Canadian Financial OpinionsCanadian Financial OpinionsA financial blog about home finances, consumerism and annecdotal case studies with a Canadian Point of View 
Articles
Personal Auditor General
2008-05-07 12:41:00 The Canadian Government is a mega-business in terms of size and jurisdiction, and to keep this monster organization in line there is the Office of the Auditor General . Yesterday the Office of the Auditor General put out it’s 2008 Annual Report, and as usual it is full of many interesting issues with the Government specifically ... More About: Personal
Income In Canada
2008-05-06 13:20:00 Our friends in Stats Canada put out yet another interesting article yesterday comparing the income of Canadians and specifically Canadian families. Being a member of a Canadian family as usual I find the numbers fascinating (but I do have a Math degree as well, so I will try to temper my enthusiasm). The Data in this ... More About: Family , Income
April Personal Spending
2008-05-05 13:15:00 The topic of what my household spends money on has been discussed before, but here is as a percentage of my entire expenditures, what my family spent it’s money on last month (April 2008) Tax 25.24% Recreation 19.68% Groceries 13.11% Insurance 8.88% Mortgage Int 5.55% Utilities 3.94% Auto 3.54% RRSP 3.04% Commuting 2.70% Savings (non RRSP) 2.28% Other 12.04% These numbers are relatively trustworthy since I ... More About: Personal , Sports , Family , Kids , Personal Finance
Sunday Thought: Money Quickly Gained
2008-05-04 15:40:00 Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it. Proverbs 13:1 Don’t remember this in the bible, but it is a very good thought. Our society seems bent on quick gain tactics to wealth and assuming that it is the only tactic, to gain wealth. The people I know who are wealthy (I ... More About: Money , Sunday , Thought , Frugality
Random Thoughts
2008-05-02 12:45:00 This week I had some very good feedback and discourse with my readers about the high price of post secondary education and how it pertains to Family Finances and Personal Finance. This topic was suggested by my wife and I didn’t think it would amount to much, but to me, I think it really opened ... More About: Carnivals , Energy , Random Thoughts , Random , Thoughts
Tax Reprieve!
2008-05-01 12:08:00 Netfile Tax Reprieve Freedom from having to pay taxes, for 5 more days, if you Netfile. This extension only applies if you are going to use Netfile to submit your return, and it only applies if you owe money. As was pointed out by someone, if the government owes you money, they don’t really care WHEN ... More About: Economy , Taxes , High Tech , Interest Rates , Nortel
Student Debt (Epilogue)
2008-04-30 13:05:00 Is there a right way to deal with the question of whether a parent should pay for a child’s post secondary education or whether the child should be left to pay for a University Education (and left with a large debt load in student loans)? I think that is a pedagogical question since most of the ... More About: Student , Debt
Student Debt (part 2)
2008-04-29 13:05:00 Yesterday we talked about the valuable lessons that can be learned if a student pays for their education themselves, today we look at the alternate view that it is the parent’s duty (or a relatives duty) to pay for the student’s education. Pros of Student Not Paying Student graduates with no debt load, and can start their ... More About: Education , Debt , Part
Student Debt
2008-04-28 13:31:00 This is a topic that my family has been talking about, and I suspect this is not just a one post topic, so it may stretch out over the week. In my case I was very lucky in that my parents paid for my education, and I graduated (in 1986) with no debts (which is depressing ... More About: Education , Kids , Student , Debt , Frugality
Random Thoughts
2008-04-25 13:08:00 Some interesting stuff this week starting off with good-ish news for those with debt: The Bank of Canada lowered its interest rates, but why aren’t Mortgage rates following suit? That same article talked about the importance of negotiating for your mortgage (that caused a Mortgage Broker to comment on it). I wrote about how Green I am, ... More About: Random Thoughts , Random , Thoughts
Mortgage Rate Drop? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?!?
2008-04-24 13:07:00 As has been pointed out by both Canadian Capitalist and Michael James the Bank of Canada’s 1/2 point rate drop has not been reflected by the major banks yet, in terms of Mortgage rates (especially in longer term mortgages). Short term mortgages and credit vehicles that are typically based on the Prime interest rate, do ... More About: Interest Rates , Rate , Drop
Belated Happy Earth Day
2008-04-23 12:46:00 With Earth day passing yesterday my wife asked me the question, “How expensive is it to be Green?”, I wanted to consult with Kermit the Frog, but I figured I’d look at my life and see in the obvious areas, would it be cheaper, more expensive or a wash to be “Green”. Automobiles, currently I have ... More About: Family , Government , Energy , Earth Day
Interest rates go down by 0.50% wow
2008-04-22 15:05:00 Holy cow, interest rates dropped by 0.50% as set by the Bank of Canada, which means it is even easier to borrow money in Canada. The recent price-level adjustments for automobiles and the effect of past changes in indirect taxes will keep measured inflation below target through 2008. The emergence of excess supply in the ... More About: Inflation , Interest Rates , Interest , Rates
How Many Accounts do You have?
