Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Wow, the ATM is now 40 years old, at least this is the claim of the CBC, that is amazing. I remember when the Canada Trust in Waterloo got their first “Johnny Cash” machine (complete with catchy phrases in the machine that were supposed to read like Johnny Cash was getting you money). They even managed to get Johnny Cash to do a few ads for them, it was amazing. Now we use them and eschew dealing with the bank directly, yet continue to pay exorbitant fees to the bank for this privilege? Wow, we are gullible aren’t we?

In the first three months of the year Canada’s population increased by about 0.23% thanks mostly to immigration. Being the son of immigrants, I am glad to see our doors are still open, wonder where everyone is moving to now?

Here is an interesting graph about the crime rate in Canada comparing Large Urban, Small Urban and Rural areas. Interesting stat, but what is even more interesting is the quote in the report.

Of the 658 homicides in Canada in 2005 with a known location, 427 were committed in large urban areas, 95 in small urban areas and 135 in rural areas.

Taking population into account, the homicide rate of 2.5 homicides per 100,000 people in rural areas was actually higher than the rate of 2.0 in large urban areas and the rate of 1.7 in small urban areas. This pattern has held constant over the past decade.

A total of 658 murders in Canada with a population over 30 million (or 2.19 per 100,000 people). In comparison New York City’s homicide rate was 6.6 per 100,000 people, so Canada isn’t too bad for homicides. Interesting, that “living in the country” is a more likely place to get murdered?

Carnivals?

Carnival of Debt Management #15 : Big Cajun Man presents Canadian Household Net Worth Up posted at Canadian Financial Stuff. Canadians as a whole their debt as a percentage of their net worth is decreasing, but that seems to be due to their assets increasing in value, not due to a nationwide debt reduction strategy.