Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Bank Rate Cut

Rates are down by 1/2 a percent again folks. Nope not time to borrow more, time to pay down now!

Bank of Canada lowers overnight rate target by 1/2 percentage point to 3 1/2 per cent

OTTAWA – The Bank of Canada today announced that it is lowering its target for the overnight rate by one-half of one percentage point to 3 1/2 per cent. The operating band for the overnight rate is correspondingly lowered, and the Bank Rate is now 3 3/4 per cent.

Information received since the January Monetary Policy Report Update (MPRU) indicates that economic growth in Canada through the four quarters of 2007 was broadly in line with expectations. Domestic demand has remained buoyant, as rising commodity prices and high employment have continued to support income growth. Canada’s net exports weakened further in the fourth quarter, reflecting the slowing U.S. economy and the impact of the past appreciation of the Canadian dollar. Overall, the Canadian economy remained above its production capacity at year-end. Core and total CPI inflation – at 1.4 per cent and 2.2 per cent, respectively, in January – have also been consistent with the Bank’s expectations.

Back to March

A new month begins for us and we end up with lots of interesting questions and topics to think about for this crucial month in the fiscal year (both at home and investing):

• Q4 results are being announced by many important companies and the stock market has been diving fast. Is it time to buy? Who the heck knows? Follow your investing plans and figure it out yourself.
• Have you paid off Christmas yet? It’s March, you should really be planning next Christmas by now, but if you are still paying Christmas off, keep that in mind for your plans for Christmas 2008.
• How has your financial plan for 2008 been going? At the end of this month, you will have finished your own Q1 (time to update your Personal Finance Quarterly Status Report), and should really do some kind of report on how things stand in terms of your plans too. If you don’t keep this up to date, how do you know where you stand?
• I will attempt to resurrect my “No spending at work” plan, which kind of fell apart in February but I will attempt to begin again (given I will be out of the office a lot this month, it might be easier to succeed as well).

Keep your receipts

Remember all that spending you did before Christmas? Hope you kept your receipts! Why you may ask? Let’s run down a few of the important points about keeping your receipts (and maybe scanning them into your computer for archiving?):

• You have a record of where you shopped, and this is important because what happens if another charge appears from that same store next month? If you don’t have your receipt, you might think, oh they are just billing slowly and pay it again. This happened to me more than once.
• So you know exactly how much you spent, and you can figure out a plan now of how to pay off the gross national debt of Zimbabwe off (that is my pet name for my Christmas debt hangover).
• You know where you didn’t shop as well. You end up with a strange charge from somewhere you know you didn’t shop, you can have that charge reversed.

Remember this doesn’t mean you have to hoard all those little pieces of paper, just make sure you keep them for a little while, just to be safe.

Random Thoughts for a Friday

• Jim Flaherty is now saying that big income tax cuts are now many years away and the federal government cannot do any more large cuts. His statement is that he thinks there will not be a huge surplus for 2008 and thus no room to cut taxes any more. Gee thanks Jim, hope Santa left you a nice lump of coal in your stocking, and maybe Rudolph left you a plum pudding on your pillow.
• Phased Retirement? Remember Big Caj, we value you and don’t want you to retire, because we don’t trust our younger employees? If I can retire, I will retire, no phases, Hast La Vista and farewell!
• Some nasty happenings in Pakistan I think could forebode some very high gas prices soon. Instability in that whole region is going to really zap us in the pocket books. It will also mean a continued strong Canadian Dollar as well, due to Canada’s oil reserves.

I may rant about Boxing day and such at the end of all of this, but I will attempt to make this my last posting about finances and Christmas.

• Christmas cards are not late if they have been mailed before Christmas day (that means even if I mail them on Christmas day they are not late). Late Christmas cards are the ones that show up in July, there is no LATE in Christmas, just delayed.
• If you are paying bills, remember to get them done TODAY because they won’t be “paid” until the 27th if you don’t (I got burned on that one once).
• I once did buy something useful at a Boxing Day sale, but it was mostly due to the fact that I needed something, AND it was on sale, AND I got there and there was still some left. Boxing Day sales seem a little too much for me. (it was a Stereo Amplifier).
• My Christmas this year is astounding even before it happens, because I have had an amazing year, and really don’t need any gifts (however, I won’t ask anyone to return them either).

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope you enjoy your Riches as much as I do (no I am not talking about money for once).