2008-04-21 12:46:00 I have many, many different accounts associated with my name. I have a few bank accounts (hopefully I know of all of those, hate to think I left money somewhere, and you should never do that), I have many, many points accounts for various institutions and systems and I also have other accounts for insurance, ... More About: Personal Finance , Points
Humor: Always have a target
2008-04-19 13:30:00 One of the important parts of Financial Planning is to have credible and attainable goals and targets for your plan. If you don’t have a target, how can you tell if you are accurate? With this in mind here is an important example of how if you have a target, your aim gets much better, and ... More About: Humor , Target , Parable
Random Thoughts for a Friday
2008-04-18 13:50:00 A good week, and some random thoughts from this week and some posts that caused me to go, “Hmmm…” Inflation year over year is 1.4% in March, which astounds me, but then again, it shows how little I know about things like this. Is found money a good thing? I attempt to give an alternate point of ... More About: Video , Humor , Random Thoughts , Random , Thoughts
CPI for March at 1.4%
2008-04-17 14:15:00 We take a break from my discussions about money and it’s philosophical strengths and it’s abilities to disrupt lives, and we go back to some tangible real statistics. Stats Canada has released the CPI Numbers for March 2008 and inflation’s growth dropped again year over year to 1.4% . This in theory means that everything you ... More About: Government , Money , Inflation
Found Money and the Prisoner?s Dilemma
2008-04-16 13:25:00 Michael James talked about found money yesterday and the joy of paying off bills with found money, and how we should not squander this found wealth, and really use it to create happiness in the future by paying off debt now. I think this is a sensible approach to found money, but it made ... More About: Family , Money , Tourism , Opinion , Comments
Snow Tires Off
2008-04-15 14:04:00 One of the things I have learned over the years is that if you drive on your snow tires for too long in the spring (or say over an entire summer), your snow tires degrade very quickly during that time, and they soon become useless if you are not careful. It is a hard balance ... More About: Snow , Automobile , Bank , Frugality , Tires
Financial Disappointments
2008-04-14 14:55:00 Life always teaches you the oddest things at the oddest times, and this weekend I got reinforced the notion that you “… can’t always get what you want …” to quote Mick Jagger, but sometimes you really do get what you need. I watched my youngest daughter’s basketball team play very hard but just not ... More About: Family , Education , Money , Financial , Growth
Humor: Sunday Jesus is Watching You!
2008-04-13 13:31:00 So this one has little to do with finances, and isn’t really a religious thought, and I am stealing it directly from Joel Osteen, but I laughed out loud when I heard it and sometimes that is a good thing. Jesus is Watching ! A burglar broke into a house and as he was picking up the HD ... More About: Humor , Sunday
Random Thoughts For Friday
2008-04-11 13:24:00 A week where we looked closer at topics that is near and painful to my hear: Monday was a discussion of Investment Planning and my normal honesty that I am as good a golfer as I am an investor at times. I do however have a plan that I am living up to right now, and ... More About: Random Thoughts , Random , Thoughts , Friday
Bank Rates
2008-04-10 14:00:00 After posting yesterday’s best of: Free Bank ing post, I received my monthly balance sheet from the bank for my bank account, and dutifully I went into Quicken and ran my monthly reconcile of my chequing account. At the end of the document from the bank it had this very interesting statement: You have saved $72.50 in ... More About: Scams , Rates
Best of: Free Banking?
2008-04-09 13:30:00 Last year about this time, I wrote about one of my favorite fights that I have most every year, and that is my fight to not pay banking fees. Some years I win the fight, some years I am forced to pay the exorbitant fees the banks wish I pay, can you guess what happened ... More About: Free , Banking , Bank , Frugality
Horror Stories from the Financial World
2008-04-08 13:31:00 Started reading Fark again and tripped across some business stories from the main stream media that made my stomach turn (haven’t had a good rant lately). Why isn’t the entire financial world imploding into a black hole is my only question? British Import I Hope Not to See So there is a “Money Card” that is branded ... More About: Family , Credit Cards , Personal Finance , Horror , World
Investment Planning
2008-04-07 14:31:00 One of my problems is my complete lack of patience in most things in life (just ask my kids), so there are very few occasions where I think I can say I have been patient. Sometimes I go in the opposite direction and am too patient (as I was in the High Tech implosion), but ... More About: Investment , Planning , Investments , Bank
Random Thoughts
2008-04-04 14:21:00 Friday has come again, and it has been an interesting week: BCE stock price continues to lower slightly and is around $35 right now, even though the sale to the teacher’s union (et al) has effectively been ok’ed. The rumors now are that the union may not be solvent enough to pull off this kind of ... More About: Random Thoughts , Random , Thoughts , Bank
Census Numbers are Interesting
2008-04-03 14:16:00 Having a Math Degree I like numbers and when the Census figures came out from Stats Canada yesterday I reveled in the glorious minutia of the data that that was published. Some of the interesting tidbits published were: There are more than 200 different ethnic origins that we identify ourselves as. That is one hell of ... More About: Interesting , Taxes , Money , Numbers
April Fools Jokes and Nice Police Folk
2008-04-02 14:22:00 Yesterday most of the financial blogs took time out and had an April Fool’s post of some kind, a few caught me off guard, but then I realized what day it was, and laughed along with the authors. I don’t typically post April Fools stuff too much, because I am so gullible and might read ... More About: Jokes , Credit , Police , Folk
Hidden School Costs
More articles from this author:2008-04-01 15:05:00 I have written about this one, but I continue to be unhappy with the situation that I currently find myself in, in terms of hidden school costs. I don’t really mind too many of the charges, since in most situations I am either paying for my child’s extra curricular activities or I am paying for ... More About: School , Spending , Hidden , Costs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
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