The Blunt Bean Counter noted in The Globe and Mail

Thanks to Preet Banerjee for referencing me today in his Globe and Mail column. His column today is titled "Share your family fortune now to reap the rewards". Preet is a well-known financial expert, who writes a column for the Globe and Mail, is the money expert on the W Network and is the blogger behind the blog WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com. I am not sure if he still has another real job :)

I would also like to give Preet props for participating in my Bloggers for Charity initiative, in which he raised $5,000 for charity. He is obviously an altruistic financial guy; yes, I know that term is usually an oxymoron.

This is the fifth time that I know of, that one of my blogs has been at least in part an inspiration for a newspaper column. Preet's column today quoted from my blog "A Family Vacation- A Memory worth not Dying for". Personally, it is self-satisfying when my blogs provide an inspirational thought or idea for others, given the time and effort required to create many of the blog posts.

I am particularly pleased that only one of the inspired newspaper columns has been an income tax based article. I look at my income tax blogs as loss leaders. I write income tax blogs since they show a professional competence (or incompetence) and they fill an information void since I think there is only one other mainstream blogger (Canadian Tax Resource) doing such that I am aware of. 

However, what I really enjoy writing are my blog posts on how money and finances impact families, relationships and the psyches of individuals. After 25 years of practice as a CA, I have seen most of what is to be seen in that regard, so I write from a perspective of experience.

Since I have severe restrictions on site advertising as a Chartered Accountant, I am not blogging for financial gain (although I do get the occasional client from my blog), but mostly because I enjoy doing so and as such, I appreciate it when columnists such as Preet, Roma Luciw, Rob Carrick and other financial bloggers, most notably Boomer & Echo, Canadian Capitalist, Big Cajunman, Michael James, Jim Yih,  My Own Advisor and Money Sense Online appreciate my blog posts whether as an inspiration for a column or as a recommended read. Thanks!

The blogs posted on The Blunt Bean Counter provide information of a general nature. These posts should not be considered specific advice; as each reader's personal financial situation is unique and fact specific. Please contact a professional advisor prior to implementing or acting upon any of the information contained in one of the blogs.

Bloggers for Charity

Bensimon Byrne one of my firm’s clients and a very successful advertising agency, deserves recognition for raising almost $100,000 for the United Way over the last four years. Every November they have a variety of events to fund raise on behalf of the United Way. One of the events includes an auction where friends, clients and suppliers of the firm donate services or goods that are then auctioned off.

Our firm having no goods to offer donates services; last year bidders could win a free tax planning and wealth meeting with yours truly, one of the most prized auction items :). This year, I considered auctioning off a free Guest Blogger spot on my blog, which got me thinking, why not have other bloggers do the same thing Canada wide, to raise money for charity?

I have thus enlisted the help of five of the best known financial bloggers in Canada; Boomer & Echo, Canadian Capitalist, Michael James On Money, Canadian Finance Blog and the Retire Happy Blog. Each of them have agreed to participate in Bloggers for Charity (see downloadable badge below) and tomorrow will nominate five other bloggers to join the Blogger for a Day effort. All bloggers, should feel free to join the effort (this initiative is not limited to financial bloggers) whether nominated or not and encourage their blogger contacts to join the Bloggers for Charity initiative.

For my readers, I know many of you have latent writing aspirations, so please feel free to bid and let the writer in you free. Please send your bid to my email at bluntbeancounter@gmail.com.

Here are the so-called rules:

1. Each blogger will auction off the opportunity to write a guest post on their blog.

2. All bids will be made in confidence to the blogger’s email account. The blogger at their discretion can email back bidders the current top bid or note the amount of the leading bid on their blog to encourage bidding.

3. The auction will close on December 16, 2011. The blogger will notify the winning bidder by email.

4. The winning bidder will be required to send the blogger a copy of a donation receipt, dated between December 17th and December 31st (personal information can be blacked-out) to confirm the donation has been made. (This donation will be tax deductible to the winning bidder as long as the donation is made to a registered charity).

