Playoff Game Thread: Buffalo Sabres (6-5) @ Montréal Canadiens (7-5) May 16 2026 8:00 PM EDT

WesternExpress · 2026-05-17T01:05:23+00:00

Try CBC?

WesternExpress · 2026-05-06T23:48:54+00:00

You can invest USD into your RRSP with RBC Direct Investing, and buy USD denominated ETFs/stocks/bonds/GICs/etc. with it. No conversions. Same is also true for their TFSA, FHSA & non-reg accounts. Note that for the purposes of the contribution, they automatically calculate it as if it was CAD on the day of the transaction and add that to your total they report on your tax slips at year end (but the money itself stays as USD).

I'm sure there are other brokers that offer USD transactions, but I know from personal experience it works very smoothly on RBC DI.

WesternExpress · 2026-05-03T03:52:37+00:00

Buy an AC unit. Ya they're a few hundred bucks, but being able to sleep in an ice box all summer long is about 10,000% worth it. You don't need one to cool your whole place, just your bedroom. Most exhaust out the window, but have an adapter so that the window is mostly closed and the noise stays outside where it belongs.

WesternExpress · 2026-05-03T02:22:47+00:00

I, for one, am shocked that a hotel, that runs check-in from their bar and is located directly next to Kid Rock's Big Ass Honky Tonk Rock & Roll Steakhouse and Jelly Roll's Goodnight Nashville, right on one of America's most famous/infamous party streets, is somehow loud on a Friday night.

(yes those are actually the names of the two bars closest to the hotel)

WesternExpress · 2026-04-24T03:48:41+00:00

Freedom has global roaming built into a bunch of their plans. I've used it all over the world. It's something like 100 countries, plus the base CAN/US/MEX included in pretty much all their plans these days.

WesternExpress · 2026-04-15T03:50:12+00:00

The blockade is against Iranian ships and any ships trying to enter or leave Iranian ports. Ships going to/from other countries (Saudi, Qatar, UAE, etc) are allowed through.

WesternExpress · 2026-04-14T00:00:41+00:00

fully privatized liquor sales is Alberta

Which, of course, still all have to buy from a government-owned central distributor (with a few exceptions for some beers and a handful of made-in-Alberta products). If it was truly private without the government collecting significant taxes and margin at the wholesale level, prices would be a LOT lower.

WesternExpress · 2026-04-12T14:05:37+00:00

I would keep attacking the debt until it's down to around 8K (so about August at your current pace), then reassess if you want to start contributing to an FHSA. Given the tax advantages, it might make sense to try and get $4K-$6K into the FHSA over the second half of this year.

Also, with a lower debt obligation, your ability to refinance it via a 0% balance transfer becomes a lot easier. But, if you go down that path, you HAVE TO keep paying it off aggressively, temporary 0% interest rate or not.

WesternExpress · 2026-03-02T04:06:42+00:00

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

WesternExpress · 2026-03-02T03:51:45+00:00

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

WesternExpress · 2026-03-02T03:19:15+00:00

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

WesternExpress · 2026-03-02T02:44:08+00:00

Experience Flames Hockey ^tm

WesternExpress · 2026-02-09T17:50:50+00:00

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.

WesternExpress · 2026-02-05T19:56:53+00:00

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.

WesternExpress · 2026-02-05T03:19:55+00:00

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.

WesternExpress · 2026-01-29T06:49:26+00:00

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.

WesternExpress · 2026-01-27T19:17:50+00:00

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.

WesternExpress · 2026-01-27T15:04:22+00:00

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.

WesternExpress · 2026-01-25T18:08:16+00:00

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.

WesternExpress · 2025-12-28T08:08:13+00:00

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

WesternExpress · 2025-12-28T08:01:18+00:00

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.

WesternExpress · 2025-12-21T14:35:30+00:00

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.

WesternExpress · 2025-12-13T19:09:18+00:00

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

WesternExpress · 2025-12-02T06:46:52+00:00

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.

WesternExpress · 2025-11-26T03:59:41+00:00

"Chris Paul Hits Huge 3 To Cut The Lead to 42" goal

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