There's much to be said about a good education.

But if you're late getting out of the gate, how do you plan on funding your child's post-secondary education?

Graduating high school students, like my daughter in Grade 12, are just now starting to get their acceptance letters to colleges and universities. And, according to a new report by BMO Wealth Institute, a four-year university degree can cost upwards of $60,000 and yet three-quarters of Canadian parents are not prepared and only half have taken advantage of Registered Education Savings Plans (RESPs).

What do franchises like Pizza Nova, M&M Meat Shops, Cora and Coffee Culture have in common?

They all have the ingredients to be financially successful.

In Canada, one out of every five dollars spent ends up in the cash register of a franchise operation.

That's more than $100 billion each year, proving savvy marketing, solid fiscal planning and some calculated risks are helping franchises prosper north of the 49th parallel.

Though 2013 is here, the year’s early days are often a time for reflection, of looking back at the driving forces of a year ago.

From a pop culture standpoint, if you’re not talking about “Gangnam Style” as the hero of 2012, you’re probably going with 50 Shades of Grey, the erotic series that turned even the most soap opera-addicted housewife into an avid reader.

Yet the E.L. James series wasn’t just a sales smash, though a smash it certainly was.

According to a new report, the trilogy also helped drive Canada’s e-reader industry.

Ghost Money defined: dead money, money wasted on stupid things, money that should have been invested instead

1. Magazines. Never buy them off the rack. Rack prices are inflated, so it’s the most expensive way to get your fix. Always subscribe, or get a tablet and download them. Local libraries let you read them for free. And if you work in an industry where it’s important to stay abreast of news and current affairs, convince your boss to buy the magazines for you. Besides, chopping trees down for magazines and newspapers is going to become an obsolete practice. We live in an increasingly wireless, paperless world. Embrace it.

Rare is the modern book that stakes a long-term claim in the public consciousness, but this Fifty Shades of Grey  thing is still happening.

The novel trilogy is a bestselling smash, and in this space we’ve covered the economic impact of the books, which have boosted the sales of everything from sex toys to grey ties.

Though perhaps E.L. James’ novels, in addition to filling financial headlines, are matchmakers, too.

By one measure, the Fifty Shades of Grey  phenomenon has boosted sign-ups to an online dating site that connects “sugar daddies” to “sugar babies.”

The greatest products or services, like a rising tide that floats all boats, have been able to spark business success in its orbit.

The iPhone, for example, hasn’t just boosted Apple and changed the consumer tech landscape, it’s also spawned countless cottage industries, like lucrative markets in cell phone cases and app design.

But could a book fawned over by horny housewives really do the same?

As it turns out, Fifty Shades of Grey  is having some kind of economic impact.

Does every dream mean something?

Only if you ask, according to Dr. Michael Lennox, a psychologist and author of the book "Dream Sight: A Dictionary and Guide for Interpreting Any Dream."

He feels that there are different steps, or levels, of working with a dream, each one slightly more beneficial than the one that precedes it. Rather than try to analyze every  night time thought, he prefers the term interpretation.

All of which means that:

1. Remembering a dream brings it into consciousness, thereby elevating the value it can offer in the search for personal understanding.
2. Thinking about and processing the information it presents by ruminating on your dream will deepen the experience.
3. Writing your dream down will reinforce the impact of your effort and lock the unconscious expression in your conscious mind.
4. Discussing it with another person is going one step further, as an objective viewpoint is always going to help you see something that you would be unable to see on your own.
5. Responding to your dream with a creative endeavor, such as drawing or writing a poem takes this to its highest level. The unconscious mind expresses itself through creative means and this kind of dream work is the most powerful there is.

Yesterday, the U.S. Justice Department filed a civil antitrust action against major book publishers and Apple, accusing the companies of colluding to raise the prices of e-books.

Two companies have decided to fight the charges although three other publishers have already caved, agreeing to a settlement designed to lower prices for consumers.

Will this mean that e-books will get cheaper? I think so, but there are those who argue that prices will ultimately rise because of this ill-fated suit, with Amazon being the big winner.

An old holiday adage says that it is better to give than to receive. I disagree. Giving is costly. This holiday season, give your kids the lasting gift of common sense instead of the short-term satisfaction of their entire wish list. Read my four reasons for why you should cut down on the time and money you spend at the mall during the holidays.

Suppose you must write a message that you want the recipients to believe. Of course, your message will be true, but that is not necessarily enough for people to believe that it is true. It is entirely legitimate for you to enlist cognitive ease to work in your favour, and studies of truth illusions provide specific suggestions that may help you achieve this goal.

The general principle is that anything you can do to reduce cognitive strain will help, so you should first maximize legibility. Compare these two statements:
Adolf Hitler was born in 1892.
Adolf Hitler was born in 1887.