Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for December 19th, 2006

I keep saying that my “beater” that I bought from a friend three years ago (almost) owes me nothing (and it doesn’t really, I am astounded it is still on the road). I don’t take it on long trips, it is a city car, but mostly highway stuff. I managed to get it for $2500.00 from a very good friend, who was going to trade it in on a new car she was buying. The dealership only offered her $2500 as a trade-in, so I said I’d pay that for it (and then proceeded to not pay her in full for 6 months, so needless to say, a very kind and patient friend too). I ended up with a car that I know well, and my mechanic knows too (he has done most of the repairs on it for 8 years at least), so it was really a no lose choice for me.

I have wondered how much this car is actually worth. A friend pointed me to the VMR Canada Car Value Calculator web site. It is a pretty easy web site to use, and my figuring that the car couldn’t be worth any more than $1500.00 , I was surprised that this site values my car around $2600.00 ? Holy cow, that is a lot of money.

Now another way to think of the value of this car to me is, that I need it right now to get my kids shuttled around to all the events they want to go to, so the car may actually be worth more than $2600, in that if I had to replace it, it would cost me a lot more money!

What’s your car worth? –C8j

Of the 10 composite indicators for the Canadian Economy only two were down for November reported Statistics Canada yesterday.

That’s a good thing, means the Canadian economy is humming a long very nicely thank you very much.

The most encouraging development was an improvement in US demand for manufactured goods. The US leading indicator edged up 0.1%, its first gain since May.

That’s very good to hear, that our American customers want our products more, a very good thing! The more the biggest consumer wants your products, the better you will be. Good for Canada, keep up that strong economy, which means jobs, and keeps deadbeat folk like me employed!

Mass Transit usage is up as well by 2.7% in last month too, which is good to hear as well. The usage of mass transit means less individual cars with individual riders, which means less money spent on gas and less pollution (at least we hope that). I myself don’t take the bus, because the service in Ottawa does not allow me to get to work in a timely fashion, unfortunately.

–C8j

Yes another week and I continue to add to the Carnivals for the week, so read and enjoy the postings of other folks as well:

• The Carnival of Debt Reduction #66 is being hosted by Debt Consolidation Lowdown, and the accepted my article on The Rich Getting Richer .
• The Carnival of Personal Finance #79 is being hosted by A Penny Saved and my dulcid words on the Non-Profit Sector Being a Growth Sector.
• The Carnival of Investing #53 is being hosted by Lazy Man and Money and included my comments about BCE’s moves to not be an Income Trust.
• The Carnival of Thoughtfulness hosted by Thoughtfulcondieration.com included my rant about the Rich Getting Richer but the poor going the other way too.
• The Tax Carnival #8 is hosted by Don’t Mess With Taxes included my comment about the IMF wanting us to raise our Sales Taxes.

I think I am elsewhere as well, but haven’t heard, I’ll update this posting as I find out which carnivals I was accepted to.