October 7th is not just a night out at the Museum. It’s stepping into a portal that takes you to a glamorous time when men were men and women were women; when a night out at a fabulous cocktail party meant intrigue, excitement, and the possibility of meeting a charming stranger; where one look across a room full of beautiful faces changes the course of your life forever. A night that could be the first night of the rest of your life. It’s The Arnold Party.

You can win 25,000 Aeroplan Miles by purchasing your ticket. For tickets, click here.

Doors for The Arnold Party open at 8:30 pm

To get your fill of 1960s nostalgia (videos, photos, contests, trivia), follow D.D. on Twitter - @TheArnoldParty.

The Stills, Lily Frost, The Midway State, and Paper Lions all rocked the stage at Lexus Live, and gave everyone a reason to stand up, sing and dance.

But the main attraction was Lexus’ brand new CT 200h. The CT 200h is fun to drive, dynamic, sporty, versatile, and is equipped with emotional engineering. It’s beautifully finished and comes with an impressive array of standard luxury, convenience, and safety features. The perfect car to navigate through the city on your very busy days.

And it’s a hybrid, so you can help out the environment at the same time.

Lexus’ website has a bunch of cool videos presenting the CT 200h. You can check them out here.

Notable had exclusive coverage of the event. Check out our photo gallery to view all the action.

Peter Kinch is one of Canada’s best selling real estate authors. You may know him from his titles 97 Tips for Real Estate Investing in Canada and the recently released Canadian Real Estate Action Plan.

Check all of Peter Kinch’s Mortgage Minutes here.

The bottom line in this video is ‘Watch for the direction the headlines go leading up to the Bank of Canada decision on Sept. 8^th.’

Headlines are still negative but long-term fixed rates are still heading down – this all indicates that the BOC will likely stand pat and not raise rates on Sept. 8^th.

Peter is also the author of The Canadian Real Estate Action Plan: Proven Investment Strategies to Kick Start and Build Your Portfolio. You can get your copy at Amazon.

Dear Marc:

I bought an older home which I plan to fix up myself. I have a door in my kitchen which leads to my basement. This door is located in the dead centre of my kitchen so it looks kind of funny. I have cabinetry that starts and ends on both sides of the door. Any suggestions how I can get rid of my eye sore?

Marla

Dear Marla:

I love the character of an older home but they do come with a few minor dilemmas that are not present in newly built homes. Many years ago, the basement was an important part of preparing a meal as homeowners used these spaces as storage. Kitchens were smaller back then and kitchen pantries weren’t the sizes they are today. In modern homes, we have eliminated the need to run downstairs to grab ingredients as we have larger kitchens and much larger pantries. Oh and let’s face it, who’s making their own bread anymore, so a lot of extra storage which was needed back then is no longer necessary!

Eliminating or changing the location of these doors would be a big and very expensive endeavour. Therefore, why not trick the eye instead. If we can’t get rid of something on our tight budget, let’s face it and camouflage it! The best way to camouflage those pesky doors in the kitchen is to paint them the same colour as the wall colour. The trick is to paint the casing the same colour as well so as not to accent or draw attention to our unpleasant design feature.

To start your design project, you will need the following; old newspaper, sand paper, a metal scraper, primer, paint (same colour as your wall paint), and a paint brush. All these supplies are available at your local paint or hardware store. If you are an avid do-it-yourselfer, these supplies are most likely part of your “common household items”.

Firstly, you’ll want to sand the door. Each paint project starts with proper prepping. Why are you wasting time sanding you ask? The answer is very simple, if the area is not properly sanded, the new paint will not stick thus it will peel. If the door has paint that is peeling, while sanding the door use the metal scraper to remove the excess dry paint.

Once you have completely sanded the door, door frame and casing, take out the old newspaper. Lay the newspaper down on the floor under the door you are about to paint so that paint will not drip on the floor during the painting process. Include multiple layers of newspaper as paint will seep through the paper. Be sure not to lay down the newspaper where you are reading these instructions as the next part could get complicated. Once the newspaper has been set in place, now comes the fun part. Pry open your paint can of primer. With the use of your paint brush, apply the primer in a linear up and down fashion. Be sure to cover every crevice and crack.

Once the primer is applied, leave it sit till the paint completely dries. Once the primer is dry, you will want to apply the first coat of paint. Apply the paint colour in the same linear up and down fashion as you did with the primer. Be sure to also paint the door casing and frame the same colour. Everything has to be the same colour for this camouflaging effect to work. Once the first coat of paint is finished and dry, apply a second coat of paint to finalize your design project.

In design, it’s not always what is present in the room but rather what the eye sees in the room.

On this episode we introduce branding guru Axle Davids, founder and CEO of Distility Branding.  The author of ‘Brand Scammed’ talks about the deep passion and commitment it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.

Listen here.

