By Sheryl Smolkin

This week we present an eclectic mix of posts from Canadian money bloggers, some of whom have been posting for years but have not previously been cited in this space.

On HowToSaveMoney.ca, Heather Clarke offers 7 Ways To Declutter Without Spending A Fortune, Instead of buying costly clear lucite boxes, monogrammed fabric bins, or classic wooden divided trays, she says that using a little creativity and a few basic craft supplies you can make attractive, low cost storage solutions. But I’m not very crafty, so I think the two year rule is the best way to minimize clutter — if I haven’t used an item in 24 months, it’s time to get rid of it.

Recently governments in British Columbia and Ontario have enacted new laws to try and cap runaway house prices in some markets. Firecracker and her husband Wanderer who blog on Millenial Revolution are typically in favour of a laissez faire approach. But as reported in Your Thoughts on Government Intervention, the majority of their readers disagree. Of 356 readers who responded to a survey they conducted, 198 believe the government should intervene. And about one-third believe a tax on speculators is the most effective strategy.

Does your financial advisor really ‘deserve’ to be paid? Doris Belland tackles this thorny issue in a recent post on Your Financial Launchpad. She notes that the financial advice industry is undergoing a profound shift in which several economists plus some of the worlds’ most successful investors and Nobel Laureates argue persuasively that the higher fees associated with traditional investment products have a negative effect on investors’ results.

Ed Rempel explains Why he will never own an ETF or index fund. He says that the average fund manager can’t beat the market, but superior fund managers clearly can. Based on his research and investment returns, he believes he has selected All Star Fund Managers who have consistently exceeded the relevant indices. “Performance fee models with a very low base fee give you the low fee advantage of an ETF or index fund – plus a good chance of above index returns,” Rempel concludes.

And finally, on Financial Uproar, Nelson introduces The Too Much House Equation. “We constantly rag on people who buy too many video games or finance vacations, but we cheer people who make a similar mistake with their houses,” he writes. “The fact is the easiest way for the average person with only a small net worth to save more is to cut their fixed expenses, starting with housing.”

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Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.

By Sheryl Smolkin

Well it actually reached +1 degree yesterday and I had a “spring” in my step. However its back to -15 plus who knows what wind chill, so I’ve had to downsize my expectations and put on another layer. Even in his new sweater, our cockapoo Rufus says it’s too #’%!@ cold to stay out for long.

By the way, if you’ve never watched the Rick Mercer clip RMR: Seven Day Forecast – YouTube, it’s a “must see” that will warm up your day.

I’ve just discovered Patricia Gass’s blog Let’s talk About Money. If you are close to retirement or already there, you will enjoy her Reflections From The Early Days Of Spending In Retirement, Part 1 and Reflections From The Early Days Of Spending In Retirement, Part 2. She says running out of money in retirement is NOT an option, especially for the “conservative accountant” in her.

On a similar theme, Kira Vermond from the Globe and Mail writes about Personal financial rules that help stop you from spending too much money. Many of us play simple mind tricks on ourselves and create rules to save money, whether at the checkout counter or in our bank account. How about the Costco customer who decides she will forgo a push cart while shopping there so she’s not tempted to overspend? Her rule: If she can’t lift it, she won’t buy it.

Don’t Buy A Pre-Sale Condo. Ever. says Nelson Smith on Financial Uproar. His blog was triggered by story in the Toronto Star this week about local home buyers who put a $40,000 deposit on a condo in 2011 and four years later got their deposit back, but no condo because the developer decided to convert it to a rental building.

Mr. CBB on Canadian Budget Binder writes about a Free Trial Offer that Cost a Woman $232 in Credit Card Charges. It seems that she paid $12.00 U.S. for a couple of bottles of diet pills to help get off her post-baby weight. However, she didn’t read the fine print and she was charged $116 twice on her credit card which pushed it over her $500 credit limit. So don’t believe everything you read unless you read everything, and remember rarely, if ever, is there a free lunch.

And if you are still wondering How the Bank of Canada rate cut will affect consumers, wonder no more. Brighter Life editor Brenda Spiering says its bad news for interest-based savings accounts and GICs. But it’s good news for variable rate mortgages and lines of credit.

As for vacations, with the loonie in the cellar and low fuel prices, Rob Carrick at the Globe and Mail says this is the year for a big road trip in See Canada and save money. I think he is onto something. Beautiful Saskatchewan, here I come….

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.

By Sheryl Smolkin

I recently put together a list of 40 highly-regarded but very different personal finance blogs and this week Best from the Blogosphere taps into this resource to bring you some new voices.

Switching careers is a life-altering decision, and one that needs to be thought through with care. The gals at Frugalista Finance have been there and done that. In Careers 101: Planning for a career change, they compile a step-by-step checklist to help you make sure you’re on the right track to career bliss.

If you are lucky enough to have a defined benefit pension plan, you may wonder if there is any point also belonging to the Saskatchewan Pension Plan or contributing to a personal registered retirement savings plan. The author of the blog Use RRSP with DB Pension? on “Blessed by the Potato,” says the answer depends on a few factors, chief amongst them your expected tax rate in retirement versus your tax rate now (or in the near future if you choose to contribute now but defer the deduction).

Have you been waffling about finding a financial advisor? Sandra Schmidt, an advisor with Sun Life in Vancouver says there are five financial planning milestones an advisor can help you prepare for:

• Buying your first home.
• Merging your finances.
• Starting a family.
• Setbacks.
• Retirement.

Dan Bortolotti is an investment advisor with PWL Capital in Toronto and author of the award-winning blog Canadian Couch Potato: Your complete guide to index advising. While Dan is well known as an advocate for using exchange traded funds, he readily acknowledges implementing such a strategy is more complicated if you and your partner have several accounts.

The Model portfolios he typically recommends are ideal for investors who have a single RRSP account. But life isn’t so simple once you’ve accumulated a significant portfolio. Chances are you’ll be managing two or three accounts, and if you have a spouse there may well be a few more. In Managing Multiple Family Accounts he says it’s generally most efficient to consider both partners’ retirement accounts as a single large portfolio.

And finally, in order to enhance their income, many people opt to get a part-time job in addition to their regular day job. Nelson Smith on Financial Uproar mines twitter postings to come up with a humorous series of tweets he calls How Not To Get A Part-Time Gig. Bad grammar and spelling certainly don’t help these people make their case.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.