Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for the ‘Tourism’ Category

OK, Air Canada has been an important part of my life, but their new “Leg Room Tariff” is one step too far in my estimation. Over the years I have watched traveling in an airplane going from being an elegant thing, where civilized folks dressed well and were all civil with each other, to these days where I think it’s lucky that folks are wearing clean clothes (don’t get me started about the people who travel in sandals and then complain that the plane is too cold).

As time has passed, we have gone from complimentary candies at the start of flights and on landing to help you with “popping ears”, to the point now where I would not be surprised to see pay toilets offered by an airline.  Hidden costs abound in air travel these days, where they could just as easily offer a free flight to Toronto from Ottawa and still end up charging you over $150 in service fees (there is a landing fee, does that mean if I don’t pay it we don’t land?).

This new tariff for the seats in Economy that have a bit more leg room are now going to cost more is beyond gouging. Being someone who does not fit in airliner (unless I am in Business class or First Class) being able to sit in a seat that allows me not to have to fold myself in half to be able to fit was nice, but now I will not have access to these seats unless I am willing to pay for them, and the seats are “available”.

The fee will only be $14 for each leg of your trip, to sit in a bulk head seat or in one of the emergency exits, but it stinks in my estimation.  So if someone who cannot open the emergency exit pays for the seat, and refuses to move people may die in an emergency situation? Seems like a safety issue to me.

Will you pay this fee? Me I don’t travel these days, so it is a non-relevant question for me right now, but for the frequent fliers out there are you going to pay? I single out Air Canada on this one, but I will bet other Airlines will add this fee quickly if Air Canada succeeds with this new fee.

Happy 141st birthday Canada, you don’t look a day over 85! Yes, I am taking today off, to enjoy Family and Fireworks, back to the daily posts tomorrow folks!

Canada at 150?

Given for Canada’s 100th birthday we had Expo67 (the greatest World Exposition ever, I’d like to say), what is Canada going to do for it’s 150th anniversary? Anybody know?

And Now a Large Flag

Happy Birthday Canada

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.

Yes it is a holiday finally, and I get to enjoy the first long weekend since Easter (which seems a long way away). No stores are open around me, but Ottawa has some benefits that other Ontario cities don’t have because we have the Rideau Center, which is deemed a “Tourist Area” so all of it’s stores will be open and we are across the river from Gatineau/Hull and there all stores are open today. Will I go shopping? I might run to Tim Horton’s to have a Pro-Monarchist Coffee and Donut, but that is about it.

Happy Victoria Day

Why do we celebrate this holiday still? We need a holiday in May as simple a reason as that.

Oil is over $125.00 a barrel, and gas in Ottawa is about $1.25 a liter, so if you are driving, do it in a very calm fashion and try to save that valuable gasoline. Inflate your tires, don’t stomp on the accelerator or brake and don’t idle too long in those traffic jams trying to get home tonight!

Enjoy your day of vacation folks, I’ll be back tomorrow.

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).