Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Tuition Bill Arrives

So along with dealing with a possible severance package and possibly having my income terminated, the bill arrived for my daughter’s fall term at the out of town University she wishes to attend. The bill along with the purchase of her books is a little lower than we expected (the bill includes her residence costs as well). What interests me is that with this she gets a Health and Dental group insurance, which means my daughter will have health benefits, even if the rest of the family doesn’t.

The bill is not a shock but it asks an important question, do I tell my daughter that she must stay in town to save the family money? My answer is in the next paragraph, but I have had friends who have said, that is the prudent thing to do.  Don’t sign up for a large expense that may be deteremental to the family purse, if there is a chance there is no income in the future.

I have not even discussed this with my daughter, I will find a way to get her to school this year, and if things really go south, she can then benefit from O.S.A.P. or other support systems, and I am willing to “gamble” on my abilities to find a job, if it means my daughter will attend the school she wants to attend. We have the money now (in RESP’s at least for the first little while) and I feel this is a good investment.

We also found out that my daughter missed out on a scholarship by 1.2 points (she had an average of 81.3 and she needed 82.5), guess it’s not an “aces” week financially for us, but we’ll get by.

First Interview

I had my first interview today (since my severance) and it seemed to go ok. It felt good being in an interview and the interviewer (it was an internal interview at my current employer) was complimentary on my experience so that was very encouraging as well. I didn’t feel lost or out of place, so that is a start to my journey.

My Resume Does Suck

After a short primer on how to write an effective resume, I am of the opinion now that while my resume sucks it will get better very soon. Lots of good pointers on how to capture a readers attention and how to phrase things so that they sound like accomplishments and not just a chronological diary of duties. I will take a few more courses and read a few more books on this topic, because the resume is an important tool for job searching. My resume is currently far too long, but edit’ing is one of my skills.

Happy Birthday Dear

Amongst all of this it is the woman who helps me get through all of this Birthday. I am lucky to be her partner and I am thankful every day I am with her.

Told you the blog might take a few interesting turns this week

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.

Market Crash?

Figured I’d add my 2 cents to the fray of Bloggers talking about the problems on the Stock Market these past few weeks. Is this an opportunity to buy? Should we be selling? Is it time to crack open skulls and eat the goo inside? Don’t ask me, I am standing pat for now, and we shall see what happens. My portfolio is down a fair amount, but my feeling is, now is the time, just to “Not Look”. Remember most of my stock holdings are in an RRSP, and thus aren’t a short term investment either. I am watching TD with intent.

Q3 of 2008 for Personal Finance Started

For those of you doing a Quarterly Personal Finance report, remember that Q3 just started, and you might want to think about doing  your Q2 report. I have been procrastinating doing mine, but need to get it done, to see what happened in the past 3 months, and see if there are any changes needed in our financial plan.

Money in the Jars?

Gail Vaz-Oxlade’s favorite trick with her problem spenders is putting her spenders on a set cash budget which she puts in glass jars for them. Mrs. C8j is thinking that might be an intriguing summer project, I am not so sure. I understand the concept, but am not sure it is something I can live with. Stay tuned this could turn into an interesting discussion (Mrs. C8j did convince me to go on a diet 6 years ago, and I lost 80 lbs., and I didn’t want to do that either).

How Much Do I Make?

For those curious about the scads of money I make doing Financial Blogging, well check over here at my working diary site: How Not To Make a Fortune on the Internet. Yes it’s a slow day for topics (if you haven’t guessed).

Happy Birthday Personal Finance Blogger

Michael James on Money a member of the N.C.F. B.A. is celebrating his birthday today, go on over and wish him a Happy Birthday.

Happy 141st birthday Canada, you don’t look a day over 85! Yes, I am taking today off, to enjoy Family and Fireworks, back to the daily posts tomorrow folks!

Canada at 150?

Given for Canada’s 100th birthday we had Expo67 (the greatest World Exposition ever, I’d like to say), what is Canada going to do for it’s 150th anniversary? Anybody know?

And Now a Large Flag

Happy Birthday Canada