Canadian Personal Finance Blog

In Canada, a fossil fuel rich nation (notice I didn’t say energy rich, that is a fallacy), you wouldn’t think there would be such problems as shortages or such for fossil fuels. Well, as we all know that is not the case.

Analysts are saying that in the U.S. heating costs may go up almost 30% this winter (depending on how cold it is, and such). Well if I do a quick set of calculations I see from my bills (I am with Enbridge and I have equal monthly billing, so it isn’t too hard to figure this one out):

• 2002 is my base year for now
• 2003 I paid 20% more than I did in 2002
• 2004 I paid 54% more than I did in 2002 and 27% more than in 2003
• 2005 my rate didn’t go up?!? Well it must have been a warm year, I guess (global warming helping out Ottawa)

Now I am only comparing the cost of the Natural Gas coming into my house (Enbridge’s bill also nails me for a DELIVERY CHARGE? A CUSTOMER CHARGE and a GAS SUPPLY charge which adds up to almost $16 by itself). I also rent my water heater and there is GST on all of this.

So I guess my questions are:

1. Why the heck did my gas charges go up so darn much in 2004? Maybe I used more? Not sure, but holy cow, that was a jump!
2. Why are consumers standing for all of these “death by 1000 paper cut” charges like a Customer charge?
3. If my gas charges go up 33%, how will my new HIGH EFFICIENCY furnace going to counteract that?
• My guess would be if I am really lucky my bill might stay the same because my new furnace is 30% more efficient than my previous one (yes, VERY wishful thinking)

We’ll see folks, stay tuned, you’ll hear my screams at my new rates in January! –C8j

OK,

I have had enough SPAM from the spamming Adsense nitwits on the net, so there will be no more anonymous comments allowed on this blog (apologies folks, but I spend more time cleaning things up than I do writing these days).

If anyone has any blogspot related ideas on combatting this SCOURGE of comment spam, please post a comment :-). (Those I won’t delete).

Click on any of the mentions of SPAM and see my views on this.

Mmmm… Turkey, a butterball I’d like to point out. For my Canadian readers, I wish you and your family a happy Thanksgiving. For anyone in the states, don’t’ worry, I celebrate your Thanksgiving as well (any excuse to eat turkey and watch football is ok by me).

We had our turkey yesterday, but today is a good day to remember what we are Thankful for in this life. We are all blessed with many wonderful things. Remember to click my Feed The Hungry button too. One way to show your thanks is to give to others. Enjoy the day –C8j

There are very few things in a bank I view as necessary, but one thing I do view as really important is my Safety Deposit Box.

In my Safety Deposit box I keep bonds, an old stock certificate, and my wills. Why couldn’t I just keep those things at home? I don’t want to do that thanks. The advantages of a Safety Deposit box are many to me (my opinions follow):

• I can write off the cost of my box rental as a carrying charge (in Canada you can do this), that’s good. I pay about $30 for the box, before my tax kickback on the write off.
• This is OFF-SITE storage from my house. I should really put copies of my insurance policies in there as well, that way if someone breaks into my house or my house burns down (God forbid), I have a copy SAFE somewhere else. Might be good to put a home inventory in there too
• I love writing in this blog, because a lot of times I think of things while writing, I wouldn’t have!
• The bank is more secure than my house ever will be. Safety of this information is really important, and someone else worrying about it, is one less thing for me to worry about.
• Who is going to break into a bank and then find my safety deposit box, and then steal what is in it? Maybe someone reading my blog? Hope not :-).

These reasons are why I have a safety deposit box, and not a home strong box, or wall-safe to protect my important papers.

No matter HOW you decide to protect your important papers and information, DO IT! Use a Safety deposit box, a strong box, a wall-safe, but keep those papers safe! It’s important. It’s all part of the Financial Plan.

–C8j