Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Debt Reduction is like Sex in your teenage years, everybody wanted to do it, but almost none were skilled at it, and very few actually did it, and worse still, nobody dared tell you how to do it.

Do I have your attention now? Think about it, I am right and for all you folks who are taken aback or think this is a crass statement, so be it, but you know it’s true.

Debt reduction is a subject few people bring up, especially the ones that need to be helped the most, because they don’t want to appear they don’t know what they are doing, or worse that they appear as stupid to other people as the way they feel inside.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help, and don’t be afraid to talk to people you trust about what they do about this problem. Let’s take Debt Reduction out of the closets and bathrooms and into the bright light of the day!

Come to Canada, PLEASE!!!

Tourism is taking an almighty beating these days thanks to the strength of the Loonie, according to Stats Canada.

Travel to Canada hit a record low for the fifth consecutive month in March, in the wake of substantial declines in both same-day car trips from the United States and the number of visitors from overseas nations.

Tourism is an important industry in Canada, so don’t discount the importance of this decline.

Gone in 15 Minutes

That was how long it took our old Bar B Q to disappear last night when I put it out for the garbage at 7:10 PM, 15 minutes. The quest for de-crapification continues with gusto with a great deal of yard waste and most of the metal frame from a sofa bed going out in the garbage last night as well (I had cut it up with my reciprocating saw).

First a scavenger arrived and took the top and left a whole bunch of stuff, and I was quite irate that I was now left with a mass of crap strewn on my front lawn. I went out and tidied it up a bit, and went back inside, 10 minutes later it was all gone, except for the bar b q rocks, which remained in the garbage, where I had thrown them. The second scavenger had taken everything and also part of the sofa bed that I had cut up to put out for the trash (also metal), it was all gone, in 15 minutes total. Not sure what they wanted it for, but I feel foolish having bent two cutting blades cutting up the bed frame, if someone was going to take it all.

There is more room in the garage, but still more still to throw out.

Michael James talked about found money yesterday and the joy of paying off bills with found money, and how we should not squander this found wealth, and really use it to create happiness in the future by paying off debt now. I think this is a sensible approach to found money, but it made me think about another post I did a while ago, which was how couples deal with money.

Many times found money can cause a great deal of consternation between spouses because each have their own idea of what the best thing is to do with found money.

I think this is natural, as with most every subject possible spouses are going to have their own ideas, but the problem arises when the two ideas are contradictory or even orthogonal to each other.

Say Mary and Bob get $10,000.00 in found money from an inheritance. Mary thinks she’d like to go on a nice vacation with the family because the family has never really been on a vacation, however, Bob thinks that putting that money on their Mortgage (thus shortening it’s term by 5 years), is the right answer.

Reading this, it sounds like an easy enough “problem” to deal with, both folks want to do what they think is best with the money, but the problem now is you have is a simple difference of opinion. The problem I have seen in my life and from other folks I know is that this is not a simple problem, because:

• There is no wrong answer (or right answer)
• Both spouses have voiced their opinion, and thus feel they have the right answer.
• Money and money management is a divisive factor in many relationships

Is there a Solution?

Only if both parties are willing to compromise, or one is willing to lose (i.e. typical Prisoner’s Dilemma issue). Wikipedia’s explanation of the Prisoner’s Dilemma is:

Two prisoners (the players) during the interrogation each have a choice: whether to betray the other one, and thus to decrease his own jail time by, for example, 1 month (as a compensation for the cooperation), while increasing the jail time for the other by, for example, 10 years, or to stay silent. Each of the prisoners is only interested in receiving the least possible sentence. It shall be assumed that the prisoners make their choices (to betray or to stay silent) simultaneously, and they know for sure that their choice cannot affect the choice of the other one.

All right I am stretching this (feel free to leave a comment), but the need to compromise and find the best solution for the couple is not always obvious to either spouse, and sometimes they feel it is not in their best interest (they got their way the last time, so I want my way this time). Sound familiar to any of my readers? Never happened to you?

Resolution?

I have no canned simple answer for this one, because as I keep saying, Money is a strange and divisive thing in a relationship, especially if the spouses do not agree in terms of money and how to use it.

What needs to be done is have clear lines of communication and rational discussions between the spouses about what they want to do, and a decision made that doesn’t cause either to feel that they have “lost” in this decision. Sounds easy doesn’t it ?

Think this is a simple thing to resolve? You and your spouse never have these issues? Then you are either very lucky (or very naive).

I like that title, in fact that could be the entire post, I like that title that much, but I will elaborate on this provocative statement.

Today’s consumers (myself included) love of things and what money can purchase has turned into a full blown obsession with money and it’s trappings.

Are you seduced by spending? Ask yourself these question:

1. Does anyone really need to spend $8.00 on a cup of coffee? In my mind if the beans were picked my Marilyn Munro in the nude (and she delivered it to me in that same state), then I might think that coffee is worth the money I spent. Starbucks has seduced you to spend that money with it’s cache and marketing.
2. Can you hear the difference of $10,000.00 speakers for your stereo over a cheaper set of speakers? I can’t, but I am also fairly deaf from younger days in printing plants and rock concerts. If you feel it is really important and you can tell the difference, you have been seduced into hearing something that may well not be there (except for your dog).
3. Why would you pay $16,000.00 for a Toyota Corolla when you could pay $80,000 for a BMW or Mercedes Benz? Do you live in your car? For that price, in some places you could get part of a house for the Benz. If you think people will be impressed by the Mercedes name you have been seduced into thinking people care what car you drive (I might care if you drove me to work).

These are pretty crass examples of the seduction of spending that we all fall for (I am not portraying myself as being lily white in this, I have bought things that afterward I have asked, “Why did I do that?”), but this is one of the hardest things to control, the urge to spend money.

We can stop ourselves from walking up to an attractive member of the opposite sex and introducing ourselves, simply by rationalizing the embarassment we might feel and the fear of rejection in that situation, yet we can’t stop ourselves from spending money when we know we shouldn’t (and worse we know we can’t afford the thing we want to buy).

Should we all be taking Prozak or some other psychotropic drug to curb our spending urges? I don’t know, I don’t think they would stop us (they might make us so stoned that we might not do much of anything), so how can we stop ourselves?

No Credit Therefore No Buy

The idea I have is so simple but also very hard to do, for most of us, since we feel naked without a wallet full of credit.

If you go out with no credit cards and no money, you are going to be hard pressed to buy something, aren’t you? Yes, I know with instant credit it’s not impossible, but it will slow you down a fair amount. If you are going out to look at a high priced item or even just going “shopping” with friends, don’t take your credit cards, and maybe bring enough cash to buy a coffee (not a $6.00 one either).

If you are someone who can control your impulses to spend, I applaud you, and strongly suggest you should write a book about it, I’d buy it on the spot (anyone see the dichotomy of me impulse buying a book that is to stop me from impulse buying).