Canadian Personal Finance Blog

In Ottawa we have a very flamboyant Mayor who came in to power with the statement that he was not going to raise taxes. This statement (I won’t call it a promise) seems to have disappeared and the latest levy he is talking about is a $50.00 surcharge per tax payer and business due to the high amount of snow in Ottawa this year (the snow clearing budget is over budget at least $23 M so far).

Last year we didn’t have a lot of snow, and this same fund ran a surplus, but I never saw a nickel back in my taxes. In fact this fund has run surpluses for the past N years, yet whenever that happened, no money came back to me directly, but now that Mother Nature has stepped in, I must now find more money to pay for bad planning? If I make the bad plan, I am the one that has to live with it, and I must live with the consequences (yes I still complain), but now I must fork out more money, due to there being no emergency fund for excessive snow? Larry, drop by my house and see if you can convince me I should pay this tax, because I don’t think you’ll get me on side with this one.

Easter Charity

I was very impressed to see John Chow campaigning for donations to a soup kitchen in the Vancouver area. John actually matched all donations, and managed to raise over $7,000 for that charity, and I applaud him for that.

For local Ottawa readers, the Shepherds of Good Hope is a mission that I support when I can, given I used to work up the road from them, and I have seen first hand the good works that they do. Remember Easter is a time of renewal and a time of giving.

Scary Statement for the Day

After the U.S. Fed lowered yet another of their key rates by 3/4% one analyst was actually heard to say, “I wouldn’t be surprised to see a rate of 0%…”, I almost fell out of my chair when I heard that one. I think this constant dropping of interest rate may help in the short run, but it is not resolving the main issues which is massive DEBT problems in North America. People are living outside of their financial capabilities, and it is eventually going to cause something very bad to happen.

Carnivals This Week

This week my posting The Seduction of Spending was mentioned in The Carnival of Everything Financial #15 hosted by Everything Financial .

“True charity is the desire to be useful to others without thought of recompense”

Emanuel Swedenborg quotes

Haven’t really done a Sunday posting for a while, so let me write a few thoughts.

• Do you give regularly to a charity? Doesn’t have to be a Church, but I think the charity needs to mean something to you, for it to really be something worthwhile, which does not mean you shouldn’t give, just try to find something you feel is important.
• Money is one of the things you can give, but your time and your skills are sometimes more needed than your money. Many community groups need volunteers as much as they need money. You’d be surprised what skills you have that other people might value.
• Do you get to Church regularly? Do they have an automatic withdrawal system in place? Maybe you should avail yourself of it? (Yes, mental note to myself).
• If your neighbour’s driveway is snowed in, maybe help dig them out? Yup, that is the best kind of charity.

Charity for me is quite selfish, because it actually makes me feel good (which is I guess the best reason to do it?).

I only have a few specific areas where I make donations year over year. I was surprised at how much my small givings impacts my final tax bill, and hopefully the money and time given will help the Charity as well.

Which charities do you give to over the year should be part of your financial plan for the year, just so you remember to give and also you remember to write it off on your taxes. This doesn’t mean that if you decide to give more or to another charity you shouldn’t just that as part of your financial plan, you should take into account your Charitable Donations and works.

Under Construction

Just a note to my RSS readers that there might be a couple of bumps in the road as I am changing where this web site is being hosted and you lucky readers are the first to move, so please be patient with me in my new endeavor.