This and That: Interest rates, portfolio performance review and more…

I have a somewhat poignant video to share this week: an interview with Gordon Murray, co-author of the upcoming book The Investment Answer. Mr. Murray, a long-time Wall Street insider started writing the book after learning he had terminal cancer. The book offers average people a framework for implementing their investment program. Mr. Murray passed away last week.

1. The Bank of Canada decided this week to keep interest rates steady at 1 percent. The Bank noted that it will “carefully consider” any further increases in interest rates. The Prime rate to which variable rate mortgages and lines of credit are tied to remains at 3 percent.
2. Kudos to Steady hand for showing investors how to analyze the performance of their portfolio and what (if any) actions they should take.
3. In a conversation with Peter Aceto, the big cheese at ING Direct, Rob Carrick learned that ING Direct is planning on offering secured lines of credit to Canadians.
4. Investing in BRICs? That’s so yesterday! According to Knowledge@Wharton the next hot emerging market frontier is CIVETS. I’ll bet new ETFs to cover the CIVETS markets are in the works already.
5. Money Smarts Blog takes Mint.com for a test drive.
6. Million Dollar Journey relates his experience with opening a bank account for his toddler.
7. Larry MacDonald rounded-up media reaction to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s move to tighten mortgage rules.
8. Canadian Couch Potato argues that just because a stock pays a dividend doesn’t make it a better investment.
9. Thicken My Wallet warns Canadians of the potential pitfalls in purchasing a property in the U.S..
10. Michael James calls the new BMO Lifetime Cash Flow product suitable for investors who are looking for safety and don’t understand inflation.
11. Canadian Financial Stuff extols the value of a taking a day off on a regular basis just to get things done.
12. One of the biggest risks in investing in emerging markets is widespread corruption and fraud. Blessed by the Potato highlights recent examples of alleged fraud in stocks of China-based companies.
13. ETF2X points out that noise from other traders has a negative impact on investment performance. I think tuning out noise is important for investors as well.

Just a quick reminder that you can read my posts in your favourite reader or delivered by e-mail. Have a great weekend everyone!