards and paying down debt.

In 2009 domestic purchases south of the border dropped 0.6%, the biggest decrease since 1974. According to the U.S. Federal Reserve, outstanding consumer debt declined with a record 8.5% last November. Credit card debt led the way, declining for the 14th consecutive month.

"Americans may be responding to huge losses on their houses, so they are reluctant to add to debt and are motivated to start saving again," CIBC chief economist Avery Shenfeld says.

Canadians are less excited about paying down debt because we are not as heavily leveraged, he says, but there are signs we are controlling our spending. The latest CIBC report shows growth in the domestic mortgage market shrunk to 7.8% from 12% a year earlier. "We are still willing to take on more debt given how low the cost of servicing those debts are," Mr. Shenfeld says.

Regardless, our new-found puritanism may be too late: North American consumers are choking under a mountain of debt. The average amount owed on a credit card is $5,600 usd, the average American carries $46,000 usd in total debt and 1 in 7 U.S. mortgages are delinquent or in arrears.

VIA Globe and Mail

Keyword: credit card

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Take Steps to Protect Yourself From Fraud and Take the Fraud Protection Quiz
- Posted March 30, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Take Steps to Protect Yourself From Fraud and Take the Fraud Protection Quiz

Canwest News Service
March 29, 2010

March is fraud prevention month and many Canadians are taking steps to protect themselves against financial fraudsters. A poll sponsored by TD Canada Trust showed that:

- More than 90% of Canadians take steps to avoid being victimized by fraud.
- 73% of Canadians shred finanncial documents.
- 62% shield their PIN.
- 12% have consulted their banks about lowering down their daily withdrawal limits.

Andrea Phillips, TD Canada Trust Bank's vice president for payments said that to see Canadians the initiative to protect themselves is very encouraging. Financial Institutions have their own protection in place against fraud such as sophisticated monitoring and detection tools and they work closely with law-enforcements to protect their clients. Meanwhile, Canadians can reduce their risk by being aware and take extra precautions to protect themselves.

Still, there are some Canadian who put themselves at risk by sending their credit card information in emails, sharing their PINS carrying their PINs inside their wallets.


So how fraud-savvy are you? The bank prepared this quiz to answer that question.

TD Canada Trust Fraud Prevention Quiz:

1) What does a criminal need to make a copy of your card and access your account?

a) The card - my Personal Identification Number (PIN) is on the stripe

b) My PIN - they can use a blank card

c) The card and my PIN together

2) A customer's PIN is located on the magnetic strip on their card

a) True

b) False

3) How often should you cover the key pad when you enter your PIN?

a) Always

b) Sometimes

c) Never

4) What is Phishing?

a) Looking over someone's shoulder at an ABM to learn their PIN

b) A scam done over the phone or via email to obtain personal and financial information

c) Rifling through the garbage to look for discarded receipts and statements

5) A salesperson asks you for your PIN, saying their new keypad doesn't stretch that far and they have to enter it themselves. You:

a) Give them your PIN and debit card

b) Decline to give them your PIN but continue your transaction and move around the counter to enter your PIN yourself

c) Leave and contact your financial institution

6) How often should you check your banking and credit card statements for discrepancies?

a) Always

b) Often

c) Never

7) You do your banking online, so when you receive your statement in the mail you should:

a) Throw it away without opening it

b) Read it and put it in the recycling

c) Read it and shred it

8) How secure should you be with your debit and credit cards?

a) Fairly secure - don't lend them to strangers but it's OK if family and friends borrow them

b) Don't sweat it. If someone steals them you will be reimbursed

c) Treat them like cash and know where they are at all times

9) You go to pay for lunch and your credit card is gone. What should you do?

a) Call your credit card company immediately to report it lost

b) Dine and dash

c) Drop by your bank branch a few days later to report it missing

10) What should you do if you receive an e-mail from your financial institution asking for your banking information?

a) Enter the information

b) Delete it because your financial institution would never ask for your banking information via email

c) Contact the e-mail sender to find out more

11) What should you do with expired identification and credit cards?

a) Throw them away

b) Save them because you like the way you look in the photo

c) Shred them

12. You sell something online to a stranger who sends you a cheque for too much and asks you to wire the difference. You should:

a) Do as they ask because you trust the selling site

b) Do as they ask because if the cheque's no good your bank will reimburse you

c) Cancel the transaction and rip up the cheque

Give yourself 2 points for every right answer: 1.c) 2.b) 3.a) 4.b) 5.c) 6.a) 7.c) 8.c) 9.a) 10.b) 11.c) 12.c)

If you scored 20-24: You run a tight ship - your information is pretty safe

* You have a place for everything and everything is in its place so you know almost instantly if something is missing or not right. Now, while you may not apply this strategy to every aspect of your life (we know about your junk drawer), you know that your debit and credit card is safest with you and you know how to keep them from getting into the wrong hands.

* Not only do you shield your PIN during the transaction but you take your transaction record and destroy it when you no longer need it. Remember to do the same with any expired identification or personal papers you no longer need.

* You probably don't have much to worry about since fraudsters tend to pick on easy targets. You are very careful and aware of how to protect yourself, so keep up the good behaviour.

If you scored 14-18: You know the basics, but there is more you can do to protect yourself

* Take extra precautions to protect your personal information. Maybe you don't share your PIN with anyone - but are you sure your PIN is a number that would be hard to guess? Avoid using your birthday or part of your phone number.

* Since e-mail isn't always secure, you know better than to send private information, like your credit card number, this way - but remember, not all websites are secure either.

* Make sure you are shopping on a secure website or look for merchants who use added security features, like Verified by Visa, before entering your credit card information.

* Also, shred your personal information. There is only one of you, let's keep it that way.

If you scored under 14: Be careful - you're sharing too much!

* Take the time to protect what is important - your identity, your money and yourself. Don't be so carefree with personal information. Never lend your cards to anyone, or give anyone your PIN. Even better, memorize your PIN so you don't need to write it down. And, never carry your PIN with your wallet.

* Unless you initiated the call, do not provide your credit card number over the phone.

* Though e-mail is a convenient way to contact someone, your financial institution will never ask you to verify your banking information that way. And remember, that king from a far-off land asking you to share your bank account information is not actually going to make you rich.

© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service


VIA Canada.com

Keyword: Credit Card

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A New Interest-Free Mastercard For Muslims
- Posted March 30, 2010 by Monty Loree
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A New Interest-Free Mastercard For Muslims

Tim Shufelt, National Post
March 30, 2010

Mastercard introduces a new zero-interest credit card in North America that aims to accomodate both the Islamic canonical law and Western consumer culture, the iFreedom Plus Mastercard.

Muslims have been prevented from owning interest accrueing credit cards because this is a violation of their Shariah Law. But the iFreedom Plus Mastercard will change all that. This credit card, which is set to be available soon, promises no bills, incurs no interest and promises no credit card debts.

UM Financial, an Islamic financing firm based in Toronto, is launching this product with the Mastercard Brand. Omar kalair, the President of UM Financial, said that every one wants and needs a credit card in their pockets. Credit cards are used in everyday lives. You can't rent a car and you can't travel if you don't have a credit card.

Banks don't have any incentive to offer this kind of products since it does not incur any high-interest rates. So with iFreedom Plus Mastercard, the card holders deposit cash of up to $6000 in advance in the card. Each purchase made on the card will not incur any interest. This idea is based on the Islamic religious principle that finance should be based on one's own asset and this is commended by Muslim religious scholars since you're spending your own money and does not put a stress on you like when you use a regular credit card.

This card guarantees approval without credit check and for two years of use, the cardholder will pay $50 and card transfer will cost 95 cents. It also offers 1 per cent cash back on purchases of more than $100. Plus, iFreedom Plus Mastercard holders will get 10% discount on Etihad Airways, an Abu Dhabi- based carrier.


VIA National Post

Keyword: Credit Card

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Choose the Best Option For Paying For Your Home Renovation
- Posted March 30, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Choose the Best Option For Paying For Your Home Renovation

The first step for any home renovation should be to get a sound financial advice. Craig Bannon, the manager of the mortgage specialists for the metro Halifax area with RBC advised to talk to your bank, financial institutions or anybone you're dealing with. And if you're not dealing with anyone, then you should find someone to talk to because it's important to sit down to get advice. He also says that there are factors to consider when choosing the right option to finance your renovation such as how much the renovation will cost and the amount of equity that you have in your home.

Bannon says that a credit card can be considered one option for smaller renovations. A credit card is convenient and you can earn loyalty points when you use it. But this is not a long-term borrowing solution because of the high interest rates credit cards charge which are usually between 10-20%

A HELOC or Home Equity Line of Credit is another possibility for larger home renovations. HELOC has lower interest rates which is it's big advantage against credit cards because it is secured by the value of the home being renovated. It can finance up to eighty per cent of your home value, but it's major drawback is that it's a little more complicated to make purchases with it. You can't actually pay for a store purchase with a HELOC, which is a big disadvantage with this option but you can always pay for your purchases with a debit or a credit card and then just replace it later.

Refinancing your mortgage is another borrowing option. It will give you up to ninety percent of the total value of your home. Refinancing gives you a lot of flexible options like chooosing the variable of fixed rate and choosing how long the term will be.

Barry Rathburn, a TD Canada Trust mobile mortgage specialist from the Vancouver Island Area said that now is a very appealing timing to renovate, the interest rate term you pick now, no matter what it is, will beat the twenty-five year average handsomely.

He also recommends looking into the incentives that are available for renovations that are energy efficient. The energy efficiency saves you some cash in the long run and offers incentives (from different levels of government) to help you beat the cost.

VIA MetroNews

Keyword: Credit Card

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do you rely on your credit cards?
- Posted March 29, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Do you rely on your credit card?

Do you put every purchase you make on your credit card? Find out how to bring your credit cards back under control.

One in five of us possessed more than one or two credit cards and studies shows that 17% of cardholders use their credit card at least once in a day. In total, more than fourteen million people rely on their credit card, rather than cash or debit cards for their daily living expenses.

And this could surely post a problem.

"It's truly alarming to see that so many people are now relying on credit to pay for everyday little expenses as this can be a dangerous habit for people to get into," said Peter Harrison, the Moneysupermarket.com credit cards expert.

"If you are paying for everyday items such as petrol or food and are still paying for it long after the product has been used, then you should seriously consider stopping putting all your purchases on plastic."

With several of providers hiking the annual percentage rate (APR) their credit cards charge, this could very well be the time to practice not relying on the plastic.


Some Capital One credit card users have recently been told that the interest rate they're charged will be going up from 8.01 percent to 15.31 percent - which is almost double of what they pay - while the interest rate on Barclaycard's Platinum Simplicity rose by 1 percent to 7.8 percent, and MBNA raised the APR on its Platinum and Platinum Rewards cards to 16.9 percent.

VIA MSN

Keyword: Credit Cards

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credit card chargeoffs still troubling 2
- Posted March 29, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Credit Card Charge-Offs Still Troubling


Credit card charge-offs or loans assumed uncollectible and written off edged higher in January as reported by the major card issuers, although there is some positive expectation in the stabilizing of delinquency rates.

Delinquencies are the accounts running 30-days late . It is generally a precursor of bad loans to come. Several major credit card issuers reported eithera modest decline or little change in the delinquency rates for January compared with December.

The credit card issuers are stuck right now in write-offs as they face the possibility of reduced revenues from landmark restrictions on interest rate hikes and some charges taking effect on Monday.

The top general-purpose card issuer, JPMorgan Chase, said it wrote off 10.91% of credit-card loans last month, up from 7.11% in December. Last month, JP Morgan Chase reported that it forecasted a jump in write-offs based on a "payment holiday" offered to customers in the first half of 2009, which pushed defaults in the 4th quarter down - and now are bouncing back
up.

Citigroup wrote off 9.8%, up from 9.56% in December. Bank of America again had the highest write-off rate with 13.25% in the month of January, but it was lower than the rate in the month of December which is 13.53%.

Capital One said that charge-offs in its household credit-card accounts climbed to 10.41% in January from 10.14% the previous month.

American Express, the most common card used for most purchases, still holds the most robust outlook among its competitors with a 7% write-off rate, compared to 7.1% in December. Discover declared charge-offs in January at 8.58% of credit- card loans, down from 8.68% the previous month.

VIA Credit Daily


Keyword: Credit Card

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interview with nick farina of moneyinenglishcom last installment
- Posted March 26, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Nick Farina Of moneyinenglish.com (Last Installment)

Monty Loree: Nicely said. But the $90.00 Dominos Pizza, I love that. I'm going to remember that and I think I'm going to use that. So at the end of the podcast, what I like to talk about is where does Nick Farina hang out on the internet? What are some of the websites that you like to visit, some of the blogs or personal finance sites?

Nick Farina: Monty, I like quite a few sites out there. Some of the sites I like are 20somethingfinance.com. I like weakonomics.com - I think that's an interesting site. It helps you get into the mindset of younger people. The other thing I do, which is a little bit different from personal finance is I really like to stress that you can make money if you utilize these programs and credit the right way. I really like the website flyertalk.com because they have all these forums where people talk about using airline miles, credit cards. Again this may not be for your average young person who just has a passive interest, but if you really want to learn a lot it's an unbelievable source of knowledge. You can learn how to dispute credit card charges, how to get annual fees waived, how to use airline miles to get free tickets, how to use those the best way, what are the best rewards cards. There are interactive discussions that are pretty up to date. It's really a great place and I think it's fun. One of the coming features that I'm going to have up my website in the next couple of weeks is a fun section. How you can look at personal finance, in fact is a fun way. How you can get stuff free, how you can maximize your programs so that at the end of the day you come out ahead and the banks come actually behind. That's really what you're going for, I think.

Monty Loree: That's right. That should be fun. You should pay attention to personal finance and like you said it should be fun. Plain and simple. Have you ever seen fatwallet.com?

Nick Farina: Yes, I've seen fatwallet.com and slickdeals.net. Those are also great sites. There's a lot to go through but they're pretty easily searchable. I like it for everyday. For example, every time I go to just order pizza, like what we were talking about, Domino's and see if they have coupons. More often than not, I'll end up saving money off of everyday purchases. It's really a great way – it's amazing how much you'll save every year if you go to those sites and check first.

Monty Loree: Exactly, sounds good. We'll just leave it at that. I appreciate that. We talked about a lot of good stuff here. Again, I've been speaking with Nick Farina from moneyinenglish.com website. Also your twitter is moneyinenglish?

Nick Farina: That's right.

Monty Loree: Good, thanks again. We've talked a lot of good things for young people here and I want to invite you back if there are more issues that you want to talk about.

Nick Farina: Thanks Monty. I really appreciate you having me on the show.

Monty Loree: Talk to you soon.

Nick Farina: Bye now.

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clouds parting over credit card troubles
- Posted March 26, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Clouds Parting Over Credit Card Troubles


Kelsey Swanekamp,

With unemployment still hovering at 10 percent and household budget under pressure, credit card issuers and lenders are still taking profits from their loans to consumers. Developments in delinquency figures could signal that lesser numbers of credit card defaults are ahead though, even as net charge-offs increased to 10.5 percent in January.

The figure is not too far below the August peak of 10.8 percent, but in a more encouraging bit of data delinquency rates, a measure used by credit card companies to crystal ball future defaults, decreased to 5.8 percent and the dollar amount of those delinquencies also fell, leading some to speculate that fewer charge-offs are ahead.

"Barring a spike in bankruptcies or another leg up in joblessness, we continue to anticipate an industry cycle peak" to occur in the first quarter of 2010. Wednesday, Citigroup analyst Donald Fandetti wrote in a note.

Citigroup has a positive outloook on card issuer stocks, Fandetti said, reprising a buy on American Express ( AXP - news - people ) and Capital One Financial ( COF - news - people ). Fandetti also advised buying the stocks on any fallback.

The recent data from individual firms was the backbone of Citi's positive view.

Bank of America ( BAC - news - people ) saw a slide in both net charge-offs and delinquency rates. U.S. largest lender disclosed that late payments fell to the lowest level in a year--7.4 percent in January. Write-offs of uncollectible loans also declined, to 13.3 percent from 13.5 percent.

VIA Forbes

Keyword: Credit Card

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build good credit without credit cards
- Posted March 26, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Build Good Credit Without Credit Cards

When you are trying to build a solid credit history, you often repeated piece of advice is to get a couple of credit cards and pay them off promptly. Using credit cards is not the only way to skin the credit cat (so to speak), though.

Not everyone likes the idea of carrying around plastics in the first place, much less using them just to build a good credit history. If credit cards are not your cup of tea, take look at some of the other options recommended by finance blog Suburban Dollar:

Borrow from Yourself – This is the most convenient method to establish your own credit history without a credit card. Purchase a Certificate of Deposit (CD) from a bank. Then take out a secured loan against the CD for the same period of time. Put the cash you borrowed in a high-yield checking account. Then use the cash you borrowed to payback the secured loan. You will be establishing a credit history, plus earning interest on your checking account and CD. There are some disadvantages to this method. You need the starting capital to back up the CD. You could be paying more interest on the secured loan than earning through your CD and checking account in the end; however, it is probably less than what you would pay in fees and interest if you used a credit card. Just make sure to weigh the true costs before venturing this way.

We have discussed before ways to safely build your credit history and how to get credit when you have no history at all. What things have you done to improve or build good credit without getting credit cards—or are you perfectly happy with your credit card?

VIA LifeHacker

Keyword: Credit Card

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interview with nick farina of moneyinenglishcom part 8
- Posted March 24, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Nick Farina Of moneyinenglish.com Part 8

Nick Farina: There really isn't any other perspective to have. That's just how you're supposed to do it. The thing is, it's true. Their business model is of course based around people not doing that. So you can certainly argue that the good customer is in fact the customer who gets in trouble. But if you want to be responsible and you want to avoid hassle, credit cards can be a great tool. You can build rewards. It's a safe way to make payments. They can give you purchase protection plans oftentimes – I love American Express for one. They give you convenience. You don't always have to carry cash on you. If you pay it off at the end of the month on time, I can't stress it enough, you're not going into trouble. That's something that people really need to realize and get into their minds.

Monty Loree: Exactly. Credit or banking or contracts of any sort are very simple. If you make your payments on time as agreed, life is good. As soon as you miss a payment, the alarm bells go off and a hundred different things happen. So it's smooth sailing when you keep the agreement but it's not smooth sailing and it sets off a bunch of alarm bells if you don't make your payments. Even if you one day past the agreed date, you're going against the contract or breaking the contracts.

