To say the entire Senators Expenses Event is more farcical than a Christmas Panto (usually an excuse for men to dress up as women (no I am not writing about the senate with that one (or am I?))). We have differing reports, we have misstatements about how loans are paid off, and we have two folks who were previously “highly respected” members of the media now being accused of being spend-thrifts with the public’s money. All in all a very entertaining brand of political fun and games. I look forward to see what weird turn in the road may be coming next? If Harper nominates a Pantomime Horse to be a Senator, his ascent to “Full on Caligula” will be complete.

Unfortunately the Ottawa Senators hockey club seems to be heading in the same direction as the aforementioned Senators, oh dear, that was a butt whuppin on Wednesday.

The Finest Pantomime Horse on TV, Secretariat (see Craig Ferguson Show for details) or is that Senator Secretariat ?

In Oklahoma we saw the shear power of nature and it’s ability to obliterate all man made things in an instant. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and the survivors after this horrific weather event.

In Montreal there was a boil water order for more than half the island proper (including my family that still lives there). Nice to see that a City of over a million has a single point of failure in their water distribution system. Luckily there are no issues with any other parts of the infrastructure in Montreal (just drive really fast under most overpasses).

My Weekly Recap

I was hoping to get a quick loan from the PMO just to tide me over until my next pay, however, that didn’t happen:

Links for the Week

My site continues to be a site under attack from many different forces on the Internet, so far no one has penetrated my defenses yet, but if you come here one day and find the site has turned into a site selling Pay Day Loans, you’ll know something is not very right (over 1000 attack commands a day so far):

Other Bookkeeping

Remember my RSS feed is available too, and I have added an RSS Comment Feed as well. Have a look at my micro-blog on Twitter, where you can see a whole plethora of good articles and pithy comments by me as well. Twitter feed where I re-tweet many great articles by some of my featured writers (and make the occasional odd or off colour commentary on life (in 140 characters or less)). I am also on reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest and other Social Media sites (look for the BigCajunMan userid) as well. If you have social media accounts, don’t forget to vote for my posts (see the nifty dashboard on the bottom of each article, where you can cast your votes). As they say in Quebec, vote early and vote often! This site is iPhone Friendly (and Android , iPod Touch and iPad Friendly), enjoy it on the go, in a readable format for the device. If you are reading with an iPhone or Android device, drop me a comment and tell me if this needs any improvements. This site is also in the Kindle Blog list, if you are interested.

Fun Video Nothing to Do with Money

I love the cheering for the young lad, this is how all parents should be at all sporting events:

© bigcajunman for Canadian Personal Finance Blog, 2013. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Best of, Random Thoughts

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A while ago I showed how the simple PMT() function in Excel can be used to estimate your periodic mortgage payments, if you have all the pertinent information. Today we can use that information to build a schedule to show your mortgage payments and how they change your Mortgage Principle over time.

First a clarification, as was pointed out by one of my commenters, the PMT() function gives you the wrong periodic payment, due to Canadian Mortgages having their interest compounded semi-annually (twice a year) because in the U.S. it is compounded annually. The fix for this is to change the first entry in your PMT function from:

• Annual Interest Rate/12 months: which assumes only an annual compounding
• ( (Annual Interest Rate/2 + 1) ^ (2/12) -1 ) which compensates for the semi-annual compounding

Mortgage Table

I like a Mortgage Schedule Table, just because it gives you the ability to understand where you stand in terms of paying off your loans.

Each row of the table will show a payment, how it breaks down in terms of interest and principle payment and how much principle remains after each payment (sounds simple doesn’t it, well it is):

Let’s try this example and show some of the sheet. Assume a $100,000 Mortgage, with an interest rate of 5.95% compounded semi-annually, with a 25 year pay back with monthly payments. We use the PMT() function to find out that our monthly payment will be $636.84.

