Extended Warranties are for Suckers

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• There's one product I get extended warranties on, and that's LCD screens. Until the average rate of pixel failure drops, I think that's a $40 bet worth making.

• My friend's five-year-old daughter chucked a toy at his 19" LCD monitor and busted enough pixels to create a permanent bright green line on the display just two days after he bought it. He was pissed.

• I guess I should preface such blanket statements with Scott Adam's favourite acronym: BOCTAOE, short for "But of course there are obvious exceptions". The New York Times article makes mention of one case: rear-projection TVs.

  Perhaps I'll write a follow-up in which I cover those times when an extended warranty would be a good idea; it ties in nicely with an article on why I hate gambling that's been sitting in my drafts folder for ages.

• I hope you mention certain types of investors in that gambling post, too. =) A lot of folks end up dumping a significant chunk of their life savings in a supposed silver-bullet solution and end up surprised when legislation or market turbulence wipes them out (hello, income trusts!).

  The Globe had a bunch of columns quoting pitiful souls who lost 10% of their life savings, or tends of thousands of dollars, as a result of market action yesterday. The only silver bullet is a well-diversified portfolio to mitigate downturns -- there are no sure-thing investment shortcuts on the road to financial independence.