Nick Farina: Exactly and not to linger on this point too much, but I'm working with the City of Chicago's Treasurer's Office on developing this set of videos to teach young people about finance. One idea that we've all come up with is simply that, and this is a true situation around the world these days, is a young person walks into a pizza shop and says, “Hey I'd like to order that,” the pizza for $10.00 and the guy at the counter says, “Well wait you're putting on your credit card and that's going to be $90.00.” The person says, “Why?” Well, here's what's going to happen. You're not going to pay your bill on time because you're going to get $40.00 of interest over time by making other payments. Then you're going to end up paying your bill two days late because you overslept your alarm or something. Then you're going to get a $40.00 late fee too. There's an unlimited amount of ways that they can make your life miserable, that you don't pay on time or you don't pay this whole balance. A lot of times, they're paying you money.

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be a smart credit card user
- Posted March 24, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Be A Smart Credit Card User

•Read the terms and conditions of your card. Bruce McClary, spokesman of Clearpoint Counselling Solutions said that the Credit Card Act exist to protect the consumers. But the absolute responsibility is still in the hands of the credit card user to make certain that they read and understand everything in their contract. Also, it is important to study the terms and conditions to understand exactly what type of card you have, if you have fixed-rate or variable, because the rules governing these rates are different.

•Pay your credit card balance every month, if possible. You’ll avoid incurring interest. If you carry a balance, you'll incur a stiff financial penalty every month -- the annual percentage rate. Do not use a credit card if your percentage rate has been increased and you are not willing to pay that rate. Put the card away and pay down the balance every month at the current rate.

•Shop around for good rates. Compare credit cards at sites like LowCards.com, CreditCards.com and Bankrate.com. Search for the lowest possible rates and fees and the best terms you're comfortable with. Consider acquiring a credit union card because they are also required to comply with the Credit Card Act and their terms and rates may be better.

•Pay all your lenders on time every time. This way, you'll prevent percentage rate and fee increases, and avoid drops in your credit score. Manage at least to pay the minimum payments. You want your credit card balances to be as low as it possibly can. Better yet, pay down the whole balances to none and use your credit card as monthly charge cards.

Call your credit card issuer and ask them to give you a lower interest rate. Your card issuer may do so if you have a good payment history, if you pay your balances on time and have a good relationship with them.

by Iris Taylor


VIA TimesDispatch


Keyword: Credit Card

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credit card tricks
- Posted March 24, 2010 by Monty Loree
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CREDIT CARD TRICKS

By Kate Mansey

50 percent extra to take out cash

Credit card companies are bent on using crafty tricks to rip off customers - as shock numbers show Britons owe £54.5 billion to our "flexible friends".

A Sunday Mirror investigation showed some consumers can end up paying up to £150 for each £100 of card debt.

Firms add underhanded charges, fees and penalties to bills, send out credit card cheques at higher rates - and increase credit limits without your agreement.

Money expert James Daley said: "They encourage debt. MBNA roll out letters advertising a service to transfer cash from your credit card to your current account, making it seem like a good idea - when, in fact, there will be a much higher rate of interest on that debt."

Peter Harrison, credit card expert at Moneysupermarket.com, said: "A late payment will have a covered fee of £12, which does not sound bad, but late payment could mean your promotional interest rate is gone." Vanquis, a company which offers credit cards to people with poor credit history, charges up to 50% interest for cash advances - and even Barclaycard charges 27.9% to use its credit card cheques.

It was revealed this week that credit cards now charge an average 18.8 percent interest, while the Bank of England base rate remains at a 300-year low of 0.5 percent.

The bank figures released this month revealed we currently owe £54.5billion on our cards. Angry consumer groups want more transparent rules on card costs.

Marc Gander of the Consumer Action Group said: "We've seen a large number of people in trouble thanks to credit card tricks. People get into debt then find they are stung for much more interest than they expected. It's disgraceful."

How to beat big charges

Pay at least the minimum payments or you could lose your promotional interest rate.If you have paid off a credit card, you have to make sure you cancel it or it could impact your credit rating.

It's good to shop around; You can transfer a big balance to a cedit card with an interest-free rate. But don't move and change too much as it could affect your credit rating.
If you are transferring a debt, make sure that the credit card has the same low rate for purchases - or get another card that does.

Don't make a cheque from a credit card - you'll get a cheaper interest rate with a bank loan.


VIA Mirror News


Keyword: Credit Card

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credit card companies reducing numbers of cobranded offerings
- Posted March 24, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Credit Card Companies Reducing Numbers Of Co-branded Offerings

By Robin Sydel

Credit card companies are starting to drop merchant partners in their offers for co-branded credit cards, with credit card losses issuers faced, most of the time, through customer defaults. Co-branded landscapes are pretty bleak right now. The wall street Journal reported Tuesday that co-branded and affinity brands have become too expensive and have fallen out of favor from credit card companies as they try to reduce expenses amid late payments and delinquencies of credit card users.

JP Morgan Chase, for example, is dropping Starbucks Duetto Visa Card next week for not attracting enough credit card users to make co-branding between the two companies profitable. JP Morgan Chase has also recently dropped credit card deals with Avon Products, a beauty product retailer, as well as some universities and sports teams like the University of Maryland, National Hockey Leagues' New Jersey Devils and basketball teams Detroit Pistons and Orlando Magic

Among the banks dropping niche-appeal cards are Citigroup and the Bank of America Corp. Bank of America, for example. now has 4400 affinity cards, which is down from 5000 affinity cards previously.

Royal Bank of Canada is also dropping out of its deal with Starbucks for it's Canadian Loyalty card. Starbucks, like the other merchants left by credit card issuers says that they are looking for ways to retain their customers, and Starbucks is planning to introduce a new loyalty program soon.

VIA WSJ

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amex canada launched a new business card
- Posted March 23, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Amex Canada Launched a New Business Card

by Matt Bailey
March 23, 2010

Ammerical Express Canada launched yesterday new changes to it's Consumer AIr Miles Credit Card. American Express has announced some changes to one of their existing of business cards, as well as a business cards in addition to their lines of business cards.AMEX introduced a new card named American Express AIR MILES Platinum Business Card, which is a business card that features the AIR MILES REWARDS PROGRAM. After purchasing $1000 in the first three months, the customer can get 250 reward miles, and every $10 spent at AIR MILES sponsor will be given 1 reward mile, meanwhile, every $15 spent everywhere else will get 1 reward mile. There is a $99 dollar annual fee for this card, but you can treat that as a tax deductibe expense.

On the other hand, American Express' existing AIR MILES Gold Business card will get a face-lift with it's benefits. Now, the card will feature a reward mile everytime $15 is spent at AIR MILES sponsors, and one point is rewarded for purchases spent anywhere else, plus there's no annual fee. All current card holders can take advantage of the new benefits automatically, as AMEX Canada previously did with their consumer no-fee AIR MILES offer.

American Express is best known for their business credit cards. Business credit cards makes tracking expenses and managing expense reports convenient and easy. Most smaller businesses finds it to be a great tool for their businesses and a time-saver. Other features are also available with their business cards such as the Disability Plan for Small Business provided by AMEX business credit cards.American express offers mostly charge cards but business credit cards such as AIR MILES rewards cards are also available

VIA Credit Card

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podcast with barbara bryn klare part 6
- Posted March 22, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Podcast With Barbara Bryn Klare Part 6

Monty Loree: I know that you have and you can do that. That'd be super. That's good to know.

Barbara Klare: Yes, I have a lot of Canadian readers.

Monty Loree: It's good. So you've got a good following in Canada, then?

Barbara Klare: I do so I want to make sure I'm addressing their needs as well.

Monty Loree: The Canadians are kind of a conservative bunch. They've been pretty consumeristic over these last 20 years or so, but overall, just for the way we are, we're conservative. I'm hoping will save more, even in Canada. But prior to that, we're really good savers at least 20-plus years ago. So continuing on here, we've got one final thing to talk about. What is the main lesson about personal finance that you would share with our listeners? Because you've been involved in the business for a lot of years, you've heard a lot of people's stories, you've read a lot of blogs. What is the key tip that you'd like to share?

Barbara Klare: I have a funny one. I think the strangest thing my husband and I ever did to save money was to groom the dogs. We have two silky terriers and they look like they have been mowed. So my tip would be, some things are best left to the professionals. So I just want to leave it with that. I still get comments on my blog about this.

Monty Loree: You mowed the poodles. Okay, financial tip number one: always mow the poodles and get them professionally cut. I understand. That's great.

Barbara Klare: Yes, definitely. We're not putting any dog groomers out of business for sure.

Monty Loree: Oh I see, so you did it yourself. Is that what you're saying?

Barbara Klare: Oh yeah.

Monty Loree: You did it yourself, my apologies. I'm embarrassed though.

Barbara Klare: They looked pretty bad.

Monty Loree: That's pretty funny. Are there any other last final comments you want to make or anything you want to add about this?

Barbara Klare: No, but I'm just going to encourage people though, to write me if they have some retirement stories because I'm starting to collect those for my book and I'm really interested in people who have figured it out – interesting and out of the box ways to save for retirement.

Monty Loree: So how can they contact you? On twitter of course, @upsideofmoney is your ID there?

Barbara Klare: Yes, and they can also write to me at Barbara@upsideofmoney.com. They can go to my column and they can click the link to email me there as well.

Monty Loree: Perfect, sounds good. Okay, again I've been speaking with Barbara Bryn Klare who's the award-winning finance writer and the author of The Daily Cash Machine and Upside of Money blogger. I want to thank you for visiting today and look forward to doing that again.

Barbara Klare: Thanks Monty.

Monty Loree: Thanks again, talk to you later.

The preceding podcast was brought to you by Canadian Money Advisor. Find us online You at www.cma1.ca/1.

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interview with cleo from hr block tax services part 8
- Posted March 22, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Cleo From H&R Block Tax Services Part 8

Monty: Okay. I guess the question I always think about with software is, so if I've got your software and I said to you, "It's a little too complicated for me, even with the software." Or "I have additional questions." Can I take a disc or CD or a thumb drive into your office and have them import the information over to their system?

Cleo: You can bring the information in with you. What will end up happening is our associates, because they are conditioned to actually go through the whole return bill and re-do the return themselves, just because there are other questions that they may ask as they're going through it. When you're doing it yourself, you follow the prompt in the software that tells you to enter certain amounts and ask other questions. Our associates are trained to look at the entire situation and ask any other questions that might be necessary. They would actually go through it page by page and receipt by receipt, because there are times when the information slips that you have, have other pieces of information that maybe you didn't know what to do with. And our people know what to do with it. There might be codes or footnotes or notes of other kind and that's what they're there for. It's to read some of the other ones.

Monty: Okay. Then one last question because I don't want to keep you any longer. You've given us a lot of information. I want to say that I'm visiting with Cleo from H&R Block and she's giving us a lot of information about taxes here, as it's coming to tax time. But your H&R Block, can you explain your guarantee? I've seen it on TV. I've heard about it, but can you just tell us about that?

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interview with nick farina of moneyinenglishcom part 7
- Posted March 22, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Nick Farina of moneyinenglishcom part 7

Monty Loree: So does that mean that you must have a bit of emergency fund or some cash at the bank in order to make the payments every month?

Nick Farina: I'm really careful about what I spend. I do get some part time work and summer work and I have a few writing jobs now that I used to bring in income. But the bottom line is really budgeting. It doesn't matter what you make unless you're making poverty line, but I have seen people make a million dollars a year. I've heard stories that you can easily go through a million dollars a year. Similarly, you can make $20,000.00 a year and you can pay your bills on time with it. It really matters to have a budgeting plan.

That's something young people don't understand really, because they often attribute it to – I'm spending too much money because I don't make enough money now. The fact is if you take the time to look at your expense, to look at what you value and really want to do and you cut out the fat and maybe make some hard choices, then you're going to be fine. You'll have enough money to pay your bills and setting up that budget is a really important thing that has flown over the years of a lot of young people these days.

Monty Loree: Exactly. I just want to interject here again and say that I'm talking with Nick Farina who's the author and publisher of moneyinenglish.com which is a Chicago-based blog that talks to young people about their personal finance. So far we've got a really good discussion. So just to continue, I guess the point I'd like to make is, and from my perspective, what I'd like to get out to people is if I had my choice – is that they shouldn't treat credit cards like a source of income. They should treat them like a tool. What I mean by that is if you don't have the money in the bank to cover the bill every month, to cover your payments in full every month, don't use the credit card. Don't think that you're going to make monthly payments and the world is going to be happier. From my perspective is, if you've got a credit card, make sure if you spend $200.00 in a month make sure you've got $200.00 cash in the bank to pay it off at the end of every month. That would make your life a lot easier. Can you talk about that a little bit?

See previous part with Nick Farina - Part 6

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interview with cleo from hr block tax services part 7
- Posted March 21, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Cleo From H&R Block Tax Services Part 7

Monty: That's important to know because again as I mentioned in the beginning, people are just cringing right now. Taxes I'm sure there's got to be a thousand pages to the tax code and it's all legalese. I actually read some of it. So what you're trying to do is help them out with hrbtaxtalk.ca and your H&R Block software. You're helping people to be more comfortable and understand it less painfully, shall we say.

Cleo: Absolutely. Like you mentioned earlier, H&R Block has been around for a number of years and with the number of clients we've served over the years, we feel that we are a trusted name in the industry. But there are people who maybe don't want to come in our offices because they feel that their tax situation isn't too technical, isn't too difficult. You know what, they feel perfectly comfortable doing their own tax return. Honestly, you don't want to do it with pen and paper anymore. It's too cumbersome. It takes too long. It's easy to make a mistake when you do it paper format because numbers have to be transposed from one page to another page. There's all these extra schedules you have to do. So yes, we have software right now.

Pick it up and use it at home as software is available out there. One of the advantages that we feel Canadians will appreciate is if you do buy the software, you get at home and you start doing your return and you think, "This turned out to be a little bit more technical than I expected." Or "I'm having issues." You can walk into one of our H&R Block offices and someone will help you there. If it turns out that you actually need to have one of our tax professionals do your tax return, you can apply for a mail-in rebate for the cost of the software that you purchased. As well, maybe you do your tax return and you've got a refund. You think, "I don't want to wait to get this to me." You can go into one of our offices and they will actually do an instant refund for you. You can walk out with your money right away.

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interview with nick farina of moneyinenglishcom part 6
- Posted March 21, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Nick Farina Of moneyinenglish.com Part 6

Nick Farina: So that is really the big point, is to stop complaining and get educated because every article I read - and I'm sure you've seen the same thing, almost without fail, a young person or even an older person who is talking about how they've ruined their life in some way even though of course they haven't. Or they've ruined their credit or something that the credit organization has done to them, it's always avoidable, almost always. Except in the cases of extreme illness or even in the loss of a job because they did not have emergency fund. So yes, it's always avoidable and if you just read the contract, if you make your payment on time, you're not going to run to these problems. I know people always ask me, what is an APR? They're going to adjust it to this rate here and that's not fair. An annual percentage rate shouldn't be important when you're applying for a credit card with a young person, because you should be paying your balance off every month. It's okay. You can have a credit card with a 45% APR, because you shouldn't even be worrying about the APR, absolutely.

Monty Loree: Say that again, why is it not important if you got a 45% interest rate? It goes to, you've just said it, you should pay off your balance every month.

Nick Farina: Absolutely. I think in many ways that a high interest rate is in fact a healthy thing because it's a deterrent if you understand that. Because a young person is taking out his credit card, if the APR is likely to going be very high and if they understand what that means – than on a $1,000.00 balance you can pay $450.00 in interest in a year. Then they might be less likely to run up their balance. That is safe to know that it's not important because if you pay your credit card bill at the end of every month on time, like you're supposed to, you're not going to pay interest. You're not going to have horrible things happen to you. Capital One is going to give you a good cause than you are. Oftentimes, you get rewards for it. That's another thing that I've tried. Over the five years that I've had credit cards, I haven't paid a cent in interest. On top of that, I've gotten hundreds of dollars in rewards, free from these companies. I've taken money from the credit card companies. In fact, I've probably taken the money from the people who didn't pay their bills on time.

See previous part with Nick Farina - Part 5

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podcast with barbara bryn klare part 5
- Posted March 19, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Podcast With Barbara Bryn Klare Part 5

Monty Loree: Is that site just for cell phones or is it prototypes of bills?

Barbara Klare: No. It's cell phones, credit cards, savings and CD rates and your local gasoline stations and where you can get the best price.

Monty Loree: So if somebody goes on there, like yourself, you're spending $200.00 a month or whatever and they spend 15 to 20 minutes or half an hour. Is that going to save them some money?

Barbara Klare: Yes, I think you could probably do it in 20 minutes. It would help if you had your cell bill right there or you could look at it online. But even if you can approximate your usage and approximate some things – they actually can pull the information in for you if you really can't find it. It's a secure site, so I'm not concerned about giving out that information.

Monty Loree: Okay, and what does Lending Club do?

Barbara Klare: So the Lending Club, they're a P2P site, kind of like – I guess you can call them sort of number two in the space, Prosper sort of being the number one still. Definitely still being number one, I should say. I've been working with the Lending Club people and meeting them and talking to them for quite a while now and I've always been very impressed with their integrity and their very high level of customer service. They were just regulated by the SCC at the start, so they didn't have to go through with the issues that Prosper had to go through and now Loanio is going through. And I'm just talking about this from the investor's point of view. I don't know about it from a borrower's point of view. I've only looked at it from whether it's a good, solid investment and I think it is. Definitely part of a diversified portfolio strategy, that I think it offers a very wonderful return for a reasonable risk, I should say. I knew there'd be some ethical people over there too as well.

Monty Loree: Right, of course. Of course being a Canadian site, I'll have to check and see if those sites are available for Canadians.

Barbara Klare: You know, I'm not sure. I kind of think it isn't. In fact, you can't even be a lender in the Lending Club in all US states yet. That's SCC-regulated at this point. I could look into, whether there's, what kind of Canadian P2P possibilities there are.

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interview with cleo from h&r block tax services part 6
- Posted March 19, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Cleo From H&R Block Tax Services Part 6

Monty: Excellent. That's interesting. I just was wondering now, because I always ask the experts. What are the websites you visit and what resources can you talk about? I don't know if it was recently, but you published the hrbtaxtalk.ca.

Cleo: Yes, we just launched that site. Actually, what we're trying to do here is we're trying to bring the tax information and tax answers to tax payers in an easy to use format. We know there's a lot of information out there. The CRA provides a great deal of information in everything regarding tax. What we find sometimes is that the information is quite technical. There's too much legalese in there. We as a company want to be proactive and help individuals understand what that means. So our hrbtaxtalk.ca website is a site where you can get information and ask your questions. We're going to do our best we can to get you an answer that makes sense to you and is in a language that you can understand and try to bring it right to you on the level that helps you understand as you take advantage of it. But other places which I personally enjoy looking at is, I do like to go to moneysense.ca because I find that they're a wealth of information. I like because they do a lot of top 5s or they give you lists of different things and tips that, if you can't take advantage of all of them but there's enough in there that you can probably find two or three tips that will work for you from a number of different areas. I do like your magazine as well. I really like the evaluations that the experts do on the family situations. But we also have a lot of the financial institutions that provide a lot of information as well and they have tools. I think sometimes that's where you want to get some help. It's something more of a calculation work. I also visit the tsx.ca as well because they have a lot of financial tools on there. It's a matter of finding as much information as possible that helps you answer your question.

