Monday, March 29, 2010

Phinancials and PhDs

Before the economy rebounds overwhelmingly and we forget, once again, all about crises, here's a reminder.  (a) Crises come in two flavours: 1. the garden-variety, or cyclical mild meltdown, and 2. the once-in-a-very_lengthy_stretch_of_time type of calamity;  (b) It's worth remembering that, while one pays a couple of limbs or so (in whatever currency is applicable) for education, education too pays:


Another useful piece of advice related to the above and from the same Piled Higher and Deeper site: it is never too late to get learnin'. Your portfolio already took a dive during the recent crisis, now a mind would be another terrible thing to waste...

As to the observation below, never mind. Though it should be noted that the mortal on the left is more adequately equipped, both money-wise and time-wise, to get wasted, more often:


Also, here's one for the careful consideration of the eventually-set-to-learn-and/or-get-married pricey offspring.

Finally, if this applies to you (it did to Norbert), a post in Canadian Capitalist mentions a cheaper way to convert currency, by buying stock in one currency account and selling it in another.

Thanks to ds for the pointer!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

The thrill is back

The season situated straight ahead of summer, the one reckoned astronomically to extend from the March equinox to the June solstice, is in that mixture of invisible odorless tasteless gases - nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide - that surrounds the earth. Temperatures are high, the VIX is low, and the tax refund is on its way.

Winter left, and just as well.  Just before its departure we were reminded that fiddling with the numbers will get you nowhere in the long run.  Greece (as you may remember, its GDP has been known to include a manifestly productive prostitution and other underground activities) is now bankrupt, and Lehman Brothers (their accounting may have also been kinda creative) is no longer on the map.  Therefore we duly reported on our income tax return (specifically, Schedule 4 T1-2009, section II - Interest and other investment income) all of the $0.17 in interest earned in our account at Canada's largest bank.  (How does a bank get to be the largest??)

Also we read, in Canadian Capitalist, about the mortgage-free home insurance discount, which we have utilized ourselves.  Readers offered a few opinions as to why ("insurance companies have found that mortgage-free homeowners make lower claims", "they also checked out my credit score - it seems that insurance companies are willing to take into account just about anything that is correlated with claim risk", etc.). If we were to venture a guess, it would be that if something goes terribly wrong it's easier for the insurance company to kick around an already knocked down homeowner rather than a big bank.  (How does an insurance company get to be large??)

Spring is now here.  A friend found a job, one didn't lose his, another is still looking. We had an uncomfortable urge to clean the basement this week, which we resisted.  But we added a top picks summary and a pic from paradise in the sidebar.  Meanwhile, our friend ml feels rich.  He sent us a few links (Rio Abajo Rio, Palazzo delle Luce) and, as the general idea, Christie’s Great Estates.  We suspect he must have already received his refund.

A healthy vernal breeze is blowing from the south.  It's coming from the silence on the dock of the bay.  We feel ineffably musical:

The heart has got to open in a fundamental way.  Gaudeamus!  Spring is in the air.