Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for the ‘Computers’ Category

I have the privilege of hosting this week’s version of the Best of Money Carnival . What is this carnival about? I’m glad you asked:

The Best of Money Carnival features the ten best (in the opinion of the carnival host) money-related posts of the past two weeks — giving readers the best of the best in personal finance.

Now this differs from my Random Thoughts posting, because these posts have been sent in and entered for judging by me, so the content is a little different. There were many, many entries and it was hard to get the list down to a “Top 10” format, but I did (and my apologies to those who did  not get chosen, remember there is always next time).

Remember the Quicktax Give-away ends tomorrow night too!

Best of Money Carnival #39 for February 22nd, 2010

There were a lot of great articles posted this week, and it was hard for me to choose a winner and the 9 runner ups, but given I am the “decider” this week, here are the posts:

Entries

These posts were really good, but which one is the best this time?

Clayton presents Free credit report posted at Just Good Financial Advice.
Talks about how you can get Credit Reports (in the states) for free every year, with some info missing, and you know how I loves that free stuff!

Craig Ford presents The Infinite Advantages Of Paying Cash For A New Car posted at Money Help For Christians.
I must admit I do have  a vested interest in this one, because I just did pay cash for my “New to me” car.

Jeff Rose presents Warning Signs You Need to Fire Your Financial Advisor posted at Jeff Rose.
A very good list of points to look for to make sure your Financial Advisor is on the “up and up”, also if your Financial Advisor goes on better vacations than you every year, start wondering about that as well.

GLBL presents Money Saving Mondays: How to know if your loan should be refinanced posted at Gather Little by Little.
OK I am a sucker for any post with a racing car on it, but also some good points about when it might be a good idea to refinance your debt (no, it is not when your bank thinks it would be a good idea).

Jason @ Redeeming Riches presents 6 Ways To Find Free Money posted at Redeeming Riches.
Again, I am a sucker for free things, but this points out areas where you can keep from losing money (which is free money as well).

Wealth Pilgrim presents Why This Boyfriend Doesn?t Need A Valentines Day Gift Idea posted at Wealth Pilgrim: Money Management Advice, Financial Stress Management, & Resources.
The price of the gift is not what matters, it’s the reason for the gift that matters, and that message resonates with me a lot. I still think his girlfriend isn’t going to be very impressed by this, but that is just my opinion.

FIRE Finance presents Annual Fee Introduced for Citi Cash Returns Credit Card posted at FIRE Finance.
I love stories where people simply cancel credit cards or move banks, because the reason they were there changes. A sudden fee change is an excellent reason to change or get rid of a Credit Card!

2 Cents presents Taxes: The Missing Step posted at Balance Junkie.
A good list of things we Canadians should remember during tax time (yes it is Tax time both in Canada and the U.S., who says we don’t share crappy traditions?).

LeanLifeCoach presents Combat The Closing Techniques – The Puppy Dog Close posted at Eliminate The Muda!.
I read this and thought, “… wait a minute, I almost fell for this once as well!”, damn puppies! Another important sales technique to watch for, and be wary of.

The Investor presents Pros and cons of being wealthy posted at Monevator.
So this one has me scratching my head, but it is intriguing, so I include it for your perusal. Any article which says, “It ain’t easy being rich”, is bound to make you stop and think (and possibly cause you to have a violent reaction, which makes it a useful article).

The Winner!

Taxes: The Missing Step

Guess I am a sucker for a set of Canadian Tax tips, during Tax season, thanks to all who participated!

As part of my every day life, I help out at my Church with the computers (remember volunteering is a good thing to do), and one of the weekly events that should happen is back up of the computers at the Church (as it should for all of us, are you doing backups?). For the longest of times I used a CD-RW (read write CD) to back up this data, but over time the data set grew, and eventually we had to use 2 CD’s to accomplish the task.

The Problem changed when we got a new system for the church that came with a DVD burner and suddenly we were able to back up much more data onto One DVD-RW (holds about 7 CD’s worth of data, uncompressed), thus the problem changed, so we adapted the answer to that change.

This past little while the DVD burner has gone “on the fritz” (my term for being broken and I can’t figure out why), so I have been unable to do these backups, which frustrated me to no end. On the way home from a fruitless repair attempt it dawned on me that maybe the problem has changed again?

The price of USB memory keys has dropped dramatically lately, to the point where now, I can purchase a 4 GB USB device for about $12, so instead of attempting to fix the DVD burner issue, I simply have changed the problem, and will now do backups to USB devices instead, thus making it faster and easier to store (securely and safely).

A side note, remember that backups are very important, but RESTORE is the most important capability, so you need to test your backup sets are readable and usable occasionally too (don’t wait until you MUST have the backups to find out whether your backups are unusable).

So What?

What does this have to do with Personal Finances? Some of us sometimes become enamored with the solution we have put in place for a specific Personal Finance issue, examples would be:

• Putting money on RRSP dutifully monthly, and only paying normal Mortgage payments, when in fact you may already have a Pension at work?
• Making over payments on our Mortgage while still carrying balances on Credit Cards.
• Paying for Banking Services or fees when we can get it for free elsewhere.

These are examples of solutions to problems that may have (or may in the future), change and you may need to rethink your response (because it is an answer to a problem no longer in play).

Stay on your toes and keep asking “why am I doing this”, when it comes to your finances, and in life as well, becuase you might find a better way, if you re-think the problem you are solving.