Monty: That's perfect. You also mentioned that you sometimes go over to the Canada Revenue Agency website?

Cleo: We do. We usually quite often because in the end, the Canada Revenue Agency is the authority on what you can and can't do as far as taxes are concerned. So that is a primary source. We try to decipher that information as best as we can, keeping in mind of course that CRA also has anyone that you can call, their general inquiry line and get someone on the phone who can help you out as well. But they do have the most up-to date information as far as taxes.

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interview with laurel ostfield capital one canada last installment
- Posted March 19, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Laurel Ostfield Capital One Canada (Last Installment)

Monty Loree: Good. I'm understanding that credit card companies, it's not an easy situation there. There's software to build. There's huge systems to do in order to build the structure. As you've indicated, this change will probably come in the future but it takes a while to build it.

Laurel Ostfield: It does. It's not something that you can flip the switch on and off overnight, unfortunately. Like I said, we're all constantly looking for new ways to improve our customer's experience like implementing the alerts that I mentioned before. We'd love to hear from our customers on things we can improve, so I'm grateful to the poster for letting me know and I'll definitely pass the information along to the appropriate people.

Monty Loree: Absolutely. Because you're a customer service oriented company, you'll take all of these to heed and to heart. Sounds good. That's about all the questions I have from the board. I just have a couple of questions for you, just because I always ask people where they visit online. What kind of personal websites or personal finance blogs do you visit?

Laurel Ostfield: Sure. I do follow you Monty, Canadian Money Advisor. I also check out thwealthyboomer.ca, CA Capitalists, and Ellen Roseman – I definitely read what she's writing.

Monty Loree: Those are all very prominent bloggers and Jon Chevreau…

Laurel Ostfield: Absolutely. Very knowledgeable group.

Monty Loree: Exactly. Sounds good. Anything else you want to add for our listeners?

Laurel Ostfield: I guess another thing I want the listeners to know is, March is Fraud Prevention Month. It's a national event that's led by the Competition Bureau of Canada and Capital One is participating in it again this year. We are actually holding a contest. People can apply and just do a quick quiz at canadahealth.org. It's going to be launched on March 1st. By just completing the quiz, they actually get entered into a draw and the winner is going to win $20,000.00 that can be donated to the charity of their choice. So it's canadahealth.org starting March 1st.

Monty Loree: Okay. If there's a press release, can you send it over so I can post it for everybody?

Laurel Ostfield: Absolutely.

Monty Loree: In the mean time, I will post it online with this interview podcast and so on. That's great! Again I've been speaking with Laurel Ostfield who's a communications manager over at Capital One. She's answered a lot of our questions and I'm hoping that we can talk again in the future. So what I'll do between now and then is I'll collect questions and if anybody's got questions for Laurel and Capital One, let me know and we will get them answered in the future. Thanks again for visiting and we'll talk to you again soon.

Laurel Ostfield: Thanks again Monty. Have a great day.

Monty Loree: Cheers, bye.

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interview with nick farina of moneyinenglishcom part 5
- Posted March 19, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Nick Farina Of moneyinenglish.com Part 5

Monty Loree: What does that do if you do that? What does it do? I guess it goes to setting up a relationship with a bank?

Nick Farina: Yes, for a checking and savings account?

Monty Loree: Yes, exactly. If you set up a credit card, a bank account, there are fundamental things that you need to do in order to start setting up a relationship with banks and creditors and so on.

Nick Farina: Yes, it does two things. Number one, it helps you set up a relationship with the bank and it helps you build your credit score. Number two is it sets in motion a lifetime of financial responsibility. So if you're 18 years old and maybe bringing in about $200.00 a month in part time work, then if you learn how to manage that $200.00 a month responsibly, then when you're older and you're dealing thousands of dollars, it's not that going to be that big of a leap. A lot of times young people, if they're overdependent on their parents for too long or if they just pay their bills – they don't have checking accounts. Some people currently use this to pay their bills nowadays, believe it or not. Then you have this other standing that's easy to apply, so that's a bigger number. It really is that process of setting up a healthful financial behaviour that will then – you can build upon them and that will take great dividend in the long run, I think.

Monty Loree: Yes, exactly. You're absolutely right with that. The other day I was on Facebook and I was just toodling around, looking for different people talking about money. I found a Boycott Capital One and there's a lot of young people on there and they were like, “Capital One is the worst.” “I hate them.” “They've screwed me.” They've done this and they've done that. I asked them basic questions like, did you read your contract at all or really understand them? And their answer was no. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Nick Farina: Absolutely. I use Twitter a lot and check out the trending topics to see what people are talking on Twitter and it is really amazing if you try it on Chase Credit or Capital One, universally, just like what you are saying.

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podcast with barbara bryn klare part 4
- Posted March 19, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Podcast With Barbara Bryn Klare Part 4

Monty Loree: That's good to know. Basically what I'll do is I'll take those links and I make sure I add them to my post when I write about this.

Barbara Klare: Sure, no problem.

Monty Loree: So I want other people to know about those as well.

Barbara Klare: Because there's a lot of blogs out there and a lot of them are very prominent or, like you said, well-monetized or prominent or whatever. But these are three kind of regular people and it's really interesting watching their progress.

Monty Loree: Well there's some people that lean towards the SEO side of things and there's the people that actually write personally about their experience.

Barbara Klare: This is kind of like my People magazine version and I really like to see these personal stories. For me it's just really inspiring.

Monty Loree: Yes, exactly. What are some of your favorite personal finance products or services, websites? Like what kind of personal financing would you recommend for saving or investing?

Barbara Klare: I have two right now that I feel really good about talking about. The first one's billshrink.com and actually the two I'm going to talk about are both based out of the area and I've actually talked to the CEOs of both of these companies I'm going to mention. The second one I'm going to mention is lendingclub.com. So Billshrink - when I first saw them and started working with them, they were just comparing and helping you save money on your wireless bill and your gasoline usage. They now have credit card comparison and savings and CD rates comparison. But the reason why I like them is it's not just a comparison site. They have really done the back-end decision engine work that makes their recommendations be very, very personalized. So I think a common thing I found in personal finance is people say, “Oh I'm paying $200.00 for my cell bill. I really should look into that.” Then they don't because it's work and they don't want to call their cell phone provider and go through the whole thing. So really, very quickly you can go to Billshrink and enter your number and enter some usage numbers and guide you through. I found myself going through the process of trying to figure out my cell bill and what I should be saving on it. Much simpler using Billshrink.

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interview with cleo from h&r block tax services part 5
- Posted March 18, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Cleo From H&R Block Tax Services Part 5

Cleo: Maybe on your envelope or your box you write a list of things that you know you're able to claim. So it's medical, donations, children's fitness, credit receipts those types of things, you write them on the outside of your box or envelope. Then it's always in your mind and as you get those receipts, you just slide them in there. A lot of accountants out there, they will take the box of receipts and they'll do the returns that way. Or for yourself, and from a financial standpoint, you should review your receipts on an annual basis, just to see where you're spending your money anyway. So it kind of serves two purposes.

Monty: Excellent. The next thing I was wondering about we've had some discussion about the tax-free savings account. Are people actually saving money with that or are they saving taxes with that?

Cleo: They are. So the tax-free savings account of course was just introduced in the last year. So for 2009, once January hit, you were allowed to contribute another $5,000 for the year into that account. For people just starting out, you may not feel like you're saving anything because realistically, on $5,000 what are you investing in? Bear in mind that financial institutions can offer you a number of investment vehicles to put that $5,000 in. Anything that that money earns is tax-free. It could be $50, it could be more than that. As time passes when you continue to contribute your $5,000 and your value growth - let's say 5 years from now when you're at $25,000 - the earnings whether it's dividends, capital gains, interest, whatever that is, then you're really going to see the significance of not having to pay tax on it. So it really is a big draw for a lot of people. I know that we've heard from people who were concerned more so that they couldn't contribute the full $5,000. Have I lost the ability? So keep in mind that the limit is $5,000 a year. If you cannot contribute the full amount, whatever you have left in room gets carried forward in the next year. So if you only put $2,000 into the account in the one year, the $3,000 you have left carries forward to next year. And if you're able to put it in then, you still can.



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interview with laurel ostfield capital one canada part 5
- Posted March 18, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Laurel Ostfield Capital One Canada Part 5

Monty Loree: I guess the question point-blank is, are you tripling card holders' rates in Canada?

Laurel Ostfield: We did notify some of our customers last year about some rate changes that we were making. Like I mentioned, we did give them all the opportunity to opt out of those changes.

Monty Loree: Good. That's the answer. So I'm sure it has happened on a very limited situation in Canada. I would hear about it on our site, people were complaining about it. Not so many people complain about it. The other question I've got is from averagejoe on the Canadian Money Advisor discussion forum. He writes, why won't Capital One return people's deposits after a certain point, like major banks do, and let customers continue using the card instead of making them close the account to get the deposit back and make them wait 45 days to reapply again? If you make a customer close an account, you're risking the chances of losing the customer to another institution.

Laurel Ostfield: I understand the frustration that the poster is asking. We do, and I believe we were referring to moving from a secured card to another kind of credit card. Within that process, and we do periodic review of all of our accounts to determine if there are secure card customers who are ready to move on to a graduated product. That's something that we do. It's not necessarily a process that we have customers initiate themselves, but the best advice I can give to the poster is that the best thing to do is make sure you're exhibiting good credit behavior. Like I said, pay your bills on time. Don't go over limit and know that we do always look and see how you're doing, and when the time we feel it's a good time, we'll definitely approach you on moving your card over. In terms of having to cancel and reapply, that is the process that is in place right now. That we do hope that they value and understand we value their business very much and they do appreciate the product that we provide for them, that they will make that 45 days and apply again.

Monty Loree: So certainly you want to reward people for increasing their credit's risk I guess, for being a better credit risk.

Laurel Ostfield: We do really appreciate our customers doing their best to pay on time and be good customers. We do apologize if there's any stress involved if they need to cancel and reapply, but that is the process.

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Interview With Ivon Hughes lifeannuities.com (Last Installment)
- Posted March 18, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Ivon Hughes lifeannuities.com (Last Installment)

Monty Loree: What was going on in 1972, like the masher?

Ivon Hughes: Exactly. And more.

Monty Loree: So as far as you on the internet, what else are you doing?

Ivon Hughes: We also do life insurance and all the other types of insurance associated with that, like disability insurance and house insurance, mortgage insurance. We do all of that, all of basically the insurance needs, individual or family.

Monty Loree: I think what we should do is we do a separate podcast and talk about some of those separately. But that's good for people to know because I think they're all kind of inclusive and people just want to deal with one person at a time sort of thing.

Ivon Hughes: That's basically it. That's the reason why people go back on vacation, back to the same spot. They know what it's like, they know what to expect and that's what they get from an insurance broker like me.

Monty Loree: So I guess the next question is where do you go when you're online? What other sites do you visit?

Ivon Hughes: I personally go to Globe Investor, globeinvestor.com I think it is. I would also go to, if I wanted stock market information, I go to finviz.com. And general day to day research, I go to tycoonresearch.com. Every day, they have updates on the state of the market.

Monty Loree: Also you mentioned that sometimes you even go to annuityeinstein.com.

Ivon Hughes: Yes, annuityeinstein.com is a US site headquartered in San Diego. We exchange information on friends in the industry. President Obama's starting to push life annuities as the preferred retirement vehicle for Americans. That sort of hotline has been heating up recently.

Monty Loree: Okay, that's good to know. I think we should wrap it up with that. Again, I've been talking to Ivon Hughes from hughestrustco.com. His life annuities site is lifeannuities.com and if you've got any questions, we'll post this on our blog and you can ask any questions and I'll forward them to Ivon. Or you can just visit his blog and ask him directly. What's your toll-free number there?

Ivon Hughes: 877-842-3863.

Monty Loree: Right on. That sounds good. I appreciate your time today and I appreciate your commentary on this. Not a lot of times do we hear about podcasts about life annuities and I know you've added a lot of information and I'm sure there's lots more to talk about.

Ivon Hughes: That's fine Monty. Call back anytime you want.

Monty Loree: Alright, thanks again. Talk to you soon.


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interview with nick farina of moneyinenglishcom part 4
- Posted March 18, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Nick Farina Of moneyinenglish.com Part 4

Nick Farina: you're throwing away half an excuse to not have credit. You're now just an adult with not a lot of income and no credit. So there are still strategies that you can use to try and build up your credit score if you're a graduate from a university with no credit score. Secured credit cards are a good way building up your credit, even accepting a low line of credit, getting a cosignor, someone who's willing. There's still a number of ways, but it becomes much harder. That's really confronting a lot of people as thoughts and people last week who have said, “I'm out of college. I'm thinking right now that I want to get a mortgage, maybe in four to five years. That I want to go to graduate school.” And they don't have any credit and they're getting denied by credit card company after credit card company because credit card companies are over-compensating. Now they don't want to give credit. That's one of the biggest problems that you'll have, but there are ways to combat that.

Monty Loree: I just, for an interjection, want to say that I'm talking with Nick Farina from the blog moneyinenglish.com. Nick blogs about personal finance for young people. Let's continue on here. So you're saying that young people can actually have a plan here as far as getting a mortgage. They can do things, they can set things in motion and have a plan. If they're planning four to five years from now, there's things that they can do in order to be successful to get a mortgage.

Nick Farina: That's absolutely right. I think that really, you get to an informed point that there are things you can do beginning when you're 18 years old, to set yourself up for a successful financial future and it really only takes five minutes or so to talk about them. There's nothing complicated and I think the thing now is you have a lot of financial gurus who are very helpful for older people, but there's so much that people hear from these people. They hear about the 401ks, hear about Roth IRAs and they sort of tune out because it's just too much to think about. But the fact that you don't need to know about the Roth IRA when you're 18 necessarily, but you need to know that you should set up a checking account and a savings account at your own name. You should get some sort of credit going on your name and you should pay your bills on time.

See previous part with Nick Farina - Part 3

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podcast with barbara bryn klare part 3
- Posted March 17, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Podcast With Barbara Bryn Klare Part 3

Monty Loree: So being well-versed and upgrading your education, of course you're always adding that to your blog?

Barbara Klare: Yes, I am. The other thing that I should mention that makes me a little different is, that a lot of people – I've been in finance communications for a really long time. I've worked for eTrade, Melon Investor Services (a subsidiary of JP Morgan) and right now I'm working for Wells-Fargo Wachovia explaining very complex financial products and applications to, mostly internally and some externally. So I guess that's what makes me different.


Monty Loree: You've written the words debit and credit a few times and investment and savings. Again I'm talking to Barbara Klare here who's an award-winning author of The Daily Cash Machine and the Upside of Money blog. That's good. I've got another question here for you. What I was wondering was, what are three of your favorite personal finance blogs? Where do you hang out when you're looking on the internet for personal finance information?

Barbara Klare: Actually if I wanted to start to get my own personal finance hit, I happen to really like the journey style blogs. I call them the journey style because it means that the kind of blogs are where the person is talking about their own personal journey, whether it'd be getting out of debt or working towards buying a house or something like that. It's my prerequisite, is that the person actually puts a real number to their goal or to their net worth, say either using net worth IQ or some kind of chart and puts it right up front. I just respect that kind of honesty. And I find it really inspiring as well, so I find myself kind of cheering along with these people. So the top three people that I've been watching really, actually for years now, are mymoneyblog.com – I believe that's a man and his wife moving along. I've been also watching – I actually worry a lot about this person. I worry about debtsucksblog.com because he's got a lot of debt and I really, really feel for him.

Monty Loree: So that's debts…?

Barbara Klare: debtsucksblog.com. It's a pretty graphic name. No bones about that. Then another personal favorite I have is bostongals.com. She's kind of one of these open wallet types and she talks about what she's trying to do and her net worth and where she's going. I've been really enjoying tracking her success over the years because she sort of has this winning formula and attitude. I think she's going to make her goals, maybe even more than twice. Who knows? So anyway, those are my top three.

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interview with cleo from hr block tax services part 4
- Posted March 17, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Cleo From H&R Block Tax Services Part 4

Monty: Right. Again I just want to say that I'm talking with Cleo from H&R Block and she's got a lot of information about taxes and medical expenses, self-employment. One other question that I've got here, and we've talked about medical expenses and self-employed and I can see a myriad of expenses in income coming from all over the place. The question I've got is, how do people track their information and collect it? How do they know what to do with it as far as that goes before they get their taxes done?

Cleo: It's interesting because it's this time of year where that question is more relevant because you're trying to find all of your things from 2009 to get your 2009 tax return done. I always recommend that at the beginning of the year, literally if it's a box, find a box. If it's not a box, find a large envelope. You should have a central place where you're putting all of your tax information. The challenge is when we're talking about employment, your T4 or investments, your bank account or a mutual fund; some of these slips, they come out in time for taxes. So you know they're going to show up roughly between the end of February and mid-March, let's say. But it's things like donations, medical expenses, if you're self-employed these things are happening daily, weekly, monthly. So you need to have a central place to be putting them in. If you are savvy enough and you have a program, whether it's some kind of accounting software or even just a bookkeeping type of software, obviously that helps for yourself to be able to keep track. But we have seen for instance, if you use your vehicle for your business, people can have a day timer. They've got their calendar and in their calendar, they're writing down exactly where they've gone, how many kilometres they travelled. They actually bring that into us and we will prepare their tax in using that as a method of record. But you should have some kind of a log at least that shows exactly what you're doing on a day to day basis. For those of us that have an employer and we don't get to claim any of those kinds of expenses, it's just a matter of remembering what are the things I can claim throughout the year.

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interview with laurel ostfield capital one canada part 4
- Posted March 17, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Laurel Ostfield Capital One Canada Part 4

Monty Loree: So why is a good credit history important to you as a credit card company?

Laurel Ostfield: For us it's a question of managing risk. We're a credit card company that gives sort of unsecured loans, so we will evaluate everyone who comes in to see what kind of risks they propose to us. Based on a number of factors, we will then determine what is the best card for them. Some people might say they want a particular product but it actually gets them into more trouble. They may go over their heads, so we want to work with our customers to get them the product that's going to be the best bet.

Monty Loree: Exactly. Everybody's financial situation is different. So somebody may need – or their credit may be worthier, however it is, of $1,000.00 credit line and someone's worthy of a $20,000.00 credit line.

