Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for October, 2005

So, I have to tread carefully here, since I am a Christian and I do have strong beliefs, however, I have problems with people who use their faith as a “foil” to their business or worse still those who use the Bible to justify their decisions (especially in Finance).

One site I stumbled across is Sound Mind Investing, which seems like a good site (although I am never fond of sites that ask for subscription fees, isn’t the concept to Give of yourself? OK, if it’s a business that is fine, but still, something bugs me, I am not sure what). The authors have some genuine good points about:

• Stewardship and giving to the Church
• Debt reduction being important to faith (I think Debt Reduction is important in all aspects of life).

However, there seems to be an implication that the authors use the Bible as their justification for some financial decisions. I know it is possible to quote the bible in some areas of financial planning (heck I am guilty of that one, in this article already!), but I worry that these words of faith are being perverted towards a personal financial gain.

Faith (be it Christian, Hindu, Moslem, Buddhist, or Druid) or belief in oneself is important in your life, and it should help guide you, but maybe don’t use it as your only compass in life when it comes to financial planning.

Shalom
–C8j

I read this story first on the Register (a great site for high tech headlines) and then again on Bruce Schneier’s blog as well, and it sent chills up my spine of just how fragile the entire ATM network was in the late 80’s and early 90’s.

I remember in the early 80’s when I first got my “Johnny Cash” card from Canada Trust (yes, that is what the machines were called back then for that Trust Company, AND they got Johnny Cash to do advertisements for it, AND the machines “dialog” had a Johnny Cash “feel” to it as well). I thought this was great, but I had no idea just how “exposed” my savings were at the time.

Some important ATM security points to remember:

• If there is someone “loitering” around the machine, maybe go elsewhere to get your money out, and certainly make sure you block their view of you inputting your pin code, and any money you take out.
• If the machine looks “hinky”:
• The lights around the machine are not turned on
• The slot where you put your card in looks funny, or does not have a “guard” over it
• If the money does not come out of the machine, call the number on the ATM machine right away (and if there is no number on the machine, maybe think about calling the cops)
• Don’t let anyone else into the ATM machine area after hours, they could be looking to take your money, or worse still MY MONEY!
• If someone does attempt to rob you GIVE THEM THE MONEY. You are more important than money!!!

Keep these tips in mind, the C8j worries about his readers. He also worries about large scale ATM fraud that will cause my bank to raise their already outrageous banking fees!

–C8j

So whilst cleaning out my collection of pornography old magazines, I came across a real whopper of a mis-read of the stock market, and where it might go in the future.

The alleged expert was Harry S. Dent Jr. talking about the stock market, and I quote:

What does that mean for you and me? It means investors would be wise to focus on large, growth companies in sectors that boomers will embrace, such as financial services (stock brokerages and banks), health care (pharmaceuticals, biotechs, and medical equipment) and technology (software, hardware and internet companies)…

We are about to witness the roaring 2000s, the greatest boom in history. If you think we have seen dramatic changes in the past decade, fasten your seat belts and hold on

This was in January 2000, just as the Internet bubble was about to IMPLODE on itself. Six months after this article the world started to figure out that this was a BUBBLE and not a trend and people who were into High Tech companies lost their shirts, their livelihoods and their savings!

Back then everyone thought it would never end, however, some folks, couldn’t understand what it was all based on, and we were proven correct, it was all a big charade!

What is my advise? Talk to experts, listen to experts, but YOU eventually make the decision one way or another, and if it doesn’t smell right to you, DON’T DO IT! Experts are WRONG many times, do you want to be like some of us from High Tech with our retirement funds shredded? How can you figure out which expert to listen to? I don’t know, but maybe you need to do a lot of research first.

Experts are to be taken with large amounts of salt.

It’s your money, your debt reduction plan, YOU DECIDE! –C8j

Yes, I know some businessmen can do this, for legitimate reasons, however in this instance $241K racked up in alleged topless bar charges, for lap dances is completely unfathomable by me. If we take the alleged victim’s argument and believe he only spent $20K on topless bar charges, we can still ask the lyrical question:

Let’s view what might legitimize this alleged expense?

• Are you so Amoral to think that blowing this much money in a topless bar is a legitimate business expense?
• Are you so simple to think that the shareholders of your company think this is ok?
• Are you so arrogant you won’t get caught doing this?

My mind spins with the simple outrage I felt reading this. If a company I worked for, or invested in had this kind of person in their management, I’d get out of there mighty quick!

What does this have to do with Debt Reduction and Financial planning? Let’s put it this way, rolling up $241K , $20K or $100 in credit card charges for a Topless club or Strip club is BAD FINANCIAL PLANNING and is DEBT CREATION not REDUCTION.

–C8j

So I get good and bad news reading the paper these days. There is talk of drops in federal tax rates, which is always nice (I view it as a virtual raise, since I don’t get raises from my high tech employer). That is the good news, but the threat now is rising Interest rates for the next 18 months? Oh joy!

I think I have mentioned my greatest paranoia is that we go back to the black days of the late 70’s and early 80’s of hyper-inflation, 20% interest rates and unemployment. I really pray that my dire view of the future is WRONG but, you know what can save you from this? Don’t carry DEBT and then you can take advantage of high interest rates to increase your savings (and not kill you with a larger debt load).

Gas prices in Ottawa are below 90 cents a liter for now, but how long is that going to last? Hopefully a long time, but again, who knows? If you do know, give me a hint, will you?

Interesting that our friend over at the Canadian Capitalist has not seen an increase in his heating costs yet either, but again, we shall see there. I checked my Ottawa Hydro bill and noticed that my electrical usage dropped by 22% between June-July to August-September which are comparable months, so this seems to imply my new air conditioner and furnace is saving me some money (I hope). I’ll keep looking closely at that one.

–C8j