Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Today is a Saturday and this is today’s post as well.

Finger Pointing = Points

You open the box to find a Finger Pointing, puzzling, what could that mean? Pointing? Points? Ah, yes, Points, specifically Loyalty Points and also Gift Cards. This is all money in your pocket if you choose to use them, but if you don’t they are worthless.

As my readers know PC Points is my favorite, and we will be using them this Christmas to make our Christmas much more frugal, but I also have Petro Points, Aeroplan Points, Hudson’s Bay Points, Sunoco Points, Canadian Tire Money, Optimum points and I’m sure there are others I have forgotten. All these point systems has made my wallet very “Costanza-like” in size, but I have these points.

Gift Cards? Mrs. C8j cleaned out our closet and found our gift cards from last Christmas and luckily none of them had expired, but that is another area where there is “Free Money” for Advent and for Christmas. She and I can go out to dinner for free, we can go to a few movies and I have many books I can buy as well. I keep collecting Canadian Tire money when I buy gas, and eventually I have $20 at least and usually buy new wipers for my car or something like that, but this year, maybe I’ll buy a friend something useful (like a Mr. T. Air Freshener) from Canadian Tire.

Use your Points and use your Gift Cards! You earned them, use them!

If you don’t want to spend them, donate them (you can with PC Points), make them work.

I have had this discussion with a few folks, and figured I’d bring this one to my readership:

Why do governments assume we will pay fees to dispose of hazardous waste?

When I first moved to Ottawa every weekend the City of Ottawa would run a hazardous waste drop off at the dump near my house, where you could bring your paint cans, spray paint, old household cleaners and chemicals, etc.,. It was a good system (in my opinion) which made sure a great deal of these chemicals did not make their way into the landfill and were disposed of in a safe manner.

Since then the number of hazardous waste drop offs has been cut to 2 or 3 a year, and I am confident that a great deal of the hazardous wastes are not being disposed of in a safe manner.

CRT’s Disposal Charge by the Pound

My biggest complaint now is the disposal of CRT’s and old Televisions. A year ago I took a 14 inch monitor from my Church to a store that disposed of CRT’s and was horrified to see that I had to pay almost $30 to dispose of this device (I was charged “by the pound”).  My Church gladly paid the fee, but this kind of “fee” to dispose of something hazardous makes me wonder if this is the right way to do it?

Many people I know have voiced the unlikelihood of them paying this fee to dispose of their CRT’s, and instead the CRT’s will be disposed of in more creative ways. I agree that it is wrong to dispose of CRT’s in landfill sites (lead, and other interesting chemicals are some of the by products of CRT’s in landfill sites), however, making it expensive for consumers to dispose of them is not going to encourage folks to be good “ecological citizens” of this planet.

I found a way to dispose of 4 of my CRT’s, but it was at the expense of my former employer. They were having a “clean up the campus” week where you were supposed to clean up work spaces and put the “waste” in appointed areas. I decided to expand the “clean up” to my home office, which had many old CRT’s and I brought them to work, and my former employer disposed of them (I hope).

Solution to this Hazardous Issue?

My opinion is that there should at least be some kind of “amnesty” for folks to be able to drop off old TV’s and monitors without having to pay more than $10 per device (or free would even work better). Anyone care to disagree?

Interesting North American Car Manufacturer Solution?

Completely changing the topic, my mechanic gave me the best bail out idea for the North American car manufacturers. Make all cars sold for the next 4 years tax deductible (the purchase price). You want to see car sales sky rocket, with no money invested by the Government (other than a loss in Tax income)? This intrigued me (I’m sure it is completely impossible, but it was an intriguing idea).

More Canadians Buying on Internet

In Canada we enjoy our Internet shopping to the tune of $12.8 Billion and 61% more purchases for products and services than in 2005 according to Stats Canada. An interesting statistic is that the average price for each transaction was $183.00 which seems astronomical to me, but since delivery is usually a major cost in Internet purchases (unless you are buying a product or service that can be downloaded), I suppose this isn’t as strange as I think it is?

I spend a fair amount on the Internet for services and software, and I do buy the occasional “do-dad” on E-bay but I don’t think I have spent $183 on any purchase in the last little while, maybe I need to buy a fur coat to help compensate for this lack of spending?

Oil Companies Care About Environment?

Another article from Stats Canada had me a bit confused as well, evidently the industry that spends the most on Environmental Protection is the Oil/Natural Gas business? The stat that had me floored was:

In 2006, $4 of every $100 invested by oil and gas extraction went to environmental protection

So 4 cents out of every dollar spent goes to environment protection? Wow, that must mean they must be making one heck of a mess? I really don’t know what to make of that number but it is very interesting that is for sure.

Interesting to see the continued decline of Petro Canada, given the roller coaster ride of income they have had this year, I wonder if the amount spent of Environmental Protection might change?

Live Now, Pay More Later

With the credit crunch it seems consumer credit companies are squeezing their clients even more, and will increase their late fee penalties, in response to the alleged credit crunch. Does this mean that some of the store credit cards that were already charging close to 50% usury fees on their credit vehicles are heading even higher? Goodness, maybe Loan Sharks will get back into business, and create competition? (someone please tell me what the correct font is for sarcasm). I really wonder what the rates will be for the Usury Pay Day Loan Businesses?

Jim Flaherty is predicted to announce this to help ease the credit crunch, but is this going to help? We shall see, but it isn’t bad news, except for tax payers like us, who are now on the hook for these loans as well. This whole “bail out” thing seems to be another possible area where governments will overspend and this will lead to higher taxes. 

Stock Decline Continues

Not that you hadn’t noticed, but, stock prices continue to drop on sentiment (and not much else), as we seem to be in a “shame spiral” in terms of investing, where folks are getting out now just for the sake of getting out. Yes, some companies are announcing pretty shaky numbers, but not enough to justify this kind of sell off.

Is it time to buy yet? Not sure, call me in six months, I’ll tell you whether now was a good time to buy.

Ontario Deficit Provincially?

Evidently the forecast now is for a $500M deficit for the Province of Ontario this year, which means the province is going to have to make cuts or increase taxes to get their books balanced again, or make sure they make more money next year some how . Word is that the cuts will not happen and they will be protecting Education and Health Spending, and should be able to reverse this problem soon. I am skeptical about this statement, and hope this is not a trend we will start seeing at more levels of government.

Competition in Wireless World?

Quebecor announced they will be launching a wireless phone and data service to compete with the incumbents in the area (Bell and Telus).  This is very good news, as I feel that Bell and Telus are both gouging the hell out of the customers (I am a Bell customer currently). More competition is a good thing, and the fact that this offer is a GSM and HSPA play says again that CDMA (the incumbent North American technology) is not doing well either. Rogers, and Fido run a GSM network, whereas Telus and Bell did run only CDMA, but have since announced an “overlay network” with HSPA and GSM technology as well.

For those Nortel watchers out there, CDMA is one of the remaining “cash cows” in Nortel’s war chest, and this technology continues to erode (less and less spending worldwide).

More competition in this market is a very good thing. Time to walk into Bell and ask, “Why is my bill so darn high?” and see what “deals” they have for me.