Desperate measures? Kew of Kensington promotes its very early summer sale
This picture is actually rather tragic – so desperate is Kew of Kensington in London to promote its £25 off summer dress offer (in early May) that its big sign almost totally obscures its window display.
The double-dip recession is clearly hitting hard, if the patrons of one of the wealthiest Hign Streets in the country need this kind of come-on to splash out on a new frock.
If you want to see the selected dresses behind that massive sign, . (Youre welcome for the plug, Kew.)
Carnival of Financial Planning – Money Management Edition #234 – April 27, 2012
Welcome to the April 27, 2012 Money Management Edition #234 of the Carnival of Financial Planning.
This edition is arranged by subject heading, so that you can browse efficiently.
Enjoy!
The Skilled Investor, Editor
Dr Dean presents 100 Words On How To Become Well To Do! posted at The Millionaire Nurse Blog, saying, Want to be financially successful? Check out this short mantra, and repeat it daily.
David presents Wired Capital Markets posted at Wall Street History , saying, Looking into the workings of modern securities markets is like looking under the hood of a Prius hybrid car. There are so many complex and obscure parts it’s hard to discern what’s going on. History repeats and informs in market technologies. From th
This and That: Data Mining by Retailers, Interest rates and more…
A story in The New York Times revealed the lengths retail stores go to entice consumers to establish new shopping habits. I suppose this is one downside to using a credit or debit card to pay for your purchases.
The Bank of Canada decided this week to maintain interest rates at 1 per cent. The Prime Rate to which variable-rate mortgages and lines of credit are tied remains at 3 percent. In its accompanying statement, the Bank gave no indication of where interest rates are headed only saying that it will continue to monitor carefully economic and financial developments in the Canadian and global economies, together with the evolution of risks, and set monetary policy consistent with achieving the 2 per cent inflation target over the medium term.
Jason Zweig of The Wall Street Journal wrote about new research that suggests that the increase in assets invested in index funds coincided with increasing correlation among stocks.
Best Frugal Chef’s Knife – America’s Test Kitchen
Some of you may be familiar with the PBS cooking show . The same company publishes the magazines Cooks Illustrated and Cooks Country, which you can think of as Consumer Reports for cooking in that they do not accept any advertising and are entirely subscriber-supported. I happened to find a bunch of back issues on sale at a community garage sale a few weeks ago for a dollar. Wow, I can only describe the content as heaven for cooking geeks! Lots of good tips inside.
Common frugal wisdom is that you dont really need a 15-piece knife set with a fancy wooden block that costs hundreds of bucks, its mostly marketing. The 8-inch chefs knife is often recommended as the most versatile and useful knife.
Guest blog: Can a ‘black box’ really halt rising insurance costs?
From seemingly nowhere, telematics has become the buzzword of the car insurance market, heralded by both major political parties in recent weeks as the answer not only to fraudulent whiplash claims, but also recent EU gender rulings set to drive up car insurance premiums for female drivers.
Fitted behind the dashboard, the telematics black box combines a range of technologies including GPS and a motion sensor to assess a driver’s unique driving style or DNA.
Telematics acts as a co-pilot so that, regardless of gender, drivers can be assessed beyond the ‘collective risk’ assumptions of traditional car insurance that have contributed to sky high premiums for young drivers.
IRS Offers Feeble Tax Relief in Hopes you Won’t Hire a Tax Professional
IRS collection officials do not want you to hire a tax professional. Why? Because when you represent yourself the IRS has a decided advantage. First, it is easier for them to intimidate and frighten you because they know you don’t know the law. Second, it makes it infinitely more likely that their procedural mistakes, their over-assessments and their violations of your rights will go undetected and unchallenged.
Based on my 25 years of experience dealing with IRS officials, I have no stronger conviction then this:
Taxpayers who are having problems with the IRS are foolish not to hire an experienced tax professional to ensure that the IRS does not, a) overcharge them; and b) violate their rights.
BIAS ALERT: I represent taxpayers for a living. Conseque
UFile Online 2011 Tax Software Giveaway
If you use UFile Online to file your taxes, this giveaway is for you. Thanks to UFile, I’m giving away ten (10) coupons that are good for filing your familys tax returns online (valued at $24.95 plus tax).
Entering the giveaway is real simple. Just leave a comment in this post and don’t forget to include a valid e-mail address. If you are reading this through your favourite RSS Reader or via-email, you have to click on the headline, get through to the website and scroll down to the bottom of the page and type in your comment.
Some quick rules:
(1) No purchase necessary. A skill-testing question may be required.
(2) Deadline for entries is 8 p.m. EST on Thursday, March 1, 2012.
(3) One entry per person please.
(4) I treat your privacy very seriously. You