Laurel Ostfield: Right, and it really would be – we try to be responsible lenders and it would be irresponsible to give someone a $25,000.00 credit limit when they wouldn't really be capable of handling that kind because of a number of different situations. So we take all of these factors into account when we try to align a credit card product with our customers.

Monty Loree: Excellent. I have some questions that I got from some people on the discussion forum and Twitter. So from Twitter, one of the followers there, hobodreamer, asked me of a question. What keeps Capital One Canada from tripling card holders' APR like they do here in the States? Are there laws?

Laurel Ostfield: There are laws in terms of how we communicate to our customers, let them know of any rate changes that might be coming to effect. We of course only want to make those changes because of the external environment, such as the economic environment. We've all been experiencing, in the US and up here in Canada. We try to notify our customers as soon as possible, at least within 30 days as we do give them the option to decline those changes. So if there is a change to their interest rate, we have been giving them the option to decline. They can opt out of the change, which means that their account will be restricted and they can pay off their existing balance at their old rates.

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interview with ivon hughes lifeannuitiescom part 4
- Posted March 17, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Ivon Hughes lifeannuities.com Part 4

Monty Loree: So I wasn't thinking of turning this interview into a sales pitch and what we're doing is talking about – because a lot of people are worried – so I want to talk about… This is the information that they need to know anyway and I don't usually talk to people about life annuities on a day to day sort of thing. Always the impression that I get on the internet is that it's got to be credible. How can we trust this guy? If we're going to send money to Ivon Hughes at lifeannuities.com, how do we know who he is and who he's dealing with? I noticed on your site here, your suppliers are AIG, Canada Life, Empire Life, Manulife, Standard Life, Sun Life, TransAmerica. So those are all name brand providers that you're dealing with.

Ivon Hughes: Yes, because first of all, we never take money. First of all, registered money is always transferred usually by a G23-33, so the money goes direct from the company that's holding the money to the company that's receiving the money. Same as for non-registered annuities, they're payable to the insurance company. In fact the insurance companies won't receive, won't take any checks from us. We're very happy with that because it keeps everything very, very clear between us – the client, the insurance company, etc.

Monty Loree: So there's really no issue about the trust issue. These are companies that are licensed by the federal government and they're going to be dealing with them anyway.

Ivon Hughes: Yes, that's never been a question. Now is everyone asking about that, and no everything just goes straight to the insurance company and that's the way we like it. We don't have to bother handling it in any way, shape or form. The transfers for registered money are made direct and the money that is used for non-registered annuities also is made payable to the life insurance company itself. And in fact, can be sent directly to the insurance company.

Monty Loree: That's good to know. As far as I'm concerned, that answers the question. That answers those questions. Again, it's lifeannuities.com and I'm talking with Ivon Hughes who is the owner of that website. Ivon's been involved in this business since 1972. So if anybody's trustworthy – you've been licensed, etc. So there's no question about who you are and what you do and so on.

Ivon Hughes: Like a long time, sometimes.

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interview with nick farina of moneyinenglishcom part 3
- Posted March 17, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Nick Farina Of moneyinenglish.com Part 3

Monty Loree: Still, even at that point - when somebody gets to my age, you've seen the movie over and over again. What I mean by that is, at my age you've gone through a few cycles of income. You've had money go up, money go down; you paid off your mortgage, you've paid off debt, you've taken on more debt or whatever it is. When you started off, you're 18 or 20 years old, you're just starting. You never really had a loan before. You've never had a solid income perhaps. So you're saying that kids are getting more educated even with that?

Nick Farina: Yes, I absolutely think so. This is where Money In English comes in, I think in what I'm trying to do, is now there's this fear because people are afraid of what's going to happen if they don't have a job and their parents can no longer support them maybe. There's still an ignorance. There's no one out there that's really trying to teach young kids about finance. Even though those in the college age and above, and I think that's a really important thing to do. There are really simple things that these people need to know. It's the basics of credit – what's a checking account, what's a savings account, what's the difference? That really confuses a lot of young people still. That's a big problem, I think.

Monty Loree: You mentioned before that some of the issues that young people are having right now is they don't have a rating, like a credit rating. They don't know how to ask for better rates. They don't know how to dispute charges. They don't know how to do a lot of things. How do you know about that? How do you start into that?

Nick Farina: That's really an interesting thing because they just, and usually it's the same, but in the United States for example, it's just getting hard to give kids credit. That's really a double-edged sword. I actually read an article about that where in the past, you can get a credit card in college, no problem. A lot of times they were great, they would run the card up and that would be a problem. But in college, it's easy to get a credit card. Then as soon as you graduate from college, and this is still true, it's a lot harder to get credit because instead of being a college student,

See previous part with Nick Farina - Part 2

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Podcast With Barbara Bryn Klare Part 3
- Posted March 17, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Podcast With Barbara Bryn Klare Part 3

Monty Loree: So being well-versed and upgrading your education, of course you're always adding that to your blog?

Barbara Klare: Yes, I am. The other thing that I should mention that makes me a little different is, that a lot of people – I've been in finance communications for a really long time. I've worked for eTrade, Melon Investor Services (a subsidiary of JP Morgan) and right now I'm working for Wells-Fargo Wachovia explaining very complex financial products and applications to, mostly internally and some externally. So I guess that's what makes me different.


Monty Loree: You've written the words debit and credit a few times and investment and savings. Again I'm talking to Barbara Klare here who's an award-winning author of The Daily Cash Machine and the Upside of Money blog. That's good. I've got another question here for you. What I was wondering was, what are three of your favorite personal finance blogs? Where do you hang out when you're looking on the internet for personal finance information?

Barbara Klare: Actually if I wanted to start to get my own personal finance hit, I happen to really like the journey style blogs. I call them the journey style because it means that the kind of blogs are where the person is talking about their own personal journey, whether it'd be getting out of debt or working towards buying a house or something like that. It's my prerequisite, is that the person actually puts a real number to their goal or to their net worth, say either using net worth IQ or some kind of chart and puts it right up front. I just respect that kind of honesty. And I find it really inspiring as well, so I find myself kind of cheering along with these people. So the top three people that I've been watching really, actually for years now, are mymoneyblog.com – I believe that's a man and his wife moving along. I've been also watching – I actually worry a lot about this person. I worry about debtsucksblog.com because he's got a lot of debt and I really, really feel for him.

Monty Loree: So that's debts…?

Barbara Klare: debtsucksblog.com. It's a pretty graphic name. No bones about that. Then another personal favorite I have is bostongals.com. She's kind of one of these open wallet types and she talks about what she's trying to do and her net worth and where she's going. I've been really enjoying tracking her success over the years because she sort of has this winning formula and attitude. I think she's going to make her goals, maybe even more than twice. Who knows? So anyway, those are my top three.

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interview with cleo from hr block tax services part 3
- Posted March 17, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Cleo From H&R Block Tax Services Part 3

Monty: Yes, of course that's a very sensitive issue. Somebody gets sick or a family member gets ill and they go through a lot of expense. Then all of the sudden, they have a surprise. Canada Revenue Agency the CRA doesn't recognize that.

Cleo: Right. So you have to be prepared for that. Some of the other questions we're getting are for self-employment. Again, it's been a rough year for some people and if they've lost their job and haven't been able to find work, they've been venturing into the self-employment avenue. It could be somebody who's maybe you were a framer or a carpenter working for a household builder and you got laid off. But you know what, you have a trade and you can use it and you just have to go into business. That seems to be another interesting area. People are not really familiar with what it means. They know how to do the work but they're not quite sure how to handle the tax situation, so you've got to be really careful here. Anyone who goes into self-employment and calls himself a full proprietor, they're not incorporated and going through the legal avenue of creating a limited partnership or a limited company. If you're just going to be Joe Smith Carpentry, any income that you make is considered part of your personal tax return. When you file your return, you don't have to do anything special. You just need to fill in an extra form. You report your income and you've got your expenses, like the supplies you bought and maybe you have motor vehicle expenses because you're driving from job to job. You're keeping a small office in your home, you can have some expenses to that. The challenge is if you're successful, the income that you make is going to be taxed at your personal tax rate. In Canada, we have a federal tax rate and a prudential tax rate. If we speak specifically federally, the minimum tax rate you have to pay is 15% on the first $40,000 in income. The minute you jump up above the $40,000, you start paying 22%. If you get over the $80,000 limit, you're going to pay 26%. If you get over $126,000, you're going to pay 29% plus whatever your province charges. As a full proprietor, if you're just starting out and you maybe make $30,000 in the first year, but you're seeing yourself getting more business and probably making more money, you may want to consider whether or not it's feasible for you to then incorporate. Create a separate entity, separate business, and then you can pay yourself out of your business. Definitely something you want to talk about to a tax professional about to see if it's worth it. Don't forget as well that as a self-employed person, you actually have to register for GST as well sometimes. Those are questions that people really need to know and get the right answer.

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interview with laurel ostfield capital one canada part 3
- Posted March 17, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Laurel Ostfield Capital One Canada Part 3

Monty Loree: Interesting. So basically you've got answers for a lot of the questions with your tools you're bringing to them. You've got a lot of these answers here, perfect. They can do all of that when they log in to their account?

Laurel Ostfield: Exactly. We definitely encourage our customers to sign up online, get an online account because that really will help them. Like I said, we all have busy lives and you get a statement and sometimes you'll say, “I'll pay for that date.” But that date comes and you can't remember when it is. If you set your alerts on your profile, you'll actually get a reminder saying your account's minimum payment is due in 5 days and you haven't paid it yet. That's just that extra reminder so you don't accidentally have late payment charges.

Monty Loree: Perfect. I just want to interject and say that I'm visiting with Laurel Ostfield who's the communications manager for Capital One Canada. She's giving us a lot of good information. Because she's at the heart of the company, she knows what she's talking about. I just have a question for you about credit card rates. Obviously people want to save money and they want to pay the lowest amount of interest. You've got your Capital One Smart Line which has an interest rate of 5.99%. People are wondering, some of the other cards have maybe a higher interest rate. Why would that be? How can people get to the lowest interest rate possible?

Laurel Ostfield: Lower interest rates – it's really important to have a really excellent credit history when you want to apply for lower rates. That's really what those products are geared for. The way to do that is to be very adamant about paying your balance on time, not going over limit, that kind of credit history is going to set you up to be able to apply for a lower rate credit card like our Smart Line product. Obviously people, once you do carry a balance from month to month, having a lower rate can save you a lot of money. Of course we always encourage our customers to pay their balances in full every month. That's the best way to do it. But if they do need to carry a balance, a lower rate can make a significant difference.

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Interview With Ivon Hughes lifeannuities.com Part 3
- Posted March 17, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview With Ivon Hughes lifeannuities.com Part 3

Monty Loree: Right on. Again I'm talking with Ivon Hughes from hughestrustco.com. Ivon's been in the life insurance and life annuities business since 1972. This man knows what he's talking about through and through. He's been there, done that, etc. So I'm glad to talk to you. So what other information would you like to give to people about life annuities?

Ivon Hughes: With new money you're dealing, you need to get perks from all the companies which is one thing that we supply to all the people who contact us. We give you all the companies so that you can compare one quote to the other. Nothing is necessarily is a great difference, but for your own piece of mind, if one company's giving you $1,000.00, you also want to know if the company next door will not give you a little bit more. You want to know that the company next door is in fact giving less than a thousand dollars. So as long as we pull out all the companies and we have no problem in offering them all to you because we're contracted with everybody.

Monty Loree: So basically if somebody goes on your website, which is lifeannuities.com – and actually if you do a search on Google, I just checked this, for life annuities, Ivon's site comes up number one as lifeannuities.com. So you're saying that if somebody goes to your site, lifeannuities.com, they can do most of the research there and do most of the shopping there.

Ivon Hughes: They can do all of the shopping there and if they want a quote, they simply fill in the form and email it to us and we take the shopping from there. We either call them if they want to be called or a lot of people want some advice on how long a guarantee period they should have – whether they should have a guarantee period. Should they be worried about their children, etc. People have a lot of questions. After a buying a house, an annuity is a very important purchase.


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Interview with Tom Drake canadianfinanceblog.com part 3
- Posted March 17, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview with Tom Drake canadianfinanceblog.com part 3

Monty Loree: Right. For example when our business was – the glass company that I worked for, we had $120 million of debt at that point and I think the interest rates were 12%. So the company was paying out something like $600,000.00 a month in interest. The company could buy a lot of assets or they could do a lot with that kind of money. Anyway, that's good. It gives everybody a background on what you're doing and stuff. What is the subject you'd like to blog about the most?

Tom Drake: Lately it's been a lot of how you can save money or increase your income and again it's the stage I'm at right now in life, kind of flows into the writing. I'll probably be doing a lot more tax related stuff this month again. Anytime you can help someone else with the tax, anything like that. When they try to do it, it's good. I'm sure there's a lot of people that might be missing something that they can be claiming.

Monty Loree: What are some examples of how people can make more money? Are you talking to the employees or people who are self-employed or investors?

Tom Drake: Just little side things – anything from starting your own blog or selling on ebay, just little things. Not even as far as, say going out and getting a second job or how to get a raise. All that's probably more obvious, but the little things people may not be doing that they can make a few extra dollars here and there. Even if you're only making $50.00 more a month, that can pay a bill.

Monty Loree: Yes, absolutely. That's right, good point. Again I just want to say that I'm talking to Tom Drake and he's the author of canadianfinanceblog.com. Edmonton there – I made that mistake earlier, because Tom said to me, “Well at least you get together at 10AM MST.” MST? What is that? So you're definitely at Edmonton. Good. I saw you had a contest on your – just to mark the first anniversary on your blog?

Tom Drake: Yes, McGraw-Hill was kind enough to donate ten books to the contest and Pocket [Snip] is giving away three premium accounts for one year. To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment at the bottom of the post.

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interview with nick farina of moneyinenglishcom part 2
- Posted March 17, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview with Nick Farina of moneyinenglish.com part 2


Monty Loree: Tell me about the – my kids are 16 and 18 and of course we're having discussions about money all the time. Of course they have to hear all the extra details because of what I do for a living. Tell me about, what is the mentality of somebody that's 17 or 18 or 19 and they're just getting out of high school. They're starting to get their first job, maybe they move out or whatever. Tell me about that a little bit. What's on their mind?

Nick Farina: It really depends on the person. But what I found is that even though the last five years have changed pretty drastically, about five years ago, young people starting out – it was a pretty relaxed attitude. You thought, “Oh, the future is bright. I'll rely on my parents until I get a good job or until I graduate from the university.” Then after that, “I'll have a good paying job and pay my credit cards all the time,” and all that. There was a huge problem still with debt because credit card companies were getting credited to anyone with a pulse. They were offering these slick deals that had them sign up on campus. Students were pretty relaxed about it. In many ways that was actually a bad thing because students would freely sign up for credit cards. Their parents have credit cards and their parents were okay. They didn't see the harm in that and there is also this kind of ignorance. I've been asked questions as basic as, what's an ATR. The minimum payment, does that mean I still pay interest? So there was an ignorance about it and combined with that, that's what got people in trouble. Now it's different because the global economy is sour to such an extent that people are scared and they see how their parents are now in deep trouble too. Their parents are and their friends are getting jobs. So it's almost better now, I think, for young people's finance because it's given them this healthy fear of credit in a banking area and the money problems. It's made them step back and say, “Maybe I should save instead.” It's almost gone the other way for the credit card companies. Now we're seeing this eagle empire by many young people. That's a huge thing. I think now there's a lot more fear. There's a lot more thinking going on.

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Ottawa has their eye on the credit card industry
- Posted March 16, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Ottawa has their eye on the credit card industry

Published On Fri Mar 5

Dana Flavelle
Business Reporter

A new legislation is being proposed today in Ottawa that will hand the authority to regulate the debit and credit card industry to the federal finance minister. Current finance minister, Jim Flaherty replied saying the will only use his authority on this matter if the credit and debit card industry will not comply with a proposed voluntary code of conduct. Meanwhile, the government also proposed budget documents so that the Federal Agency of Canada can monitor the credit and debit card industries compliance to the code of conduct.

Ottawa also said that they will form a task force to review the of the Canadian payment system. They are mandated to review the level of competition, oversight, innovation and benefits to consumer and business alike and to submit a report of their review by the end of 2011.

Diane Brisebois, Retail council of Canada's president and chief executive officer and the Stop Sticking It To Us Coalition 's President said that it nis a huge victory for them because it showed that the government knows that the system is broken.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business said that they welcomed the measures but the small business groups said that the agency does not have enough guts to enforce the code through the industry.

The code of conduct was drafted in November as government's response to growing number of complaints from small business owners and retailers over rising interchange fees.

Business entrepreneurs say interchange fees have been getting out of control. Business owners also fear that the same thing could also happen to debit cards as MasterCard Visa prepare to enter the comparatively low-cost debit market in Canada.


VIA The Star

Keyword: Credit cards

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advantex agreed with aeroplan and cibc to venture into retail fashion footwear and accessories sector
- Posted March 16, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Advantex agreed with Aeroplan and CIBC to venture into Retail Fashion. Footwear and Accessories Sector

TORONTO, ONTARIO, Mar 16, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) --

Advantex Marketing Internation announced today that they had signed an agreement for a partnership with Aeroplan Canada INC., that will let Advantex offer Aeroplan Miles to retailers with the fashion sectors across Canada. Many retailers across the fashion sectors showed marked interest in offering Aeroplan Miles to their clients.

The Chief Executive Officer and Presidentof Advantex, Kelly Ambrose said that their partnership with Aeroplan is significant for their company in a number of respects. This is their second major marketing agreement with another Canadian Company and it shows the recognition that Advantex is getting for their leadership and experience in loyalty programs.

This will be the first time that Advantex will be able to market their services to the fashion clothing, footwear and accessories sectors in Canada. Their agreement with Aeroplan will let them offer the opportunity to offer retail merchants take part in the Aeroplan Program. Aeroplan members will be able to get one Aeroplan Mile for every dollar spent, and they are also eligible for other special offers like the firt time purchase bonuses. Advantex's agreement with Aeroplan enables them to grow in their business by expanding their merchant nase into the fashion sectors.

Advantex plans to target high-end and branded fashion clothing, footwear and accessories in major cities within Canada and they also plan to introduce a program called the Advance Purchase Marketing or APM where merchants can get cash advance based on future sales for a working capital. This plan has been growing popularly since it has been launched in the restaurant industry and they are expecting it to grow more popular with it's expansion to the fashion sector.

In addition to Aeroplan, Advantex also went into an amendment with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) that will enable CIBC Visa Infinite credit card holders to earn either Aeroplan miles or CIBC rewards when they make purchases in shops participating in the CIBC Advantex programs.

