Thread of the Week: In this thread on Canadian Money Forum, members discuss which bank they have their main chequing account at and why. Check it out and if you like what you see, register and add to the discussions.
- The Bank of Canada decided to keep interest rates at 1/4 percent and reiterated the commitment to hold interest rates until the end of second quarter of 2010 conditional on the inflation outlook. While the bank noted improving financial conditions and commodity prices and recovery in consumer and business confidence as positives, the rapid appreciation of the Canadian dollar was proving to be a huge negative. The prime rate charged by the chartered banks on loans remains at 2.25%.
- Now that the big Canadian banks have reported earnings, it is time to turn to Canadian Banks & Insurance to check out what analysts think of the latest results: Bank of Montreal, TD Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, CIBC and Royal Bank.
- Vanity Fair has published a series of columns on Bernie Madoff who ran the biggest Ponzi scheme in history for decades. The subject of this column was Madoff’s victims — some of whom has their entire equity in Madoff’s fund — and in this column, Madoff’s long-time secretary talks about the Bernie she knew.
- You may have heard about the 4% withdrawal rule. Rob Carrick writes about the Retirement Rule of 20, which says that a financially secure retirement requires $20 in savings for every dollar of income.
- Million Dollar Journey reviewed and is giving away two copies of Squawkfox’s 397 Ways to Save Money.
- There is no such thing as a free lunch. Michael James explains why credit card rewards are not such a great deal for consumers after all.
- Now that stocks have recovered somewhat, Gail says investors should establish some investment rules to keep emotions in check.
- Canadian Dream crunches the numbers on what the revised CPP rules mean for those dreaming of early retirement.
- The Wealthy Boomer chats with Zvi Bodie who advocates eschewing stock market risk and investing for retirement in Real Return Bonds.
- Larry MacDonald points out that ETF holders should wake up to how lucrative securities lending is and demand their fair share. Tongue in cheek, he suggests that securities lending could become so profitable that vendors will be offering 0% MER ETFs.
Have a great weekend everyone! It looks like we might have a summer after all.
