The Shredder, Your Financial Friend
Last year, we bought a shredder because I kept taking stuff to shred to work, and felt I had enough stuff that appears in my house that I do not want to leave my house in the garbage where anyone might look at it, and I also enjoying destroying things.
What kind of things do I enjoy running through my shredder?
- Most of the credit cards I have keep sending me “cheques” that I can use to make cash withdrawals and get charge 20% interest from the moment the cheque is cashed. These things have on them my credit card number on it, and thus if someone got a hold of it in tact, I would be in very deep trouble. They shred very nicely.
- Credit Cards that I do not use, I have a bunch of credit cards that I do not use, that I am going to cancel, but I have already shredded them. They shred very nicely indeed.
- I also shred many old financial documents that I don’t need to keep, don’t want to burn and don’t want to leave out in my garbage either.
- Canceled cheques and the like as well.
- Old pay stubs.
I put my shredder in the same class as my safety deposit box as being something important in my Financial Planning, an important aspect of safety and security in finances.
New Housing Prices Still Rising
Just not as fast, and it’s acceleration is dropping. This means if you are buying a new house and you waited from last year it is going to cost more, it’s just not getting as expensive, as quickly.
Year-over-year growth in new housing prices slowed for a second consecutive month in March. This deceleration continues a downward trend that started in September 2006, due mainly to the softening market in Alberta.
Contractors’ selling prices rose 6.1% between March 2007 and March 2008, a slightly slower pace than the 6.2% year-over-year increase posted in February 2008.
(…)
Elsewhere in Ontario, contractors’ selling prices were 4.5% higher in Toronto and 3.1% higher in Ottawa–Gatineau compared with March 2007.
Personal Finance Update
So my attempts at stopping my spending at work begins anew. No spending over the last few days and that is a good beginning. De-Crapification continues as well, with more crap to go very soon.
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May 13th, 2008 at 7:18 AM
good call on the shredder, when I lived in an apartment building, someone went through my garbage, found those visa cheques, and wrote some nice ones to themselves, then went on to open a Rogers cellphone account under my name.
I now have equifax and transunion required to call me anytime anyone accesses my credit for anything, to verify that is indeed me who is trying to open an account.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:54 AM
I made friend with the shredder last year. I feel it will be a lifetime thing.
Can you advice on how long we have to keep our records? I have a list from Real Simple magazine as reference, but the American standards might be different. I read on the CRA website that tax records should be kept for 6 years instead of the more commonly known 7 years.
I use my scanner liberally. Are scanned images are acceptable records?
May 13th, 2008 at 8:23 AM
I would go with whatever the CRA says. As for other records, depends on what you want from your records. Old Credit Card bills are mostly for your protection, as are old pay cheques and such.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:10 PM
Yes, the shredder is an important household appliance. I often remind people to get one and use it regularly, specifically my grandparents – seniors are easy targets. Another thing that shreds well: credit card applications that come in the mail. They might not be dangerous, but they’ve still got your name and address printed on them when they hit the blue box. I prefer to shred those.
I also enjoy destroying things:)
May 15th, 2008 at 6:12 AM
[...] The Shredder , as we spoke about on Tuesday is your security weapon for your printed records. Any old financial records must be destroyed (after they are no longer needed, please don’t just destroy records without knowing whether you need them any more), or stored in a safe place until they are no longer needed. The safest place I can think of for saving important financial documents would be either a Safety Deposit Box or a home safe (or strong box). This will secure your printed information. [...]
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:29 PM
[...] Canadian Financial Stuff on why his shredder is his financial friend. [...]