Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Runners World

My daughter ran in a 10 Km race on Sunday, and I was very impressed with her ability to stick with it and work hard and get a very good result. I never had the “intestinal fortitude” to run (I get bored, sore and I stop), and that kind of “drive” is important in Life (and can be applied to Personal Financial Planning easily). An ability to deal with a short term pain for a long term gain is what runners are all about.

More interestingly was the technology around the race, which was very unobtrusive but gave amazing results. Each runner had a radio transponder ankle bracelet, so that their “time” was very real, since it started when they crossed the start line and stopped after the crossed the finish line (given the number of people starting in MASSIVE races like the Boston Marathon, I now understand better how they can get such clear times).

What was MORE amazing was the web site that the Running Community in Ontario (or is it Canada) has where all I had to do to find my daughter’s results was, open the page type in her name and the results appeared on line right there. Now that is a good use of technology.

I wish financial tools on line and on computers were that easy to use. Some are relatively straight forward like the Bank Web Sites, Quicken and Microsoft Money, but end up becoming very cumbersome, because they are trying to attract too broad a customer base (i.e. be all things to all customers). Something a little simpler might be what is needed?

I was impressed with this whole running thing.

Canadian GDP Up in August

The GDP is up again for August, with an increase of 0.2% which is small but at least not negative.

Retail and Mines and Petroleum showed the biggest gains overall, but another up month for the GDP is a good thing:

In August, economic activity increased 0.2%, its average pace since the beginning of 2007. Increases in retail trade and oil extraction propelled the growth, while a decline in utilities dampened it. Both the goods- and services-producing industries advanced. Gains were also registered in construction, forestry, mining excluding oil and gas, and wholesale trade. In addition, the accommodation and food services, and financial sectors moved ahead. Conversely, utilities retreated and manufacturing stood still.

By industry you can see where money is being spent and money is being made, no surprise that Minerals and Petroleum are strong here. Canada is now the Natural Resource house for the Americas, or one of them. Interesting, because most governments have tried to NOT be labeled that way, and now Canada seems to be happy with this label.

To quote my favorite basketball guy Dick Vitale. Yup Count Jim Flaherty (AOOOHHHH!!! Those Halowe’en tax cuts are scary kids), will bring out his ghouls and announce, what? Some of the ideas put forward:

• Cut the GST to 5%, which is great, now if Ontario would do the same, I’d be delirious, but some are not fond of changing CONSUMPTION taxes.
• Move the middle income tax bracket up a little higher, thus cutting taxes by about $700, which is good too.
• They could raise the minimum income tax threshold higher too, but no one thinks that.

Canadian Dollar Too Strong

How will Canada deal with the MIGHTY Canadian Loonie? It sits poised to break the $1.05 US threshold, and what will that do to this hot economy of ours? Not sure, yes it is going to hurt manufacturing jobs, but is it as bad as we are hearing? I guess we’ll only know looking back in hindsight.

Cheaper Computer parts

The Computer Price Index for parts is down 1.4% from July to August, which again astounds me. I thought that prices would flatten, but they continue to plummet. How does anybody make any money in this business?

In August, the index for commercial computers decreased 1.4% from July to 34.2 (2001=100). The index for consumer computers also declined, down 1.4% to 14.1.

We are Eating Out More

At least that is what Taverns and Restaurants are seeing:

Total estimated sales of the restaurants, caterers and taverns industry reached $3.7 billion in August, a 3.1 % increase over August 2006. (Data are neither seasonally adjusted, nor adjusted for inflation.)

The increase in sales, at the national level was due to higher sales at full-service restaurants (+3.4%). Sales for limited-service restaurants increased 2.0%. These two sectors accounted for more than 87% of the industry’s sales in August. The food service contractors sector also posted an increase (+6.4%). That sector accounted for almost 5% of the industry’s sales in August.

We are eating out more? Sounds like a booming economy to me.

Tim Horton’s Quickpay Card?

Saw it advertised on line and now I am looking at a glossy advertising blurb from one of the stores. I thought that investing in Tim Horton’s might be a dangerous thing, due to the over saturation of the market, however, Canadians and their love for a “double, double” has proven me to be as bad a stock prognosticator, as I claim to be.