VIA Marketwatch

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avoid being trapped by introductory lowinterest credit card offers
- Posted March 15, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Avoid being trapped by introductory. low-interest credit card offers

By Lily Wolf

You could be one of those people who got promotional offers for a low interest credit card and immediately enrollled before reading the contract. A few years ago, Greg Lipinski applied for a couple of low interest credit card offers but he didn't read the contract to make sure he knows what he is applying for. His application was immediately accepted and he got his credit in just a couple of weeks. He was even given a huge credit limit, which sounded so good, and within a year, after the offer expires, his APR skyrocketed and he was laden with debt when he couldn't keep up with his payments.His interest rate went from 1.5% to 29% in just a span of nine months, he had to ask his mother to co-sign a loan so that he can pay his debts. To make matters worse, he used his other credit card to pay the balance of the other credit card, which helped him stabilize his credit history but buried him deeper into debt.

A case like this is not unusual. You can be tempted by offers like this when you are trying to build a good credit history. But what many failed to do is to read the fine prints that usually states that the APR will jump once the introductory rate expire. This can be very devastating. But there are ways to protect yourself from rate hikes like this.

Here are a few tips to observe before you apply for any creditcard:

1. Make sure to read the fine print on the contract before signing up.

The application you get in the mail discloses what will happen to your interest rates after the introductory offer is up but they are usually written really small so you have to look for them. read it and try to understand what the card offers and what will change after the introductory period expire.

2. Research.

Look at the websites of big banks (i.e. BMO or TD Canada Trust) and check what rates they offer. You might notice that their rates varies for students, businesses or wealthy customers and these rates usually stays with the card and does not expire after a specified period and they don't hike up their rates unless the client abuses his credit. Just don't be hasty in signing up, compare offers and choose the best one.

3. Choose the best options you can find.

The best thing you can do is to choose the card that offers the the lowest permanent rate (the rate that will apply after the introductory period is over), lowest initial rate and zero annual fee.

4. Speak to a representative.

Talk to someone who is up on a higher ladder, like a manager, not just the representative who is trained to convince you to sign up. Don't signup upon reading a piece of paper. Inquire about their rates and what they can do for you. It is best to tell them that you are shopping for the best offer you can find.

5. Be aware of the introductory time period.

The rate change witll occur without warning and credit card companies will count from the time they accepted your application instead of when you recieve and register your card> Just make sure that the balance on your card has been paid off before the rate change occur so you won't have to pay your bill with the higher rate.


VIA CreditCards.com

Keyword: Credit Cards

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conversation with jon chevreau author of findependence day part 4
- Posted March 14, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Conversation with Jon Chevreau Author of Findependence Day Part 4



Monty Loree: Interesting. Say those four money personalities again?

Jon Chevreau: Spenders, savers, builders and givers. Builder is somebody who builds a business. Giver is a philanthropist. You can be two, right? Most Canadians are probably either spenders or savers. I'd say two spenders are disaster, two savers are probably, they don't even need to read the book. Spenders and savers, that's where you get the interesting complex. I can certainly know in my own orbit, of at least three couples - baby boomer couples - and they had different money personalities. They were all spenders, and they split. It's not a very stable way. Once your financial lives start to unravel, so does your emotional and romantic life. Then all of the ramifications. So I think it's important to take these lessons to heart. If you really did do these stuff and as you'll know, this book constantly has searched the need for a financial plan. As a good, certified financial planner or a financial adviser, I don't think most people really aren't aware to go in alone. So put it all together - get a good adviser, a good financial planner and then live. Live the book. I think you'll do pretty well.

Monty Loree: That's what I'm thinking as well. As you said, the target audience is maybe people that are 20 to 30 and they're just starting off. At that point, you're just starting into the game. You're kind of just learning about money. That's what I find as well, that I recommend people to read like crazy and concentrate on their money. Then it'll start to get easier for them.

Jon Chevreau: The book has a two-paged bibliography at the end with a lot of the other book titles suggested and sprinkled throughout the book. I gathered them all at the end. There's a character called Theo who's a financial adviser and sort of called a [pick-a-field] library which is just a fancy phrase for bibliography but it sounded better. It was seen in the book where Jaime goes and glimpses the library, goes through the books and picks a couple off the shelves and gets good ideas. A lot of them are well-known, like Chilton's “The Wealthy Barber” and the Milevski book I mentioned and quite a few other books. You take that list. You wade through at least half of them and you as a financial adviser would have half the job done for you.

Monty Loree: Exactly. That's good. Again I'm talking with Jonathan Chevreau who's the author of Findependence Day and that's one couple's turbulent journey to financial independence. You can find this book all over the place. I just got to ask you some other questions. Where does Jon Chevreau go on the internet? What are some blogs that you like to do that talk about money?

Jon Chevreau: If you count Twitter as the internet, I think I believe you and I first encountered each other - correct me if I'm wrong - through Twitter. For me Twitter was, I went on about a year ago after the financial times and did one whole page on it. My first reaction to Twitter was like most people, sort of like it's weird. What can you say in 140 characters? Soon I realized what it really is - a headline in a link. For me, I'm writing a US edition of the book. So I put Findependence Day, to me, as a way to put The Wealthy Boomer blog known in the States and also the book in the states. So I work at it. As you know, you don't get a lot of people calling you just because you're whoever, unless you're a great big star. You're kind of a star, far in between, so my strategy is basically - it's a lot easy to follow and be followed. It seems to be working. I've actually gotten a few reviews and a few contacts down in the States just from that. Other than Twitter, and my own site wealthyboomer.ca, I tend to re-tweet a lot of financial post content during the day because after all I'm paid in the day to work for them. I think that's only fair. I do a lot of other stuff on nights and weekends. I feel a little more able to tweet other people's content.

Monty Loree: So your twitter address is twitter.com/jonchevreau?

Jon Chevreau: Yes. With Twitter you can also define people functions. You can find people, ask for just the job description and switch to that account if you can't remember. A lot of people there, they don't use their real name as they're counted, some weird name like mrfinancialplanner or whatever you might choose to be. You see - I think you use your real name don't you?

Monty Loree: Yes, Monty Loree. I'm all about real names and stuff on Twitter.

Jon Chevreau: I think so. Certainly the best ones are known because in context, that's what they appear to be. The good ones like Roger Walter seems pretty good, in Chicago for example. I actually have a financial planner list because the big thing on Twitter is these lists. So you can actually go and find a list of all the people I follow on economics and politics, financial planners, Findependence Day list, Wealthy Boomer list, healthy boomer list. They're very handy. You can basically see whatever I'm seeing, the way I'm filtering the information just by following my lists and your lists.

Monty Loree: That's exactly it. I noticed along with that, I was going to ask you though, you said you tweet for the Financial Post. Is that under this account or do you have a separate one for that?

Jon Chevreau: No I only have one account. I put ally my eggs in one basket when it comes to Twitter. I set up placeholder names for Findependence Day and The Wealthy Boomer but I don't tweet to them. I just tweet them my real names. The list - I think there's a limit of 20 lists actually, which I have because you have a public list and a private list that only you yourself can see. So I may have a couple of little lists, like friends and colleagues for example so I can pay extra attention to people I know. That wouldn't be a public list.

Monty Loree: That's right. This is good because your account is obviously very busy because you've got 17,000 followers. That's a lot of people who know about you and your book and really appreciate it. I have one more question and we should get going again. I'm talking to Jonathan Chevreau here who's the author of Findependence Day. In the foreword, Patricia Lovett reads, used the word frugers. What is a fruger?

Jon Chevreau: Well that's a short for frugality gorilla, a big phrase throughout the book. The TV show at the beginning of the book talks on and on about gorilla frugality. So it's basically super frugality and somebody who practices - basically I'm saying you have to be frugal, number one to pay off all your debt and number two, even after your debt is paid, you must continue that frugal behavior in order to build wealth, build stocks, DTS or whatever. It's the exact same behavior that got you out of debt, it's the behavior that's going to build wealth. So basically the key to findependence is gorilla frugality. The person who practices gorilla frugality is a fruger or a frugality gorilla.

Monty Loree: Right on, perfect. I just want to thank you for taking the time today.

Jon Chevreau: Thank you Monty. It's a pleasure, anytime. I guess I'll see you on Twitter. One other forum that I go to a lot is canadianmoneyforum.com by the way. It's a discussion forum I go to.

Monty Loree: That's canadianmoneyforum.com.

Jon Chevreau: A number of those people are on Twitter, so you've got capitalists and Money Highway. I'm sure they're all on your list that you follow as well. It's all congregated, that's big of a forum as well.

Monty Loree: You've got Frugal Trader there from Million Dollar Journey and so on.

Jon Chevreau: That's right. You can probably go to every one of those…

Monty Loree: Again, your website is wealthyboomer.ca?

Jon Chevreau: It as wealthyboomer.com but there was a sort of story that I don't wish to go into here. But it forms part of the subplot of Findependence Day. For various reasons, it's wealthyboomer.ca, which is a microsite house that's part of financialpost.com. You go on to financialpost.com and you want to see the video interviews. If you ever come to Toronto, I'll be glad to do a video interview of you Monty. That's sort of an adjunct to the blog and all the columns that are there. It's all housed in the same place there in thefinancialpost.com.

Monty Loree: I won't keep you, because we always say we go for a short interview here. We're doing about 100 podcast interviews this year and I want to get to know everybody that's blogging and any personal financial service providers and so on. I'm glad that you're the first person I've interviewed for this podcast series.

Jon Chevreau: Glad to be a guinea pig. Just go through my list and pick them all off.

Monty Loree: That's good. Thanks again and we'll talk again soon.

Jon Chevreau: Thanks for talking Monty.

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Introducing Canada's WestJet Frequent Flyer Program
- Posted March 14, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Introducing Canada's WestJet Frequent Flyer Program

A program called Frequent Guest Program (FGP), Westjet clients will get "WestJet dollars" that customers can use with no blackout dates for future WestJet travel to any WestJet destination.

How it works:

Customers can earn WestJet dollars at 2.5% of the sum you spend on any WestJect flights published fares (this excludes fees, taxes, and surcharges) when you spend no less than $1,500 in a year. When WestJet members garner $1,500 on the whole annual qualifying year (this is the 12-month period which starts from the date you apply in the program) they will recieve a $50 value of WestJet dollars to spend and they will also start earning 1% on cash spent on WestJet Vacation packages, but the amount used for WestJet vacations does not qualify for your annual spend of $1,500. If the member's annual spend reaches a total of $4,500 they will get $165 value of WestJet dollars plus a "Canadian JetAway" companion flight to anywhere within Canada where WestJet flies, including 4 vouchers for complimentary advance seat selection and 2 airport lounge passes. WestJet members only need to spend $3,000 to get the Canadian JetAway perks as an introductory offer to last until Dec. 31, 2010.

When Frequent Guest Program members' reaches $6,000 on annual spends, they will get a $230 value of WestJet dollars plus another "Jet-Away" complimentary companion flight to anywhere WestJet flies, including 4 additional advance seat selection vouchers and 2 more airport lounge passes.

And if you're spending reaches a total of $7,500 within your membership year, you will recieve an additional $300 vale of WestJet dollars. Remember each membership year starts anew toward your at least $1,500 annual spend, which is equal to approximately 4 roundtrip tickets every year. So this program is not meant for you if you don't fly that much.

WestJet dollars accumulated can last for five years and will Expire if not used at the end of the 5th year after the member earned them. You can earn additional WestJet dollars using RBC MasterCard and other bonus offers.

VIA WebFlyer

Keyword: Travel Rewards Credit Cards

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Interview with Joel Sopp - life insurance discussion - Part #2
- Posted March 14, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview with Joel Sopp - life insurance discussion - Part #2

Monty Loree: Right, okay. First question I’ve got for you is, tell me about life insurance and how it helps me and my family. We kind of understand the concept but give me some more specifics about that.

Joel Sopp: Well this is kind of my own mantra, being in this role now for nearly 5 years and this is what I truly believe in when it comes to how life insurance, critical illness, long term care – doesn’t matter what type of insurance. How it can help you and your family is – insurance, regardless of the type I believe is meant to help your family or yourself maintain dignity in a time of crisis. Whether that means not having to make the choice of selling your family home and moving to a rental because you can’t make your payments because of a disability or that means you lose a family member and other added expenses that weren’t considered beforehand during a full review. I think life insurance really gives your family or yourself independence depending on the situation. That’s very important to a lot of people.

Monty Loree: Okay. I’m just wondering if you have some specific examples of people. Because you’re in the industry, I’m sure you talk a lot and you learn about different instances. Is there an instance where a family didn’t have life insurance and then somebody passed away or a main breadwinner passed away and they didn’t have life insurance or they did have life insurance and it did help them out? Do you have some stories that you can talk about with that?

Joel Sopp: Definitely. I can speak from personal experience myself. I have relatives who had a baby passed away after being only a few months old. As a result, due to depression and everything else that comes along with the loss of a child, they ended up being off work for 6 months straight. Now the work they’re at was more of a self-employed role and had no coverage whatsoever. So that’s 6 months off work with no income coming in the household, living off from whatever savings they have. It really devastated the family both emotionally as well as financially. Had they had anything as simple as disability insurance so that if it was diagnosed as clinical depression, that the doctor will allow them to put that claim in, I think it would’ve put them in a much better situation financially because they can focus on getting well emotionally as opposed to trying to force themselves to work because they need to go to work.

That was one that really impacted me personally and made my goal of making sure, regardless if it’s a family member or a friend or someone I don’t even know yet, I want to make sure I offer my services to them so that they are not ever put in that situation. The good news is there are things that are positive extremes as well. It’s not all negative. That’s the good news. For example, there could be people – I know myself, personally I haven’t had to do anything with regards to death claim where it’s helped a family out. However one of my colleagues, Tom, he was actually able to travel to a family’s home and sit down with them, show them how the life insurance that was put in place based on the family’s need that will help them; help them set up a financial plan afterwards. Now a single mom with two kids is financially set until her children have graduated. There’s that one less thing to worry about on income in one family.

See Interview with Joel Sopp - life insurance discussion - Part #1

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interview with joel sopp life insurance discussion part 1
- Posted March 14, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview with Joel Sopp - life insurance discussion - Part #1

Monty Loree: Hey folks this is Monty Loree here from Canadian Money Advisor. I’ve got Joel Sopp who has been an RBC and investment adviser based in Regina, Saskatchewan for the last four years. As a matter of fact, we met on Twitter and I don’t think we knew that we’re both from Regina but we are, so that’s kind of neat. Joel has spent five and a half years prior to RBC as a personal banker with another big bank. So he is celebrating the full decade in the financial industry coming this spring. These days, Joel‘s job takes him all over Saskatchewan into his clients’ home where he covers their financial needs. Everybody needs that - we know that because we’re talking about personal finance all the time. Joel is happily married to his wife Shelly for the last eleven years, and has two boys, [Brent] and Logan and also has miniature Australian shepherd named Johnny Bravo. Hey Joel, how are you doing? Thanks for joining.

Joel Sopp: No problem Monty, thank you very much for having me on. I am doing fantastic this morning, thanks for asking.

Monty Loree: Excellent. You got an Australian shepherd named Johnny Bravo,

Joel Sopp: Yes. We ended up being – being adopted. Fell in love with him right away and he was named John Lennon originally, but my ten year old and five year old had no idea who John Lennon was unfortunately. So they picked the new name of Johnny Bravo - a little more kid-friendly, a little bit more fun.

Monty Loree: Excellent. That will be more fun for them for however long you have the dog to call him that. So anyway, you’re doing life insurance and other things with RBC Insurance. That’s got to be kind of neat, and I’m always excited to talk about to people who are in life insurance, because quite frankly life insurance is a pretty complicated topic. People’s eyes glaze over when you ask them questions about it. How many times have you ever asked somebody, “Oh do you have life insurance?” They say yes because that’s about all they understand about it.

Joel Sopp: That’s about as far as they get. They’d say yes and then they say, “Okay so how much insurance do you have?” “Oh, I’m covered to work. I’m okay.” My usual response to that is, “That’s great to hear, so what does that insurance cover you for?” Typically that’s when a client doesn’t necessarily have an answer for me.

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Interview with Promod Sharma Four Hour Work Week- Part #1
- Posted March 14, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview with Promod Sharma - blog.riscario.com Four Hour Work Week- Part #1

Monty Loree: Hey folks this is Monty Loree here from Canadia Money Adviser and I’ve got Promod Sharma. He’s a blogger over at Riscario Insider. Hey Promod, how are you?

Promod Sharma: I’m great Monty, how are you?

Monty Loree: Good. I’m glad that you are able to take part in our 100 personal finance podcasts for Canadians. I think what we should talk about today - I’m pretty excited because we’ve talked quite a bit about The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss. It sounds like you’ve got some good insight on it and I want to talk to you about that. I think our visitors and listeners will be interested in that as well.

Promod Sharma: Let’s talk about that.

Monty Loree: Good. You said right now you’re kind of practicing The Four Hour Work Week a little bit.

Promod Sharma: Well, The Four Hour Work Week is a great title. It’s very hard to implement in practice unless you have a lot of residual income coming in. So I’m adopting more of the philosophy of it, rather than actually just working four hours.

Monty Loree: So you’re implementing some of the techniques or whatever?

Promod Sharma: Yes. One of the points that the book makes, which I haven’t really thought about was, when you look at how much someone earns we tend to look at earnings per year. So for example, someone who is earning $100,000 which seems to be much better off than someone earning $50,000, and Tim Ferriss makes the point that you really want to break that down into hours - so dollars per hour. So someone who is earning $100,000 may be working 80 hours a week and the person earning $50,000 may be working 40 hours a week. So if you look at their hourly earnings, they are both earning the same, except the person earning the $50,000 actually has 40 extra hours that they can then use to do other things. They could actually have a greater quality of life and that’s I guess fairly obvious but it’s something I haven’t thought about before reading the book.


Monty Loree: Right. That’s one of the big premises of the book, is to do a mini retirement or abolish slavery, the 9 to 5 grind. He’s all about the quality of living.

Promod Sharma: Yes. That was also another great point he made, is the idea of the mini retirement. What we often think about is saving money and the when we’re old and gray then enjoying ourselves. But when we’re old and gray we may not be physically capable of doing all the things we would like to do now. So it’s better to actually take breaks while we’re working and then enjoy our lives before we get very worn out.

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research before opening a rewards
- Posted March 13, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Research Before Opening a Rewards

Shop Before Opening a Rewards Card Account, Expert Says

People are using their credit cards more and more because of the difficult economy, and studies have shown that more people are participating in a credit card rewards program. Rewards program are usually for airline miles, retail discounts, cash back, shopping points or a variety of other benefits.