The sheet will be laid out in the following way:

• Column 1 is the date of each payment
  You can do this for bi-weekly, but I did monthly to make it easy to increment from month to month you simple do =DATE(YEAR(A12),MONTH(A12)+1,DAY(A12))
• Column 2 shows the real monthly payment
  We already calculated that using the PMT() function
• Column 3 calculation of how much each payment goes towards the Interest
  This is = Previous balance * Interest rate for that payment period
• Column 4 calculation of how much each payment goes to the principle
  Total payment - Interest Payment = Principle payment
• Column 5 the remaining balance on the loan
  Previous Balance - Principle Payment
• Column 6 total interest paid on the loan so far.
  Previous Interest total + Interest Paid on this payment

Simple isn’t it?

You just keep going line by line for 25 * 12 times for all the payments and you will see the loan drop to zero. Hopefully tomorrow I will have a link to the example worksheets I set up, for both US and Canadian Mortgages.

More interesting versions of this is if you add an OVERPAYMENT column and then start seeing what happens when you add extra payments early on and how much faster your mortgage gets paid off!

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Post tags: Mortgage

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This is an expression my Father on occasion used to describe someone claiming they could not help you (what is more, they don’t want to help you). The actual expression is “Screw You, and the horse you rode in on“, but the shortened version (“And the horse you rode in on”) is much more palatable in polite circles.

I had one of these experiences yesterday, talking to a very nice young woman from Rogers. I noted (in this conversation) that Rogers is offering a $10 “unlimited internet” option on their new bundles program, so I figured I’d call to ask whether I (a valued customer of many years (IMHO)), could avail myself of this self-same program.

No, no, no! Your Horse, not your Zebra!

The young woman while very sympathetic said that the deal was only available if I added my Home Phone to my Rogers bundle (however if I wanted to add it to my existing package that would cost an extra $30 a month). I mentioned Customer Retention more than once, hoping she might take the hint, however, she finally said, “they most likely won’t want to talk to you about this”.

In my humble view of Customer Service this is the same as saying, “Screw You, and the horse you rode in on” to a customer. I finally asked her to please connect me to customer retention, and she warned me again, but did try to see if they might talk to me.

Did she actually talk to them? Not sure, however she did finally come back and say, “Your current deal with the Internet is all they can do for you, so they don’t wish to talk to you”. I thanked the young woman for her help, but as a last question I asked what the penalty was for breaking my “great deal” early with Rogers, as I do have Bell beating down my door about their Fibe Program. She said it was $20 a month and the deal is until August 2014, I did a quick calculation and said, “…so about $260 to break this deal? OK, thank you.”

While I understand the message that I already have a good deal, and shouldn’t ask for more, responding to a customer with, “I won’t talk to you”, is really a slap in the face to anyone. Having someone from “Customer Retention” deliver this message would have been much more palatable to me, and I would have felt less annoyed by the response.

Did I expect to get this deal? Unless I asked I knew the answer was no, so I asked, but answering, “No and go away!” is a bit more than I expected. Am I saying Rogers is being unreasonable not offering me this deal? Absolutely not, it is within their prerogative not to give me any more deals, my issue is with how the message was delivered. Even unreasonable, needy customers must be treated with a level of respect by giving them a clear and polite response (even if the response is no).

© bigcajunman for Canadian Personal Finance Blog, 2013. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Service Fees

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Just before the long weekend our friends at Stats Canada published their monthly Consumer Price Index review and they claimed that Inflation for the last 12 months (ending in April) Inflation ran at 0.4%, to which I call, Poppycock! (apologize for the potty mouth).

Gas prices are again the reason that prices are allegedly not going up that fast, however, we have also seen this past weekend, Gas prices jumping 7 cents a litre for no real reason except a need to gouge the hell out of consumers on a long weekend. Oil prices have not moved in the past few months, yet somehow there is a Gas shortage? We are desecrating the environment in Alberta that would make the Leaders of the Industrial Revolution wince, yet gas prices are going up? Wow…

OK, enough of a rant on that, here is a graph to show inflation with and without Gas included, which suggests our reliance on fossil fuels is not dwindling as much as the Granola Crunching Generation would hope:

Consumer Price Index Changes with and without Gasoline

So as we can see Gasoline is still the most important part of the Consumer Price Index. Want to see just how wacky Gasoline prices have been over the past little while?

Up to 25% swings in price changes? Who is Making these Changes? The Market?

