I just read that the Royal Bank of Canada is doing something similar, offering $100,000 of “practice money” for clients to invest, trade and save with in real RBC products, online. One catch: you need to have an existing RBC account or open up a new account (very clever, RBC!). While I’d much prefer to have $100,000 of real money, I like the idea of being able to get my feet wet before diving headfirst into the swamp of self-directed investing, and without it showing up as part of my final math mark.

See you on the e-floor!

She’s reacting to a new book, Smart Girls Marry Money: How Women Have Been Duped into the Romantic Dream—and How They’re Paying for It, by Elizabeth Ford and Daniela Drake.

The argument of Ford and Drake’s book is pretty much summed up in the title, but Kingston doesn’t offer a mere snarky takedown; instead, she provides a thoughtful meditation:

“Skim more deeply—through the real-life anecdotes and beyond lines like “Mr. Rich can be Mr. Right”—and it’s apparent this isn’t a 21st-century How to Marry a Millionaire. Rather, Ford, a 41-year-old Emmy-winning television producer divorced from Harrison Ford’s son, and Drake, a 44-year-old medical doctor with an M.B.A. from Stanford who has been divorced and is remarried, adopt a satiric tone to deliver a surprisingly subversive self-help manifesto: imagine, if you can, Dorothy Parker writing for Cosmo. Many of their observations have been well-aired, to wit—women have a shelf life in terms of fertility and attractiveness; taking time out to raise children reduces women’s workplace value; women have more difficulty bouncing back from divorce. And even after decades of women graduating from professional schools in greater numbers than men, men remain the power players.”

Ten years ago, I think I would have rolled my eyes at this kind of advice. Now, I’m not so sure. Who wants to marry someone insolvent? Still, it’s hard enough getting a date, period, without having to get an audit of their latest financial statements, first.

What do you think? Should money trump love when it comes to marriage?

For me, the most surprising suggestion — other than the fact that there are 75 ways to do anything (who knew?) — was:

“8) Park with the hood pointing out. Backing out of a parking spot when the engine is cold takes a lot of effort (and gas). All the jockeying to park with your hood pointing out is done when the engine is warm, so it’s easy on fuel.”

My driving instructor always wanted me to park with the hood out, since backing out of a space is apparently more dangerous. I’m pleased to hear there’s a cost-saving benefit as well.

Layoffs haven’t been the only reaction to the Great Recession of 2009. Survey respondents reported that other measures have been taken by companies anxious to stay afloat:

- Hiring freeze: 27%
- Salary freeze: 26%
- Budget cuts for travel: 26%
- Benefits cuts: 10%
- Salary reductions: 8%
- Mandatory vacations: 8%
- 4-day workweeks: 8%

These measures have added up to create a pretty glum workforce. The survey notes:

Respondents were asked about the reasons why their motivation is decreasing. Several employees explained: “The atmosphere of looming cutbacks combined with an uncommunicative senior management does little to inspire team spirit amongst the ranks,” says one survey respondent. Another stated: “After having 50% of staff laid-off there remains a combination of survivor’s guilt and the nagging question ‘Am I next?’”

So, this is the bad news. I’m now looking for good news: Not just how to keep morale up when those around you are losing theirs, but is it possible to succeed, if not thrive, career-wise, during a recession? My next ask-an-expert will focus on those questions. And I’d be happy to hear suggestions from the www.

Q: What does the missing gold mean for the Canadian economy?
A: There isn’t a direct impact at all. If this missing gold had been from the Bank of Canada, then it could have actually meant something. Instead, this is much more like any other company that is missing the inputs into its production. It’s not a good thing, because gold’s valuable, and this is essentially a crown corporation that has lost something very valuable, and in that respect that’s where the problem lies: If they don’t find the missing gold, the Canadian taxpayer may be on the hook for it. Although as a corporation that’s self-sustaining, it will probably just record a loss this year.

Q: Is there still a connection between gold and the dollar: Are we on a gold standard?
A: If Canada were on a gold standard, basically for every dollar the bank of dollar the Bank o Canada would have to have a certain amount of gold in its vaults. We were on that system up to around 1917 and briefly in the 1920s, but since then, we haven’t been. One of the reasons the bank keeps the gold is for worst case scenarios: If Canada has some obligations it has to meet and people lose confidence in the Canadian dollar, they still have confidence in gold. It means the country still has a certain amount of purchasing power, and that’s why it would have potentially been more of an issue if the bank had lost the gold. But that’s a vague thing, because it’s not a formal support.

Q: So what is our dollar backed by?
A: It’s the same sort of thing as the U.S. dollar, which is backed by the full faith and confidence of the U.S. government. The Canadian dollar is freely floating so its value moves up and down based on the supply and demand of Canadian assets. When we see it rising, like it is now, that’s because the price of oil is going up. Canada is a net exporter of oil and people have to buy oil from Canada and they do it with U.S. dollars that then get converted to Canadian dollars. That pushes the demand for Canadian dollars up, so the dollar goes up in value.