Commerce Seminars Rises

Sometimes in life, it's important to step back from a situation, take some time off to evaluate, and then make a move.

In 2003, Mike Daciw and myself graduated from the Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba. It wasn't long before the two of us were back on campus and helping other commerce students navigate their way through some of the more daunting courses on the Asper transcript.

We began teaching pre-exam seminars in both Financial Accounting and Corporate Finance and the feedback was overwhelming. Our seminars were working! Students were entering exams with much more confidence, and the experience they gained helped them get through the courses that once appeared to put their degrees in jeopardy.

Mike and I taught these "Commerce Seminars" for 5 years before stepping back to focus on our own careers and personal lives. After a few years off, it has become clear that we can't deny the bat signal in the sky; WE MUST RETURN!

Batman knew he must rise again, and so too have we.

Sharing our experience and knowledge in the financial sector with students, in a way that will helpful find success on exams, is extremely rewarding, and it's the reason we're back. In the past, we collected a fee for our seminars to offset the time and costs of creating the program. This time around, we are excited to share that 100% of our net income - a term you will need to be able to define - will be donated to the Commerce Student's Association (CSA), to help fund student programs, workshops  and activities around the school.

We hope to hold our first session of "Commerce Seminars 2.0", this coming December. Please stay tuned for more details, and we look forward to seeing and meeting new Asper students!

See you soon,

Dan

Saving is tough, even for NBA players

Helping people plan their investments is a rewarding practice in many ways. The greatest takeaway we can get receive from a client is when they call to say they've successfully achieved or undertaken some type of activity that they've been planning for years. Buying a car for their son, sending their daughter to university, purchasing a warm retirement home.

The financial planning aspect of our business at Madison Financial looks to guide people through the right hoops in order to achieve certain objectives. Creating a solid financial plan takes a good deal of diligence and whether you make $50,000 a year or $5 million, adapting your lifestyle to your budget in a way that will ensure you save money responsibly is difficult.

A recent move by the NBA is a sure testament to the reality that managing finances, big or small, is an important and necessary task. Many of us would have a tough time imagining struggling through retirement based on a $5 million salary, but it continues to happen all the time. See an excerpt from the article below.

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NBA Players Forced To Save Toward Retirement For First Time

By Scott Soshnick

National Basketball Association players, who were paid an average of about $5 million last season, will be forced for the first time to save money for retirement.

Beginning next season, players also will surrender 5 percent to 10 percent of their salary for retirement. They automatically will be enrolled in the program and would have to opt-out to keep from participating in the plan, Klempner said.

To visit the full article from Bloomberg, click here.

What Freedoms can a Financial Plan offer?

Benefits of a financial plan

A solid financial plan can help you:

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• Provide for your family in the event of your death, disability or a critical illness
• Secure a comfortable retirement
• Control your debt
• Fund a post-secondary education for your children
• Minimize your taxes
• Leave an estate to your heirs
• Meet a variety of business protection needs
• Provide affordable benefits for your company’s employees
• Or as is the case for many Winnipegger's:
• PURCHASE WINNIPEG JETS TICKETS!

Are we there yet?

Buying at the point of maximum pessimism
By Larry MacDonald

In past issues of The Boeckh Investment Letter, Tony and Rob Boeckh recommended using the current bout of stock-market weakness to rebalance toward equities. In their latest issue (Sept. 22, 2011) they advise holding off until better value emerges, as they now believe the decline is likely headed toward a more severe stage due to continued temporizing from policymakers.

In Europe, the banking system is in danger of a Lehman-style calamity unless sufficient liquidity and capital is injected. And with a default in Greece no longer being a question of “if” but “when,” the eurozone will be hard pressed to find an orderly way to manage it without triggering contagion and a run on the banking system.

In the U.S., the Federal Reserve needs to do more than change the composition of its assets (as it did recently under Operation Twist). It also needs to launch another expansion in its asset base, i.e.a third quantitative easing (Q3).

Governments need to retrench fiscally, but this should not be pursued in the short term while the world economy is in danger of falling into recession when heavy debt loads are to be paid. The first priority is to keep a downward debt-deflation spiral from taking hold; once that scenario is less of a risk, reining in government finances can be considered.

As for Asia, a sustainable solution to current world problems requires China and other chronic surplus countries to allow their currencies to rise. It’s time for them to switch more to growth based on domestic sources instead of exports, for the sake of achieving a more sustainable global growth path.

Unfortunately, it seems political paralysis will continue until markets revolt and spread fear and panic. The Boeckhs urge investors to get ready to rebalance toward equities on the major dips they envision occuring until inaction gives way to a vigorous and coordinated policy response.

Source URL: http://www.canadianbusiness.com/blog/investing/48024--buying-at-the-point-of-maximum-pessimism

NFC - Technology that will change revolutionize financial transactions for everyone.

Tonight, Seattle's Museum of History and Industry will be hosting an expert-hosted industry discussion about a technology that will replace your wallet (eventually). Read more from the forum below.

NFC is a technology that has been around for a number of years, but has been thrust into new prominence by an explosive growth in mobile phones, slated to reach five billion worldwide in 2011. With one chip, NFC enables trusted information sharing and secure business transactions to occur between paired devices. The resulting everyday applications – credit card, ID card, key card – could lead to real-life implications (from that of a wallet-less world to just-in-time target marketing) that were once the realm of movie makers and technology visionaries.

As NFC’s promise becomes reality, top players in key industries such as mobility (T-Mobile, Verizon), finance (MasterCard, Visa), retail (Amazon), and entrepreneurs (Qthru, Iota) are collaborating as well as vying to capitalize on the opportunities that this technology presents. During this lively and insightful discussion moderated by David Brudnicki, CTO of NFC software and system provider Sequent, we ask industry experts to elaborate on the promises and pitfalls of NFC, the key players, and how entrepreneurs can get in on the game.

Source URL: http://www.mitwa.org/events/enterprise-forum-program/next-mobile-revolution-near-field-communications-nfc