As I’ve been pretty sick this week there haven’t been as many posts as normal, I apologize for that! Here are some of the better posts from around the finance blogosphere this week:

JD from Get Rich Slowly gives advice for the late bloomers who haven’t started saving early.

Frugal Trader from Million Dollar Journey discusses financing property for new investors.

All Financial Matters lists five things he wants his kids to learn from him and his wife about money.

Finally, thanks to Money Ning for including The Penny Mine in this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance #147

Have a great weekend everybody! I hope I’ll be healthy again on Monday!

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I feel old when I say this, but “back in the day” (when I was about 5) the only people who expected to be tipped were taxi drivers, waiters/waitresses and hairdressers. I guess hotel busboys too, but we never used them when I was growing up. But now it seems as though every other industry is trying to stick their hand in the proverbial jar. The pizza place next to where I work offers a tip section on their receipts, even though I walk in, I order my pizza and I come back in 15 minutes. Is that so deserving of some cash for the extra effort they put in? What happened to people accepting their salary? This one I at least attributed to the fact that it may be a system in place for delivery drivers.

Last night though, I went to the Booster Juice in the local mall and paid debit, and it asked me if I wanted to leave a tip. I’m already paying $3 for my snack size drink, so no, I do not want to leave a tip. This is why workers are paid a wage: to do their jobs.

I really don’t understand when the mentality became that not only should we be paying for a product, but we should tip virtually every worker we come across. It’s up to the business owner to pay them a fair wage which renders them good workers.  That cost should be included in the price; I shouldn’t be expected to tip them another couple of bucks!

I by all means support workers being paid a fair wage. I’m pleased when the minimum wage is increased and I always tip well when I have been rendered a good service (generally 25% or so at restaurants and hairdressers), but I don’t believe as consumers we should be guilt tripped into tipping absolutely every worker we come across.

Maybe I’ve just been ignorant, but I’ve seen more and more companies trying to guilt me into tipping. Why can’t we be like the countries on other continents, where they don’t have tipping at all? I’d be glared at less by some poor kid who’s unhappy that I’m not going to pad his salary as he makes my smoothie.

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As I plan my upcoming move across the world to be with my fiancee in Australia, I do have some things to research. One of those things is banking. As I’ve written in the past, I think not using a cash back credit card is a waste of money, so I decided I was going to see what Australia offered before I actually arrive in the country.

So, this morning, I looked at the website of one of Australia’s big 4 banks, St. George. I go to their credit card selector, where I’m given three options: reward cards, no annual fee and low interest rate cards. Naturally, I pick the first one.

However, this is the text I was faced with:

Choosing the right credit card

A card with rewards

Think Again!

Reward schemes generally offer the promise of future benefits for a higher up-front cost.

To earn a $100 gift voucher on an average rewards card it would cost you over $16,000 in purchases*.

For this reason, St.George Bank does not offer a rewards scheme, but prefers to provide a range of low rate credit cards.

See our range of Low Rate Credit Cards.

I was stunned! I could believe it if they told me “we don’t offer rewards cards at this time”, but to tell me to “think again” about my choice and that I should go with a low rate card?? I pay my balances off every month, I couldn’t care less what my interest rate is. Working for the bank I do now, I could have gotten a card at about 5% interest, but decided to get the cash back card at the full rate.

Whoever decided to basically call the people who want a rewards card financial idiots was absolutely beyond me. Whoever came up with that text, as well as everyone involved in the approval process should never be allowed to work in any sort of marketing job again, ever. (Alright, so I don’t mean that, I’m just absolutely shocked that they would actually write that on their website!)

Just because of that I can guarantee that I will never be a customer of St. George bank when I move to Australia. I know it’s stupid and I know it’s petty, but the fact that they told me to “think again” because I want a rewards card just does not stick well with me at all. That’s not the type of bank I want to deal with.

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With the weekend approaching, I thought I would leave you all with some of the highlights of the personal finance blogosphere for the week:

Frugal Trader from Million Dollar Journey lets us know that Questrade has improved its commission strcuture (for Canadian investors).

David from Money Ning appeals to the human reasons for buying a home.

Money Smart Life reminisces on traveling to Europe when the US dollar was more valuable.

JD from Get Rich Slowly gives us some tips from Erin Burt about getting over our fears of investing.

And finally, thanks to Blain from Stock Trading to Go for including The Penny Mine in this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance.

Have a great weekend everybody!

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One of the problems which can cause even the most fiscally responsible people years of trouble is identity theft. This problem has been on the rise in North America for years, and is something that we should all be taking as many steps as possible to avoid. Having your information discovered by even one wrong person can be devastating. There are some things you can do to reduce your risk of being a victim.

1. Don’t give out your personal information to just anybody. Your SSN (or SIN in Canada) is something that you should keep as private as possible. If a website requires that you enter it, make sure that you know what the information will be used for. If they list it as being optional, do not give it to them. The same applies for telephone conversation as well as real life meetings. If you don’t have to give it out, don’t.
2. Watch for phishing. Phishing occurs when somebody sends you an e-mail asking you pretending to be a service you use (for example your bank) asking you to click a link to verify your personal information. NEVER do this. The website is a sham, and they will steal your personal information by doing this. Never click important links through e-mail. Navigate directly to the website if you need to access the service.
3. Shred documents with your personal information on it, such as credit card bills. Trash diggers do exist, and you don’t want that information to be available for them to find. Always shred any information which is personal before throwing it in the garbage.
4. Take care when entering your PIN and using your credit card. Criminals have started using cell phones to take pictures of credit cards, so try to hide the information on your card. The same advice goes when entering your PIN number: cover the pad with one hand and hold the machine close to your body to reduce the view anybody around you may get.
5. Look at your statements closely. Make sure there are no charges you haven’t made, and if there are alert the appropriate bodies immediately. Your bank or credit card’s customer service lines will be most able to help you if they’re aware as fast as possible of strange charges.

While there are a huge number of things you can do to help protect your identity, these are the basics. If you do not do any or all of these things, by all means start doing so now. It could protect you from years, or even a lifetime, of stress and trouble. Protect your identity at all times by all means necessary.

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A big thank you to Frugal Trader from Million Dollar Journey for hosting this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance. This Baby Education Edition featured the post from The Penny Mine “Teaching Kids the Importance of a Dollar“. I encourage everybody to read as many of the articles from the carnival as they can: I’ve only just begun and am overwhelmed by the quality of the posts and the information contained within.

Great work to everybody involved!

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