Studies have shown that most credit card holders takes advantage of rewards programs, which can earn extended warranties on purchases, shoppers discounts at retailers, airline miles and many other benefits.
Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments and "Good Morning America" personal finance contributor, discussed which credit card reward programs are best for consumers when she visited the show.
Hobson also extended additional tips that consumers maybe useful for them to make an informed decision about whether to open a rewards credit card:

Buyer, Beware

1. Do your homework before you choose a credit card. Shopping for comparison is important. Hobson likes the information presented at creditcards.com or bankrate.com for more information on credit card rates , terms, and benefits,.

2. Do not open a credit card for the purpose of getting airline miles, discounts or other rewards with the intention of closing it later. Open one only one because you really need it, she said. Opening and closing a credit card lowers your credit score.

3. Examine your credit card statement each month to be certain that proper fees have been posted and you have received the correct points for your purchases. The best way to settle all of your charges is to save your receipts.

4. Regularly check the terms of your rewards program. Reward program terms frequently change, so be certain you know exactly what you are getting.

VIA ABCNEWS

Keyword: Credit Card

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statistic showed one out of 3 people believe theyve been
- Posted March 12, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Statistic Showed One out of 3 People Believe They’ve Been a Victim of Debit or Credit Card Fraud

by Jonathan Chevreau

TD Canada Trust revealed a startling statistic showing that one out of 3 people in Canada feel that they were victimized by credit or debit card in the past and that 40 percent are extremely worried about being defrauded in the future. This is big concern is grounded as Canadian financial institutions are relying on “PIN” and “Chip” system to avoid fraudulent activities. However, a research at Cambridge University found that criminals can get around the new “chip” technology to perform their nefarious activities. The new PIN and chip technology only means that we should not let our guards down. As BBC reported this morning, we live in a world filled with sophisticated hackers and cyber criminals, and it is very doubtful that all of these criminals can be shut down or arrested. What we can do is minimize the chances of losing a lot of money if they got through our credit/debit cards. One thing we can do is to lower our daily withdrawal limit, whether for lines of credit, credit card or checquing accounts. It’s true that the banks said that they will reimbursed customers who have been robbed, but as British banks who have incorporated the new Chip technology are still being a victim of fraud, some bans seemed to be having second thoughts reimbursing customers, especially those who are partially or wholly responsible for their misfortune.

The month of March is also Fraud Prevention Month. We must always be vigilant with our transactions. A little paranoia is not uncalled for when we are swiping our card and entering our PIN. We all cannot afford to trust strangers and people we deal with in situations where we use our cards. Avoiding credit card fraud will require you to b eternally vigilant and not just for the month of March. Never assume that it will never happen to u. I urge you to take the time to answer the TD Canada Trust's 12-question card fraud quiz if you have not yet done so by clicking Here

Your credit and debit cards should be treated same as your money and your PINs like your key to your house. Always keep them in a safe place and never trust anybody with them. Never disclose your credit card number unless you made the call, and immediately call your bank if the card went missing so that they can block it. You should also make sure to check your statements and transactions to ensure that every transactions made with your cards are authorized by you. Choose your PINs wisely and remember to periodically change them. Never give them out to anyone, not even your bank is supposed to know it. When you’re in your ATM machine, always make sure to cover your hands when entering the PIN for there may be a hidden camera somewhere looking over you as you enter your PIN.

VIA National Post

Keyword: Credit cards

statistic showed one out of 3 people believe theyve been a victim of debit or credit card fraud

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how to pay off your credit cards
- Posted March 11, 2010 by Monty Loree
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How to Pay Off Your Credit Cards

by Drew Graham test

Coping with credit card debt can be a difficult for a lot of people, and credit card companies don’t make it any easier. It is very hard to pay off your credit card bills between minimum payments and high interest rates issuers charge. The whole thing is overwhelming for people with debts it leaves them with no idea to settle credit card debts. The best solution is to settle your debts one at a time.

One of the reasons that most people find it hard paying off their credit cards is the outrageous interest rates. Only a small percentage of your payment goes to towards paying down the principal, the bigger part goes to paying the interest. This is especially true if you only pay the minimum payments each month. Minimum payments are contrived to keep you in debt for as long as possible, it is important that you pay more than the minimum if you want to get out of debt.

It is a great theory to say that you should pay more than the minimum of your balance every month; the problem is that you probably have multiple credit cards. Paying a little more than the required minimum payment each month isn’t going to help you to pay off your debts any faster. A far better approach will be to pay the minimum on all but one card and to pay as much as you can the balance on that card.

Choose the credit card with the highest interest rate and pay the most on that card. Ideally you should first transfer any balances you can to a card with a lower interest rate. Even a small change in the amount of interest that you are paying will be a huge help in paying off your debts. Once the balances have been transferred to the card with the lowest interest rates possible, pay the card with the highest interest rate as much as you can. As soon as you finish paying off this card, move to the card with the next highest interest rate. This will make paying your credit card debt easier, as well as significantly reduce the amount of interest that you have to pay.

The key to handling credit card debt is to take it one step at a time. Gather all of your effort into paying off your cards one at a time. This should make paying off your debts easier, as well as keep you motivated.

VIA LoanSafe

Keyword: Credit card

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conversation with jon chevreau author of findependence day part 4
- Posted March 10, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Conversation with Jon Chevreau Author of Findependence Day Part 3

Monty Loree: Okay. So I'm just noticing here, chapter two here you've got “Money, Money, Money - It's a Rich Man's World”. So basically what you're saying is the best investment is paying off debt.

Jon Chevreau: I think when you're in your 20s and 30s, I think in particular with all the stock market volatility - I think essentially get rid of your student loans, get rid of your credit card debt and ultimately buy a house, pay for it. Before getting worried too much about the stock market, I think for most people you have to get rid of the debt. If your employer offers you a pension plan where they match your contributions, even if you don't, then I think that should be your first exposure to the stock market. Just find whatever the corporate pension plan is giving you. Secondly of course, RSP, I think the TSSA - I started one for my daughter, she's 18. She's already got one going. Mind you it's not her money, but it doesn't matter. Baby boomer parents can certainly get these tips going for them. She's really excited about Apple so I bought stock. Not so much because I thought it was a great investment. It might be, it might not be, but I wanted her that feeling of sense of ownership. This whole being - own and not her loan anything and hopefully by seeing it grow and she's going to get a feel of ownership. Then maybe start one day, I hope, contributing her own money through tips or anything. As a financial planner yourself, you know what a great start it would be. If you put $5,000.00 in domestic property from the age 18 up ‘till you're 55, she would've her Findependence day 50, no problem.

Monty Loree: Exactly. That's interesting because my girl is 16 years old and she's just learning the concepts. We're just starting for her to learn the concepts. So that's important. I appreciate that you're doing that. Again, I'm talking with Jonathan Chevreau here today. He's the author of Findependence Day and we're talking about the book because it's a pretty good one. People need to read it, I think. Chapter 4, you got “Baby You're a Rich Man - The Concept of Human Capital”. That's all about realizing that, what I got from it was that people actually already have wealth.

Jon Chevreau: That's right. Scotiabank says, “You're richer than you think.” I'm not sure if they're referring to human capital. Moshe Milevski of the York Univestiy articulates the human capital argument well in a book he called, put out about a year ago, Are You a Stock or a Bond? Basically you start out in life with no financial capital, but you've got this great human potential - your earnings potential. This is why you need to spill the insurance because if you can't save them, you can't convert your human capital to financial capital things are not good. Same with life insurance, you need life insurance if you're married because if you die, then all that human capital that you've eventually converted to financial capital doesn't happen. Therefore the life insurance kicks in to provide the financial capital to the surviving spouse. So as life goes on, so in this 22-year time frame of this financial novel, Jamie gradually converts his human capital into financial capital. Because he's an owner not a loaner, he tries to build a business. A lot of the plot revolves around that. She, on the other hand, again a different personality. She has a secured, fine investment plan. She's a teacher, a salaried employee. So I tried to have that contrast, not just by money personalities but even in one is a stock, one is a bond. One is an employee, one is an entrepreneur - that way you kind of draw a lot more lessons from this couple's experience than if they were both of the same money personality.

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credit card companies do they write off debt
- Posted March 08, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Credit Card Companies, Do They Write Off Debt?

by Johnny Simms

This is a very significant question. In some cases and in some circumstance, credit card companies do write off debt. A debt is usually written off if the person who owes the credit card company stops paying completely. In such cases, the credit card company usually writes off the debt, then sell the debt to a collection agency, and this agency in turn will pursue collections.

Getting a credit card company to write off your debt is something that varies depending on the situation, and is not something that you can plan. Some people think that if they just dismiss the credit card company's efforts to bill them, and cease paying anything completely, that they will get their debt written off. While something like this has happened before in the past, it is not something that you should attempt. Many professionals agree that, rather than worrying and wondering about how to get your debt written off, you should just try to avoid credit card debt altogether. This might be hard, it is a lot harder taking on the minimum balances of a credit card debt, with interest rates over 20 percent (which is normal on a credit card), can really soar you if you miss a payment.

So, attempting to have your debt written off is not really your best bet, unless you feel like you have no other option. In this instance, you might
want to contact a lawyer and ask for advice.

VIA Loan Safe

Keyword: Credit Card

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how to get a credit card if you have bad credit
- Posted March 08, 2010 by Monty Loree
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How to Get a Credit Card if You Have Bad Credit

Get a Credit Card if You Have Bad Credit

You can still get a credit card eventhough you have a bad credit, although it would make large purchases doubly hard for you. Follow these simple steps to get a credit card even with your bad credit.

1. Get your credit cards from smaller retail stores. Sometimes smaller retail companies are more willing than bigger stores to give you a chance. Once your application is accepted, make small purchases only and be sure to pay on time at least the minimum payment each month. (You won't pay as much interest rates if you pay above the minimum payment.)

2. Apply for a credit card thru your bank, credit union or savings institution. They may be more willing to approve a credit card for you if they have your business already.

3. If all else fails, then you can apply for a secured credit card. A savings account will be required for you to maintain as your line of credit security.

4. Ask a family member or a friend to act as a co-signee for a credit card. Make sure you choose someone with good credit as their credit will be inline as well. They must pay if you can't pay your balances and it will be bad for their credit rating.

Tips & Warnings
* Pay all your bills on time while you are trying to get a credit card
* Get no more than 3 credit cards- 2 cards with a smaller credit limit and a third with a bigger credit limit you can use in case of emergencies
* Don’t get a card from the same store and the same company. There’s a wide array of issuers available and they are all widely-accepted.
* Pick a card that does not charge an annual fee.
* Demand an explanation if your credit card application is denied. It is your lawful right.
* Control your spending. Don’t buy more than you can afford.
* Due to large interest rates, you might not be able to pay the balance. You might be overspending if you cannot pay the balance each month so stop using the card until the balance has been paid.
* There is no tax reduction for Credit card interest.

VIA eHow

Keyword: Credit Card

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how to avoid credit cards finance charges
- Posted March 08, 2010 by Monty Loree
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How to Avoid Credit Cards Finance Charges

Credit cards are a convenient way to purchase what you want when you want it, even without taking cash on hand.
Credit card companies profits from customers who use the balances on their credit cards by charging interest rates, and finance charges on top of the interest, as well

1. Make detailed budget of your income and expenses. You can avoid finance charges by keeping a tab on how much money you have afford every month to pay your credit cards.

2. Make a priority of your payments to your credit cards according to each card’s interest rates and the total balances due. The higher the interest rate, the higher the amount of money you should allocate for that card to avoid the biggest finance charges from being posted.

3. Pay the bills on your credit card on or before the due date, thus allowing time for your payment to be posted. You can avoid financial charges by scheduling payments or sending payments in advance.

4. Call your credit card company to request about waiving your finance charges. They may be willing to remove the charges if you have a good credit history with the company.

5. Try transferring your credit card balances to another credit card that offers no interest rate. To avoid incurring finance charges, apply for a new card that offers 0% interest rate promotions on balance transfers then transfer the remaining balance from the old credit card to the new credit card. Be sure to check your current credit card for promotional rates as well to see if there’s any other option.

Tips & Warnings
* Several credit card companies place a balance transfer fee. Try to balance cost-effectiveness of your options because the finance charges might be cheaper than the transfer fee.
* When you transfer remaining balances to a new credit card with a 0% promotional rate, make dure you pay on time and determine the promotion’s expiration to maybe transfer again before it expires because some credit card issuers ask for payment for the interest that you got within the promotional period.

VIA eHow

Keyword: Credit card

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U.S. GDP fails to move stocks at the open
- Posted March 08, 2010 by Monty Loree
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U.S. GDP fails to move stocks at the open

David Berman

There is a little change when the North American stocks opened on Friday, after investors were ripped following an unexpectedly worse reading on U.S. initial jobless claims.

There is a decline on the average by 1 point on the Dow Jones industrial average, to 10,320. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 fell by 1 point, to 1102. The S&P/TSX composite index in Canada rose 3 points, to 11,634.

The Commerce Department of the U.S. reported the economy broadened at a 5.9% annualized clip in the Q4, more than the 5.7% growth originally forecasted in January. The upward revision was not appreciated by economists.

“The overall growth in the Q4 [was] still very inventory-driven, with a 3.9% point contribution,” said chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, Ian Shepherdson. In a note, he said, “Final domestic sales increased only 1.6%, following 1.7 cent in the Q3 and 2.3% in the Q2.

“The reported increase today in the second estimate of Q4 GDP to 5.9% from the formerly reported 5.7% does little to change the fact that the bulk of the posted surge in GDP growth in the Q4 reflects a sharp reduction in the rate of inventory liquidation after the unexpected drop through the first 3 quarters of 2009,” said Nathan Janzen, a Royal Bank of Canada economist, in a note.

In the US, Boeing Co. increased 0.9% and General Electric Co. increased by 0.8%. Home Depot Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. dropped 0.7% each.

Energy stocks in Canada generally increased with crude oil’s price, with Suncor Energy Inc. up by 0.3% and Talisman Energy Inc. up by 0.2%. Among gold stocks, on the other hand, Barrick Gold Corp. and Goldcorp Inc. increased 0.6% each.

Financials decreased after Thursday’s strong earnings-inspired returns, with Royal Bank of Canada dropping by 0.3 %, Bank of Nova Scotia dropping by 0.4% and Manulife Financial Corp. dropping by 0.6%.

VIA Globe and Mail

Keyword: Stock Investing

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credit card company visa reported visitors for the olympics spent 115 million
- Posted March 08, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Credit card company, Visa, reported Visitors for the Olympics spent $115 million  
 
By Gordon Hamilton, Vancouver
 
The Olympics which lasted for 17 days proved to be a great boost for the economy of Canada. In Visa alone, the Olympics added $115 usd to the B.C. in international spending, as figures revealed by the credit card company Tuesday.

Andrew Woodward, Visa’s head of marketing and sponsorship communications said that the Olympics is a proof point of what they said about the economic benefit of the Olympics. In the same 17 days last year, foreign visitors spent $55. The figure shows twice more than what was normally spent by visitors on the same period.million in the B.C. that’s a difference of $60 million usd. The total spending during the Olympics breaks down to approximately $6.8 million per day during the commencement of the games.

The Americans spent the most with $61.1 million, followed by China at $7.8 million, then U.K. at $5.1 million and the Russian Federation in the 4th place with $4.3 million dollars spent.

Visa is the real winner for the profits because Visa has monopolize all credit-card transactions at the venues of the Olympics. They, however, gave a breakdown of the spending on all credit card transactions, listing travel, accomodation, restaurants, retail sale, and entertainment taking 92% of all business transactions during the games.

Woodward reported that most of money came from people who were at official venues as well as people who were at restaurants and hotels.

VIA Vancouver Sun

Keyword: Credit Card

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choosing the best travel rewards credit card
- Posted March 08, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Choosing the Best Travel Rewards Credit Card

Travel rewards credit cards offer great benefits to people who travel a lot. If you only travel once in a while, the benefits you get from your travel rewards credit card will only be offset by the high Annual Percentage Rate (APR) and other fees charged for this rewards credit card. Travel reward credit cards offer credit card users perks like discounts on hotel accomodation, gas, auto rental, or purchases at retail shops. A great reward credit cards also offer cash advance for when you are travelling and in need of extra cash, although you have to be sure to know the charges applied for cash advances before choosing a travel reward credit card. Travel reward credit cards also offer travel insurance for emergencies, including emergency expatriation, medical evaluation and lost luggage. These are hard to resolve if you do not purchase coverage and did not have sufficient pre-travel preparation. They also offer rewards or points for every purchase you make on the card (take note that some credit cards only offer discounts to those who have a balance carried over at the end of the month).

You should also consider the value and the schedule offered by these credit cards. Cash rewards is a good example. Don’t wait till the end of the year to get your money from your credit card’s cash reward. Make sure that you get the money everytime you accrue the amount of twenty dollars. Some travel rewards credit card also offer round trip flights at the redemption value of one round trip ticket for every purchased twenty-five thousand miles purchased using the card.

Finally, when you’ve found the right credit card, make sure that you follow the terms and pay your balances or the minimums on time every time so you won’t have any problems later.

VIA AmericanAirlinesCreditCard

Keyword: Rewards Credit Card

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improve your credit scores in 5 easy way
- Posted March 08, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Improve Your Credit Scores in 5 Easy Way

Getting a good credit score is essential especially now that the mortgage market is still in a bind. Your credit score greatly impacts your financial status. It not only increases your chances to have your mortgage approved, but it also affect your interest rates for applicants with top credit scores always get the best interest rates.

A lot of consumers are not aware of their credit scores and what affects them. Furthermore, they are not aware of the factors that can help them improve their credit scores. Here are some of the things you can More importantly, they may not be aware of the many things they can do to improve their scores. Here are some tips that could do to help hike your credit scores.

* Request a copy of your credit report. Check if it’s correct and if you find an error, you must immediately contact the creditor to correct the errors. Go to http://www.equifax.ca/ or www.transunion.ca to request a copy of your credit report.

* Always be punctual in paying your bills. This might be the simplest way and the most important way to improve your credit score. Remember to pay your bills on time. You can also set-up automatic payment thru your credit card or your bank so you never have to worry about paying on time and you only need to take note of one bill (in case all your bills are in automatic payment) at the end of the month.

* Pay off or pay down your credit card balances or loans. Paying off your loans or credit cards will help boost your credit score score, but so will paying down your credit card balances. Just remember to keep your balances below 30% of your credit limit.

* Refrain from closing credit cards that has not been used. Remember that an old credit history is better for your credit score. So keep your old credit cards and periodically use them just to keep the account active. Remember to be prompt in paying your bills..

* Check your credit limits. Your score will be depressed when your credit limit was reported by your lender than it actually is. Have it corrected so your credit score will improve.

