The first quarter will end in a month. How are you doing with your New Year’s resolution? According to Forbes Health/OnePoll survey, Americans noted these as the most popular 2024 New Year’s resolutions: Come Together to Reduce Hate Before you give up your resolution, think about these matters: Is your resolution a wish or a goal? Does your goal have a plan? Is your goal realistic and sustainable? Make a new life changing goal Is your resolution a wish or a goal Hoping and wishing isn’t a goal. A goal needs 4Cs: clear, complete, concise, calculable. You must know the exact goal and how to ..read more

Many folks have been asking about renegotiating their mortgages. Their financial advisor suggested refinancing their mortgages and extracting equity from their home’s value to save. It’s vital you understand the nuances, and review your goals and plans for the next two to three years before handling finance matters. Today’s decisions might prevent you from doing future goals. Mortgage Refinancing Might Not Be the Right Solution Though interest rates will fall sooner than later, if you think you can get a lower mortgage interest rate, this isn’t enough to renegotiate your mortgage. Besides, t ..read more

ABC Principle – Unplug the fan The ABC Principle is an equation A+B=C, pointing out links between a person’s attitude (A) and behavior (B) and resulting consequences (C). The wider appeal stresses managing specific inputs (A & B) to give reliable outcomes (C). Yet, our practices do not align with this principle. So, it’s crucial we figure out our attitudes (beliefs, worldview) before solving issues, otherwise, we might regret consequences of our choices (A & B). ABC Principle – C is the Score I coined the ABC Principle over 20 years ago when someone I will call Fred aske ..read more

  Work-life balance is a popular topic today. But what does it mean? We are trying to balance work with life, like work is not a part of life, and work is bad. That’s absurd. Although, I know many companies exploit workers in toxic environments for short-term gain, and these workers have no short-term practical choice but to endure. I am not referring to these oppressed employees. We must expose the toxic workplaces. Firms that exploit workers don’t realize treating employees well is not only the right thing to do, but the best way to maximize stakeholders’ benefits. An Organisation for ..read more

The Canadian government’s promised CAD 13-16 billion welfare grant to Volkswagen (VW) is outrageous! Is this the best use of funds? It’s an abuse of power, a waste of taxes, and it’s crucial it doesn’t happen for these reasons: Governments don’t create jobs, can’t pick projects likely to succeed, and it’s small, not large businesses that create most jobs.  Politicians overlook the flaws of mining minerals for EV batteries and the impact on Indigenous Peoples. The opportunity cost (the alternative use of these welfare funds) is significant. Unmet needs exist in health care, infrastructu ..read more

Toronto Star’s columnist Bob Hepburn’s piece on March 23, “Why do political and business leaders treat us like idiots?” touched a nerve. I’ve been thinking about this topic for a few years, particularly after each election. Why do we vote for and keep incompetent, dishonest, arrogant, narcissistic leaders, and then get angry when they do what we expect them to do? Yes, Bob, they believe we are idiots because that’s how we behave. Leaders Need To Do The Right Thing Succumb To Political, Business Religious Leaders Deceptions Bob mentions Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau regarding Trud ..read more

In January 2022, Bank of Canada (BOC) projected year-end 2022 inflation at 2%. Oops, it’s 7% today! As the year progressed, BOC threw interest rate increases at the economy to take control of inflation, but alas, that approach is contributing to the rise. Still, Tiff Macklem, governor of BOC says he won’t settle for anything less than a return to 2% inflation. The old failed ways to fight inflation continue to be central banks’ choice tools, so it seems likely Canada and many developed countries will fall into recession in 2023. 7-Keys To Take on Today’s Challenges Meanwhile, consu ..read more

Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) are way over paid and urgent action is needed. In 2021, the average CEO compensation of S&P 500 companies in the U.S. was 324 times more than their average employees’. While these CEOs’ pay rose 18.2% in 2021, workers’ wages rose a meagre 4.7% with inflation at 7.1%. Andrew Jassy, Amazon’s CEO, earned $212 million in 2021 or 6,474 times (the highest ratio by over 200%) the average Amazon worker. Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, earned $98.7 million or 1447 times the average Apple worker. Is any CEO’s input worth so much more than the average worker’s? Did these two g ..read more

Stock markets crash, rebound, decline for extended periods, and climb for long durations. Sometimes the fall and rise are steady, but the past year was odd. Stock markets were wild, yielding a scary emotional roller coaster ride. In this article, after peeking at the present, I examine three prior market crashes to deduce lessons and suggest how we might stay unscathed. Meanwhile, let’s be calm. This will pass. Most of all, we want to maintain previous well considered investment positions. For instance, the chart below shows value stocks’ (they trade below inherent value, which ..read more

A worker shortage might be excellent news for the economy! Maybe, just maybe, firms will awake and see workers’ substantial contribution to their success. Some CEOs take unconscionable sums and destroy their firm’s value, unlike many frontline workers who create value. During the pandemic, CEOs took vast sums as they laid-off workers. Some firms sought bankruptcy protection, but that didn’t stop their greedy CEOs from snatching hefty bonuses. Worker Shortage Might Bring About Change and End Ignorance About Workers We have a worker shortage and firms are scrambling to hire whomev ..read more