What I wrote
- From my Mail Box I do get a lot of questions, but I rarely publish responses for fear of folks taking my advice. What is in my mailbox this time?
- Income In Canada Our friends in Stats Canada put out yet another interesting article yesterday comparing the income of Canadians and specifically Canadian families.
- April Personal Spending The topic of what my household spends money on has been discussed before, but here is as a percentage of my entire expenditures, what my family spent its money on last month (April 2008).
- Wealth Quickly Gained Wealth gained quickly is it appreciated? I don’t know, I have seen sudden wealth change folks, but does it have to do that?
- Student Debt and some Random Thoughts Exploring the impact of student debt in 2008 on family finances and personal finance. Discover the challenges and potential solutions.
Random Thoughts
It is Friday again, and it has been yet another interesting week financially in this world.
- There is now serious talk of Gasoline going for $200 a barrel, which would mean it’s price in Ottawa would be around $2.20 a liter, which may well cause folks to seriously look at alternate transportation methods.
- I reviewed my Family’s Personal Spending for April and found some interesting spending oddities of my own.
- Ellen Roseman asked a good question about Who Speaks for Investors, and she was part of a group who tried to, and was even asked to, however, not much seems to have come out of her work.
- Stats Canada talked about how Family Incomes haven’t really changed too much in the past few years, certainly doesn’t look like it keeps up with inflation.
- The Canadian Capitalist asked us if We are Comfortable With our Portfolio, I think my answer is, it’s doing ok, but it would be nice if it doubled tomorrow.
- The Government has an Auditor General to make sure spending doesn’t get out of control, shouldn’t we all have our own Personal Auditor General?
- Any way to control your spending is by creating Artificial Scarcity in your own money supply according to Michael James.
- My mail bag does have some very interesting things in it, as well.
- Finally the Globe and Mail is having a poll about picking the Top 5 Financial Bloggers in Canada , I note I am conspicuous by my absence, but I am not bitter, where did I leave my copy of the Ottawa Sun? I’d vote for the Canadian Capitalist myself (but I would have also included Michael James on Money on that list as well).
Flash: De-Crapification Set Back
Never go to a Gar(b)age sale if you are trying to get rid of your crap. Our Church is running on, and I came home with something, I have however removed something from my bedroom (which is where the new item will go), however, I am ashamed of myself. I did get a trouser press for $10 however, which I think is still kind of cool, and I could bring a lot of crap back to my Church’s gar(b)age sale tomorrow, so maybe this will work out.
Hey Cajun,
I haven’t dropped by for a while, and I do like the new look of your site. Good to see bigcajunwife visiting as well.
I personally hate garage sales. I think that they’re a way for transferring useless items from one house hold to another. I am grateful that my wife doesn’t care for them either.
Despite the garage salers making some money from the sale of their junk, I think that the junk should be taken over to salvation army, or value village etc and let those who really need the stuff get it for free or for cheap.
Your blog provides an interesting reading in spite of not being featured by the Globe. They should have presented a list of all the Canadian financial blogs because each one is a gem and the writers should be appreciated for their effort. Disclaimer: I don’t have a blog 🙂
Hey,
I represent that comment!!
Big Cajun Wife
Also never let your wife go to a gar(b)age sale either or your attempts to get rid of stuff will be short circuited and you may end up with more crap than you had previosly -c8j
Thanks for the link.
On the subject of getting rid of extra kiddie equipment, I think it would be a good idea to set up a garage sale in a newer neighbourhood. If you have a friend running a garage sale in a new neighbourhood, you could bring a carload of kiddie stuff over to take advantage of the ready supply of parents of young children. It was nearly impossible to sell kiddie equipment in my area once all the families started to grow up. Everyone was trying to sell the same stuff and there were few buyers.
De-Crapping is invigorating and important to do, that is for sure!
De-craping is on my list for this spring/summer as well. With the kids growing up, we have tons of kiddie equipment to get rid of.
Thanks for the link. And IMO, Michael James should be on the list as well. Cheers!
Agreed, I think your piece was quite good.
Update on De-Crapification, I decided to fight back and have brought an old TV, and some other crap to the Church Gar(b)age sale, and thus have a net negative garage sale effect!
–C8j
Hey, thanks a lot for the link!
I don’t think buying a house with no down payment is preferable but in some cases it is better to worry less about the down payment and more about the payments.
Mike