Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Open today’s box and you find a feather, to remember that you must be able to laugh at a lot of the financial woes you are going to live through, without humor we will all go crazy.

Some Financial Humor for a Saturday

The safest way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket.
–Kin Hubbard

I went to the bank and went over my savings. I found out I have all the money that I’ll ever need. .. . If I die tomorrow.
–Henny Youngman

The best way to keep money in perspective is to have some.
–Louis Rukeyser

Banks will loan you money if you can prove you don’t need it
– Mark Twain

Financial vultures
First gobble up our assets,
Then demand dessert.

A financial Haiku

The best way to save money is not to lose it.
–Les Williams

Nowadays, a penny saved is ridiculous!
–Shelby Friedman

Money talks. I’ll not deny. I heard it once. It said good-bye.
– Anon

Money: a businessman earns it, an economist learns it, a banker turns it, a politician burns it, and a wise man spurns it.
– Unknown

“Credit cards are VERY dangerous. Every time I try to use one somebody starts chasing me with scissors.”
– J. Bothne

Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.
– Steven Wright

For the second Sunday in Advent, seems like a big box, better be careful taking it down from the Calendar.

You open the box and find:

The Lamb

A Lamb? What is this dinner or something? NO! 

The Lamb is to remind us Advent is a beginning and also the Lamb is a symbol of Christ, just to remind us what Christmas is supposed to be about. When you are standing in line trying to buy your Wii Fit (yes, I have been there already), remember WHAT this season is supposed to be about.

Financially Advent (and the Lamb) can mean a new beginning, no matter how badly things seems to have gone in the past year, here is your chance to start anew, and make a new beginning. Time to forgive yourself your past financial blunders and decide that this year, you will try again and will succeed this time.

You could have Lamb for Christmas dinner, but that is more of an Easter thing really.

Given the two running themes this week have been the leaky plumbing in my house and Advent this should make for a very interesting set of Random Thoughts for the week. 

Coalition

First let me say, this is what makes Canada an amazing country. We are in the middle of a Financial Melt Down of Apocalyptic nature, yet our politicians have felt it was not “all about them” so this Carnival of the Inept is brewed up. The script reads straight out of a Marx Brothers movie (Groucho Harper, Chico Dion, Zeppo Layden and Harpo May), actually that is giving Marx Brothers movies a bad rap.

Plumbing for the Week

For those of you who believe this whole thematic premise was a clever writing trick, I give you the hole in my ceiling!

Leaky Pipes

No they are not leaking now, but just to show I am a blogger of integrity and I don’t just make this stuff up. I note Michael James attempted to steal my thematic concept with his post Enbridge TAPS Program Mishap, very cheap, go strong to the hoop, or don’t go at all!

Advent Financial Calendar Box Day 6

Today we open the box on our Advent Financial Calendar and find a Credit Card bill with a very large total and interest charges on it.

That’s a really crappy thing to find in an Advent Calendar, but if you plan on overspending at Christmas (no one does, but it happens) and think you can simply let it slide because you have a “low interest” credit card, think again. Once you start a rotating debt strategy resolving it is never easy.

Advent and Christmas are for celebrating life and enjoying family and friends, not for putting yourself into debt or worse. Money may not buy happiness but Debt sure doesn’t either.

Around the Financial Blogosphere This Week

This week there were some very interesting posts, here are but a few:

• All About Nortel asks the question, will Mike Zafirovski take a pay cut like the chairman of JAL has the past few years? I am curious to find that one out myself. 
• The BBC is pointing out that Britons are Saving Money by Having Sex , which is a new spin on Frugality, but it is cheap (if you have a partner (come to think of it… nope, not going there)).
• The Canadian Capitalist updated us on the Sleepy Mini-Portfolio, which I am actually using in one of my investment vehicles, very useful for lazy investors like me.
• Michael James seems to have lost his interest in graphs and has come over to the Dark Side of financial blogging (the Jerry Seinfeld viewpoint), where he asks, Is Half Price Meat Safe ? 
• My Money Blog added in the Dilbert One Page Guide to Everything Financial , very entertaining, no mention of half price meat though. 
• One Caveman does a little self-flagelation on some bills he let slide in his post It’s Easy to Let Things Slip . Just remember to put some iodine on the wounds afterwards, that way you won’t make that same mistake.
• Larry MacDonald points out the Best Time to Invest is Now, if you have the money.
• Money Smart Life has some ideas about how to Save Money at Restaurants , me and Mrs. C8j are sticking with the “don’t go in the front door” strategy.

Clean Air Cash Grab

I note that Daulton McGuinty assumes I have lots of money, so he is going to make me have my two cars checked again for the “Clean Air Cash Grab Emissions test”, before I can renew my registration. I have ranted about this before, but I thought this program was being phased out? Maybe it’s a special just for me? Grumble…

Have a good weekend all!

Yesterday Mrs. Caj and I discovered that our upstairs toilet’s wax gasket was not working and thus it was leaking, so we decided that this was a home repair project we could tackle (we have actually done it before). We have the Time/Life book of complete home repair which does explain in detail how to fix this problem, so I went off to the Hardware store and picked up two wax ring gaskets (or flanges).

Why Buy Two?

Simple, I know my inability to do anything correctly (when it comes to home repair or improvement) the first time. I do usually succeed on the projects I attempt (I don’t try things I know I can’t do), but I usually mess it up the first time, so I have learned the importance of buying back up parts for the project.

This home repair would have cost well over $100 if I could have found a plumber that would have come in on a Sunday, but in the end cost me $13 (for both flanges). It also needed to be done, given the toilet is on the second floor of our house, and this kind of a leak can really make a mess of the main floor ceiling and possibly compromise the home’s structural integrity (water damage to trusses). We also replaced the toilet flapper which caused water to leak, which cost me money as well (water bill).

My wife and I were also still talking to each other afterwards (occasionally we quibble in these kind of projects as well). 

Advent Financial Calendar Box Day 2

For your Financial Advent Calendar, today’s box has a slip of paper in it:

Day 2: Investigate and open a TFSA account for January 1 2009. 

Sort of a Financial Christian Fortune Cookie, really.