Watch for the Valentine's Day scam that'll empty your wallet

We all know Valentine’s Day is a nonsense holiday, a venture in commercialism more egregious than even what Christmas has become by 2012.

Of course, it’s also a terrible punch in the gut for singles and widows each year, which is why this story is just that much nastier.

As if Valentine’s Day wasn’t rough enough, now the lonely have to watch out for scams designed to tug on both their heartstrings and purse strings.

And if you’re not careful, the prospect of romance might just leave you swindled this year.

Is your job application being swallowed up by tracking software?

Have you ever applied to a job online?

You might have – some 800,000 Canadians were without job at last check – and found that it’s a mystifying enterprise. Seven, eight times out of ten, you’d have to guess, an applicant spends an hour on his application, uploading résumés, filling out blank fields and writing a custom cover letter, only to send it off and that be that.

You click send, you never hear again.

Time and time again this has either happened to you or someone you know, and there’s a reason: most every company worth its salt these days uses an applicant-tracking software, which automatically sifts applications based on keywords and formatting.

Here’s how to ensure your job application doesn’t get lost in the tracking “black hole.”

Is there a better way to handle student loans?

Students and workers seeking retraining are borrowing extraordinary amounts of money through federal loan programs, potentially putting a huge burden on the backs of young people trying to kick start careers.

The government-issued loan program's costs to taxpayers, including provisions for interest relief for unemployed graduates and a default rate of more than one dollar in eight, is somewhere near the $20 billion mark, according to various estimates. 

Clearly, graduating in the weak job markets of 2012 is going to be challenging for a student carrying, say, $40,000 in debt.

Is there a better way? Well, things are certainly different in Australia, for instance.

A look at Super Bowl ticket prices through the years

The worst-kept secret in sports may revolve around Super Bowl tickets, which advertise a face value but usually sell for two, three, four times that figure.

This year, certainly, will be no different: tickets for Sunday’s game in Indianapolis technically cost between $800 to $1,200, but only a select number of fans get the chance to buy them for that.

Instead, provided you’re not a Colts season ticket holder, league sponsor or other VIP, your charge for going to the Super Bowl this year should came at an average clip somewhere between $2,800 and $3,623, according to new reports from StubHub and Ticket Exchange.

That’s a lot, but how does it stack up against prices from Super Bowl’s past?

Is there any difference between renting a condo or an apartment?

A lack of apartment building construction combined with a glut of new condo construction has given birth to a new kind of landlord who buys one or two condo units and rents them out, the Ottawa Citizen reports.

While rents may barely cover mortgage, tax and other expenses in certain markets, the hope is that the rental income evens things off bit until the unit increases in value.

Fair enough, but are you sure you want to be the one paying the rent? First off,  rents for condominium apartments are anywhere from 30% to 40% more than traditional rental apartment buildings -- in the GTA, at least.

You’ll likely get a newer (albeit smaller) unit and, in many cities, you’ll have better access to the downtown core. But tenants who rent a unit in a condominium complex and are used to the standard leases of traditional apartment buildings, may be in for a few surprises.

Facebook pays best in Silicon Valley: report

Employment at firms in Silicon Valley and other California locales are the stuff of legend.

If it’s not outrageous perks, like the lounge-style offices Google’s known for around the world, it’s an ultra secretive, privacy-obsessed business culture like the one that’s been reported at Apple.

But who pays the most?

We know that, for better or worse, California’s tech jobs are as coveted as they come, though which big name employers pay its employees best?

Is it right to deny asylum seekers access to legal aid?

Mimicking a similar exodus from the Czech Republic a couple of years ago, Canada has been witnessing a sharp spike in applications for refugee status from Hungarian Roma families visiting Canada.

Until recently, legal aid used to regularly approve funding of around $3,000 to Roma claimants to hire lawyers to argue their cases at the Immigration and Refugee Board.

But, according to one immigration lawyer, that’s no longer the case. And he thinks that’s more than unfair.

The issue of Roma asylum seekers has become contentious in recent years, particularly after Immigration Minister Jason Kenney chose to label many of the claims "bogus", leading to a threat of class action suit from various Roma asylum seekers.

Charity donations picked up in 2011: report

If you’re like me, who’s tasked with scouring financial headlines and articles all day, you really have no idea what shape the economy is in.

Well, you see the news. You know. Every story contradicts; one step forward, two steps back, another ahead to bring things even.

So what I’ve found is, since the recession’s outset in 2008, it takes a story that makes layman’s sense to put the economy in perspective.

Like this one: if you want proof things repaired last year, consider that people gave more to charity in 2011 than they did in 2010.

Why it's so tough to be a decent investor

How investors go about making decisions when the going gets rough can have long-lasting implications, especially with bias and emotion working overtime.

The field of behavioural finance has shown that most of us can’t be counted on to take the most logical, rational route when it comes to money.

We’re overconfident and short-sighted. We tend to overreact to information, sell too soon and hold on to losers too long. The list goes on and on.

Lower-income workers should join workplace pension plans: report

Economists frequently assume that employees “pay for” employer-provided fringe benefits, such as contributions to retirement plans, in the form of reduced wages.

Wages and fringe benefits are generally perfect substitutes, so that an additional dollar of wages should substitute for an additional dollar of fringe benefits and vice versa.

But that's not necessarily true, says tax analyst Eric Toder in a recent brief.