Free Association Fridays

Yes, my brain has been fried by a week of figuring out my life and a complete lack of useful sleep, so here you have Free Association Friday!

On the Good News side of the street the Collective Governments in Canada are getting further out of debt, according to our amigos over at Stats Canada. In fact:

The consolidated net financial debt of the federal, provincial, territorial general and local governments, defined as the excess of liabilities over financial assets, decreased to $791.2 billion as of March 31, 2005, down $2.1 billion or 0.3% from March 31, 2004.

This is a good thing for the Canadian Economy. I am not sure when the concept of “fiscal responsibility”, OK maybe not that exactly more like, “less fiscal irresponsibility” hit the collective governments in Canada, but I am glad to see it. The sooner these guys get themselves out of the whole dug in the 70’s and 80’s the better our country as a whole will be!

Have I mentioned the financial impact of drinking too much and smoking lately? Allow Brother Peter Sellers to expound on this problem, Sing it Brother!:

Who let that bum in here?

Finally, I applaud the University Graduating class of 2000, who are paying off their student loans, good for you!

Two out of five graduates from the class of 2000 who had left school owing money to government student loans had completely repaid their debt five years after graduation.

Even better was that 56% of the grads, graduated with No Debt, which is a good way to start a life. Starting to run a marathon with a 100 lb. weight on your back makes the race tough to run.

My Musings for the Week

• If I buy a Double Double with it do I get Change? Always lovely to see a new gold coin from the Royal Canadian Mint, the craftsmanship of them are as usual stunning.
• Canadian Investment Internationally We Canadians are shrewd investors, if not at times overly cautious (as a general rule).
• Prime Rates? Well finding out what the “prime rate” in Canada is (the overnight interest rate set by the Bank of Canada) is easy enough to find out.
• Cancer, now that I have your attention Yup, I am really talking about that, as Cancer’s ability to kill Canadians is rising, and Canadians are taking care of Cardiovascular issues more.
• Canadians were Earning More in 2007
• Canadian Overnight Rates Stay the Same
• Case Study: New Burner or New Bar B Q? That was the question of the weekend for us.
• Endorsement: Parker Auto Care
• Payday Loans: No, no, no! Payday loans are the great white shark of the credit world, all it does is trap its prey, and never let them go.
• Tax Time Cometh It is the most wonderful time of the year, tax time cometh, and the tax man wants to be paid, remember not paying is against the law!
• Case Study: Digital Roaming and Cell Costs
• BCE Smokin’ Hot… Back in my early days I did still buy individual stocks, and in fact, I still own some BCE, but I am an Index Investor (mostly) now.
• Cars So last month’s new car sales numbers reflect a trend, you would expect with gas at $1 a liter and higher in most of Canada.
• On the road and Car Rentals. Indeed, I am off for a weekend of fun with one of my daughters, so no posts likely and this one is going to be a short one.
• Investing: BCE Smokes Along
• Tips: One Time Services and Petro-Points For those of you who collect Petro-Points from Petro-Canada and that also have PC Financial points accounts, the bridge between those two systems is about to be closed.
• And now it begins… he is not there!
• It is Finished
• Bogus Collections and other Scams I am constantly under barrage from scammers with bogus collections being one of the top scam/spam emails that I receive these days.
• Fun with Numbers
• Free Association Friday Finally!