May 30, 2012
in G20, G8, economy, education, emerging markets, energy, environment, financial planning, food, forecasts, frontier markets, future, government, health, healthcare, indicators, inflation, infrastructure, international economy, investing, market timing, market trends, precious metals, predictions, preparedness, resources, sectors, technology, trends, world order, world reserve currency
In some sense, economics itself is about predicting the future. It makes forecasts based on past performance and behaviours. Statistics, quarterly reports and other numerical data facilitate this process. In order to plan your own life out another 5 years or more, in order to achieve goals you’ve set, you adopt budgets and you might [...]
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January 24, 2011 · 2 comments
in Asia, BRIC, China, RMB, USD, banks, currencies, diversification, financial planning, foreign investment, hedging, inflation, investing, living in US, market trends, money management, risk, savings, wealth protection, wealth transfer
Readers have recently been asking where you can open a Chinese Yuan savings account. As I wrote in a previous post, Chinese Yuan savings accounts for Americans are available at the Bank of China (only in New York and Los Angeles so far).
In that previous post, I outlined the basic steps you need to know [...]
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November 15, 2010 · 4 comments
in DIY, bubble, capitalism, central banks, collapse, consumers, debt, decisions, depression, discipline, diversification, economy, emergencies, emergency fund, financial planning, forecasts, inflation, international economy, money management, preparedness, risk, survival, sustainability, wealth protection
The fact of the matter is that at the end of the day not even the economists fully foresee or even understand (let alone agree on what they do understand) the full implications and progression of the state of the current world financial system.
Another fact is obvious: the global financial system is so interconnected and [...]
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November 5, 2010 · 2 comments
in 2010, Christmas, November, October, Q4, business, consumers, economy, employment, financial planning, holidays, indicators, low-income, money management, news and updates, opportunity, part-time, paycheck, retailers, side income
With the new seasonal cups out at Starbucks stores across the continent, it’s *clearly* time to begin thinking about the Christmas holidays. Although U.S. jobs data is on a slight – very slight – uptrend, we are still nowhere near back to the number of jobs pre-Lehman. Recent data I read suggested that about 232,000 [...]
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November 4, 2010 · 3 comments
in 2010, Canadian, S&P/TSX, distributions, dividends, financial planning, income, income trusts, media, news and updates, stocks, telecom
Yellow Pages Income Trust (TSX: YLO.UN) converted to a corporation on Monday, November 1, 2010. It now trades on the TSX under the name Yellow Media Inc. with the ticker (TSX: YLO).
What Happens to the Rest of Your Income Trusts Before 2011
In their Q3 news release, Yellow Media Inc. announced that distributions would be $0.35/year, [...]
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November 3, 2010 · 1 comment
in 2010, Canadian, November, banks, brokers, fees, financial planning, investing, news and updates, stocks
TD Waterhouse Discount Brokerage (Canada) has announced that it will lower the standard flat rate commission fee for buy and sell orders from $29 down to $9.99 for clients with household assets of at least $50,000. Changes take effect on November 4th, 2010.
Previously, clients had to hold at least $100,000 in assets at Waterhouse to [...]
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November 1, 2010
in November, Q4, S&P 500, S&P/TSX, financial planning, investing (general), market timing, market trends, seasonal investing, sectors, special dates, stocks, theories
November is usually a good month for stocks. Free from the seasonal worries about risky September and October markets, November often represents a return to a rallying environment in stocks generally and in certain sectors especially.
This year being a mid-term election year in the U.S. also bodes well for stock markets for the rest of 2010 and into [...]
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