Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Severance and Redundancy

Those of you who are regular readers know that I work in the High Tech industry at a large telecommunications company, that was until Wednesday July 30th, when my position there was declared redundant and I was given a severance package.

This is not a parable or a story on my part, this has actually transpired, I am now gainfully looking for employment after 20 years of work at the same company. As I mentioned yesterday, this is most likely going to temper and change the tone of this blog, to be less “savings” oriented and more “survival” oriented. As most can tell, I write about things in the financial area that matter to me and to my family, and this kind of upheaval and change is bound to cause a thematic change in my writings (at least for now).

I have spoken to many people about this already (including most of my loved ones, hopefully no more are learning from odd places, as my Brother learned from a comment I left on an industry web site), and I have already “activated” my network of contacts for job searching.

I am open to requests for articles or requests from my readers about this event in my life, however I must say that legally I am not allowed to say how much my severance package is, and there are some other points I am not supposed to discuss, that I can’t remember. I will say that it is very generous (but it should be given I have been there for 20 years, and am now 47 years old), and I have been given access to a firm that will help me get ready to find a new job.

I am also eager to hear of stories of redemption and success in this area, as well as helpful tips on how to survive and better still overcome this tumultuous event in any worker’s career.

Excellent Layoff and Severance Articles So Far

• Gail Vaz-Oxlade has written this excellent article: 9 Things to Do If You Lose Your Job . Good reading.
• Canadian Capitalist made a post a while ago (and he and I have spoken in E-mail about this situation already): Surviving a Layoff .
• Uncommon Sense also lays out some important points in: 14 Tips For Living Through a Layoff

Today, I celebrate my 20th year at my current High Tech employer. When I started 20 years ago, the PC was something new, all computing was being done on Mainframes and the cell phone was only just beginning. Today a complete generation of high tech gizmo’s have come and gone from when I started working in High Tech and things that were deemed impossible when I was at University, are now common place and easy.

Will I last another year? I have no idea, but that is the joy of working in High Tech, you might go the way of the Atari 800 or the Vic 20, if you aren’t careful!

Twenty Years Ago Financially

Twenty Years ago about now, we’d seen Black Monday the first of many market corrections, and the second biggest single day drop in the history of the stock market (ok that was 21 years ago, but still topical).

In 1988 my salary then is now 25% of what I currently make, which is mind blowing, except that I haven’t seen a raise in 5 years either, which is a bad thing. The Savings & Loans scandal rocked the U.S. economy (glad to see THAT could never happen again (what IS the font for sarcasm?)). The Solidarity trade union goes on strike for 3 weeks in Poland, with Communism starting to show it’s first cracks. Free Trade between Canada and the U.S. was brought into law as well (I remember those arguments, what were they about now?).

Some stocks of interest on July 18, 1988:

• Nortel was at $19.00 in US trading back then
• Microsoft was at $68.50
• Berkshire Hathaway “A” were about $4350 (US)
• IBM was at $125
• Pfeizer was at $50.50
• CSCO, DELL and RIM were not even listed (heck, RIM hadn’t even been thought of yet).

That summer Canadians got to live through the indignity of the Ben Johnson scandal at the Seoul Olympics too! Luckily 1988 gave you Prozac as well, so you could feel better about things too.

Holy cow, I am an old fart. Have a good weekend all.

The Royal Bank published a report effectively saying, “Relax, it’s only a bump in the economy“, with a forecast that things economically will not be as bad as first predicted.

The full economic report by Craig Wright the Head Economist at RBC is actually a nice read, with a province by province break down of what the predictions for the coming few months might be.

Being a bit of an inflation zealot I did think the following paragraph is quite interesting:

The RBC report forecasts that Canada’s core inflation rate will likely trend higher this year though remain below the Bank of Canada’s two per cent target. Mitigating factors that have pushed the inflation rate lower, such as the impact of the rising Canadian dollar in 2007 and the retail discounting that Canadian companies have had to offer to compete for market share, will start to dissipate through 2008. By 2009, RBC expects the inflation rate to average close to the two per cent range.

This seems to imply that the rise in Gasoline price will either have subsided or have been absorbed into the economy (or maybe it might drop?). Interesting prediction, I don’t agree with it, I think it is an overly optimistic view.

For Ontario, a little more gloomy:

Ontario is labouring through its softest patch since the early-1990s recession.The provincial economy likely contracted in the first quarter and should
recover only gradually through the remainder of the year.

I think I agree with that sentiment as well.

It’s always important to read these kind of reports to understand the Macro Economy around you, even when you are someone like me who looks closer at the Micro-Economic conditions.

Happy 4th of July

To our American cousins and neighbours we wish a happy 4th of July, and hope you enjoy blowing things up and the Boston Pops.

Gas Price Calluding? Never!

I was amused to see that the competition bureau have now charged a bunch of gas station owners in Quebec with price fixing for gas. I am astounded how is this possible? (I really must learn what is the correct font for sarcasm) When every gas station has the exact same price in an area, what might cause that? Inelastic demand? No, I think price fixing is a little more likely.

Food Prices only up 1.2% Over Year

That is what Stats Canada is saying, that our food prices have only gone up 1.2% over the past year, which is interesting, given the cost of gas sky rocketing, where is this cost being buffered in the system?

Overall, consumer prices for food consumed at home in Canada have risen only 1.2% in the 12 months ending in April 2008. Food prices increased 7.1% in the European Union and 5.9% in the United States during the same period. Countries in Asia with rice-based diets are experiencing the fastest increase in food costs, as the price of rice doubled early in 2008.

Interesting.

Canadians Love the Internet

And I for one am glad of it. Keep going on line and keep visiting interesting blogs, like this one!

Among people who used the Internet at home, 68% went online every day during a typical month and 50% for five hours or more during a typical week. On average, men were online more often and for longer periods than women.

Nortel Sky Rockets

NT is up over $2.00 in the past two days on the statement that they will be doing as they said they would in terms of sales and they are concentrating on LTE wireless technologies (shunning Wi-Max). What does this mean? Hopefully Canada’s former tech darling is starting to get back on their feet and can stop being referred to as “The Former Tech Titan Nortel”. Stay tuned, no this is not me saying go buy this stock, I do hold the stock in a very small way.

Yahoo and Google Get Chummy

Yahoo is now completely killed the Microsoft deal, signing an agreement with Google about search technology sharing and such. This means Yahoo most likely will disappear slowly over time or simply become a part of the Google Monster. Interesting, at one time Google was the “up start” company and Yahoo was the Monster, High Tech is always an interesting world to watch.

I want an iPhone

Yes, the new iPhone 2.0 has been announced by Apple, and it looks really cool to me. They have resolved the issues that I had with it not having a high speed wireless interface (HSDPA 3G) but that is remedied and there are many other really cool applications too. Anyone wishes to have me do a review, please send me one, and I promise to run it through it’s courses (Mrs. C8j will not allow me to buy this High Tech toy, so that is my only chance for now). The cost of the data subscription rate is enough to make me cringe.