Weekend Reading: Vancouver Edition

My wife and I celebrated our 10th anniversary with a trip to Vancouver last week. We found round-trip flights from Calgary for less than $300 and then decided to splurge by staying at a boutique hotel downtown. The location was perfect, as we could walk everywhere from Stanley Park to Granville Island.

We took a free shuttle across Lions Gate Bridge to North Vancouver and checked out the Capilano Suspension Bridge, but sadly didn’t have time to head further north and hike Grouse Mountain. Next time!

We can’t afford a million dollar house, but it’s easy to see why – when the sun in shining – Vancouver is one of the most beautiful and desirable cities in which to live. We’ll be back to visit again soon.

This week’s recap:

Quite possibly the first Monday in our six-year blogging history that we didn’t have a post scheduled. I regret nothing!

On Wednesday Marie explained how your credit score is calculated and what a higher score means for you.

And on Friday I looked at a big list of behavioural biases and pointed out a few that resonate with me an an investor.

Weekend Reading:

Well respected economist Trevor Tombe breaks down exactly how much carbon pricing will actually cost households (and what provinces can do to lessen the impact).

After one of the largest bankruptcy cases in Canadian history, Nortel executives are still drawing retention bonuses and have collected $190M US since 2009.

Canadian Real Estate Association reports that sales prices in Greater Vancouver plunged 19 percent from July to August and is down 7.5 percent from a year earlier.

With new federal measures coming into place next week to help cool the real estate market, Rob Carrick shares four things people get wrong about housing.

Interested in hearing more about what’s going on with the Canadian housing market? Preet Banerjee chats with Ben Rabidoux, one of Canada’s leading housing analysts, in this hour-long podcast.

Jamie Golombek offers a detailed explanation on converting your principal residence into a rental property (or vice-versa).

Where should I transfer my pension? Jason Heath weighs-in on options to transfer the commuted-value of a pension into a locked-in retirement account.

Vanguard founder Jack Bogle shares his portfolio breakdown and life lessons.

Alan Whitton continues his misadventures in trying to fund his son’s RDSP. It’s not as straightforward as it seems.

“I am staring to wonder just how exciting will it be to withdraw money from this system?”

Rewards Canada lists the expiry and inactivity rules for all the top Canadian loyalty programs.

Here are the real questions you need to ask – or more likely, answer – before you can decide if a credit card is the right one for you.

Saving is always good, right? Barry Choi lists five times when saving can go wrong.

How Financial Uproar buys almost anything for 50-75% off.

“Being good at personal finance is a lot about anticipating what’s ahead – long-term stuff such as retirement, and short-term annual milestones such as the holiday season.” – Rob Carrick

We’re in for the toughest three months of the year for your wallet. Here’s how to make saving more automatic, like breathing.

Finally, you can have your latte AND your money goals. Des Odjick breaks it down.

Have a great weekend, everyone!