Born in Oxford, England and raised in Toronto, Axle Davids, founder of Distility Branding, is a visionary brand developer and pioneering brand technologist. In 2001, he established aXle Branding, which focused on branding and design for industry innovators like AutoShare Car Sharing Network, AT&T Mobility and Applied Biosystems. This venture has since evolved into Distility Branding, a company that is forging a new path with its innovative systems and unique approach to brand building through the ultimate collective experience.

The BusinessCast Entrepreneurs Podcast is an iTunes-featured podcast developed to help entrepreneurs of small and medium-sized businesses – across all industries – address their strategic and day-to-day business issues.

It is Canada’s #1 source of compelling and engaging stories as told by daring entrepreneurs, thought-leaders, business innovators, and media insiders. Featuring intimate and lively recorded conversations, each BusinessCast episode sheds light on the struggles faced by today’s business trailblazers – and their incredible victories.

The BusinessCast podcast is created and produced by: 1) Robert Gold the Managing Partner of Toronto-based Bennett Gold LLP, Chartered Accountants, and 2) President of the business communications consulting firm, Write On The Money, Andrew Brown.

See Notable’s archive of the BusinessCast here.

On the brighter side, there are some ways to make healthier choices and still enjoy the convenience of fast food.

A big step in choosing healthier options when dining out is to plan ahead. Most, if not all, chain restaurants now have their menus posted on-line, and many of these chains have their nutritional values as well. Although sometimes the fun of dining out is to treat yourself and not care about how many calories and fat you’re enjoying, it is beneficial to know what’s in your food before you eat it.  Sometimes it’s the littlest changes you can make that go a long way.

Some tips for eating healthier while dining out:

Pay attention to the menu descriptions – Avoid anything labeled fried, battered, creamy, Alfredo, or crispy, as these are usually high in calories and hold a high amount of unhealthy fats.

Watch what you drink – Order water with your meal rather than soda, as a large soft drink can pack around 275 calories and 75 grams of sugar!

Don’t dress your food – Salad dressings, spreads, and sauces can add an enormous amount of unwanted calories, fat and sodium to your meal. Instead, ask for your meal without the sauce or dressing, or get it on the side.  That way, you can control how much and what condiments are going on your food.

Keep portion sizes under control – Stay far away from using the term “super size,” as at a typical restaurant, a single serving provides enough for two whole means. Take half of your meal home or share it with your co-worker.

Steer clear of these fast food options:

McDonald’s Double Big Mac – 700 calories, 40g of fat, (17 g of saturated fat), 1520 mg of sodium, and fries – 560 calories, 27g of fat

Wendy’s Triple Baconator – 1350 calories, 90g of fat, (40g of saturated fat), 2780 mg of sodium

Slice of a Large Pizza Hut’s Pepperoni Lover’s Pizza with Stuffed Crust – 440 calories, 21g of fat, (10g of saturated fat), 1350 mg of sodium

Taco Bell Burrito – 800 Calories, 43g of fat, (12g of saturated fat), 1850 mg of sodium

Dairy Queen’s Large Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Blizzard – 1230 calories, 45g of fat, (30g of saturated fat), 1290 mg of sodium

If your favourite restaurant’s nutritional values aren’t listed on their websites, there are several other sites you can check out to calculate your meals ahead of time.  Some of my favourites are:

www.thecaloriecounter.com/

www.thedailyplate.com/

Keep On Shining!

Because of the Internet, privacy isn’t what it used to be. With every Tweet, update, photo upload, etc., users are putting all of their information out there into the world, and most likely will never be able to take it back. That means that every embarrassing photo, every politically charged status, and everything you’ve ever written will be accessible to internet users worldwide for all eternity. Theoretically.

The fastest and easiest way to get at someone’s information is, of course, to Google them. All the work is done for you. Anything you could ever want to know about someone is all right there, presented in order of relevance and popularity. Information couldn’t get more readily available.

But what happens if in a few years from now, you want to escape your past. You’re applying for a high level job or running for office, and all of a sudden that blog about George Clooney you wrote in your early twenties no longer lends itself to respectability.

According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, you might just have to change your name. Schmidt told The Wall Street Journal, “I don’t believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time.” He said every young person should one day be entitled to change their name in order to disown their youthful online indiscretions.

So this is what we’ve come to. Because freedom of information is so widely accepted and practiced, it appears as though the only way we’ll be able to escape our old identities and imprudence is to literally become a different person, according to the Google crawler at least.

So the moral of the story is, keep a close eye on what you put out there. Google will never let you have it back.

Let’s take all this information so far into consideration and have another look at whether we should continue floating or lock in our interest rates. Again, let’s look at the facts:

1. We know the Prime rate is going up.
2. We know that the experts are predicting an increase of 2.75% over the next year-and-a-half.
3. That means that the Prime rate could be as high as 5.25% by 2012.
4. In order for this to happen, the economy will have to gather significant steam and the Canadian dollar cannot get too strong in the process.

