Canadian Personal Finance Blog

In other areas my investments are not doing as well, but at least I can point to one area of happiness for me.

Always glad to see the mainstream media follows Stats Canada as well, as I saw my commentary about Salt has also made it onto the CBC web page (well from the same source at least). My nose for news is still good!

I also don’t feel quite so DUMB about my Arithmetic problems on my Credit Card after finding out that CERN blew up their Particle Accelerator, due to mathematical errors at Fermilab. Goes to show that everyone has problems with their calculations.

For those of you who collect Petro-Points from Petro-Canada and that also have PC Financial points accounts, the bridge between those two systems is about to be closed, so if you have points that you want to pass over to your PC Financial account, I suggest you do it very soon. You have until May 31st to transfer those points over.

I never knew what to do with those petro-points before I found that bridge, I will be sorry to see it go away.

More interestingly, I checked my credit card bill yesterday and saw that I had miscalculated my payments for last month and had underpaid and got dinged with a HUGE interest charge, because of my poor arithmetic skills. At first I was enraged, and was going to phone the credit card company and rain fire and brimstone on them, but I waited a 1/2 an hour before I called (a new rule for me). I got a very nice young lady on the phone who pointed out that yes this was MY mistake and not their mistake. I was then very apologetic and polite and asked the question everyone must ask in these situation, “Is there anything you can do to help me out, please?”, if said with the correct level of contrition, the worst they can say is “No.”, but in this situation the young lady said she could apply for a one time “forgiveness” clause and have the Interest charge reversed. I may not get this, it has to go through the system, however I did learn some important points:

• No matter how smart you think you are, sometimes it is YOUR fault.
• Being a jerk on the phone may make you feel better for the moment, but don’t expect any help from the person at the other end of the phone.
• If you have a relatively good payment record, you can ask for “redemption” from your credit card company.

Important points to remember. Yes, sometimes you have to be short with people, but not if you were the one who did the “dumb thing”.

Stats Canada is telling us that we are eating for too much salt! I am not surprised by that one, given the amount of prepared and fast food, and how much salt that is used there, but still a little alarming folks. Another good reason to stop eating out and buying prepared foods (which may seem cheaper, but in the long run, they do cost you).

One of my favorite sites to read about investing ideas in the Canadian Capitalist and he is rebalancing the Sleepy Portfolio, have a read, it’s an interesting way to invest.

And finally in the greatest piece of marketing ever, the iPOD sales have gone across the 100,000,000 mark, amazing! For a simple device, that seemed pretty straightforward this has turned into the Brand Name to be, and I must admit there are two of these in my house and my youngest daughter wants one too! Way to go Apple, wish I bought your stock 6 years ago when it was DIRT cheap. sigh… That is how I invest, with 20/20 hindsight…