Is a university education really worth all that money?

Unless they live in Quebec, few people will tell you that they were surprised at the cost of getting a degree. The root of of their subsequent dissatisfaction is that the investment didn’t deliver as promised and that they may have wasted their money.

Wealthy entrepreneur Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal, agrees. In fact, he's convinced that university simply isn't worth the cost anymore. That's why he's encouraging high-performing students to drop out to become entrepreneurs.

But critics maintain that Thiel's program, "The 20 Under 20 Fellowship," which pays $100,000 each to at least 20 students each year, is an elitist ploy that foolishly encourages promising students to drop out before they're ready to put their ideas to work.

"While you might get lucky with that startup, the law of averages says that if you don’t go to college, you’ll probably end up significantly poorer, counters Stanford prof Vivek Wadhwa. 

More importantly, the average earning power of college graduates has climbed steadily while the average earning power of those without college degrees has dropped precipitously, he adds.

If you found cash, would you take it or turn it in?

Good Samaritans come in all shapes and sizes, but may primarily fit into two groups: those that’ll do the right thing in public, and those that’ll do so when no one’s looking.

For instance, you may be likely to hold a door or help a senior cross the street, but what if you found, say, a bunch of cash and nobody was around to see?

Would you take it and run? Would you turn it in? What would you do?

Two recent cases out of the U.S. show the consequences of both making off and making nice with found money.

Is the high cost of living alone worth the price?

The percentage of North Americans living by themselves has doubled since 1960, so much so that roughly 28% of all households now consist of just one person -- the highest level in history.

Is this a natural state? Absolutely, maintains sociology professor Eric Klinenberg, in his book Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone. In fact, people will live alone whenever and wherever they can afford to do it, he insists. 

The proof is what comes out of their pockets, since 'singletons' willingly pay a premium for the privilege of living alone. Loosely put, the cost of living is the square root of the number of people living together. So if you live with someone else, whether they're a roommate or a significant other, you’ll pay about 70% of what you would pay if you were living alone.

But the money doesn't matter for most people, Klinenberg believes. It's simply the cost of freedom. Living alone comports promotes freedom, personal control and self-realization — all prized aspects of contemporary life.

American CEOs earn plenty more than their Cdn. counterparts

You might think CEOs are all part of the same posh fraternity, but in fact the pay scale for chief execs differs greatly between nations.

In Canada, for instance, CEOs are festooned with riches – the average compensation among the top 100 paid chief execs equals 189 times what the typical Canadian earns each year – but how does pay stack up with top businessmen and women south of the border?

Compensation data out of the U.S. was released today, and on average terms, pay discrepancies between Canadian and American CEOs may not strike you.

But work up the list to the highest-paid execs in the U.S., and Canada’s richest CEOs start to look like a bunch of rags.

Even Mark Zuckerberg is selling off Facebook stock

Here were the words of one top money man last week regarding Facebook stock:

“This baby’s got legs!”

I was speaking with the investor, who I’ll allow to remain nameless in light of how his prediction's turned out, ahead of the social network’s IPO, when speculators seemed to be split in two camps: 1) Facebook doesn’t earn; stay away, and 2) Anything with 900 million-plus users can’t possibly flop; get in while it’s still cheap.

In four days of trading, Facebook certainly hasn’t shown it has legs, and today a tough harbinger has hit the company. Even Mark Zuckerberg is selling.

Car insurance cheaper for electric vehicles: report

In a perfect world, we would all drive electric cars, stopping in the nations Essos and Petro-Canadas for chips and chips alone.

But certainly our gas station needs are entirely pricier than just the cost of snacks, and a large part of that is because many Canadians can’t afford an electric car.

At a new tag falling in the range of $40,000, electric cars have undeniable benefits but simply cost too much for the average driver. In addition to the savings on fuel, more’s gotta give before Canadians en masse will get behind the wheel of an electric.

Could this help push the issue? According to new figures, auto insurance costs less for drivers of electric cars.

EI reform: No more sitting around on pogey when there’s work to do

The debate over proposed changes to the $22-billion employment insurance system – which could force people to move to where the jobs are and penalize repeat claimants – isn't going away.

Canadians won't know exactly what the government has in mind until new regulations on defining "suitable employment" are unveiled in the next few months. But critics say it's high time the rules were cleaned up.

"We need EI reform to end the shameful damage it has caused in many communities, particularly throughout eastern Quebec and Atlantic Canada," says Brian Lee Crowley, managing director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

Once a Halifax restaurant owner, Crowley thinks way too many people are gaming the system.

Just what you should keep/return after a breakup?

Breaking up is never easy, but now at least you can turn that heartbreak into a bit of cash.

Thanks to Neverlikeditanyway, the brokenhearted can sell those no-longer-wanted sentimental gifts from significant others to willing buyers who don't have that same attachment.

Users simply upload an image of the item they're looking to sell, write up a description and then set a "break-up price" lower, one assumes, than what it would be worth in the real world.

Is getting rid of everything in a huff much needed catharsis or simply bad karma? You decide.

Facebook IPO to make 1,000 new millionaires

By the time you read this, Facebook is now public, which means for about $38, you can own 1/421,000,000 of the company that’s gone for sale today.

Certainly all eyes are on the social network’s Wall Street performance. All investors – and the chance to buy into Facebook is sure to bring out even grandpas and soccer moms – are now playing the waiting game: when to buy in, and at what price, for us to get rich?

It may be a long shot (Facebook’s earnings dilemma has scared off its share of money managers) but simply by going public today, Mark Zuckerberg’s site has made plenty of people a fortune.

Already, an estimated 1,000 people have become new millionaires thanks to Facebook’s IPO.

Giving cancer survivors a much needed vacation

Everyone needs to get away now and then. But for cancer survivors, having a cottage holiday can mean much more than just a break from the daily grind.

Thanks to the generous donations of Ontario cottage owners, Cottage Dreams sees that empty cottages are made available to recent cancer survivors — giving their families time away to recover, reconnect and rebuild their lives in a natural setting following their treatment.

Working with cottagers across Ontario for the past eight years, sponsor Seana O’Neill has developed a system where cottages are donated to the program based on the cottage owner’s schedules and preferences.

Cottage owners donate their cottages for a one-week period from June to December. The recipients arrive at 2 p.m. Sundays and stay until noon on Fridays.