Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Some random ideas for the end of an interesting week:

• The Canadian dollar has plummeted back to parity with the Yankee dollar, which may be a good thing at the end of it all. Guess I’m glad I follow Larry McD’s advise to pick up some VTI when the dollar was at $1.10 .
• I got my “new to me” car, which is very nice to drive. Yes I could have gone to the states and maybe got it cheaper, but I’d rather give my mechanic the business for now.
• Stats Can talked about leading indicators being up by 0.1% in October which shows a slowing in the Canadian Economy, but still positive growth, so that is good too.
• Is Cross Border car shopping affecting new car sales in Canada? Not sure, but we shall see.
• Christmas shopping explosion should begin next week with American Thanksgiving being a little earlier than usual as well. Remember what Christmas is, and try not to turn it into an excuse to spend money.

Have a great weekend all!

Canadian Leading Economic Indicators Unphased by Financial Market Stupidities

So the leading indicators are up 0.4% over August, and more importantly don’t seem to reflect any “wear and tear” from the financial market fiascoes of that time frame (i.e. lower than prime mortgage stuff).

Household demand remained the driving force behind growth. The housing index leapt by 5.3%, its largest gain in almost six years, due to higher housing starts. Spending on durable goods also accelerated. Strong consumer demand for services was the largest contributor to the growth of services employment.

So the Canadian economy continues to chug along happily, which is a good thing.

And the Loonie will Dive

RBC claims that by next year, the Loonie will be back down to 93 cents American, but I am not so sure about this one. I think the U.S. government has made a conscious decision to force their economy back to a more manufacturing base, and not have to rely on imports as much. A sliding American dollar makes for much more expensive imports, which means American manufacturers are on a much more even playing field now? Yes, it’s simplistic on my part, but if you want to kick start things, maybe creating a “Buy American” ground swell, by forcing the prices of imports up (without having to use tariffs) is pretty smart.

ATM Fees a little Math

After finding out that the banking machine at my office has become a “white” ATM machine to me (being a TD customer), it now means that if I take out $20, I pay $3 in service charges. What does that mean?

• Effectively I am paying 15% interest (at that moment) to get money from this machine. Yikes that is a hell of a lot of money to pay just to get $20
• Yes, I shouldn’t just take out $20 at a time, I should take out MORE, but I actually take the next logical step which is to go to a banking machine for my bank and not get charged anything.

As I said, invest in banks, no one else could get away with this.

Strong Dollar, Why No Price Drops?

For those of us in Canada, we have learned that there are two prices on most books and such that you purchase, the price in the U.S. (in U.S. dollars) and the Canadian Price. What do I mean? Look on the back of most any book in your book store and you will see two prices (maybe three if it quotes a European price), and the U.S. price is usually significantly cheaper than the Canadian price.

Makes you wonder now, will those books drop in price in Canada, due to the strength of our Wonderful Loonie? My guess is the American price goes up to match the Canadian price, but again, one of those, “I wonder what will happen” questions. Then again, maybe I just need to drive to Ogdensburg, and buy my books there? Might actually cause a resurgence in cross border shopping.

Lots of Women at University?

Being the father of 3 beautiful daughters, I was glad to see that Young Men are far less likely to move onto post secondary education than women (given I am a father of a two year old son, I am also quite concerned). Interesting, so I had better not plan on using my daughters’ RESP to pay off my house, however, maybe I can use my son’s?

LuLu Lemon on the Rampage Again

This stock just keeps going, it is now flirting with $40 a share, and given it’s initial IPO of $18, that is one heck of a lot of growth in equity value in a six month time frame. Maybe we need some smart guy to tell us more about this stock, say Investment Jungle?

Ontario Election Looms

The October 10th election in Ontario looms on the event horizon, and all candidates are making promises that are dubious in their origins. How are they going to pay for all of this? At least the NDP is honest and says, “Taxes!”, the Liberals claim they don’t need extra money, and the Tories claim they will cut programs to pay for their ideas. I have resolved to have a sign from every party on my crab grass infested front lawn by October 10th (at least for Nepean).

National Capital Financial Bloggers Posts of the Week

• Profit from Employee Stock Purchase Plans
• Fed Rate Cut the Lag Factor
• Harley Davidson, is it a good investment?
• Interest rates down, Gold goes up?

My Articles This Week

• The Safety Deposit Box, Our Friend
• Ninety Seven cent dollar