Blessed by the Potato

Rachelle at Landlord Rescue is hosting the first edition of the Canadian Real Estate Carnival. Head over there to check out a collection of articles about real estate in Canada, including one by me!

Mike from MoneySmartsBlog has published his guidebook to RESPs. I got to help proofread an advanced copy, so I can say that the book is a good resource to have when starting out with an RESP for your child. It covers all the bases, explains what an RESP is, why you’d want to set one up for your child, and details the rules you need to be aware of.

The Globe has an article on the power of 4chan. “But their apparent hatred for humanity is compellingly inverse to their love of animals. […] When they decide to avenge people, they do it according to odd whims, like some dark, mercurial supervillain with a soft spot for house pets.” Netbug responds: “4Chan… It’s like letting a swarm of piranhas out of their tank because you have a spare cow to get rid of.”

The Big Picture blog has a post about Freddie and Fannie. What I found interesting was figure “2.2” (the 4th? one down). This is the data I was talking about some time ago about how Canada isn’t as different as we think we are. You can see how having a bad credit score lead to higher rates of default, but having high LTV (i.e., low downpayment) was also a large risk factor, even without having a low credit score (having both was terrible). And Canada definitely has had a lot of high LTV mortgages written in the last few years, even if “subprime” isn’t as bad.

The Neurologica blog laments science education in the US. A topic near and dear to my heart.

Thesis sabotage. Just the thought makes me shudder.