Food prices continue to track at about 1.5% year over year price increase, while clothing continues to drop (for all you lovers of clothes produced in 3rd world sweat shops (as opposed to the 20th century where it was North American sweat shops)).

If you look at the seasonally adjust CPI, we in fact had a drop in CPI in April:

CPI Dropped (if you include a Seasonal Adjustment)

Bank of Canada’s core index

As we know the Bank of Canada has their own way of measuring the CPI, but with their “slide rules” they have calculated inflation to be well below their threshold of excitement:

The Bank of Canada’s core index rose 1.1% in the 12 months to April, following a 1.4% increase in March.

On a monthly basis, the seasonally adjusted core index posted no change in April, after rising 0.2% in March.

The Big Table

As usual I include one of the big tables from Stats Canada to help you comprehend where you are spending more:

Consumer Price Index and major components, Canada - Not seasonally adjusted

© bigcajunman for Canadian Personal Finance Blog, 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bank of Canada, Stats Canada

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Yes it is a holiday finally, and I get to enjoy the first long weekend since Easter (which seems a long way away). No stores are open around me, but Ottawa has some benefits that other Ontario cities don’t have because we have the Rideau Center, which is deemed a “Tourist Area” so all of it’s stores will be open and we are across the river from Gatineau/Hull and there all stores are open today. Will I go shopping? I might run to Tim Horton’s to have a Pro-Monarchist Coffee and Donut, but that is about it.

Happy Victoria Day

Queen Victoria, no doubt wondering where Prince Albert is (in the can would be my guess)

Why do we celebrate this holiday still? We need a holiday in May as simple a reason as that. In Quebec they call it Journée nationale des patriotes , and not much is closed (so maybe I can get my beer over there?).

© bigcajunman for Canadian Personal Finance Blog, 2013. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Off Topic

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A quiet day so here is one of my favorite postings from this year.

Einstein Rule of 72

This is a rewording of a earlier posting on July 21st 2005. OK, so maybe I will concede that Einstein may have stated that this was important, but I am still not convinced he “invented” it, but be that as it may.

If you click on the graph on the right you will find a gif that will show you a graph to show you the rule of 72 at work. Assuming your saving a set amount of money with only 1 compounding period per year, this graph is fairly accurate.

The other thing to remember is this is a DOUBLING period, and the more of those the better. Why? Remember if you find an investment that grows say by 10% a year (over year), your money doubles in 7 years (about), so in 21 years (about) your money will be 8 times what it is today! (remember 2 * 2 * 2 == 8). This is why it is so crucial to find good growth in your investments.

HOWEVER, risk is another thing to take into consideration too, and we’ll talk about that soon as well.

Double, double, double!!!

© bigcajunman for Canadian Personal Finance Blog, 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Investments

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This past week Rowan Stringer who played rugby with my daughter died in a tragic incident during a high school rugby game. The incident left Rowan with brain trauma, which could not be controlled and she died this past weekend.

Rowan Stringer

This tragedy has touched my family deeply, as my wife was Rowan’s Rugby manager and my daughter played club rugby with Rowan last season . It has also left me with many questions and, as usual, not many answers. It is never easy to really understand how a healthy, happy and beautiful teenager can simply be gone so suddenly.

Rowan was a leader in her school (Rugby Team Captain, and Mentor for other Students), a Volunteer at CHEO,  she had a part-time job , and had many more things going on. When she got her driver’s license she signed her donor card right away and made a point of telling her parents of her wishes if something should ever happen to her.

From this tragedy her parents honored her wish that her organs be donated, so others might live. This final gift from a special young woman will hopefully help many people live on thanks to her gift.  Her Parents strength during this time astounds me, they have already spoken publicly and are planning on continuing to do so in the future (in support of Organ Donation).

I have spoken before about the importance of donating your blood, but remember also that donating your organs may help others more than you will ever dream.

The two important points that I hope come out of this sad event are:

1.  The importance of all sports monitoring head injuries of young players. No final cause of death has been established (as of me writing) or if previous head trauma might have contributed to Rowan’s death, but it is important for Parents, Coaches and Friends of young Athletes to help them help themselves (letting them play after head trauma can lead to very bad consequences).
2. Rowan’s heart beats in someone else’s chest right now, her lungs breathe air for someone else, her kidneys are in two separate folks, her corneas help others see so she will not only live on in the hearts of her family and friends but for those lucky few who owe her a great gratitude. Sign your donor card.

