Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Yesterday most of the financial blogs took time out and had an April Fool’s post of some kind, a few caught me off guard, but then I realized what day it was, and laughed along with the authors. I don’t typically post April Fools stuff too much, because I am so gullible and might read my own posts and then believe them. John Chow had the most evil April Fool’s day gag, but I won’t link to it, because it causes nasty things to happen to your browser windows.

Pay Day Loan Fees Capped

In Ontario the provincial government did something of value, by capping the “fees” the payday loans companies have been subjecting their clients to. Along with the cap the legislation will also:

If the legislation passes all payday lenders must also:

• Be licensed by the province
• Provide customers with a total that includes all charges the consumer is required to pay when borrowing
• Contribute annually to a fund to pay for public education about payday lending.

I applaud the Provincial government for this action against these modern day loan sharks. As my regular readers know, I loath these institutions, and their trickery to steal as much money as possible from the people who can least afford it.

Be Nice to the Police Person (off topic kind of)

Sunday night I got yet another example of speaking to someone in a contrite and apologetic way when you know you were in the wrong, can sometimes help you out. I was returning from a basketball tournament very late and was in a big rush to get home.

Between Highway 407 and 401 in Toronto is a bit of a goat path (called Brock Road), which has a very low speed limit.  I came over a rise and barreling down a hill at what must have been 100 km/hr and the posted speed limit was 60 KM, and the policeman had me dead to rights. He ignited his lights and I pulled over kicking myself for being in such a rush to get home, but was very polite, contrite and apologetic to the officer. He seemed very reasonable and polite as well, but when he went back to his patrol car and was there for what felt like 15 minutes, I thought I might be getting nailed with the new Ontario “Street Racing” law (because 40 KM over is a HUGE fine, street racing is 50 KM over the speed limit).

He returned he said that the penalty for 32 KM over the speed limit was 4 demerit points and an over $200 fine (I think my jaw dropped open as he said that, because that most likely would mean a large insurance premium bump as well), BUT, that since this was a first offense (effectively), he was going to let me off with a fine for going 15 KM over the speed limit ($60 and no demerit points).

I was very thankful to the policeman for his leniency. I found out later another friend had the exact same thing happen the previous day on Highway 7, so being polite is always a good thing!

Advice for the day: Always talk nicely to the policeman or woman.

For me, not much really. The official news release about the budget can be found here. The only highlights that affect me indirectly and directly are:

• $1.5 billion, three-year Skills to Jobs Action Plan, which really doesn’t touch me directly, unless of course I get laid off and want to learn a real trade, then it might.
• Lots of spending in the health area, which should touch me in some fashion ($40.4 Billion)
• $18.8Billion in Education grants for class size, since my kids are still in school that is a nice addition.
• “…$385 million over three years for an annual Textbook and Technology Grant that will help every full-time university and college student…”, that would help out because text books cost a BLOODY fortune.
• And there are no tax increases, which is good too, since I don’t like tax increases no matter what, I am funny that way.

Kind of ho-hum budget, some perks for businesses, but nothing much for me, but some useful infrastructure spending (mostly in Toronto) too.

Best of: Library our Frugal Friend

One of the best places to get any financial information is your local public library and I just remembered a post I did a while back about The Library Our Frugal Friend.

Given I am an unpublished author (well not really an author, but a writer), here is a great tip for you folks who want to READ and LEARN about Financial things:

GO TO YOUR LIBRARY!

Pretty simple. Here in Ottawa the one thing that amalgamation did do is create a large very well stocked Library (click on Go To Your Library to see their web site).

I take out Music CD’s, DVD’s, VHS Videos, and most importantly books. Pretty much any and all books I might mention here in this blog, I have taken out of the library (I can’t afford to BUY books, but I can afford to take them out, read them, and maybe jot down in a notebook the parts which I agree with, or think are a good idea).

Usually your local library membership is FREE (in Ottawa it is), and most are relatively cheap, and you get your money’s worth very quickly. In fact DONATE to your library to keep them up and running (heck, even Volunteer, they are usually looking for those too). Libraries are great resources for the CHEAP and FRUGAL!

Let me leave you with a Simpson point of view on the Library:

Homer: Now, who’s up for a trip to the library tomorrow? Notice I no longer say liberrie or tomorrie.

Since I have started with the new site I have had a few new folks ask me questions about, where should I invest my money, let me be very clear, I have no bloody idea and I should be one of the last people you ask about investing. I have links to some very smart people’s web sites who I use as research for investing, but I can say that I am the Luis Pujols of investing. I will on occasion voice an opinion on investing (like at the end of this post), but please do not invest your hard earned money on the basis solely of what I say (you will be very disappointed).

Online Government

My beautiful wife pointed out over the Christmas Holidays that I can renew my car registration on line with the Ontario Government and they will mail me my renewal sticker in the mail. I tried this on line service from the Ontario Government and I am here to give it a thumbs up. Worked fine, no worries, the system worked ok, my only complaint is that since I have two cars it was two separate transactions (would have been nice to do both in the same shopping cart).

• Link to Ontario Government On Line Car Registration Renewal Site

Personal Finance for me

Days without spending at work: 3
Amount spent this week at work: $0.00

Apologies to RSS Readers

Sorry folks, I am still learning how to do this outside of the world of Blogger, and had my RSS feed set up incorrectly. You should not get a full feed if you subscribe to my site. I did not mean to change how this all worked, and you have my most humblest of apologies to you my valued reader. Explanation of what I did to bugger up my RSS over here.

Thought for the Month

I bought myself a personalized calendar from Despair.com and this month’s statement seems quite apropos in terms of investing and the problems I have some times:

Overconfidence

Before you attempt to beat the odds, Be sure you could survive the Odds beating you.