Investing in our future...
As a couple in our 40s, we are not getting any younger and the bygone 16-hour work days would not be the future that we'll want to look forward to. We want to retire. We want to travel more. We want to go to fine restaurants and review them more often. We want to get named brand luggage. There has to be a better way of managing our time and efforts. One way is to look at the possibility of global futures and forex trading as viable investments. Our current investments have low futures/forex strategies in them because we needed to still be educated further with it. We found Global Futures Exchange & Trading Co., Inc. as a good starting point as one can invest with as little as $250! That's quite reasonable and especially good for those with low investment chaos tolerance. It's worth a try, eh?
This was a slight pause from our regularly scheduled reviews to bring you an announcement from our sponsors.
How confusing is it when a store opens and closes within a period of 3 months only to find out that 2 other stores of the same brand are within a three block radius of this erring store with the 2nd store also erring in their way? Nope, its not 
The store on Yonge and Isabella changed from UPS to Backoffice back to UPS. During this period a store on Bay decides that they don't ship package but receives them (weird, I know) and forwards clients to the Yorkville branch. We know, we've personally experienced being told by the Bay branch to walk another couple of blocks to ship our mail to Ottawa (its not even out of the country!). There's another branch opening in the same area. Are these people confused with their business model? If one is to take the UPS franchise, which we were told is about CDN$200k, wouldn't you take stock in your business model? Really now. If franchisor's hearts are not in the business, then just not do it. Customers suffer in the process and the stores get blogged about. It's not good press and not good corporate management overseeing their franchises (are they even?). A shout out to UPS, maybe its time to do an audit. 
Personal banking is an interesting industry because people go where they feel comfortable leaving their money. We knew of great finance guy at Church and Wellesley and when he moved to the Carlton branch, we could not help but move as well because we felt the service has become generic and more fast food than when when he was there. Anyone who does banking want to have a relationship with the person who holds their money. Why go to a bank that makes you feel generic? A simple hello isn't enough anymore, there has to be more. Not necessarily just more chats because that could just be viewed as some cheap way to lure you into giving them more of your money but a genuine care for you and how you manage your finances. Even a cashier would be able to engage such a relationship in how s/he would welcome you to her booth rather than just screaming "NEXT CLIENT!" There are inexplicable expressions and gestures that convey connectedness with clients and unfortunately when the manager and two individuals left this Church and Wellesley branch, we felt compelled to leave as well.
