Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Our friends at Stats Canada published their Leading Indicators for August 2008 yesterday and things in the Canadian economy seem to be doing ok, not great, but not as bad as some might think. 

The most interesting statement made was:

Household demand has remained the most consistent source of growth in recent months. Sales of furniture and appliances grew steadily, helped by a steady housing market. Housing starts rebounded in August. Meanwhile, personal services have become the main prop to growth in services employment. Sales of other durable goods were an exception to the strength in household spending, reflecting slower auto sales over the summer in response to record gasoline prices.

The housing index dropped, which may mean more reasonable housing prices or a slowing of the price increases we have seen, which is good as well.

Speaking of House Prices

The Citizen talks about how new price valuations for homes across Ontario are about to be sent out by The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation. Remember these valuations have been frozen for the past two years, so these new numbers could be pretty darn crazy (given a 20% price increase since 2005 on average in Ontario). 

“Residential property values have increased by an average of approximately 20 per cent across Ontario since 2005, when the last assessment update was done. Because of the four-year phase-in, property taxpayers will see an average assessment increase of five per cent next year,” Carl Isenburg, president and chief administrative officer of the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC)…

 
I look forward to seeing this envelope in the mail.

Quick Run Around the Blogs

Some excellent articles this week from other bloggers worth having a look at:

• Nancy Zimmerman writes about 10 tips to change a small money habit, where she discusses how to stop buying lunch out (micro economics at it’s best). 
• Michael James writes about the Current Financial Mess and gives a very philosophical view that we are still living good lives, we just need to figure that one out. 
• All About Nortel has an excellent article questioning the former Telecom Diva’s decision to Sell Off Their Metro Ethernet product. Good research.
• The Canadian Capitalist writes about the implications of the Fall of AIG, a little depressing, but good research as well. 
• No Debt Plan writes an interesting view on Credit Card Victims Don’t Pay for 100% of My Credit Card rewards. 

Long Weekend Random Thoughts

I note the gas prices in Ottawa have inched there way back up by about 11 cents in the past few days, in preparation for the long weekend. Am I saying this is a conspiracy? If it isn’t all contrived, then this is the most amazing coincidence I have seen. Our van continues to sit in the driveway, because it is just too expensive to use on long journeys.

The coming weekend brings a great deal of turmoil and excitement. My eldest daughter is off to University out of town, my middle daughters are preparing for High School and my son prepares for nursery school. September is always an expensive month for my family due to many activities and school ask for money and then there are the inherent expenses of returning to school (clothing, school supplies, bus passes, etc.,).

Is it time to turn off the Air Conditioning? I think it is, but we shall see how bad allergies and such are, since opening the house up, inevitably means me sneezing my head off (and thus buying antihistemenes and such). Which is more expensive, running my A/C or buying Claritin in bulk?

Today is the day I return my equipment and a set of forms outlining what to do with my severance package as well, which is a bit of a milestone as well. I will outline how this works, once I am sure how things will work, but the opportunity is if I can find a new job quickly and thus use my severance as a significant financial “hammer”.

Enjoy your long weekend, drive carefully wherever you may be going, careful of gas prices and speed traps and relax.

Gas Price Calluding? Never!

I was amused to see that the competition bureau have now charged a bunch of gas station owners in Quebec with price fixing for gas. I am astounded how is this possible? (I really must learn what is the correct font for sarcasm) When every gas station has the exact same price in an area, what might cause that? Inelastic demand? No, I think price fixing is a little more likely.

Food Prices only up 1.2% Over Year

That is what Stats Canada is saying, that our food prices have only gone up 1.2% over the past year, which is interesting, given the cost of gas sky rocketing, where is this cost being buffered in the system?

Overall, consumer prices for food consumed at home in Canada have risen only 1.2% in the 12 months ending in April 2008. Food prices increased 7.1% in the European Union and 5.9% in the United States during the same period. Countries in Asia with rice-based diets are experiencing the fastest increase in food costs, as the price of rice doubled early in 2008.

Interesting.

Canadians Love the Internet

And I for one am glad of it. Keep going on line and keep visiting interesting blogs, like this one!

Among people who used the Internet at home, 68% went online every day during a typical month and 50% for five hours or more during a typical week. On average, men were online more often and for longer periods than women.

Nortel Sky Rockets

NT is up over $2.00 in the past two days on the statement that they will be doing as they said they would in terms of sales and they are concentrating on LTE wireless technologies (shunning Wi-Max). What does this mean? Hopefully Canada’s former tech darling is starting to get back on their feet and can stop being referred to as “The Former Tech Titan Nortel”. Stay tuned, no this is not me saying go buy this stock, I do hold the stock in a very small way.

Yahoo and Google Get Chummy

Yahoo is now completely killed the Microsoft deal, signing an agreement with Google about search technology sharing and such. This means Yahoo most likely will disappear slowly over time or simply become a part of the Google Monster. Interesting, at one time Google was the “up start” company and Yahoo was the Monster, High Tech is always an interesting world to watch.

I want an iPhone

Yes, the new iPhone 2.0 has been announced by Apple, and it looks really cool to me. They have resolved the issues that I had with it not having a high speed wireless interface (HSDPA 3G) but that is remedied and there are many other really cool applications too. Anyone wishes to have me do a review, please send me one, and I promise to run it through it’s courses (Mrs. C8j will not allow me to buy this High Tech toy, so that is my only chance for now). The cost of the data subscription rate is enough to make me cringe.