Canadian Personal Finance Blog

The National Film Board has put out a set of videos reflecting how the economic downturn has affected Canadians. This one is quite poignant, I invite you to check out the other videos as well.

“My mom always had a job – I never had to work,” says 18-year-old Jessica. Then the recession hit, and those difficult teenage years suddenly got a little tougher.

Given we start a new year, all we folks who receive pay cheques (I believe the Japanese term is Salary-man), we get to start paying CPP and EI premiums again. For a lot of folks, they are just deductions that appear on every pay stub, but for folks who make over a certain amount, this deduction appears some time in the year, and after that, they get a “virtual raise” given they do not have to pay these deductions for the rest of the year.

Michael James is a lover of numbers (but not a numerologist luckily) and pointed out one day how easy it is to approximate how much someone makes, by when they stop paying EI premiums (and you’d be surprised how many people talk openly about the fact that they have stopped paying the premium (in fact I had just told Michael James that very fact)).

It’s actually a pretty simple game to play and well worth a couple of minutes time to create a little model to figure this thing out.

Meet Jack

Jack gets paid bi-weekly, and works as an employee of XYYZZ. He gets paid a regular salary (assume no bonuses and such), so if we list the month in which Jack tells us “I stopped paying EI premiums this month” we can then approximate how much Jack actually makes in salary. We know from the EI web site that your premium is 1.73% of your insurable earnings (and the maximum insurable earnings is $42,300 in 2010).

Just remember what you tell folks can sometimes have more meaning than you might think.

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.

Were you alive in October 1970? I was, and I lived through the October Crisis, and actually remember it, and since it is October, let’s remember this important time in Canadian and Quebec history. Given that Mr. Cross was Trade Commissioner this has a little bit to do with Finances, however, no this isn’t really topical, but still an important piece of Canadian history.

I remember this because I remember a school chum’s Dad was a Member of the Legislature and when I went to a birthday party at their house, there was a machine gun on his front lawn and some large soldiers there as well.

Yes, I have posted this one before, but it is so good, and so off topic, and given that the Christmas season is upon us (at least the gift giving part of it), enjoy this story of the “wrong” present and a little boys love of hockey. The Sweater is a classic story of Quebecois life, and beloved across Canada.

In this animated short, Roch Carrier recounts the most mortifying moment of his childhood. At a time when all his friends worshipped Maurice “Rocket” Richard and wore his number 9 Canadiens hockey jersey, he was mistakenly sent a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey from Eaton’s. Unable to convince his mother to send it back, he must face his friends wearing the colours of the opposing team. This short film, based on the book The Hockey Sweater, is an NFB classic that appeals to hockey lovers of all ages.