A couple of years ago I attended a Rich Dad Poor Dad seminar at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Calgary. I entered the seminar with enthusiasm, and left in anger after the “instructor” (more like sales guy) berated me for questioning his methods, not taking notes, and then for taking notes on my blackberry. In particular he took shots at me for not writing down acronyms that were important, even though I already was aware of these terms as they were a part of both my everyday job and my economics background. I eventually got up and left, telling the VP of sales who sat patiently outside the door waiting for an influx of anxious buyers that (more…)

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It was a little over two years ago that I was asked by a real estate investment company to help them secure mortgages for their clients. It was also a little over two years ago that I told them under no uncertain circumstances would I help their clients secure mortgages.

The company’s offering was very impressive, at first. I literally watched one Monday evening as more than 20 people handed over in excess of $3,900 each (more…)

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Several of Canada’s financial blogs have a stock picking contest every year. They each pick four stocks and track the returns on a quarterly basis. Last years returns ranged from -8.8% to 81.56%, the TSX by comparison was up approximately 31%.

While I am not officially part of the competition (although hopefully they will be kind enough to let me in), I am going to take part anyways, tracking their results against mine. If you want to participate, put the four stocks you would pick in the comments below, and I will track them for you!

My stock picking strategy will be psychology based. In other words, based on (more…)

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Beware ‘free’ real estate seminars – Yourhome.ca.

In the next couple of days I will be chronicling a story from two years ago where I got involved with a company who made money by selling real estate courses designed to convince consumers to invest their savings and equity in their homes in real estate backed assets. I ultimately stopped my dealings with the company because I believed that clients were becoming over leveraged without understanding the potential consequences.

In the time being, take a look at this article from Yourhome.ca that discusses the warning signs of a get rich quick scheme.

Typically, what these no-money down programs attempt (more…)

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Everyday I read (skim) no less than 500 blog posts using my Google RSS reader. Some articles are on marketing, some are on business, others are on golf (although I think all the golf blogs basically repost whatever Geoffshackelford.com is writing on – Tiger Woods infidelity at this moment), and a large number of financial blogs from all over North America.

Financial blogs are the most important of the ones I read given my industry. While one may not always agree with (more…)

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