Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Indeed this is approximately posting number 1000 for me, and after over 4 years of writing, I am beginning to think that I still haven’t really scratched the surface when it comes to home finance, personal financial issues and investing from a consumer’s perspective. 

Will I keep going? I am not sure, it seems most bloggers stop suddenly and just disappear, usually caused by the pressures of life or just disinterest. I am hoping to keep going for a while longer.

To help celebrate posting number 1000, here is a “Best of” list from me to my readers:

Personal Financial and Planning

1. Free Banking
   One of my favorite topics on how to get your bank to give you FREE banking for a while at least.
2. Quarterly Personal Finance Status Report
   A way for couples to keep each other up to date on their financial status. 
3. Debt is Like Fat
   Another way to look at trying to get out of debt.  
4. Debt Makes Me Sick
   A frank article on my feelings about debt.  
5. I Should Divorce My Wife?
   An interesting point of view from the tax side of things. 

Children

As most of you know I have kids and I write about their effects (affects?) on my financial life.

1. Real World Example: Kids Allowances
   Where I outline a system to ensure kids get their allowances on time. My kids were pretty mad at me until I implemented this system, and as a bonus, I am still watching them (financially).
2. Kippers
   Not just a salted fish eaten for breakfast in the U.K.
3. Hidden School Costs
   Not just for universities are there hidden costs in education, public schools rake a lot of money off parents too.  

Investment

1. Einstein: The Rule of 72
   Understanding what a doubling period is, and how the rule of 72 can help you with this concept is important to the start of your investment plan.
2. RRSP or Mortgage?
   Should you invest or pay down debt, always a good question to ask. 
3. Top 5 Investing Mistakes of my Life
   This one hurts to read EVERY time, seeing how much money I lost.  

Parables

In personal finances sometimes a lot can be learned in parable format.

1. Parable: Money and the McDonald’s Play Structure
   How can my son getting stuck in a McDonald’s play structure have anything to do with money? Read and you will be amused to see where I went with this story.
2. Best Financial Advice Ever Given
   Outlines a parable my Dad told me when I borrowed a large amount of money from him. I have used this parable many times myself.
3. Don’t Pass it to the Other Team
   How does the Carleton basketball coach have anything to do with finances? Read and you’ll see a long stretch.
4. The Dangers of Advice
   How I inadvertently gave very bad financial advice to a dear friend. 

Humor

I enjoy a good laugh, mostly at my own expense and here are some of my favorite personal finance posts with a humorous angle.

1. Always Have A Target
   OK, yes, my humor normally drops to toilet humor, but this one is funny too! 
2. God and a Stock Broker?
   This is funny, except last week.
3.  Why Banks are always funny
   Going into banks, talking to banks, interacting with banks, etc., you had better have a sense of humor, because if you don’t you’ll go crazy.
4. Get Off the Throne
   A perspective on the Throne Speech, that Stephen Harper might not have appreciated. 

Kippers? Not Just for Breakfast Any More

One of my Dad’s favorite treats was kippers, I loathed the smell of them, but my Dad loved their taste.

This weekend, however, I read a new twist on the term Kipper, evidently there is a new financial term to describe “older children who won’t move out of their parents’ houses”, KIPPER. In this case it decodes to:

• Kids
• In
• Parents
• Pockets
• Eroding
• Retirement
• Savings

I read that and it really tickled my fancy as a new and useful Personal Finance Term. In your retirement plans, do you have any contingencies in case you have KIPPERS?

US Interest Rates Cut Again

This is very interesting, the U.S. reserve lowered their rate to 4.5%

“Today’s action, combined with the policy action taken in September, should help forestall some of the adverse effects on the broader economy that might otherwise arise from the disruptions in financial markets and promote moderate growth over time,” the Fed said Wednesday in the commentary with its rate announcement.

Interesting, the Canadian dollar is at $1.06 in value compared to the U.S. buck (highest in 50 years), this rate cut is only going to push other currencies higher. Interesting move, and there are already manufacturing jobs going South (but this time from Canada to the U.S., not from the U.S. to Mexico). Wonder if this is a new policy?

For those of you who are regular readers, Kids Allowances was the original post.

Real World Example: Kids Allowances

OK, so back to what this blog is about, real world financial ranting.

For the longest time my wife and I tried to get the kids on an allowance, so that they could learn what money is, how it works and some responsibility, but inevitably, we’d forget for a couple of weeks, try to catch up and eventually just gave up (much to the kids chagrin). Interesting, we were trying to teach the kids responsibility and all it did was show how irresponsible their parents were (now THAT is ironic).

About 6 years ago I was in the TD on one of my yearly visits, getting my bank fees waived for a year, and get them to fix something they had screwed up (I think it was my mortgage that year), when I asked about kids’ bank accounts. My brother sends the girls money every year, and we had got to the point where we didn’t want to just buy them toys with it. The poor woman who’s life I was ruining for the day, said the accounts could be opened then (since the kids had SIN numbers), and the accounts would show up “under” my account on my on line banking.

A day or two later, a light went on in my head. I called the bank on the phone lady (who I now call once a year, because I do most of my banking on line, but couldn’t figure out how to do what I wanted). I asked her to set up weekly transfers from my account to my kids accounts, thus assuring that the money was paid every week (whether I remembered or not).

Well, it has worked, the kids get their weekly allowances AND they actually do things like:

• Buy clothes that they really want
• Have somewhere to put their uncle’s money and can then buy what they want
• Buy presents for their friends birthdays (that one shocked me the first time it happened).

So it seems this experiment has worked, chalk one up for me.