Source: Century 21 Canada

VIA Century 21 Canada

Keyword: Credit Score

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stocks concluded the month strongly with modest gains
- Posted March 05, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Stocks Concluded the Month Strongly With Modest Gains

The S&P 500 finished Friday at about 2 points higher, concluding the month with a 2.7% gain. The consumer discretionary sector assisted in driving the index, up 5.2% in February.

Tech generally surmounted performance in February with the Nasdaq Composite Index closing its month with a 4-point gain Friday, ending the month 4% higher.

Intuit (NSDQ: INTU) and Autodesk (NSDQ: ADSK) were the best performers in Nasdaq for February, adding 9% and 17%, respectively.

In corporate news, insurance company, American International Group (NYSE: AIG) reported a Q4 loss that was bigger than expected. The $8.87 billion loss, however, was smaller than $61.7 billion lost in the prior year within the same period.

The insurer reported that a large part of the loss was from repaying the $6.2 billion from New York Federal Reserve. AIG has continued to repay the bailout money and is in the process of selling its American Life Insurance Company to produce additional cash.

Meanwhile, on the economic front, the Supply Management Institute said its Purchasing Managers Index rose to 62.6
in February, thus surprising economists as they forecasted a decline to 59.7.

The National Association of Realtors reported that existing homes sale swayed 7.2% in January to a yearly pace of 5.05 million homes. The outcome did not reach expectations as economists foresaw 5.15 million.

VIA AllHeadlineNews

Keyword: Stock Investing

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interview with nick farina moneyinenglishcom part 1
- Posted March 04, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview with Nick Farina - MoneyInEnglish.com - Part 1

Monty Loree: Hey folks, this is Monty Loree here from Canadian Money Advisor. I've got Nick Farina who's the author and publisher of Money in English blog, MoneyInEnglish.com. Nick's kind of a young fellow. He's been involved with personal finance for about five years, and he's 22 years old. So he likes to talk about money issues that are related to younger people, people who are just getting out of high school, people who are in the university. We just had a little talk before and he just mentioned just really good things that we really need to talk about. Hey Nick, how are you doing?

Nick Farina: Hi, good Monty. How are you? Glad to be on the show

Monty Loree: This is good. I'm really excited about this. So you said you've been blogging for five years now? So you've been blogging for a short time...

Nick Farina: Yes, that's correct. I've only had the website up for about five months now, but I've been involved with personal finance for quite a while, about five years. Very quickly, five years ago when I was in my last year of high school, my parents were really busy. They had a lot going on. Their financial situation wasn't bad, but it was complicated. They had a lot of bills to pay and a lot of bills going on and it was complicated. They were starting to lose track. So I thought maybe I can help with this and at the same time it would help me learn about financial world that I need to use later in life. Then I got hooked on it. I thought it was really interesting, just trying to maximize what kind of credit cards to use, what bank accounts to use so they've got an efficient system. I realized that there were a lot of tricks out there. There's a lot of things you shouldn't do, but at the same time there's a lot of things that would be great if you did do them. So that was the beginning of my interest in personal finance. I've been writing about how people overcome them.

Monty Loree: Wow, that sounds good. Sounds like you're a natural at it, if you've taken to that.

Nick Farina: Yes, I hope so.

Listen to this MoneyInEnglish.com podcast

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interview with tom drake canadianfinanceblogcom part 2
- Posted March 03, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview with Tom Drake - CanadianFinanceBlog.com - Part 2

Monty Loree: So with all of that, somehow you got interested into personal finance blogging and you got online and started typing away. What did - you said before you were initially talking about taxes and so on.

Tom Drake: Yes, again it was writing about whatever I was doing at the time and starting in February of last year, it was searching all these different tax tips, how to optimize as best as you can. So it's a lot of, not just tax tips, also looking into mortgages and I've kind of gone more into a lot of how to save money and how to earn extra income, especially again with the wife and taking care of her. It's more important that you can either save a dollar or gain a dollar somewhere, then it's great for us.

Monty Loree: So basically then you're - you said your blog is not your main business, but can you describe what you do for a job?

Tom Drake: I'm the financial analyst for Sobey's West, which is basically all the stores from West of Ontario. So I do all the retail budgets and forecasts and I also do a lot of reporting and everything on how our stores are doing. So it's a great job and I have to do it.

Monty Loree: That sounds like a pretty busy job if you ask me, unless it's automated. I guess when I was a financial analyst 20 years ago, it was not automated and it was pretty busy.

Tom Drake: It probably gets better as new systems come. My extra title is actually Application Development as well. We use a lot of new programs, like SAP, Calix and SAS. They all speed up the job a little. Previously budgets would be done at different divisions throughout Canada and we consolidate them together. Now we just are able to run the whole thing because we've got everyone's data in the data base and it's pretty simple to forecast into the future.

Monty Loree: So with that you must have CMA or CDA training?

Tom Drake: No I don't. I took marketing here in Edmonton. CGA/CMA, it's something you certainly can do. But I've been doing it for so many years and it hasn't been a need.

Monty Loree: Right, exactly. But I guess if you've got a mindset for being a financial analyst, that would translate usually to the blog there and to writing about personal finance. I found when I was a financial analyst in Toronto, I learned an awful lot about personal finance just from what the companies were doing.

Tom Drake: Yes, you're always dealing with numbers. It starts to pick up even well before I had the blog. If you tell somebody you're a financial analyst, they're automatically asking for some kind of depth.

Listen to my podcast with Tom Drake

See Tom's blog at CanadianFinanceBlog.com

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interview with ivon hughes lifeannuitiescom part 2
- Posted March 03, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview with Ivon Hughes - lifeannuities.com - Part 2

Monty Loree: So what you're saying is that at some given point, the agreement says they're going to be getting a stream of revenue, like $500.00 a month or whatever they agree to.

Ivon Hughes: Exactly. And you can do it with registered money, RRSP money, or you can do it with one registered money. You can't get the interest rate at the bank and if you want any interest you do get as tax. It's fully taxable whereas non-registered annuity, with $500.00 or so that you get every month, part of that is your turn of capital and part of it's interest. It's only the interest portion that's taxable so you end up with more money in your pocket fund for your savings.

Monty Loree: Okay, interesting. So basically it's kind of like a retirement savings type of situation.

Ivon Hughes: Absolutely. You can have a registered annuity and you can have a non-registered annuity and a lot of people do have both.

Monty Loree: So who's calling you on the phone? What is the age that somebody needs to be thinking about annuities? Is it somebody that's 18 or... ? Is there a better deal if you start later on?

Ivon Hughes: I have clients of age 45, but that's rare. Usually it's 55/60/65 and upwards. That's when I'd say they're fed up with trying to get better returns and avoid the tax grant, etc. The family have gone, the children moved out and probably got their own children and their expenses are fixed and all they need to know is they got to get a fixed income for the rest of their lives.

Monty Loree: So yes, I guess that's a good point. I'm just speaking for the younger folks. When you start in your career, you've got house payments, you've got all sorts of expenses to look forward to. But by the time you hit retirement, generally your house is paid off, the car is paid off, all your debts in theory should be paid off. So you can live on a fixed expense.

Ivon Hughes: Exactly. You'd have a lot of experience during your lifetime of finding out what is important, what is not important. And if you know that $1,200.00 or $1,400.00 a month fixed is better than trying to get $1,600.00 or $1,700.00 a month, then you're content with what the annuity will pay you.

Listen to podcast with Ivon Hughes

Visit Ivon Hughes at LifeAnnuities.com

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interview with laurel ostfield capital one canada part 2
- Posted March 02, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview with Laurel Ostfield - Capital One Canada - Part 2

Monty Loree: That's an important word that I'd like to use, is credit cards are tools . They're, in my opinion, not a source of income. I'm just trying to think of – when I think about this, what is a world without credit cards? Can you travel to Greece or Australia without a credit card? Can you rent a car? Can you rent hotel rooms?

Laurel Ostfield: It would be very difficult, yes. I think that these people who use their credit cards properly, they're really enabling themselves to travel more, to rent hotels, even just to get an apartment. A credit history is something you need, which is some of the basic life skills you have in our society. You need to rent an apartment, you need to get utilities and a lot of these are asking for credit histories now. So being able to establish a good credit history really puts you in a much better position.

Interview with Laurel Ostfield - Capital One Canada - Part 2

Monty Loree: Absolutely. That's my point exactly. So the question I've got for you is, what is the benefit of applying online? You're a company that is exclusively online, so it's not like a bricks and mortar bank where you just go into the branch and you've got to make appointments and so on. So what are the benefits of applying for a credit card online?

Laurel Ostfield: First off is the comfort and convenience in being able to do this on your home and being online allows us to reach into everybody's house, from bed, from the couch, in front of the TV. You can research the kind of products that we have to offer and apply that way. Of course we understand that people do like to interact. We have access to agents 24/7. You can either call in or we also have them online. So when you go to capitalone.ca and you start researching cards, there'll actually be a little box that pops up and says if you want and says if you want to chat with an agent, click here. You can really talk one on one with a Capital One customer service representative, if you have other questions that we can answer.

Monty Loree:Excellent. That's total convenience then.

Laurel Ostfield: Exactly. I think the way the world is heading right now – people are on their iPhones and Blackberries and smart phones that's why you can access all that information. You can access your accounts online, so if you are a Capital One customer, you can check your balance, you can get alerts, you can really keep track of what's happening with your account anywhere you are.

Monty Loree: Right on. You said there are new services coming online?

Laurel Ostfield: Yes we have some services to help customers manage their own accounts. We call them alerts. So if you are part of our online banking system which is very easy to sign up for. You can actually set your own profile that you would get notices, so emails or text messages right to your phone and your email account that will tell you if a payment has been posted to your account. You can get notices when your minimum balance is due. So we can set it, say you want to get a notice 5 days before my minimum balance is due and I haven't paid it yet. That way, you're going to keep on track on not going delinquent or not going over the limit because you can also get notices if you're about to hit your credit limit. That helps people really stay on top of their accounts. It can also help with fraud. Yes, we have actually – one of the works that I find is great is you can say if anyone uses my card outside of Canada, I want to be notified and we'll do that. That can also help you keep track of, if there's fraud happening on your account.

Low Interest Credit Cards for Canadians

Listen to podcast with Laurel Ostfield - Capital One Canada

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interview with cleo from hr block tax services part 2
- Posted March 02, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview with Cleo from H&R Block Tax Services - Part 2

Cleo Hamel is a Senior Tax Analyst with H&R Block

Monty: Okay. I was wondering what are some of the major issues that you're finding in your research and dealing with your clients as far as tax goes? What sort of questions are you feeling, things like medical expenses and deductions and so on?

Podcast Interview with H&R Block

Cleo: Medical expenses tend to be one of the biggest ones that we've been dealing with. Probably over the last few years, there are two parts to medical expenses. One of the general things - you go to the doctor, dentist and if you've got kids who have braces, you're probably making payments on a monthly basis for that. Or if you're fortunate enough to have a plan at work, part of it is being paid for through that private health plan. But you're still paying some money out. Those types of things don't feel like a lot when you pay them every month, but if you look at them at the end of the year, there's some money there to be saved. So we're getting people asking us, "What types of expenses outside of the dentist and the doctor can I claim?" There's glasses, contact lenses. If you wear a hearing aid, if you have to buy batteries for that hearing aid.

You went to the chiropractor, massage therapy. So there are a number of medical practitioners that provide a service and you may be paying for them, whether it's $30.00 or $40.00 every month or maybe it's more. Other things they're asking or just finding out about is if you pay for a private health premium through payroll deduction, whether that's a couple of dollars every pay, that amount at the end of the year adds up and you can claim that as a medical expense as well. People are really surprised to hear that. The other challenge they're finding now is they have all these expenses, they put them all together and they go, "Now what do I do with it?" One of the rules you have to know about medical expenses is the amount of your medical expenses has to exceed 3% of your net income. As a tax tip, in a household with a couple, make sure that the lowest income earner in the family claims medical expenses because you get more for it. It's really good; they do add up.

Interview with Cleo H&R Block Part 1

The other one too then, is we go to another level of medical expenses when we talk about disabilities. Unfortunately, there are families out there that have a family member with some kind of a disability. They range from a number of different things. We've seen some who've gone on kidney dialysis. We've seen families who have a member who's got Celiacs disease. Maybe it's something a little bit more, deaf or blindness or some other kind of mental or physical handicap. The government actually has a tax credit available to those families and individuals. However, you have to get a form filled up, your doctor has to fill up this form and you have to send it in to the Canada Revenue Agency and they approve it or not. We have a lot of questions coming in because people say,

"You know what, I don't know if it's worth my time and realistically, if you qualify for a disability credit you can be saving about $1,000.00 in taxes - whether you're the person with the disability or maybe you're caring for someone with that disability. I think that's a lot of money, and I think that's well worth filling up that form and sending it in. I do caution people in that your doctor might qualify and say that, yes you have a handicap or disability, but remember it's the Canada Revenue Agency that actually approves it. They have a list of rules they go through. But that tends to be a really sensitive issue so we'd really like to put that message out to anyone who thinks they might qualify, don't hesitate. Get the form; it's called the T2201. It's a disability certificate. You can download it from the Canada Revenue Agency's website. You can even pop into one of our offices and someone can print one out for you. But I think it's well worth it.

Find H&R Block Tax Talk Canada

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interview with cleo from hr block tax services part 1
- Posted March 02, 2010 by Monty Loree
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Interview with Cleo from H&R Block Tax Services - Part 1

Monty: Hey folks this is Monty Loree here from Canadian Money Advisor. My goodness it's tax time coming up again. Everybody loves tax time and I think millions of Canadians just actually cringe. Who actually ever wants to sit down at the kitchen table and do their taxes? I've got somebody here who I think can help us out. I've got Cleo from H&R Block. I found it interesting about H&R Block - over 50 years ago brothers Henry and Richard Bloch founded the company known today as H&R Block. In 1964, H&R Block opened its first franchise operation in Canada. The next year, it opened its first company-owned operation. Today, H&R Block Canada prepares approximately $2 million returns annually, making it Canada's leading tax preparation firm. It's headquartered in Calgary, Alberta and the company serves the tax-paying public in more than 900 offices across the country. Again, I have Cleo here and Cleo's going to tell us all about it. How are you today Cleo?

Podcast Interview with Cleo from H&R Block

Cleo: Really good, Monty. How are you?

Monty: Good. Thanks for visiting on our podcast today.

Cleo: No problem.

Monty: Well you must be under pressure these days because tax season is coming. You must be feeling a lot of questions.

Cleo: You know, this is that time of year where taxes start creeping into people's minds and the question is not so much, "I'm in a hurry to get it done." It's more a matter of, "I have to get it done. What do I need to know or what are the things that I need to get together?" We're fielding a lot of questions and more on a research basis. People this year seem to be really interested in finding ways to save money on their taxes. I don't know if that's because they've had a bad year and lost jobs or had to take a part time job. Whatever that is, they're really looking to save some money. We actually did a survey and a lot of people in our survey said yes, we need to know more information before we do our taxes this year.

Monty: Okay. Is it a trend that because of the economy, the crash in 1998 or is it an aging population thing or just people losing their jobs?

Cleo: I think it's people are being a little more careful with their money, whether it's because they're earning less or they have to make it go further. There is something there. But people are realizing that if they can't make any more money at work, then they've got to find a way to keep more of their money in their pocket. Tax time is one of those times when you really feel like you're putting a lot of money out. So you need to find out what you can do. I know that you have tax withheld from your pay check every two weeks or bi-monthly or how often. So you already feel that little bit of a pinch happening then. But when you do your taxes at the end of the year and you have to pay more money, it just hurts that much more. We need to start finding ways not to have that happen.

H&R Block Canada on Twitter

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let s borrow 1 trillion to pay off bad mortgages that doesn t make alot of sense
- Posted March 21, 2009 by Monty Loree
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Let's borrow $1 trillion to pay off bad mortgages!
That doesn't make alot of sense



The financial news these days certainly isn't boring. The article below talks about how the U.S. federal govt is going to use $1 trillion in debt to purchase toxic mortgages and get them off of the banks balance sheets.

Why does this seem so wrong.. Isn't there a term for this? Kiting?!! Using debt to pay off debt?

If consumers use debt to pay off debt, that will affect your credit score pretty badly. It tells the creditor that you're illiquid and that you don't have cash savings to pay your debt.

Fundamentally using debt to pay off debt is just wrong. It may ease the pain for the short term, but ultimately it's going to cost everybody alot more. in real estate What they're doing is taking the burden off of the individual mortgage holders, and putting it onto the over all population. That's not right, and it's not fair.

People need to be responsible for their own mortgages. If you can't afford to pay your mortgage, move to a lower cost situation.. The existing credit market is designed to work with these cases. It's not politically correct to let millions of people default on their loans and mortgages.. however there is a system to work this through. The mortgage companies and banks made piles of money at the beginning of this free-for-all mortgage bubble. Now they don't want to take the losses associated with their misdeeds.

Accountability is what it's all about. The banks get bailed out, and the individual has to take it on the chin.


Geithner Relies on Investors for $1 Trillion Plan

By Rebecca Christie and Robert Schmidt

March 23 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration unveiled its long-awaited plan to remove toxic assets from the books of the nation�s banks, betting that it can revive the U.S. financial system without resorting to outright nationalization.

The plan is aimed at financing as much as $1 trillion in purchases of illiquid real-estate assets, using $75 billion to $100 billion of the Treasury�s remaining bank-rescue funds. The Public-Private Investment Program will also rely on Federal Reserve financing and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. debt guarantees, the Treasury said in a statement in Washington.

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bicycling is cheap and full of adventure
- Posted March 21, 2009 by Monty Loree
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Bicycling is cheap - and full of adventure

I did my first 23 km bicycle ride yesterday.

I thought that for the first day of spring I should get out and bicycle some place. My favorite place to go is Southland Mall - which is an 10 KM ride, and then back home which is another 10KM.. (earlier in the day I went shopping on the bike which was 3 km.)

Along the way I stopped at Wascana Lake in Regina and took some pictures of the sites and people and geese on the lake.


bicycling is cheap and full of adventure.

I can't believe how much I missed bicycling over the winter time. It's a time to get out doors, get some fresh air, see the sites and get exercise.

It's also a cheap way to travel. I spent $1.49 at Southland mall to purchase trail mix for the ride. Better than a car loan!!

I was pleased that I was able to ride 23 km in one day, and especially at March 20th.. Last year it took me until June or July to before I could go that far on the bike with out passing out.

This year I plan to travel to Moose Jaw and back, which would be 130 KM in a day. I also plan to do even longer runs, which will take more practice and getting into shape.