To her Parents, many Friends and Teammates I offer my humblest of condolences.

© bigcajunman for Canadian Personal Finance Blog, 2013. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Donor, Off Topic

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I lifted that title from Bro Tips, but it is not just applicable for parties, it can be used for your finances as well.

Now I am most certainly not talking about paying off debt, LATE is better than NEVER, however, being on time is the right answer.

Time Waits For No One But Sometimes NOT Doing it is Better!

In investing being “late to the show” sometimes it is better to just ignore it, and try to find something else. If you bought into the Tech Boom in 1999, you most likely lost your shirt, if you didn’t bail out quick enough, however some folks who were in at the ground floor, might only have been lightly singed by the great drop.

If your friend invites you over for “just a party” but you get wind of it being an Amway recruiting party, never is a better choice.

Certainly with Ponzi Schemes Never is better than Late.

Where else in money is NEVER better than Late ?

© bigcajunman for Canadian Personal Finance Blog, 2013. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Investing, Tech

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This past week we purchased yet another replacement Bar B Q at the Big Cajun Chateau (we get a new one every 4 years or so (if anyone can give me a method to make them last longer, feel free to leave a comment)) and this new one is working quite nicely, however there is a problem that I have had with every propane Bar B Q that I have owned, and that is I never can figure out when my tank is empty and needs to be refilled (I find out when the bar b q goes out).

When Your Bar B Q is Full of Insulation from a Squirrel, Time To Get a New One

I have noticed that the tank seems to always run out about 10 minutes into cooking either chicken or pork, I am not sure how this happens, but it just does seem to happen that way. It has on occasion run out 2 minutes into cooking hamburgers as well, and in these situations we are stuck trying to finish cooking things that really do need to be cooked well.

I have come up with a fantastic solution to this problem, that should resolve this confounding problem.  If I simply only cook steak on the Bar B Q I will never run out of propane, because I have yet to have a tank “give out” in the middle of cooking steaks.

In a non-related story, I have also noticed that my AmWex card doesn’t seem to ever have a very high balance however my MisterCarte seems to have high balances every month, so I am thinking of using my AmWex card more, so I have lower balances.

Anyone see the flaw in this logic?

© bigcajunman for Canadian Personal Finance Blog, 2013. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Home

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This is an interesting rhetorical question (since I am 17 years past that age, and will not be retiring for a good long time), that I have seen from a few financial bloggers, so I will give my opinion on this important goal (for some folks). Remember I have tackled this subject before with Investing is like Golf.

Why is 35 So Important? It’s not even PRIME!

The major thing you should do is plan on not living past 40, and you can retire at 35 no problem, in fact you might be able to retire at 32. OK so that is me being a snarky-pants on that one however the idea might be that you “retire” at 35 and then go back to work at “40″ sort of a change of careers concept.

The concept of a mid-life career change has worked  very well for many associates and friends. If at age 35 you decide you don’t want to be a “grunt programmer” and you go back to school to become a Lawyer or Doctor, then you have retired from your old career, but are “reborn” in your new career.

Another great idea is plan on winning the lottery at 35, then you can retire for sure, however, you may end up going back to work again at 40, since if you buy lottery tickets, you most likely will blow most of that money as well.

If all you are trying to do is retire 30 years before the “normal retirement age” stop worrying, in about 10 years, retirement age will be moved up to 75, and thus 45 will become the new 35!

I guess my real question is: You want to “retire” at 35? What the hell are you going to do for the 50 years after that? If you tell me “explore the world”, I’ll tell you “the world” can get boring after a while. Why not just aspire to be DEBT FREE by 35 and able to do what you want at 35? You don’t like your job, quit, and go do something you want, that is the ultimate freedom. You want to change careers, no problem, you can do it.

Who really wants to completely retire at 35?

© bigcajunman for Canadian Personal Finance Blog, 2013. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Career, Retire

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