Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Unemployment Rate for July Down

Why is it I always seem to go opposite to the going trends? On Friday our friends at Stats Canada came out with a new employment figures for the month of July.

Well, the figures may not take into consideration my actual “down sizing”, but it is a bit confusing to find out that even though Employment dropped, Unemployment also dropped, with the following “interesting” explanation from Stats Canada.

Following gains at the beginning of 2008, and little change from April to June, employment dropped by 55,000 in July. The unemployment rate edged down 0.1 percentage points to 6.1%, as many people, particularly youth, left the labour force….

Most of the employment losses in July were in part time, down 48,000. Over the last 12 months, however, part-time employment has grown by 3.5%, much faster than the 0.9% growth in full time.

So part time jobs are starting to dry up? Not sure if that is good or bad, but with unemployment dropping, what does that really mean? Hopefully the number of jobs is not dropping (speaking as a person looking for a job).

Canadian Unemployment Figures for July 2008

If You Don’t Write it Down?

One of the ways I cope with stress is to start writing lists down of things that I must do (specifically at least a Financial List), so I don’t forget important things (another thing I do under stress (forget that is)). I believe it was a Tom Clancy novel that had the quote, “If you don’t write it down, how do you know it happened?”, which I can extrapolate to, if I don’t write it down, how do I know it will happen?

I will now have multiple lists to complete or deal with in terms of things that must be done by the end of August, and September, and after that.

End of August Financial List should include:

• Creating a lock in retirement account of some sort for pension transferals.
• Investigate CCRA rules about pension transferals, because, I am going to get badly dinged if things go as they are described in my severance package. This may mean, talking to an accountant.
• Open personal RRSP account for all of the various pieces of my severance and savings packages that should be transferred away from my current carrier.
• Fix my resume because my resume sucks. OK this isn’t financial, but it is important, and needs to be done this week, not by the end of the month!!!
• etc., etc., etc.,

As you can see this barely scratches the surface of financial tasks that I must take care of, and in fact I have a myriad of other non-financial tasks that I must tackle in short order as well. The problem I have is I also procrastinate in these situations, which does not help either.

The positive side of this is, I need to go into my bank, and I believe with a list of the assets I am about to transfer to them, I may be able to convince them, they might want to give me Free Banking again! Let’s hope.

Carnivals This Week

• Credit Card Lowdown hosted the Carnival of Money, Growth and Happiness where they added my post about University Costs .

Netfile Tax Reprieve

Freedom from having to pay taxes, for 5 more days, if you Netfile. This extension only applies if you are going to use Netfile to submit your return, and it only applies if you owe money. As was pointed out by someone, if the government owes you money, they don’t really care WHEN you submit your taxes (but you better be sure you are getting a refund before you procrastinate like that).

Shrinking Economy

Stats Canada reported that economic activity shrunk by 0.2% in February, and this was caused by shrinking manufacturing and wholesale trade, what caused this? Don’t know but it’s not a good indicator that the Canadian economy is going to “weather the U.S. downturn well” as has been said by a few economists.  One month does not a downturn make, but it’s something to remember.

Interest Drops

This month is a new month, and for me, it means a complete month with lower interest rates on my Mortgage and my line of credit.  TD’s prime lending rate is 4.75% right now and if you are curious what rates you can get on a Line of Credit, read Michael James’ essay on that topic, especially the comments, which are very telling as well.  I will be taking this opportunity to make the same payments I always make and thus taking more principal off these debt devices.

Gas Prices at $1.20 per Liter

That is where they have been in the Ottawa area, and driving has been much more expensive. I am paying about $10 more a week for my car to drive (which is a 50% gain in what I was spending), just in gas costs also (not including car wear and tear and insurance). I am attempting to offset that by NOT buying coffee at work (yes I am attempting that again). So far this week, I have only bought 1 coffee, which means I have not bought about 8, so that is quite good (and it does add up to my goal of $10.00 or so). I will keep my readers informed of my progress.

Ottawa High Tech

Alcatel (ALA) announced some hefty bad numbers yesterday, with a 5th consecutive losing quarter.  This combined with a warning on sales figures and fresh lay off talk, makes the Ottawa Tech sector a little more jittery this month. Nortel (NT) announces Friday morning, and there are concerns of similar statements from the former High Tech juggernaut.

What does this have to do with me? I live in this world, and a jittery world it is right now.

With Lent coming to a close on Good Friday, how has your Lenten Financial vows gone? My attempts at sticking with a Lenten financial regimen has not been a wild success, but it still continues on. There are days when I don’t live up to my hopes, but then there are days when I succeed as well, and I will remember the successes, and attempt not to have as many failures.

• My attempts at controlling my spending at work has not been a raging success, but I blame that on the “Roll up the Rim” contest from Tim Horton’s (although I have won a few free coffees too).
• Stopping procrastination is hard, in all parts of your life, not just money.

I have managed to get my taxes done, which was needed and with that, I may do another set of articles about why Income Splitting would make a lot of sense for single income families (and now with the new RESP proposal maybe we can income split with our kids too?).  Since the Conservatives will most likely kill this bill, I don’t think it’s going to be a big concern, but who knows?

Enjoy the Lenten season while it lasts, but remember Easter is very soon too.

Happy 18th Birthday to my beautiful eldest daughter. I may not be in town to help you celebrate, but you are in my heart always.