Our Favourite Links: Why the Economy Isn't Relevant to Investing, Investing for Growth, Investing in Hot Spots, and More

Why the Economy is Not Relevant to Investing

When Ed Rempel over at Million Dollar Journey says that the economy is not relevant to investing, your first reaction is likely to be "Whaaaaat?" But take a minute to read his explanation: you can't use the economy to predict the stock market. And investors who try to use it to predict the market tend to buy and sell at exactly the wrong times. Check it out. It's an interesting read.

Never Hire a Real Estate Agent to Rent your Property

I wish I'd read this article over at Landlord Rescue before I hired a real estate agent to find me tenants for my house in Montreal when I moved to Edmonton for two years. It might have saved me more than $4,000 I had to spend on Rental Board applications, bailiffs, and other legal fees to remove the tenants he found for me - who paid one month's rent and never paid another cent. Real estate agents hate handling rental properties, apparently. You should hire a specialist in residential renting, he says, and explains why.

Investing for Growth

Personal finance guru Gail Vaz Oxlade has written a very tidy explanation of what to look for when shopping for stocks that will outpace other companies in earnings. She gets into it in some detail, explaining such things as projected earnings growth ratio and what range you want that ratio to fall in. It's a good place to start reading if you're thinking from jumping from mutual funds into stock investing.

How Credit Card Companies Make Their Money

If you're one of the folks who always pay their credit card bills on time and wonder how credit card companies make money, the folks over at Financial Highway have published a wonderful infographic that demonstrates how they do - on purchases you made before paying your bill on time.

10 Fun Careers to Start From Home

If you're creative (and even if you're not) you might want to scoot on over to Women on the Web, where Lisa Kanarek, one of their Sheconomics experts, has put together a lovely slideshow about fun careers you can start from home.

Finding Property Hot Spots

Real estate can be a tempting investment, but actually making money on it takes strategic planning. A guest blogger over at Canadian Dream: Free at 45 tells us how to find property hot spots.

The Economics of Fat-Burning

Unless you're an athlete looking to increase performance, you might want to skip that bowl of cereal before heading to the gym in the morning. If you do, you'll burn more fat, the folks over at Captivate explain.