5. For unanimity amongst bloggers, it is suggested that January 17, 2012 be the date all the Blogger for a Day posts are posted.

6. The winner can write a post on any topic (subject to censorship by the particular blogger), although in the spirit of the contest, it would be great if the winning bidder wrote about a charity or charitable experience, but that is not a requirement. The only rule is that the guest post cannot be a marketing piece. However, at the bottom of their post, the guest blogger can provide their name, name of their company and a brief description of their company and its products. Alternatively, the guest blogger can remain anonymous.

7. All bloggers who participate are asked to email my assistant Lynda at Lynda@cunninghamca.com to note their participation and then to email Lynda with their winning bid so I can tally the donations received. All individual donation totals will be kept confidential.

8. Bloggers participating in the Bloggers for Charity initiative can download a badge (see below) to denote their participation.

9. All participating bloggers will be noted below as they join the initiative.

LIST OF BLOGGERS


Boomer & Echo                           Canadian Capitalist

Michael James On Money            Canadian Finance Blog

Retire Happy Blog                        Financial Highway

Canadian Financial DIY                Where Does All My Money Go

Young and Thrifty                         Canadian Personal Finance Blog

The Blunt Bean Counter

GET BUTTONS

Cut and paste the following script, starting with <a  and ending with </a> into a custom html widget on your sidebar, or into the html editor of of your blog CMS.
 
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180 x 150  Bloggers For Charity

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More Bloggers For Charity buttons in different sizes coming soon.

The blogs posted on The Blunt Bean Counter provide information of a general nature. These posts should not be considered specific advice; as each reader's personal financial situation is unique and fact specific. Please contact a professional advisor prior to implementing or acting upon any of the information contained in one of the blogs.

Happy Anniversary to Me

I posted my first blog “Let’s See Where This Goes” on September 20, 2010. One year later I am still blogging away, with some people other than my family reading.

In looking back at my first year, my first break was when Seeking Alpha asked if they could publish Resverlogix: A Cautionary Tale, a blog I posted in late November 2010. Seeking Alpha published this blog in January 2011.

I was also fortunate to be recommended by such noted bloggers as Larry Macdonald, Ram Balakrishnan the Canadian Capitalist, Jim Yih of the Retire Happy blog, Michael James and Mike Holman of Money-Smarts. In addition, Jim was kind enough to provide some initial guidance and Tom Drake of the Canadian Finance Blog and Money Index provided some savvy technical advice. None of these bloggers needed to consider my blog or help me in any way, but they did and I appreciate it.

In addition, the Globe and Mail has also contributed immensely to the growth of my blog. Rob Carrick has mentioned me numerous times in The Reader and Dianne Nice and Roma Luciw have been kind enough to feature me in their columns. I would like to thank all of them for being receptive and willing to listen to some of my ideas.

Finally, I am flattered to have been asked to write guest blogs for Jim, Ram and Boomer and Echo.

Since several of my blog topics are income tax related, the blogs can sometimes be somewhat complex. I have attempted to simplify these topics and explain in non-technical terms where possible, and I hope I have made some of these more complex topics understandable to my readers.

I also strive to write original pieces where possible. Although very few topics are original to financial bloggers, I always write my blogs first, and then check to see what was written previously. In this way I at least sprinkle my blogs with some originality. I have received a few emails complementing me on the original nature of many of my blogs, which reinforces my desire to continue using my current technique. In addition, the Confessions of a Tax Accountant blogs that I posted during income tax season received some kudos for the originality of the concept.

I marvel at some of the aforementioned bloggers who blog three, four and five times a week. I don’t know where they find the time, let alone the constant flow of ideas to write so many blogs. I have settled on generally posting two blogs a week. I do however, have some concern that the income tax blogs have a finite topic list. I also wonder how long I can continue to come up with something useful to say on money, the psychology of money, families and estates and business, all of which I find more enjoyable to write about than income tax.