Quarterly earnings rose to C$67.4 million ($67.9 million), or 36 Canadian cents (36 cents) per share, from $51.8 million, or 27 cents per share in the prior year period.

Just goes to show that sometimes stocks will succeed, in spite of what “experts” claim.

As for the Tim Horton’s Quickpay card, holy crap, now these guys are thinking. No interac charges, they get to keep all that money, and they get to track consumer usage as well? Wow, this one is another great idea (a little late given Starbucks has had it for a while, but still, better late than never). I like this idea as a possible shareholder (I do not hold shares in Timmy’s currently).

Out of Lu Lu Lemon

So I did finally buy some Lu Lu Lemon under the guidance of my wife. Her reasoning was that every young lady she saw at a Gym or at a Basketball tournament had the Lu Lu Lemon logo on some of their “exercise clothing”. Yes, it is a thin hunch, but I bought in and it went DOWN. Oh well, I put in a stop sell so that I didn’t lose my shirt and stopped looking. A month passed and last week I noticed I was in the black by a lot, so I changed my Stop Sell to a higher value, and LLL.TO crashed through that value, so now I am out. My wife is not happy, but we made a tidy profit on the sale, so I am happy for now. Remember the Stop Sell in Green Line, BMO Nesbitt-Burns or any other on line investment house, is our friend!

I may buy in again later, but not where it stands right now, and it is a very volatile stock right now.

Halloween Candy

Halloween Candy in stores in September? Why you may ask? Most of us know why, we think we are going to buy the Candy and be done with it, but very few of us have the “intestinal fortitude” to have a box of “Kit Kats, Crisy Crunch and Smarties” sitting in our house without snacking ourselves and then rushing out on October 30th to buy MORE candy! Never question why stores are selling things, they are doing it for a very good reason.

Fifty Cents More for Digital TV?

Rogers sent me yet another offer to get me to change my Cable TV package and this time it worked. The claim was it was going to cost me 50 cents more to get a digital TV box and package than what I currently paid. I was skeptical figuring that was the base cost, but at the end of it after taxes and service charges it was going to be a lot more.

I called, and I was surprised to see that this was not the case, but their claim was fraudulent none the less. The final price was actually 76 cents more than what I currently paid, but they gave me “free installation” to compensate for their mistake. Is this too good to be true? We shall see, I haven’t got my first bill yet, and the box is so small it will be very easy to throw it back to the Rogers Video store near my house.

Me getting a deal? Who would have thought it?

Cigarette Production Down

Good for many reasons, people are saving their money and not spending them on smokes, but also, less smokers usually means better health as well.

Cigarette production in September decreased 11.8% from August to 1.4 billion cigarettes, down 25.7% from September 2006.

Keep that money in your pocket, not going up in smoke.

Weekly Pay is Up In August

Only by $1.13 but that is up from the previous month, so that is not bad at all, really.

In August, the average weekly earnings of payroll employees (seasonally adjusted) increased $1.13 from July to $772.59. The year-to-date growth, calculated as the average of the first eight months of 2007 compared with the average of the same eight months in 2006, was 3.1%.

Good to know this one, but remember rising income, is another part of inflation as well.

In Heaven There is No Beer, That’s Why Canadians Drink It Here

OK, I am paraphrasing from one of my favorite Oktoberfest songs, but Stats Canada says that Beer continues to be Canada’s alcohol of choice, with Red Wine coming in a solid second.

In litres of absolute alcohol, the volume of sales of alcoholic beverages edged up 3.8% in 2005/2006 to 211.9 million litres.

Beer was by far the most popular beverage. In terms of dollar value, beer captured 48.6% of sales, wine, 26.6%, and spirits, 24.8%.

Consumers bought more than 2.2 billion litres of beer, up 2.9% from 2004/2005. This volume was worth more than $8.4 billion, a 4.8% increase.

That’s where some of our money is going, I guess. Alcohol purchases is up by 6.1%, but I can’t actually attest to whether that is true for me or not (I usually drink at friends houses, just ask them).

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