Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Canadian Government Leaps into the Mortgage Biz

Jim Flaherty announced on Wednesday that the Federal Government will buy up almost $75Billion worth of mortgages (CMHC insured) to help out the liquidity market. I am assuming these mortgages will not be “high risk” mortgages since we didn’t really have those in Canada, however, if they are insured with the CMHC the mortgage principle was over 75% of the value of the houses, so the mortgages are high(er) risk mortgages. Is this a good investment for the Government? Maybe, I don’t know, but it is worrisome that the Government must use my money to make sure these loans “happen”.

Evidently the Government still thinks they will have a modest surplus this year, even with this spending, we shall see if that is really the case.

Another Down Day on the Markets

Markets and the loonie continue to swoon this week, which is good if you are waiting to buy and bad if you have already bought stocks. Dropping commodity prices is evidently what is killing the Loonie, and with oil dropping like a stone, makes you wonder when the bottom is on that price?

Canadian Dollar’s ups and downs too

Church Bazaar and Uncluttering

T-Rex is like decluttering?

In our continuing attempts to de-clutter our lives we are now attempting to give away many toys our children do not play with by giving them to our Church’s Bazaar (on Saturday, for those in Ottawa). This is a great opportunity to get rid of clutter, as long as you don’t go to the Bazaar and buy new crap to replace the crap you gave away. Hopefully the number of “Groovy Girls” and “Polly Pockets” in our house will drop significantly.

Trying to get rid of crap by selling it yourself can be a money making endeavor, not for me. I tried to sell some crap on E-Bay and found out you are not allowed to sell old copies of Playboy (after 1980), who knew? If you wish to rummage through my garbage, my old collection will be in my recycle box next week. All of this in the name of making more space (or just getting rid of crap).

What does a T-Rex have to do with all of this? It goes with the photo thematic premise this week.