So as my first year of blogging comes to an end, I would like to once again thank all the people I have noted above, my marketing manager Lisa, who reviews all my blogs and most importantly, my regular readers.

The blogs posted on The Blunt Bean Counter provide information of a general nature. These posts should not be considered specific advice; as each reader's personal financial situation is unique and fact specific. Please contact a professional advisor prior to implementing or acting upon any of the information contained in one of the blogs.

Estate Planning-Taking it to the Grave or leaving it all to your kids?

It is my observation from over 25 years of estate planning meetings, that people form four distinct groups:

(1) Those that will take their wealth to their grave.
(2) Those that will distribute their wealth only upon their death.
(3) Those that may not be able to afford their grave, as they give all to their children and
(4) The most common, the middle ground of the extremes.

Today, I discuss these four groups in a guest blog I have written for the Candian Capitalist titled "Estate Planning-Taking it to the Grave or leaving it all to your kids?" Here is the link to the blog.

I thank the Canadian Capitalist for the opportunity to guest post on his renowned blog.

Finally, I will have a follow-on blog on Wednesday this week.

The blogs posted on The Blunt Bean Counter provide information of a general nature. These posts should not be considered specific advice; as each reader's personal financial situation is unique and fact specific. Please contact a professional advisor prior to implementing or acting upon any of the information contained in one of the blogs.

Transferring the Family Cottage-There is no Panacea-Part 1

The final blog in my three part series on Executors; ”Is a Corporate Executor the Right Choice?" will be posted next week.

This week I am going to post links to a three part blog I wrote on transferring the family cottage, which the Canadian Capitalist has kindly posted. For anyone who does not know the Canadian Capitalist, it is one of the preeminent financial blogs in Canada.

The cottage blog series will be broken into three blogs. The first blog will discuss the historical nature of the income tax rules, while the second blog will discuss the income tax implications of transferring or gifting a cottage and finally in the third blog, I will discuss alternative income tax planning opportunities that may mitigate or defer income tax upon the transfer of a family cottage.

I hope you find the cottage series informative. I will post my week 8 Confessions of a Tax Accountant later in the week.

The blogs posted on The Blunt Bean Counter provide information of a general nature. These posts should not be considered specific advice; as each reader's personal financial situation is unique and fact specific. Please contact a professional advisor prior to implementing or acting upon any of the information contained in one of the blogs.

1000th Page Read- CRA Audit-Will I Be Selected

I started my blog in September 2010 figuring I needed to get with “social media” and because I like to write and usually have an opinion. My initial goals were to have someone other then my immediate family read the blog and maybe attract a corporate client or two over time.

This month two of my blogs registered over 1000 page reads which is a personal milestone. I know page reads are not unique reads (but that is all Blogger gives you) and for many bloggers 1,000 page reads may not mean much; but being slightly self indulgent, it means at least my objective of being read by more than my family is being achieved.

One of the reasons (beside the titillating subject matter) my blog CRA Audit-Will I Be Selected hit this milestone was the traffic directed to the blog by a notation by Ram Balakrishnan of the Canadian Capitalist in his weekly blog roundup.

I previously have had the opportunity to thank Larry MacDonald, Rob Carrick, Dianne Nice, Jim Yih and Michael James for their support of my blog, but by happenstance, I have not had that opportunity to thank Ram and wish to do so now.

As the Canadian Capitalist is amongst the most recognized financial blogs in Canada, it requires no introduction. However, I would like to note that besides Ram’s very practical and insightful blogs, you should read the comments and answers on the blog, as Ram’s answers are often as educational as the blog itself.

The blogs posted on The Blunt Bean Counter provide information of a general nature. These posts should not be considered specific advice; as each reader's personal financial situation is unique and fact specific. Please contact a professional advisor prior to implementing or acting upon any of the information contained in one of the blogs.