    The benefits of bicycling last year - Summer 2008:
  • I lost around 50 lbs
  • My heart was greatly strengthened
  • My leg muscles get strengthened
  • I lowered my cholesterol down to normal
  • I saved a bunch of money on car expenses.
  • I enjoyed the summer probably the most in 25 years.
  • I relieved a ton of stress


The benefits of bicycling have been absolutely tremendous. For such a low cost transportation, the benefits and enjoyment have been wonderful. I would say that I enjoy riding my bicycle even more than driving my Cadillac CTS.

During this economic down turn.. why not take your bike, instead of the car.? It will save you money and you'll really enjoy it. (After you get used to it ! )

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You've got to Live - Spend Your Money
- Posted March 21, 2009 by Monty Loree
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You've got to Live - Spend Your Money???

I was listening to a radio talk show this morning and the fellow was talking about the economy. The radio announcer was complaining about Suze Orman and Suze's style of money coaching.

The comment came up that Suze recommends that people save their money and cut down on expenses. The announcer then indicated that people need to live their lives and spend their money!

spending too much on consumer items



I love that logic.. the announcer said, "well yeah, you need to save and pay down debt, BUT you also need to live your life."

Isn't that what got us into this problem in the first place?

Here's my point:
1) If you don't have sufficient cash reserves - you NEED TO sacrifice and start saving your money

What this yappy announcer failed to mention was this:
Most Canadians and Americans have really low savings rates. We love to spend our money , but hate saving it.

This becomes a huge problem in an economy such as this economic crisis. If all individuals had an abundance of cash reserves they would never be worried about losing their jobs . They wouldn't be worried about paying bills or paying down debt. Quite frankly, I don't think individuals would have too much debt if they had an abundance of cash saved.

For those who have no savings, and are in debt... It's my opinion these people should take a time out from spending, and put their money in the bank. Plain and simple... Just save it.

You have to live, I agree, however you need to have safety measures in place. Why are Americans so worried about this economic down turn? If they had sufficient cash reserves in place, and little debt, there wouldn't be much to worry about.

IE.. If Americans and Canadians were recession proof, they wouldn't have to worry.

What harm would it do to Sacrifice for a few years and save money ?
So you kids have less toys.. you have less vacations.. you have less consumer products.. you eat out a little less.. What would your kids say about that?

Your family might complain for a few years about not having any money to spend. At the same time, you would have less fights because of lack of money, less stress, and less worry about paying bills.

What's more important to you, instant gratification or long term peace of mind?

I wish that the media would get on board and stop asking consumers to borrow more and spend their way out of the economy. Consumers need a financial rest. They need to have their money take a time out and spend some lonely time in the bank account.

Ultimately this will make the consumer feel better, and eventually give them a more confident feeling when they start to live their life!

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AIG Bonuses - Don't eliminate the Trust Factor!
- Posted March 18, 2009 by Monty Loree
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AIG Bonuses - Don't eliminate the Trust Factor!

I must admit that I think giving bonues to execs who've lost $68 billion is completely wrong. But as mentioned on the news, it's in their contract.

The federal goverment should have known about these bonuses prior to purchasing 80% of the company. They should have been away of the income statement and balance sheet prior to purchasing the company.

Where I think it's completely ridiculous to give these execs $165 billion in bonuses, I think it's worse for government to step in and renege on their contracts.

I would be furious if a government of any type stepped in and started dictating what I can and cannot do with contracts in my business.

IMO.... the government shouldn't be getting involved in private business. That's eroded alot of confidence in the market place. Having government involved in private business means that business can't operate on it's own and needs life support.

Having government interfere with private enterprise contracts is the next step to BIG BROTHER and socialism.

It will erode trust even further with businesses. Businesses will be concerned if they should do something lest the government jump in and act.

I know that this is an extreme example, but when contracts are legally binding, they should be allowed to carry out, in a lawful fashion.

According to:
http://news.hereisthecity.com/news/business_news/8869.cntns


(AIG) Staff Get 'Death Threats' Over Bonuses
The furore over the $165m in bonuses AIG is contractually obliged to pay staff at its Financial Products Group (the unit that basically brought down the firm) reached fever pitch over the last couple of days.

The Times reports that armed guards have now been placed outside the Connecticut offices of AIG Financial Products, after staff there received death threats over the bonus payouts. Several staff are said to have refused to come to work, and others are thought to have quit. And we even had US Senator Chuck Grassley telling a radio audience earlier in the week that AIG executives should 'resign or go commit suicide' (he later clarified that remark, saying he didn't really mean that they should actually kill themselves, instead suggesting that they say 'sorry').

In the meantime, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hopes to enact legislation in the coming days in order to slap a heavy additional tax charge on the AIG bonuses (will effectively cancel them out), and Representative Barney Frank has suggested that the US government simply step in and assert its ownership of AIG. Frank told a group of reporters Tuesday that the government needs to say, as owner of the firm: 'No, I'm not paying you the bonus. You didn't perform. You didn't live up to this contract'. And Treasury Secretary, 'dim' Tim (Geithner), has said that he is looking into the matter (he may - like all his other schemes - have a plan for a plan, with more details sometime never).


How is anybody supposed to get any work done in this trustless environment. Who would want to work in the company after all of this headline news?

I think for next time, the AIG Bonus contracts should be reconsidered. However, at this time, pay the bonuses and keep to your agreements. Agreements and fulfilling agreements are the glue of the North American economy.

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Using Credit Cards as Income - A definition
- Posted March 17, 2009 by Monty Loree
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Using Credit Cards as Income - A definition

In my previous post, I talked about how you can use credit cards as a beneficial tool in your day to day finances.

In this post, I would like to talk about what using credit cards as income source means.

By allowing people to make minimum payments on their credit card debts, the credit card companies make it tempting to use credit cards as an income source.

The following are ways you could be using credit card as income.
1. Buying expensive items that you can't afford
2. Buying day to day goods on credit
3. Purchasing small items that you don't need and can't afford.

Buying expensive items that you can't afford
You say to yourself, "this item costs $1,000, but I can afford the minimum payments of $30".. I've heard this said so many times, and used as to how people justify their purchase.

What you're doing is giving yourself a $1000 payday bonus that's going to cost you alot in the end interest wise.

A better way to do this is .... Save up $30 per month until you can afford the $1,000 to make the purchase. It requires patience, however, if you really want the item then this is a better way to make the purchase.

Buying day to day goods on credit
You've spent all of your earnings and you still need money to buy day to day goods. You use your credit card to make up for the short fall in income.

This is a really bad trap to get into. What it tells the credit card company is that you do not have the ability to pay your bills, and that you're becoming a bad credit risk.

If you're running into this problem, it's a good idea to cut back expenses to the very bare minimum , and / or get another job to earn more money.

Even though access to cash advances on your credit card is easy to do ... trust me.. Using your credit card as income in this case will certainly cause alot of headaches in the future.

Purchasing small items that you don't need and can't afford.
You go to the mall and make several small purchases that you don't have the cash to repay.

You justify this by saying to yourself.. This necklace only costs $25. I can easily pay that off this month. The problem is you make several of these small purchases that add up. Eventually you start to carry a balance that you can't pay off each month.


IF YOU CAN'T PAY IT OFF EACH MONTH, THEN YOU'RE USING YOUR CREDIT CARD AS INCOME
Simply stated, you should always have enough cash in the bank to cover your credit card purchases. You should pay your account in full every month.

If you're carrying balances and paying interest, then you're using your credit cards as an income source.

I wrote this post to give people a new light to their credit card habits. In this economic crisis turmoil that's brought on by consumer spending and debt, I'm hoping that we can change the way people think about using their credit cards.

Use credit cards as a tool.. and not a source of income.

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Using Credit Cards as a Financial Tool
- Posted March 17, 2009 by Monty Loree
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Using Credit Cards as a Financial Tool

As I'm watching the economic news, it's hard not to hear headlines of credit card defaults, and other problems people are having.

People have been using credit cards as a source of income, when they should be using them as a financial tool.

The best example of using credit cards as income is when an individual purchases and item or service when you don't have the cash in reserve to pay off the balance in full every month.

This of course leads to individuals carrying balances on their cards, which usually increase over time.

I recommend that people use credit cards as a financial tool.
This means that you take advantage of the credit cards benefits, excluding being a source of income.

Some of these benefits are:
1. Convenience to make purchases online
2. Saving money on ATM withdrawals
3. Receiving rewards for credit card purchases
4. Receiving 30 days of free money

Convenience to make purchases online
This is one thing I use credit cards for all the time. I like to purchase software or training programs online, and of course I can't pay cash or debit card. Online companies only take payments from Paypal, credit cards or other online payment services.

Many of these services I cannot find locally, and in order to stay competitive in my business, I need to have competitive software and training for that software.

Saving money on ATM withdrawals
I learned this lesson the hard way.. I used to use my debit card at ATMs alot . I want to pay cash for things but my service charges were adding up quickly.

I decided to pay for what I normally purchase using credit card, and then promptly pay the credit card bill when I receive it.

The credit card companies don't make you pay service charges for purchases so you can do a bunch of them with out paying.

Receiving rewards for credit card purchases
I use my Canadian Tire Mastercard to buy things. I receive rewards with with I can use to buy things at their store. This is a great way to purchase household items using points.

At one point in my business, I was getting $100 per week in Canadian Tire points, and it was fun to go and spend them, as I knew the purchases weren't costing me anything.

Receiving 30 days of free money
If I make a purchase today, I generally receive 30 days or so before I need to make a credit card payment. That means that the money stays in my account for 30 days, and then when I make the payment it's one payment in stead of many.

In essence, I am using the credit cards money for 30 days while I earn interest on the money that's sitting in my bank account.

These are reasons why credit cards are actually useful. Again, credit cards shouldl never be used as an income. If you're using credit cards as an income source and don't have the cash reserve in place to make full payments each month, then you're probably in trouble financially.

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Mortgage Life Insurance in Canada
- Posted March 16, 2009 by Monty Loree
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Mortgage Life Insurance in Canada

One of the most significant purchases a family makes in the course of its life is the purchase of a home. Many of your monthly expenses are centered around the fact of owning that home: cable, telephone, electricity, water, and gas, not to mention maintenance, take a up a significant part of your monthly income. The bill that in many cases takes the biggest proportion of your income is the mortgage, your monthly house payment. And it is the bill that must get paid above all; the other expenses can be put off or lived without if necessary, but if the mortgage is not paid in a timely manner, there will be no home for the family to live in.

But a family might find itself in the tragic situation where one of the people responsible for making that monthly house payment is incapacitated or even dies, and your family becomes unable to pay the mortgage. In that case, your family might face not only the death of a loved one, but the loss of their home and credit, as well.

Fortunately, there are plans that can help you avoid this unfortunate eventuality. Mortgage life insurance is designed for just such protection. Mortgage life insurance is a low-cost, flexible method to protect one of your family’s most important investments. If you develop a terminal illness, sustain a serious injury, become disabled, your mortgage insurance can offer you several benefits:

  • It can pay your outstanding mortgage amount. This is the chief reason that most people buy this type of insurance. If you die or become incapacitated, the balance of your mortgage will be paid off. You may, however, still be responsible for any over due payments that have not been made.
  • It can pay up to five years’ worth of accrued interest.
  • It can pay any property taxes that you owe when you die so that your heirs are not left struggling with taxes.
  • If you are diagnosed with a terminal illness, it can give you an option to pay out early, so that you can be assured before your death that the house is paid off for your family.


Most people sign up for mortgage insurance at the same time they apply for their mortgage. This ensures that your family is protected even before you close on your mortgage, so that if something happens to you, they will still be able to move in to the new home you have planned.

Applying for mortgage insurance

The cost of mortgage insurance is based on how old you are when you apply for the policy and the amount of your mortgage. Your premiums will not increase as you get older, as long as the terms of your mortgage remain the same. They are also conveniently rolled into your mortgage payment, so you are not paying two separate bills each month. You are eligible to apply if you are a resident of Canada, between 18 and 69 years old, and have been approved for a Canadian residential mortgage.

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How are credit card companies treating you? - Economic Crisis
- Posted March 07, 2009 by Monty Loree
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How are credit card companies treating you? - Economic Crisis

I got a call from Kate Rutherford from CBC radio in Sudbury Ontario.

Kate was inquiring about how the credit card companies were dealing with the economic crisis situation. She was concerned about credit card companies increasing interest rates, service charges and even decreasing people's lines of credit.

Credit card companies make their money from interest and service charges. They base their interest rates and service charges on the level of risk that the individual is at.

This means that if your credit score all of a sudden decreases for any reason, they may charge you a higher interest rate.

American Express is charging me higher interest rates, even though I've got excellent credit
As a result of Kate's call, I contacted American Express. I have a Business Gold card with them.. The customer service rep indicated that my interest rate had increased from 14.99 % to 16.99 % even though my credit score hadn't declined. She indicated that this was because of the economy and the write offs that they're incurring.

Check your credit score with Equifax and Transunion.
If you want to understand why you've received a interest rate hike, or why you may receive one in the future..it's best to in vest $20-$30 to purchase your credit reports. This will tell you exactly where you stand with the credit bureaus. And you'll know what the credit bureaus are reporting to your credit card companies (and other lenders)

This is especially the case for workers who have been laid off in this economic down turn.. If you've used up your cash reserves, and are now using credit cards as income, this could adversely affect your credit score, thus driving up your interest rates.

I always tell people... if you're in doubt as to where you stand with the credit card company...it's worth it to take 15 minutes and call them up. After all , they are suppliers of credit, and should be there to give you the service you need.

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General Motors isn't a going concern - Deloitte & Touche
- Posted March 07, 2009 by Monty Loree
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General Motors isn't a going concern - Deloitte & Touche

In the last few days, Deloitte & Touche, a third party consulting firm, gave a report on the viability of General Motors. The consulting firm indicated that they have substantial doubt about General Motors future and their capability to generate a profit in the near future.

I give General Motors all the credit in the world for their fighting spirit, however, what does it take to bankrupt this company?

If they're not making money, then by the definition of free enterprise, they should be left to reorganize and downsize themselves to a point where they can start making money.





Here's what bothers me about their bailout...

We Lived on $60 per week in groceries - family of four (1993)
When I was first starting my business in 1992, our revenue was pretty light as you can imagine... we lived on $60 per week for grocery money. One week we were pretty desparate so I called social services and asked them if they could help out. Social services told me that I would have to sell my house, because that would provide me with cash!!

I needed money then to feed the family. I was furious at that reply. Here I was ... working 7 days a week, trying to feed the family and had genuinely asked for help. I was refused !! At that point, I said, NEVER AGAIN, would I ask for help from the federal government.

The Federal Government is giving Welfare money to GM
The federal government is now giving bailout / welfare money to people who make $50-$60 per hour. That doesn't seem right, in my opinion.

Is this the alternative to having these families on Employment Insurance? I'm not sure..

This situation is completely wrong IMO.. General Motors should be left to fend for itself. That is the painful choice, however it will be better in the long run, in my opinion.

I've been self employed since 1992.. This means that I've earned money the real way.. creativity, hard work and sacrifice. I've made money , and I've lost money. My family has experienced the severe highs and lows of being self employed. However, we've never asked for a dime since those start up days.

We've had to adapt to our situation as it has happened. We've learned to deal with expanding the business and contracting the business. It's been painful and in some cases it's taken years to do. That's the nature of business.

If you have to down size, then you get back in the saddle and innovate. You create enough value that your customers will start to buy from you again. Again.. some times this takes years, however, you need to do what it takes.

End of rant..

Good luck General Motors, your workers, your suppliers etc!

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Canadian Consumer Toxic Debt? What do we have to show for it?
- Posted March 07, 2009 by Monty Loree
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Canadian Consumer Toxic Debt? What do we have to show for it?

I am starting to research monetary policy and the money supply system.. in my travels I came across this Canadian money supply page that talks about how much savings Canadians have along with how much debt Canadian individuals have.

I was alarmed that Canadians have $412 billion in Consumer debt, and $1.3 trillion in debt when you add in mortgages.

I can understand the mortgages part of the equation as this debt is backed by real assets.

The $412 billion I would assume includes car loans, renovations loans, lines of credit and credit cards. I contacted the government of Canada and they couldn't give me an exact breakdown of the consumer debt portion.





What I'm really worried about is, what kind of assets do we have to back these debts? IE... are all of these debts based on highly depreciated assets?

The basis of my comment is the current collapse of the stock market.. the recent economy has been built on debt on all levels... now that the economy is crashing , there is alot of debt that we're dealing with, but it doesn't seem like this debt is backed up by solid assets.

So.... if our $412 billion in consumer debt isn't backed up by real assets, then how does that make our economy look?

It makes the Canadians balance sheet look pretty weak.

I should say that the it appears from the chart that the money supply in Canada (M2++ gross) is $1,735,973,000,000 ($1.8 trillion) so we have cash to back up the debt.

The point of this post is to express concern so that we can become a little more aware of what we're using consumer debt for. If we're buying holiday & travel, restaurants, and electronics which all have zero asset value after the purchase, then we're buying too many empty items with our consumer credit.

The other point I wanted to bring across.. if we're paying an average of 10% on our consumer credit... that's $41.2 billion dollars per year in interest. Is that what you want to be spending your hard earned dollars on?

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AIG Gets $30 billion more? - Let them go bankrupt!
- Posted March 02, 2009 by Monty Loree
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AIG Gets $30 billion more? - Let them go bankrupt!

My pet project is to talk about General Motors and how the federal government should let them go bankrupt.

AIG Insurance company needs an additional $30 billion bailout after losing $61.7 billion in the fourth quarter.

So... we're debating whether to give General Motors $4 billion but we're easily going to give AIG Insurance $30 billion.

This is completely ridiculous... the problem is... I can understand a little about the car industry... I have no idea about the insurance business.. (I understand life insurance) I don't understand the high level complex financial products that AIG has created.

AIG MADE TONS OF MONEY

These companies who are getting bailout money enjoyed making alot of money during the hay days. They all enjoyed the upswing. Now, with the downswing they're not enjoying themselves.

From my understanding, capitalism is all about peaks and valleys.. You make profit in the good days, and manage carefully during the down times.

Nobody wants to take the lumps of a down market.

This isn't right. And it's going to cause more problems in the future.

As painful as it may be... why not let AIG fail and restructure. Isn't business about Caveat Emptor? If individuals and companies have insurance with AIG... let them buy insurance from other companies...
I know that's not as simple as it sounds, however, caveat emptor...

AIG performed badly and should be treated accordingly. It's customers should realize that they purchased products from a bankrupt company.

CAVEAT EMPTOR - A business term for capitalism

I think consumers are getting pretty sick of government bailouts... myself included.

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2012-10-15 11:43:43
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2012-10-09 12:42:44
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2012-10-09 12:24:31
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2012-09-30 20:03:01
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2012-09-25 10:19:31
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2012-09-16 16:42:15
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