Sunday

Glimpse at the BCM for Free Style Sunday Thoughts

by bigcajunman on January 27, 2013

I didn’t feel like regurgitating my tweets for the week as a good use for a Sunday post, so I have retired that idea (although I would suggest that you join my Twitter Feed to read my and some of my other favorite tweets for the week). I am not sure that free style Sundays will last either, and even if they do, don’t expect them every Sunday either, when I feel the urge, I will be writing.

This week I tried to start a new thread in the blog, and that is giving my regular readers (all 10 of you) a glimpse into my life with a hope of maybe understanding the motivation behind some of my posts. I’ll be writing more in the coming weeks mostly about the financial side of having a disabled child to hopefully help those out there in similar (or worse) circumstances than Mrs. C8j and I are in.

As I mentioned my son is on the Autism spectrum, however, he is not that badly off (comparatively speaking). There are parents that I have met, and friends that have kids that have a much harder time, with children that are in much more need of help than our son is. Our financial equation is however quite unique thanks to the fact that my son is quite young and I have a second generation of daughters who are in University (or graduated).

We are lucky in that we have learned a great deal about the educational system from our daughters who had learning disabilities of their own. I will be writing about the issues we have run into with our son in the coming week, so stay tuned for that thread.

As for the reason I write, I have said this before, but it does bear repeating, this is mostly a cathartic stream of thought for me, to remind me what I have done right, but mostly what I have done wrong (financially) in my 50 odd years on this planet.

I will also open up a suggestion box for my regular readers. If you have any ideas that you want me to write about (other than ranting about Debt and how it’s a terrible thing) send me an e-mail with the title: Suggestion Box: {suggested title} and maybe give me any ideas that you have (and if you send me a request to Guest Post I will most likely add you to a black list and not read anything else from you). Send the e-mail to bigcajunman @ canajunfinances.com .

Here is a question for you, to leave in the comments here: Is it important for your to receive a follow up e-mail if you leave a comment on this site (telling you I have replied to your comment?).

Enjoy your Sunday.

{ 2 comments }

What’s Up, It’s Sunday #Bro ?

by bigcajunman on August 19, 2012

Sunday rolls around and it is my last day before going back to work, oh well, I suppose all good things must come to an end, if they didn’t you wouldn’t appreciate them enough.

The week of time off from work was quick, unfortunately weeks at work are never as quick as a week of vacation, more is the pity, I suppose.

There was an anti-Putin protest in a Russian Orthodox Cathedral by a Female Punk band, and people are decrying the fact that they have been sentenced to two years in prison for it. What did they think was going to happen in a still mostly totalitarian society, after they made fun of their leader in a place of worship? Maybe I’m naive, but I certainly would think myself lucky that I wasn’t shot on the spot, if I had done the same thing (not being a member of a Female Russian Punk Rock Band, it isn’t likely, I suppose).

Julian Assange continues to enjoy the hospitality of the Ecuadorian embassy in London. I have never visited that area, but I hope he is enjoying staying there, because it doesn’t strike me as likely that the U.K. will allow him out of the country. As I said previously, who goes to Ecuador in August?

On my Twitter Feed, I find a plethora of oldie but goodies in my archives, and if you aren’t one of my Tweeps, here are the highlights for the week:

On Sunday I had my review of Bishop Desmond Tutu’s book God Has a Dream, I really liked that book it was spiritually up lifting.
If you strictly follow the CRA rules I should Divorce My Wife, to create an optimal tax world.
I found out some important things on a trip to Niagara Falls about Digital Roaming and Cell Costs, which I think are still pertinent.
Not only are tuition fees expensive University Residence is Quite Costly as well.
Remember that a Co-Op degree is a Parents Best Friend, keep that in mind, when your kids are looking around at schools.
I did like The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting out of Debt and I still have a copy of it on my book shelf.

Enjoy your Sunday, I will try to do the same!

{ 0 comments }

August is Almost Here, Olympics and Sunday’s Best

by bigcajunman on July 29, 2012

Where is the summer going? Holy cow, time is flying by and August is almost upon us, you do realize that don’t you? For me this means my French training will hopefully be coming to an end and I will be returning to my office with the correct language profile for my job (all things being equal). Given I started in February it hasn’t been that long, but I do look forward to a change of scenery (although I will miss being in downtown Ottawa, a nice place to spend a summer lunchtime).

I am enjoying watching the Olympics, even though it is just the first few days. The Canadian Women’s Basketball team looked great against Russia, and the Women’s Soccer team played well as well, I hope all the Canadian athletes enjoy their Olympic experiences. I watched the feed from RDS, you’ll see stuff like Table Tennis and Judo there as well.

I have slowed down my clean up on the web site, although I have been doing a few things behind the scenes that you shouldn’t be noticing, there will be some changes very soon, depending on how much free time I actually get in August.

