Canadian Personal Finance Blog

This week in the finance blogs we not only got to talk more about the Great Financial Apocalypse of ‘08 we also got to write about a bunch of other interesting financial stuff.

Ghosts, ghouls and Witches are about in the economy this Halowe’en, and what is in store for our retirement funds now? Who knows? Pirates maybe? Some of the mutual fund and financial folk out there certainly act like the Privateers of old, all they need is the Jolly Roger flying over their offices.

Shiver Me Timbers and Hand over your Mutual Funds!

Random Thoughts for A Halowe’en Pirate Style

• All About Nortel is wondering where all the media coverage is for the denouement of Nortel? I have no idea, maybe complete disinterest says loudly that most Canadians, just don’t care any more about this former High Tech darling. Make them walk the plank!
• Michael James on Money came up with his own Mutual Fund Disclosure rules, to help investors have better clarity of where their money goes, I suspect they will not be adopted in the near future. Shiver me timbers!
• Preet at Where Does All My Go published a list of famous (infamous?) investing quotes. I always enjoy, “Buy low, sell high, it’s that simple”, hoist up the Jolly Roger!!!
• Canadian Tax Resource asks one of my favorite questions during these troubled times, “Should I Invest or Pay Off Personal Debt?“.  Neither a borrower nor a lender be! (wait a minute that’s Shakespeare not Piratey).
• The Canadian Capitalist asked, is Thrift Making a Comeback? I don’t think it was ever out of style to keep your money in your pocket, but maybe I am just an Old Salty Dog.
• One Caveman’s Financial journey laments I could Be Rich If I didn’t Have This Debt , it’s kind of like me saying I’d be in great shape if I didn’t have this spare tire around my waste. Remember, Debt Men tell no tales!! (what a great pun).
• Alphablogs mentioned my Twenty Years in One Line post in their Canada 9-5 in October post. 
• Money Smart Life has 5 Tips For Reducing Your Moving Expenses, which frankly those of us who are over 40 will ignore. Rather swallow a gallon of grog before that!

Than the day I bought it about nine years ago, which is not a bad investment. I base this all on the wacky assessment notice that I got from MPAC . I don’t actually believe the evaluation as a real value that I would get if I sold my house (without taking into consideration all of the associated costs with selling a house), however it is an interesting number to start with. 

The actual evaluation will not be implemented right away, it will be gradually raised until 2012 when this value will be in place, which is more interesting, since if the housing market in Ottawa remains robust, my house may be worth even more by then? Maybe not, but it is something else to consider in this wacky equation.

Does this mean I will be paying more property taxes? Given that my evaluation has gone up about 11% from the evaluation I had in 2005, I think my property taxes will not go up that much in reference to this evaluation, however, my guess is other charges from the City of Ottawa will increase my property taxes by a fair amount this coming year. My first property tax bill arrives some time in January.

Percentage of Home Ownership

If I am to assume that this evaluation is relatively close to what the market will pay for my house, it does change how much (as a percentage) of my house that I own. Figuring out how much I still owe on my property, I actually own about 60% of my house currently, which is a reassuring feeling, however, it’s not like I can jettison 40% of the house and thus be out of debt. 

The other problem is, all other houses around me are appreciating in value as well, so the value of my house as an investment is not that great, in that it is unlikely I will move out of it and into a much cheaper house in the near future.

Gas Below 90 cents a Liter

Speaking of wacky, in Ottawa gas dropped below 90 cents a liter for a little while, which is very interesting. The Canadian Dollar has swing like a pendulum, but now with lower gas prices, suddenly traveling becomes much cheaper than it was going to be six months ago. Will gas prices stay down? Don’t know, but it’s nice to see for now, as it makes running my cars (and snow blower) much cheaper right now.

Stocks Still Dropping

The world continues to be jittery about stocks and they continue to drop in value for now. Rate cuts continue in most countries trying to stimulate spending, but a lot of folks are just worried and are going to keep their money in their wallets for now, until they are sure their jobs are safe.

More Job Cuts

Rumor has it that my former employer will soon be adding to the employment pool, by laying off another 18% of their work force (I have heard, this is unsubstantiated rumor), which will make looking for jobs in Ottawa that much harder. Not all the job losses will be in Ottawa, but their continues to be a steady flow out.

Good question after the past couple of weeks, asking that question might not be the question to ask, the question might be, “How bad is it going to be this week?”, especially on the financial markets. I have no advice or wisdom for you right now, I simply watch and ask questions and simply react to what happens. Maybe it’s best to follow the Lawyer’s credo, “Never ask any question you don’t know the answer to before hand”.

Cash is Still King

On the personal finance side (micro) we (Mrs. C8j and I) continue to live with the credo “cash is king” and continue to keep our credit cards out of our wallets. How long we can keep this up, I don’t know, but for now, it is important not to allow any credit “build up” to occur thus causing financial haemorrhaging, as we have seen in the past.

More cash is appearing from transferring work related savings vehicles into our own RRSP and savings vehicles, so again, we have decisions to make about WHAT to invest in and WHEN to do that investing. For now, I am in a “wait and see” mode, since I still have little confidence in the current economic apocalypse.

Top 100 Employers in Canada?

Given I am still looking for a job, folks send me interesting information, and one I received from my mother. Evidently there is a company that rates the Top 100 Employers In Canada, with details about every company and why they are such good companies to work for. The information is interesting and is mostly on the “macro” level (i.e. benefits and such), and not much about the work environment itself, but still very useful information to have when searching for a job. Strangely my former employer is not mentioned, curious.

I am not that picky right now, I’ll take work, and not worry as much about whether there is subsidized maternity leave (given it doesn’t really matter to me either).

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.