Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Luke 9:25

For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?

My view of this biblical passage is simple, and asks an easy question, that is very hard to answer: Why build wealth, if at the end of it you are unhappy? Better still does money buy happiness?

Many times I find myself worrying about money and trying to find ways to make more money and such, but why am I doing it? My reasons are clear to me, I am trying to make “enough” money to live and then not have to try to create more wealth, if I don’t need it.

When I was younger, I didn’t really have that perspective, I just wanted more, but I also spent much more, losing focus on the fact that if you make as much as you spend, you are not building wealth, you are simply acting as a “money pass through”.  I know now that my life outside of my “career” is rich and wonderful, and all I want now is to figure out a lifestyle that I wish to live, figure out how much money I will need to live it, and then have enough money to be able to live it, it is that hard and that simple.

Money buys you the ability to do what you want, but you must be the master of your wealth, and not get caught up in the trappings of having a lot of things. Making money will allow you to do what YOU want, and by building a strong financial plan, and remembering why you want this money you achieve freedom. 

You are buying your financial freedom, and with that freedom, the power to do what you want.

Yup, time for another election folks, whoopee!! Who will come out on top? I don’t care, whoever it is, get the heck out of my bedroom and my wallet (to paraphrase Pierre Elliot Trudeau). 

Stephen Harper dropped by the Governor Generals place at 9:00 AM on a Sunday (wonder if she was dressed by then) and the government was dissolved. All this and the poor woman couldn’t go to the Paralympics Games opening ceremonies.

My wife and I will be playing the fun game: “How many political party signs can we get on our front lawn”, you should try as well, if someone sends me a picture of their lawn with GENUINE political signs on their front lawn, I will post them (I promise).

The questions I will be asking anybody who shows up on my doorstep from any party:

1. What is your party’s status on income sharing between spouses who are  younger than 55 years old and don’t have pension income?
2. How will your party help students attempting to not carry a crushing debt load when they graduate from University?
3. Will your party bring in stronger controls of Pay Day Loan companies?
4. If I vote for your party, will you help me find a job in the government? Really, come on, give an unemployed guy a break!
5. What is your party’s stance on the Federal Government standardizing their databases so that Canadians are not “tracked” in more than 10 different Federal government databases?

Any other questions folks might want to ask, add them in, I’ll post the best of on Friday.

Google Turns 10!

Yup 10 years ago on Sunday Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin and now it is worth over $150 Billion dollars. How? They went where the money is, advertising, and they also innovated when others were attempting to only survive, way to go guys, now can you please increase my Adsense payments?

Another company that might have been good to buy, even after the RIDICULOUS IPO price (who knew?).

One of the things I am learning is that I actually have done a great deal of training at work (it is one of the things you need to know and can talk about at job interviews), but it struck me (again) that I did not take advantage of all the training I could have taken from my current employer (who offers an extensive set of training facilities (not just for laid off folks)).

Financial Training

Where can we learn about financial stuff, you may ask? I have spoken about Financial Research before, but everywhere is the simple answer.

Hereare a few ideas that pop into my head:

• University of Waterloo offered an introduction to Actuarial Sciences course by correspondence, which was amazing. Taught me a great deal of info about present and future value of money and taught me how to figure out how Mortgages are calculated, and gives you a great deal of background on how insurance calculations are done as well.
• Look at your local community colleges, they offer a plethora of interesting finance based courses, that can teach you the basics of things, or help you polish your skills. Algonquin College here in Ottawa offers a great deal of training in this area.
• Even the high schools offer night courses in these areas to help out.
• The Ottawa Public Library (and your library too I would guess) has a cornucopia of books to help you out in this area (I mention lots of them in this very blog).

You have no excuse not to learn more and more, because the more you know, the better off financially you are going to be.

If I have missed any other areas, comments welcome on where else you can get financial training.

Work Training

Your employer may not even know it, but they may be helping you out too. I took a “Finance for Non-financial Managers” course that taught me how to read a company’s balance sheet and figure things out from it. Look for courses on how to use EXCEL or whatever spreadsheet you like using, they may teach you some stuff that will help you out too.

Remember, to get training at work if it is offered. Your company is giving you a chance to expand your skill sets and make you a better candidate for other jobs. If they pay for it, why aren’t you taking advantage of it? Expand your skills and thus make yourself more valuable to your company but also in the job market too.