Now I can go on and on about my own predictions and assumptions regarding the economic recovery and impact of the ongoing debt crisis in Europe, but for the sake of argument, let’s assume that the Prime rate will go as high as 6% over the next five years and that a first-time homebuyer was looking at getting a new mortgage on their first home purchase. Their choice was to take a VRM at Prime minus 0.50% or go with the prevailing five-year rate of 4.5%. Again, let’s assume that this was a $300,000 mortgage with a 35-year amortization. I worked out the following calculations prior to the June 1^st rate increase and I think you would be surprised to see what I found.

We know that taking a VRM of Prime minus 0.50% prior to June 1^st, 2010 would make your introductory interest rate 1.75% (2.25% – 0.50%). This is obviously much less expensive than the existing five-year rate that the client was comparing at the time (4.5%). We also know that the Prime rate is going up (assuming Prime will increase to 6% over five years) and the wonderful savings we enjoy upfront will not last. So now we are left with a very interesting question: If you take the Prime – 0.5% today, and the Prime rate rises to 6% over the next five years, would you be better off simply taking the 4.5% fixed rate today and sleeping easy?

I did some math and added a little twist and here’s what I found:

First, here’s the little twist. I calculated the payment on a new mortgage of $300,000 with a 35-year amortization and the monthly payment came to $1,412.05 on a five-year mortgage at 4.5%. If, on the other hand, you chose to take the current VRM at Prime – 0.5%, your payment would be $954.78. So, in order to compare apples to apples, I decided to compare what would happen if you chose the VRM but increased your monthly payments to match that which you would have paid if you had taken the five-year fixed rate. The result was quite surprising.

Of course, to do this we had to make a few assumptions, the main one being that the Prime rate would rise by 0.75% every year over the next five years and that this would be a smooth increase in quarter point intervals. No one would be able to complain that they could not afford to increase their VRM payments, because they were already contemplating switching to the five-year rate. The difference between $1,412.05 and $954.78 is $457.27 in the beginning. This difference is applied right to the principal balance and, therefore, accelerates the principal pay down. I know, theoretically, that accelerating your payments would pay off the principal faster but even I was surprised by just how much. The net result of applying this strategy over a five-year period was that the consumer who took Prime – 0.5% but made the exact same payments as the consumer who chose a fixed rate of 4.5% paid an additional $16,608.17 off of their principle balance by the end of their five-year term even though the Prime rate was as high as 6% (which arguably is not likely).

So what is the answer to the most common question on mortgages in Canada today? Should you take the variable or lock in your mortgage? The answer depends on what you believe. If you believe that Canada’s economic recovery will be somewhat muted and the Prime rate will not go beyond 6%, then you will definitely save more money by taking the VRM today, but increasing your monthly payment to match that which you would be paying if you had chosen the five-year fixed rate. Doing so will result in two things:

1. You will adjust your family budget to the inevitable point at which rates do increase and avoid payment shock; and
2. You will accelerate the rate at which you reduce your principal balance so that when your mortgage does come up for renewal and rates are higher, you will have paid off more of your mortgage and you will be renewing with a lower principal balance in a higher rate environment.

If, on the other hand, you believe that rates could skyrocket and that we are not impervious to double-digit interest rates (perhaps you lived through the early 1980s), then by all means locking in today is the smart choice for you. Today’s long-term rates are still very much at historic lows and you can definitely not be faulted for wanting to play it safe by locking in. Like I always say, the definition of a bad investment is the one that keeps you up at night. So if I receive an email from you asking me whether you should lock in or float and the time stamp on the email is 3am, my answer will be an emphatic “Lock in right now.”

At the end of the day, rates have moved upwards and they will continue to do so but, either way, they are still at historical lows. The truth is, there is no right or wrong answer. In the end, it really comes down to one last question:

What do you believe?

The interest rate analysis for this article was done using a formula that was created specifically for this purpose and the results are for illustrative purposes only. Any and all of the assumptions can be changed to match your personal situation. Feel free to send me an email and I will be able to run a personal analysis based on your assumptions.

Photo by bhautikjoshi/Flickr.

The race kicked off at 11:30am, and was a neck to neck showdown for the duration of the race. Aston Martin proved himself a champion, finishing the race with a time of 10 minutes and 42 seconds, with Okiki Akinremi, a World Champion Sprinter, Olympic athlete and supporter of the B&O Yorkville Run, at a close 12 seconds behind.

The starting line began at the new YWCA Elm Centre at the corner of Elm Street and Elizabeth Street in Toronto, continued up Bay Street and over to Bang & Olufsen at 175 Avenue Road.

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The charity run is a community initiative that unites local runners and businesses to compete, have fun and support an important local charity, the YWCA Elm Centre.

The Elm Centre will provide 300 new affordable and supportive homes for women and women-led families in the downtown area. A home for women with low incomes and their children, women living with mental health issues and Aboriginal families, this $80 million development will make sure residents have the resources and support they need to maintain their housing and flourish.

The YWCA Elm Centre will be ready for families in 2011.