As for my Twitter Feed, it still has some of the best Oldie But Goodie Posts (OBG) from my archives:

A while ago Stats Canada put out an article about workers time with families and I highlighted it in Tempus Fugit: Less Time with the Family.
De-Cluttering Financially is important, just keeping around old bonds and investments is something you should really look into.
With Tim Horton’s Savings plan (which was one of my first posts) I try to point out how much money you can spend on your daily double-double.
Many of the new high protein low carb diets come with an expense as I pointed out in Low Carb - High Price.
Old School Debt Thinking underlines my thinking that DEBT SUCKS, not sure if I have made that point enough yet.
In a lot of ways I have Become My Mother, which has a funky picture showing some of the old tricks I still do.

All in all an interesting week of old but still relevant posts.

You have heard me talk about old computers and how I used to work on them, but this video about NASA computers just makes me smile:

{ 0 comments }

Olympic Fever, Ramadan, Dry Grass and Sunday Thoughts

by bigcajunman on July 22, 2012

The Olympics start this Friday! Holy cow, that is so fricking exciting (yes I am not being facetious, surprisingly). I got to see the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, and from even before then, I have loved the Olympics for shear number of events and all the different sports. Will this be a good Olympics for Canada? We shall see, it shouldn’t really matter (in Montreal I think we got 2 medals for the whole thing), but Canadians are becoming more concerned about medal counts (remember this isn’t the winter Olympics).

The drought in Ottawa continues on, and the City is actually telling folks to water their grass, to prevent brush fires and such? Seems like an odd request to me, so I am ignoring it for now. I have been watering my hanging baskets and such but 95% of that water has come from our rain barrel.

The whole Dark Knight incident in Denver is upsetting on so many levels. My prayers are with the families of the victims and the first responders who had to deal with all the carnage. I don’t understand this, and I think if I did, I’d be more worried.

Happy Ramadan to my 3 Muslim readers, if you live in Ottawa, respecting your Ramadan fast is hard (the days are mighty long).

Given I am still cleaning out my archives, I have found many old chestnuts in the archives (I am still on Google’s Bad Boy list due to too many links, I am attempting to remedy this, but I am also not sure whether I can satisfy their demands either):

But I Don’t Know Who to Give to This Christmas, points out a lot of the good charitable organizations in Ottawa that you can give to (all year round if you wish).
10 Steps to a Debt Free Life is a tongue in cheek top 10 list for those lovers of lists out there.
Worst Financial Advice I ever Gave makes me sad because of who I steered in the wrong direction and the fact that he is dead now too (not because of my advice, I don’t think).
A year ago, thanks to a broken water main here in Ottawa we had to learn about Living Without Water, and it was no big hardship, but some of our neighbours got quite upset about it.
My all time favorite post is Advice: Best Financial Advice I Ever Received, I tell that story a lot to folks, and most people don’t understand why I love the story, oh well.
I wrote Whatever Happened to the Pawnbroker, before Pawn Stars became popular, I think I know where the Pawnbroker went, now.
There was an interesting article in the Huffington Post Born to Run, it is about a friend who I went to school with and who is related to my wife, well worth reading and seeing how some folks refuse to set limitations on their life.
With Banks, Cell Phone Companies, Cable Companies and Gyms Don’t be afraid to Make a Change, because none of these firms appreciate their existing customer base, they always covet new customers!
Everyone’s Resume Sucks, from what I can tell, and they should all be using expensive Resume Writing Services to rewrite them.

Another fun week ahead for me, my last (hopefully) on French training and then back to my real job (since this blogging thing pays worse than my Paper Route when I was a 12-year-old).

Something to think about for a Sunday too:

{ 2 comments }

Cleaning up and Sunday’s Best

by bigcajunman on July 15, 2012

The importance of making sure things are clean and well behaved in life is very important (financially), however if you are running a petit business the way I am here (small just doesn’t really say how small it is), it is very important to know what you have written and what is still hanging around in your archive of stories. I have started cleaning up my archives, and will continue to do so for the next month or so, and I may then change the look of this site as well (I am sick of it, and have been for a while).

Yesterday was Bastille Day in France, so hopefully my French cousins enjoyed their Independence Day (effectively).

With this clean out, I may go back under 2000 posts, we shall see, but because I am wandering through the archives, my Tweet posts from the archives are much more interesting these days as well:

If you did Donate $25 a Week, you’d be surprised how much money you were actually giving away every year (and I am sure there are Charities that would love to have the money too).
With OK My Man I ranted about the lack of respect shown by many folks in the service industry, now I don’t get too rude with them in return, however, I do try to find ways to not use the service if this happens as well (i.e. vote with my feet).
With the iPhone being 5 years old and RIM announcing terrible numbers on that day, I figured I’d look back at my initial views on the iPhone.
With Occam’s Razor I took the concept to a financial point of view.
I figured I’d give some good news with If this gets paid off, ANY debt is payable! I remember when the actual cost of the Big Owe was published and I thought how can $1B get paid off by a city, well, it happened a while ago.
It’s important to keep things simple and that is the point with If You Hear Hoof beats…. , most of the times the obvious answer is the right one.
My Own Money Advice MeMe died with my post, but still a useful piece of advice.
Pay Day Loans, No, No, No! Points out my hatred of this industry, I will be attempting to extricate the 3rd party advertising that is allowing them to advertise on my site, in the next few weeks.