Canadian Personal Finance Blog

After watching athletes work hard to reach their goals, I feel invigorated to attempt new financial goals of my own (OK, that’s pretty lame, but I couldn’t figure out any other way to spin the Olympics into a post over the past two weeks).

Glad to see the Canadian Athletes compete and do the Canadian thing and not win too much and be boastful, we are a very polite nation.

Coming Financial Decisions

The coming week is an important one for me financially because I must make key decisions on how much, and when my severance package is to be executed, and what to do about my pension (whether to leave it in my company’s badly underfunded pension (last time I heard it was funded up to about 87%)) or take the money and run, with some severe tax implications)).

I am meeting with a Financial Planner today (who is also a Chartered Accountant), to hear his ideas on how to make my severance package run as long as it can, and to maximize it’s financial impact for me. Ideally, when I find a job soon, I can simply use it as a debt destruction vehicle, but I must plan in case I have issues finding a job, as well (remember Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worst).

Mostly I am meeting with this gentleman, because it is free, as his services are being paid for (evidently he charges $175 an hour normally) by the Right Management team that I am dealing with. I’ll listen to anyone for free, doesn’t mean I will necessarily follow their advice, but I can listen easily for free.

Interesting questions that may come up:

• Is it better to pay down debt quickly thus having less to deal with, or plan to simply service debt so that my liquidity stays sound?
• Is it worth working at Home Depot in my spare time right now? The easy answer there is NO, not this year, because whatever I earn, I lose about 1/2 of, and we should be able to budget well enough to last that long.
• Should I cash out of my company’s pension plan? Do I think they will exist in twenty years, and will the pension fund ever get back to 100% funding is the real question.

What other questions maybe need to be asked? I am open to suggestions here folks, any good questions, please pass on in the comments section.

Should be an interesting visit.

My wife and I have fallen into the daily trip to the grocery store trap (very dangerous, because you just never figure out how much you are spending until you do your Quarterly Financial Report).

We came up with an idea, that I am pretty sure we can’t live up to, but I throw it out to the folks who might also have fallen into this gas wasting, and money wasting trap.

Premise: You are spending too much money going to shop every day for groceries, and you are wasting gas doing the trip every single day.

Walk !

Yup, if you are going to go to the grocery store every day, you must walk there ( we will accept cycling there or taking the bus, if you have a bus pass). I will allow for if you go shopping on the weekends, you can drive 1 day, to pick up a “weekly order“, however all other times you must walk.

Why walking? Am I some kind of Physical Fitness Wacko? Nope, but let me be more precise:

Benefits

1. Exercise (yes, you, the one that is eating that second donut, I mean you). For me the walk is about 1.5 km each way, maybe, I tried it out today, and it is about a 55 minute round trip proposal. Exercise tends to help your appetite get under control as well.
2. You will only buy what you can carry home with you. If you are taking the bus, you might want to put some kind of limitation on this, but if you are walking, you aren’t as likely to over buy, because, you know how much you can carry all the way back home.
3. There will be days where you go, “We don’t need fennel that much”, and not buy it that day. You will then not buy the donuts, and/or other things that you might impulse buy too.
4. You save money on the gas, and right now, that is not chump change either. If you cut out 5 trips a week? Over the year that could add up to some serious money.
5. If you go with your wife, it gives you time to walk and talk without the kids around too!

Flaws

1. It’s pouring, and you just ran out of milk for your toddler, because the teenage locusts drank it all.  (sorry dear, the big cajun wife is driving)
2. You need your meds and have run out of your prescription (no plan of this kind should be life threatening). Go get your meds, you are allowed to take your car!
3. The walk to your grocery store is over 5 Km (one way), then I guess it’s ok, but my bet is, you don’t shop every day if that is the case as well!

As I said, me and Mrs. C8j may try this out, we did on Monday, and it was quite nice, but I was on vacation that day as well.

When I was growing up in Montreal I had my bicycle stolen straight out of my family’s garage, and I remember my Dad giving me some money to go get a new one. It was traumatic for me, since I had never had anything of my own stolen, and suddenly my bicycle (my only means of transport) was taken, it was quite upsetting.

From that day onward I closed any garage I was associated with and became a Nazi about locking doors and such, because I was worried about people taking my stuff.  I got insurance and worried about my stuff getting taken, so I was very careful with my stuff. I write this because there was a posting on a local board that I read about a bicycle being stolen from someone’s garage, and it brought back to me, and made me wonder what some people are thinking in my neighbourhood.

I go off to work and it seems like my neighbours leave their garages open all day long, how trusting can you get? I realize no one is going to run off with my snow blower (although anything is possible), but the bicycles in my garage aren’t cheap, and worse still, the door into my garage from my house is rarely locked, so thus it is an open door to my house.

Do I have enough home insurance? I really am not sure, I think I can replace my house, and I can replace many items in it, but I hope not to have to find out. I have been meaning to do a home inventory of the major items, so at least I would have a guess what might need replacing, but it is something that you procrastinate about because you don’t think it will happen to you.

Am I being paranoid? I invite my readers to comment on this, but I am always worried that someone might be wanting to take my stuff, and I take action to stop that.

RIP George Carlin

Way off topic, but still I must mention the passing of George Carlin. He was an influence on me growing up, I must have worn out my copy of “Class Clown” and his mistrust of “the system” in general still pervades my belief system. I did manage to see him live in the late 90’s in Vegas and I am saddened that he is no longer with us.

Happy St. Jean Baptiste Day

A mes amis Quebecois,  I wish you a joyeux Fete National and hope there are many choruses sung of Gens du Pays sung. Vive Le Quebec!