Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Why am I talking about IPhone and what does it have to do with Financial Planning or me ranting about money related stuff? It might be that I secretly want one of these pieces of technology? Maybe I am being paid to advertise it? Maybe I am trying to suck search engines into this posting?

Some of that might be true, who knows, however, let’s think about the IPhone as a purchase for a family ( spouses who have loved ones thinking about this purchase read closely so you can argue with them).

In Canada Rogers wireless will be selling them at the end of June (once there is a CDMA version, Bell Mobility and Telus will most likely be selling them).

How much is this things going to cost really?:

• If it costs $499 US for the 4GB version and $599 for 8GB versions , that means up here my guess would be somewhere between $550 and $700 or so. That alone makes it a very expensive toy. My guess is if you sign a 3 year contract it may be cheaper (but maybe not initially due to the high GEEK factor involved).
• What kind of plan must you get with Rogers? The base Blackberry package is currently $25.00 per month with lots of limitations and can go all the way up to $100 per month with lots of bandwidth and such. The Iphone’s data usage should be maybe a little higher than a Crackberry, maybe close.
• On the cheaper plan, you pay a HUGE penalty if you overrun your data allotment for the month as well.

So, $1200.00 a year and an initial outlay of $500 at least for this piece of technology? I guess if you are really eager for the technology it is ok, but couldn’t you find something better to do with your money ($1700 in a year) than this? You could buy a really good digital camera and get an iPOD and a cheap cell phone for about that price at the end of it all (and you wouldn’t be bothered by e-mails wherever you are either).

Yes, if someone gave me one, I’d use it and play with it and act like a complete Geek, but as I have said, Do As I Say, NOT as I do!

Related Articles (Check out the Reading Room too, new book reviews there):

• Case Study: Digital Roaming Costs
• Off Topic: Wireless Number Portability
  

June has started folks, that means you are already 1/2 way through the year, and now is the time to revise, revisit and see how well you are doing on your financial plan for the year. Are you succeeding so far? If not, why not? Don’t give up, maybe you have set too lofty goals, and you need to reset them to more attainable goals? Don’t wait until the end of the year to adjust, good teams adjust as needed, don’t worry about the calendar.

There is talk of interest rates going up, due to the pressure of the exploding Canadian Economy (where exploding is a good thing in this context). If you check the Bank of Canada’s Rates and Statistics page you will see that Core inflation is slowly increasing which is always a concern, and this alone might be enough to see interest rates going up to help “cool down” things a little.

What does this mean for we the lowly consumer? Higher interest rates could send the Canadian dollar higher, if our American brothers do not follow suit. We could even see a Canadian Dollar at parity to the American dollar by years end, which is a bad thing for companies that export. Higher interest rates are even more directly felt by the consumer who carries debt with a floating interest rate too.

If interest rates go up, what can you do?

• Lower your debt level now, or as soon as possible (easier said than done, but the obvious must still be stated).
• If you are investing on a regular basis, does it make more sense now to invest in your own debt? If your investments pay 4% and you are paying 7% on your mortgage, aren’t you getting more money back by lowering your debt load?
• Lock in your mortgage or debt now, while rates are lower.