Yikes!  I'm a money coach ... and my receipt bin/filing is overflowing.  I've declared the month of august as Official Procrastination month .... and it's over, now!  If you are procrastinating something, care to join me in a Get Started On It, week?  Post your  plan!

You and I think of MySpace and Facebook as the place we keep in contact with people. But behind the scenes, make no mistake, these are business enterprises. Will Facebook put MySpace out of business? They may be catching up, but they’ve got a long ways to go.

MySpace has a unique audience of 61 million; Facebook 19.5 million. Each visitor spent nearly 3 hours on MySpace, but only barely an hour on Facebook.

A money coach always loves a deal, and here's one:

this Sat. (Aug 18th) from 9am - noon you can get into the PNE for free.  Of course, the Workspace crowd is probably going to be at barcamp (in fact, so will I!) but thought I'd pass on the intel.

Here's a great way to enjoy the last month of summer without busting the bank:  Festival Vancouver has classical and jazz concerts all over the place, including free lunch hour concerts next week, in front of the VAG.  Tues Aug 7, Wed, Aug 8, Thur., Aug 9.  I went last year - iced latte and a lite lunch - awesome experience.

Hey, Dane, came for one of your Dane's-Best-Latte-In-Vancouvers, and discovered it's your birthday!  Best, best wishes!-nancy

Now here's some really fun economic gossip!

1.  Turns out Rogers Canada (owned in large part by AT&T) charges Canadians about 6 (six!) times the price for wireless data than AT&T charges their US customers.   Canada: $299/month.   US: $63/month.   There's an online petition to Rogers if you care to protest.


2.  And on the tech theme,  Google just bought Postini Inc.   What's postini? It provides security for e-mail.   This means gmail will become even more popular.  Google's stock price rose by $3.16US, while Microsoft fell by 10¢.

It being Canada day and all, thought I'd investigate how our tax dollars, that make Canada, Canada, get spent.  Here's the breakdown:
$0.15 - interest on the debt (pays our Canada Savings Bonds interest, for example)

There you have it. Note that some of the things we love to hate, social assistance and employment insurance, were only about $0.06 cents of the dollar, whereas old age security is actually the largest single item after interest on the debt.Now we know!

any opinions out there?  I just learned about Mozilla Thunderbird.    Don't totally get it, but wondering how it compares to gmail.  Any insights?

I'm a money coach, and help people handle the day-to-day aspects of managing their money (to avoid our money managing us!).   A local psychologist, Isabella Mori just submitted this great piece for my e-zine, Money Savvy, on what happens when we lend money to our friends.
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Lending, borrowing and resentment

In the eighties, I lived in crazy, bohemian Berlin – then West Berlin, eight years before the fall of the wall.  I hung out with all types of interesting people, one of them a highly gifted fashion designer, Maurice.  He had a little boutique with his beautiful, ethereal creations in the window.  I loved visiting with him, drinking tea, hearing his stories of years of apprenticeship in Paris. 

You’re a debt-phobe, he’s got ten credit cards maxed out.
You’re a saver, she’s a spender.
You think life is to be lived, he thinks the cheap bottle of wine is just fine.

What do you do when you and your partner have strong differences around money?
This is a tough issue, and it can take years to create a financial M.O. that both parties can live with.

Here are some ways to start working as a team.

1. Take heart. Different ways of handling money can lead to a stronger economic unit than two people who have similar vulnerabilities. Differences usually include different strengths. Forging an M.O. based on differing strengths can ultimately be more successful than two spendthrifts who get along well, as they sink financially.