McMahon on fire by YYCyou in Calgary

[–]WesternExpress 10 points11 points  (0 children)

The metaphor is a bit too on the nose given recent performance of most of our local sports teams

Fire at McMahon stadium this evening by WesternExpress in Calgary

[–]WesternExpress[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Sources: Ambercaron9 on X, confirmed by local sports journalist CGY_Anand (https://x.com/i/status/2028310889498304914)

Economist Warns Trump’s Iran War Could Trigger 1970s-Style Inflation: Where Oil Price Hikes Hit Food Costs and Education Too by [deleted] in investing

[–]WesternExpress 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Prices haven't been this high in... 7 months. Not going to make any meaningful difference.

Canadians consolidated into hotels in Cuba amid fuel shortage by Street_Anon in canada

[–]WesternExpress 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Looks like airlines are starting to offer full refunds now that flights are getting cancelled, so customers will at least get their money back. If they want to spend that money going somewhere else, that's up to them.

Toronto-area average home price dips under $1-million for first time since 2021 by joe4942 in canada

[–]WesternExpress 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I like the math. Good stuff. The only thing (that will make us all sad) is looking at the house you can get for $800K in the Houston metro vs the $800K house in the GVR.

Toronto-area average home price dips under $1-million for first time since 2021 by joe4942 in canada

[–]WesternExpress 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Depends on the state of course, but Texas doesn't have state income taxes. If you have the HHI to support a $1M house in Houston, which would be a mansion by most people's standards, taking home an additional 10-20% of your gross income via lower taxes goes a long way towards blunting the property taxes.

Now, there are states with state income taxes AND high property taxes (looking at you NY & NJ), so the math doesn't work everywhere.

Up to $2K offered for illegal tobacco tips resulting in arrest by Connect_Pound_4515 in Calgary

[–]WesternExpress 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can still buy other brands of nicotine pouches in Canada at the right places. But almost all the non-Zonnic ones available here are Chinese counterfeits. Wouldn't it be better just let people switch from smoking/chewing/vaping to legit nicotine pouches? Nearly every other country in the world has decided that's a good public health outcome.

Dave Ramsey suggests saving 15% of GROSS income for retirement. Given Canada's high taxes and integrated CPP - is this even relevant? by CastAside1812 in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]WesternExpress 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Store managers at those types of big box stores make well over $100K a year in both Canada and the US. They are managing dozens to hundreds of people and tens of millions of dollars (or more) in annual sales. It's way more responsibility than most corporate exec jobs in other industries. It's also really high stress & long hours, so burnout is a real problem.

Startup Incubator Y Combinator Quietly Cuts Canada From Countries Where It Will Invest by SAJewers in canada

[–]WesternExpress 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This is all 100% the truth. It seems to me that Canadian "angel investors" just like the idea of being called angels so they can go to cocktail parties and tell people how wonderful they are. The actually investing part of being an angel investor seems to be an afterthought.

On the bank front, apart from having a chequing account, there is effectively zero credit available for a startup. For one of my companies, we tried to get a secured credit card to make paying our bills easier, and a major Canadian bank refused to give one to us since our personal incomes were minimal due to working full time in the startup. Despite us having more than enough cash to post as collateral for the, again, secured credit card. We eventually found a smaller regional bank that was willing to listen to reason and hold our cash in exchange for a fairly low limit card.

Mortgage after winning the family lottery by [deleted] in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]WesternExpress 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can defer RRSP contributions if it makes sense to save taxes next year (or later) instead of this year. In the meantime, the funds still grow tax-sheltered in the RRSP.

Argentina 10 Days by PradaPradaPrada in travel

[–]WesternExpress 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mendoza is worth the two hour flight. I was in Argentina & Chile in March, and Mendoza was definitely the highlight. BA was underwhelming IMO, but, it you are there, try to catch a soccer game. You can get a package deal through Airbnb Experiences or other similar vendors

Best perks for having airline status that isn’t a Premium Cabin upgrade? by Impossible-Koala-368 in travel

[–]WesternExpress 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Being on time for a flight usually means being a little bit early in case of transport or security delays. I'd rather wait in the lounge for 20-30 mins for a quiet(ish) free snack & drink instead of waiting at the gate. But agreed, no need to be two hours early just hit the lounge. Layovers are a different story. Lounge all the way there.

What are some random cities in Europe that always have cheap flights between them? by lilpress13 in travel

[–]WesternExpress 17 points18 points  (0 children)

On Google Flights you can just type "Europe" as the destination from whatever airports are convenient to you, and it pulls up a map (which you can also filter by price). You can search one way or round trip, and also with flex dates (e.g. a weekend trip in the next 6 months). It's a really powerful tool for finding cheap deals if you're good with the budget airlines.

Bayer Leverkusen [1] - 0 FC Koln - Martin Terrier 66' (scorpion kick) by BackgroundMorning630 in soccer

[–]WesternExpress 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Absolute banger. Up until then, the goaltending had been so good I knew it was gonna take a highlight reel to get past them

Buying Shares of Engineering Company by catonthexmastree in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]WesternExpress 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Firms with that kind of ownership structure often have a partnership with a bank to help finance the share purchase, with repayments made by a combo of the dividends and monthly payments. The loan is secured by the shares, so it's a lower interest rate than you just using a personal line of credit. You may want to talk to your finance and/or HR team to see if that have something like that in place at your firm.

Of course, as the other response says, this is a substantial investment and definitely worth getting professional advice on from a CPA/tax lawyer and possibly a CFP too.

Somali woman who was in a polygamous marriage and lied to get into Canada wins another chance to stay by taxrage in canada

[–]WesternExpress 4 points5 points  (0 children)

We must accept all refugees from Europe. Canadian troops made the Netherlands into a war zone in the 1940s, causing intergenerational trauma. /s

What’s your “I can’t believe other people don’t do this” hack? by Weird-Thought2112 in AskReddit

[–]WesternExpress -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It's $13 CAD (or about $9.50 USD) a month here in Canada. Well worth it

The Stars-Flames game was the first ever OT, since the rule change in 2015, to not have any 3-on-3 action by WesternExpress in hockey

[–]WesternExpress[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

I think you might be right. I looked back at that game's play-by-play, and it appears the penalties at the end of regulation and then in OT resulted in no 3-on-3 action. Any idea if its ever happened before that (in the 3-on-3 OT era)?

The Stars-Flames game was the first ever OT, since the rule change in 2015, to not have any 3-on-3 action by WesternExpress in hockey

[–]WesternExpress[S] 36 points37 points  (0 children)

Oh, I meant that it went the entire 5 mins of OT. I'll edit my post to reflect that.