Canadian Personal Finance Blog

What do you do in a country where 200,000,000 need eye care yet most can’t afford it? This fascinating talk from Ted entitled How Low cost eye care can be world class outlines how this is being done in India.

India’s revolutionary Aravind Eye Care System has given sight to millions. Thulasiraj Ravilla looks at the ingenious approach that drives its treatment costs down and quality up, and why its methods should trigger a re-think of all human services.

As usual it starts with a driving force, and it expands, but eyesight is something that folks in North America just assume you go and get fixed (for most folks), but in India that is not the case.

The business side is interesting too, about the economy of scale that can be put on a problem, is this model possible in North America?

It’s a Mad House, A MAD HOUSE!!!

NB: You have to read that title like Charlton Heston is screaming it in a movie, to get full effect.

A weekend of Basketball Nirvana here in Ottawa begins, with NCAA March Madness games, and then slides into the CIS Men’s Basketball championships going on at Scotiabank Place. If you want to see basketball, Ottawa is the place in Canada to see it this weekend.

If you live in Ottawa and own a house you also better have paid your property taxes as well. Income tax season continues to roar ahead as well for we Canadians, but is that all we have to worry about? The Canadian dollar is almost at parity with it’s American Cousin, and our Gasoline prices are back to $1 per litre again, while our temperatures are more akin to May in Ottawa, not March. All in all a very interesting week here in the Nation’s Capital.

What do the Financial Bloggers have to say this week?

• Michael James shares his views on Hot Water Heater: Rent vs. Buy, which I witnessed first hand (OK I saw the end where the new water heater was in place). If this had happened to me, I am confident my basement would have looked like a scene out of Waterworld.
• Million Dollar journey got the geek in me all a quiver with their post Free iPhone Apps that Save You Money (Canadians), because even though I don’t have an iPhone, I do have an iPod Touch, and they work mostly on there as well. Quicken has a client for the iPhone as well, if you are part of the Quicken Cult.
• Preet at WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo answers a Reader Question on Multiple RRSP Accounts, which points out that (A+B) * C is the same as (A * C) + (B * C), for those who like Math (but if C is Zero, then who cares?)
• The Canadian Capitalist points out that even in Index Funds you can have some “issues” say with Tracking error in TD e-series Funds, Part 1. This is of interest to me as I do own these funds, well worth a read.
• Larry MacDonald suggests that Economic lift-off may be delayed, due to the tight money policies in the states. True, but now that Canadian’s can buy American so cheaply, maybe Canada will kick start the American economy?
• The Canadian Couch Potato asks How Much Risk Do You Need to Take? which discusses the always interesting discussion about the balance you should have between fixed income and equities. You mean I shouldn’t have all my money in International Buggy Whip?
• Gail V-O points out that if you can’t live within your means, maybe you should Quit Your Unsustainable Life, but you already knew that didn’t you?
• Canadian Financial DIY asks, is Inflation at 4% to be the New Normal?, that would be nice, except then you can kiss big pay raises good bye too

Have a hoopy weekend.

CPI Numbers on Monday

Stats Canada will publish their Consumer Price Index today, but I will have my regular post about that on Monday.

Last night I watched a very interesting interview on the Daily Show with Harry Markopolos, one of the men who blew the whistle on Bernie Madoff (back in 2000). The interview with the Daily Show is astoundingly frank and entertainingly funny, and at the end of it, incredibly disturbing. The Comedy Network in Canada does not allow me to embed this interview so you’ll need to click to get to it, but it is well worth the hassle. Markopolos’ book No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller is an interesting read.

CNBC does have a more serious interview with Markopolos and a former co-worker Frank Casey, which outlines that Madoff’s shenanigans and financial tom-foolery had been noticed, but it seems no one did anything much about it for a long time. The best line is about how you never had to use Madoff’s last name, if you said, “Bernie” everyone knew who you meant.

Reader’s Note: Random Thoughts will return next week.

Also, watch for the First Big Cajun RRSP Software Giveaway! Coming real soon (once I figure out how it is going to work ).

Gasoline Pumps Inflation

Stats Canada announced the CPI for January and it looks like Inflation is starting to become more of a factor for the Bank of Canada to think about. Year over year for January Consumer Prices were up 1.9% (remember that in December year over year it was 1.3%), so the 0.6% jump is a big one.

Black Gold, Texas Tea

Yes, it is Gasoline prices that are helping fuel this inflationary jump, and this could mean follow on price increases as this price increase percolates through the system.

The increase in the all-items Consumer Price Index (CPI) was due primarily to gasoline prices. In January, gasoline prices were 23.9% higher than they were in January 2009. This follows a 25.6% rise in the 12 months to December 2009.

Gasoline prices exerted upward pressure on the CPI for the third consecutive month, as a result of price volatility in the second half of 2008 and the first half of 2009. Prices at the pump have been relatively stable since July 2009.

More importantly the Bank of Canada’s Core rate (which is what they start looking at for when they wish to increase interest rates) is now around 2.0% (year over year) up from 1.5% in December, which may cause the Bank of Canada think tank to start re-thinking when they plan on turning on the Interest Rate economy brakes, which most think is June July timeframe, but if we see another Inflationary jump next month, it may be sooner.

The Big Table of CPI

For those who love details and numbers, I present the Big Table for your perusal:

After yesterday’s epiphany of the Financial GPS, I think I have streamlined the concept and gone to exactly what might be needed with today’s chronic over spender, the Financial Shock Collar.

This device, will look like a fashionable necklace for the ladies or simply a gold chain around the neck for men, and when it is activated 10,000 volts are instantly activated from a small power source (at milli-amperage levels) causing sudden and excruciating pain for its’ wearers, until they stop the spending which activated the collar (yes I borrowed this idea from a Star Trek episode, but aren’t all the best ideas from Star Trek?).

Is this a severe and dangerous tool to use? You are darn right that this is a ludicrously severe tool, but given some folks ability to completely lose their minds when it comes to:

• Financial Decision
• Overspending
• Use of money they don’t have
• Live now pay later thinking

This may be a useful “last hope” type of device.

Self-Destructing Debit/Credit Card

Don’t like my shock collar idea? A much less severe idea (depending on how you look at it) would be the self-destructing debit/credit card. Given most new cards come with a great deal of “smart card” technologies this one may be simpler to implement (and much more fun to watch).

The concept is quite simple, if the consumer attempts to use the card by either swiping it or “tapping” it, the card receives a simple message destruct and the card emits a high pitched alarm sound and 5 seconds later the card explodes, with a small charge embedded in it, when it was manufactured.

This makes the whole scenario of the credit card company rejecting a purchase and asking the vendor to seize the card a much simpler scenario, and it makes stolen cards that much more lethal for the thieves as well. If a card is stolen, it will automatically self-destruct when it gets near ANY credit card terminal.

Sure, there will be occasional glitches where cards may self-destruct without warning, but those small glitches and maiming of their owners are assumable risks for those who wish to have the privilege of carrying a credit card.

An added side-effect might be less people wanting to carry around credit cards with them, for fear of the occasional random self-destruction as well. Think of someone carrying around 6-8 credit cards, what might happen if one goes off accidentally? The chain-effect might well be complete destruction of the owner.

More interesting new “outside of the box” (unless the box is a coffin) ideas for financial safety may come, as I think of them.