Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Proverbs 21:5  The plans of the diligent certainly lead to profit,
    but anyone who is reckless only becomes poor.

That works for me as a Sunday thought, and I like it. Financial Planning is something that needs diligence and your undivided attention, and if you are reckless in your planning you will most likely be poorer for your lack of diligence.

I have been guilty of acting quickly or without enough information and every time it has cost me money. If you are doing something that you are not sure you should be doing, when it comes to your finances at least, most of the time, you shouldn’t be doing it.

Do the diligence, make the plan and stick to it.

One thing that this whole severance theme in my summer has taught me is that there are some amazing people that I know, and they are incredible givers. People who I barely know are giving me suggestions or helping me directly in so many ways, that I must now pledge that when I do get another job, if I hear of someone I know that is looking for a job, I will try to help them the same way. It is important to keep up the good works, because that is what makes us a Society.

For my readers, I will attempt to put something together to either set up the chronology of how things worked and what helped me, or put together a “How To” E-book or something like that to outline what you need to do, and what has worked for me over the time I looked. If I find a job quickly, this may be a very short book, and I hope it is, but I will then investigate this as a topic further.

I thank everyone who has helped me so far, and I thank those who don’t even know they have helped:

A Prayer For the Unemployed

Heavenly Father, we remember before you those who suffer
want and anxiety from lack of work. Guide the people of this
land so to use our public and private wealth that all may find
suitable and fulfilling employment, and receive just payment
for their labor; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This day is really the beginning of it all for the Christian Faith. Strangely Christmas seems to be a more celebrated holiday, but Good Friday and Easter Sunday are the alpha and omega for the Christian Faith. Without Easter Sunday, there really isn’t Christianity (just as there isn’t a Faith without Good Friday as well).

Enjoy the feast and the celebration of our faith. Feast and enjoy, and revel in new beginnings.

Remember that Lent is now over too, so if you had a Financial Plan or Lenten vows to add or remove something from your financial plans, that time is over, look back and see if it was a success. If you feel you failed, figure out why, and either try again, or try something else. Take the good from your works and move on.

Use Easter as the starting of something new, Financially and Spiritually. Revel in the joy of a new start, and new beginnings!

In Ottawa we have a very flamboyant Mayor who came in to power with the statement that he was not going to raise taxes. This statement (I won’t call it a promise) seems to have disappeared and the latest levy he is talking about is a $50.00 surcharge per tax payer and business due to the high amount of snow in Ottawa this year (the snow clearing budget is over budget at least $23 M so far).

Last year we didn’t have a lot of snow, and this same fund ran a surplus, but I never saw a nickel back in my taxes. In fact this fund has run surpluses for the past N years, yet whenever that happened, no money came back to me directly, but now that Mother Nature has stepped in, I must now find more money to pay for bad planning? If I make the bad plan, I am the one that has to live with it, and I must live with the consequences (yes I still complain), but now I must fork out more money, due to there being no emergency fund for excessive snow? Larry, drop by my house and see if you can convince me I should pay this tax, because I don’t think you’ll get me on side with this one.

Easter Charity

I was very impressed to see John Chow campaigning for donations to a soup kitchen in the Vancouver area. John actually matched all donations, and managed to raise over $7,000 for that charity, and I applaud him for that.

For local Ottawa readers, the Shepherds of Good Hope is a mission that I support when I can, given I used to work up the road from them, and I have seen first hand the good works that they do. Remember Easter is a time of renewal and a time of giving.

Scary Statement for the Day

After the U.S. Fed lowered yet another of their key rates by 3/4% one analyst was actually heard to say, “I wouldn’t be surprised to see a rate of 0%…”, I almost fell out of my chair when I heard that one. I think this constant dropping of interest rate may help in the short run, but it is not resolving the main issues which is massive DEBT problems in North America. People are living outside of their financial capabilities, and it is eventually going to cause something very bad to happen.

Carnivals This Week

This week my posting The Seduction of Spending was mentioned in The Carnival of Everything Financial #15 hosted by Everything Financial .