Don’t Taunt the Bear

Yes, I must remember the “Mojo will get you” if you complain too much about things, and sure enough the day I write about the “Techno Vulture: Fix Your PC” business sure enough I got the Blue Screen of death (from Vista, I didn’t even know you could get a blue screen of death from Vista, but I digress). I also got a nice note from TD claiming that due to the “Credit Crunch” they were going to jack up my Line of Credit interest rate another Quarter Point to a full 1% above “Prime” (remember their Prime, not the real Prime (neither of which is a Prime Number right now either, but again I digress)).

Random Thoughts

In the Blogosphere this week aside from me tilting at Windmills and messing with the Karmic Wheel (at least my own Karmic Wheel), some interesting posts came to light:

• Michael James continued his Quixotic adventure with Credit Card Interest Personal Battle Update, he continues to keep his credit card in his pocket for fear of incurring more interest charges. If he starts singing, “To Dream The Impossible Dream”, I’m outta here.
• The Canadian Capitalist reviewed a set of Cartoons from the New Yorker in The New Yorker on Money, I have always enjoyed money humor (as long as it is at someone else’s expense).
• The Four Pillars write about their experiences with the 7-11 Cell Phone, which is good to see given I am about to give Bell Mobility the boot.
• Larry MacDonald thinks the ETF Revolution has Gone Too far, why, are they stoning Mutual Fund Managers now?
• And Gail Vaz-Oxlade puts it all nicely into perspective with Put Up or Shut Up, I really like the way Gail writes in her blog, a little grittier than her TV show, Testify Sister!

My weekend will be spent extricating my PC from the Karmic Wheel I have run afoul of…

PC Repair For Fun and Profit

After reading an interesting blurb in Wired about the Geek Squad I am astounded at what passes as genuine good customer service. I have seen more articles about “We’ll Come Fix Your PC at Home” services (maybe I should copyright that name) and what they charge, it really does make me scratch my head.

I am one of the folks that people call when they aren’t sure what to do about their computers. I am by no means an expert, but more of a well informed “noodler of technology” and the stuff I know, I usually have learned through trial and error (emphasis on error), however I am glad to help friends who ask questions or need help (I am also quick to point out when I am in an area I have little experience in). Most of the people I help, usually pay me back by helping me in other areas, or they let me drink their liquor or beer (which is fine payment by me).

The “We’ll Come Fix Your PC at Home” seem to offer similar services, but their fees seem much higher than the job warrants (yes they have overhead like those annoying VW Bugs with logos all over them, and all those nifty T-Shirts they wear), and I wonder if this is really not just a “mugs game”.

Who really uses these services? Let’s assume small businesses use legitimate service providers in these areas, so the folks that are using this are families and folks that do not know computers, and thus are easy prey to these “Technology Buzzards”, who can do what they want to your system and you won’t know whether they caused the problem or not (much like a lot of Car Repair shops work, but let’s stay away from that subject for now).

How can consumers protect themselves from this techno-scurge? Find friends who know computers and ask them questions, most folks will gladly help out (but make sure they know what they are talking about too). Take courses at your local community college, if your PC is an important part of your life maybe you should know how it works? Only use repair services that have been recommended by people you respect and who you think know computers, better still ask the folks at work that support your computers about things, sometimes they are glad to help out too.

Don’t pay $249 to get someone to come to your house to do an Operating System Installation/Upgrade, unless you really don’t want to do that, then Caveat Emptor is all I can tell you.

Rogers Relents

After sending an e-mail to Rogers cable asking why their web site claimed there is a cap on the “surcharge” for Internet over-usage (I mentioned this initially in Rogers Cable and Overruns), and why I didn’t get that cap, I received a satisfactory reply (for now).

Evidently Rogers will be crediting my account by $5 for the $30 fee I paid last month, and this month’s $50 surcharge will be capped at $25.00 which is satisfactory. I still am not very happy with this whole surcharge for “overuse” and am investigating a few different high speed Internet companies (who were suggested by my intelligent readers), but I am happier that Rogers at least isn’t throwing salt in my wounds after gouging me.

Remember the importance of complaining if you do not like what is going on.

Back To School Ink

After returning from Staples and having paid $180 for ink jet replacement cartridges, I was fit to be tied. The three printers combined didn’t cost that much to purchase in the first place. Yes, I did buy XL cartridges for two of the printers (which allege to be able to print 3 times as many pages for only 2 times the cost (unless the cartridge dries out, from lack of use, like one of my printers)), however this cost for “Back to School” just drives me spare. Maybe it is cheaper to buy laser printers, does anyone know of a web site that does the price comparison?

Another important back to school cost to remember in your budgeting exercises next year.

Broken Contracts and Cell Phones

The CWTA (Canadian Wireless Telecom Association) came out with a Code of Conduct which says it is the Consumers right to be able to break contracts if their service provider changes the service being given to the consumer or raises the price of these services.  Read that sentence again, and then ask yourself, “I wasn’t allowed to get out of my contract if the service provider broke their word in the contract?”, I guess the CWTA is just reinforcing this point?

Unsubstantiated rumor has  it that it was a common practice to penalize folks who tried to get out of their contracts even if their service provider changed the contract or started to charge more, but now you have Consumer Rights!!! Whoo Hooo!!! (sarcasm for those who cannot tell).