Posted by Canadian Dream on April 16, 2010
Despite being a technology geek at times, for example I just bought a blu-ray player and I love my ebook reader, I’m also a little bit of closet luddite. I don’t own a cell phone. I don’t want an ipod, blackberry or even the ipad. A friend of mine the other day handed me her blackberry saying “do you know how to fix that?” as she pointed to an error message on the screen. She was a bit shocked to hear me say “I don’t have a clue, I’ve never used one.”
Perhaps its my environmental bent, but I feel technology should actually be useful to me in some way to justify its existence in my life. Technology to me should either make my life significantly easier in some way and not cost me a lot of ongoing money to keep it. I hate picking up monthly costs that actually don’t do much for me.
So yes the tech geek in me did read a few reviews of the ipad, but ultimately I determined I don’t need/want an ipad. I do a LOT of typing on my laptops and that apparently isn’t a strength of the new ipad. Also I’m not very interested in watching movies or Utube. I’m not much of a media consumer either so overall I thought the ipad was nice looking, but not for me.
I’m against useless technology that actually doesn’t do much for anyone. So to me an ipad is similar to a slap chop, it doesn’t do anything new that I can’t already do with something I already own. This is also why I won’t put in underground sprinklers in my backyard, since I can already water the entire thing by moving the sprinkler I have just twice (small backyard). Yet I do have underground sprinklers in the front (big front yard).
So how do you tell if a technology is useless to you? Well here are a few hints:
- When advertised they use the words “cutting edge” or they discuss all about the “features” on the item that you will likely never use.
- When the item doesn’t do anything new compared to what you have.
- When the item will actually cost you more money and/or time than you are already spending to do something similar.
- When you want the item and you really can’t come up with a great answer to the question of “why do I want this?” that your spouse would actually believe.
- That the item in question will only save you less than 2 minutes a day.
Of course there are many other hints, but you will have to figure out what works for you. Technology is good, but not all technology is useful to all people. Make sure you can tell the difference. Your wallet and the environment will thank you by avoiding buying items that you stop using all that much six months after you get it. Embrace your inner luddite and don’t buy technology you don’t need.
How about you? What technology have you avoided or embraced?
Posted by Canadian Dream on April 15, 2010
As I was entering the last few tax forms that are coming in (invest income is good, but waiting for the tax forms takes forever) into QuickTax I’m finding myself looking at an unfamiliar sight. I owe taxes?!?!
You have to realize that I’m used to my wife owing a little bit of CPP each year, but I’m in a bit of a surprise that I personally own anything. I’ve been on refunds for such a long time that I’m having some difficultly adjusting, since I usually leave a bit of cushion on my tax planning to make sure I have a small refund. Yet in hindsight this isn’t surprising at all for a few reasons.
- Second Job – It’s just about impossible when taking a second job to have the right amount of tax coming off at the start, unless you are very good at calculating the tax implications of that additional income. I’m not that good, I always seem to be off a bit.
- Selling some stocks – Upon opening our TFSA’s in 2009 we sold off some stocks in our taxable accounts which triggered capital gains/losses.
- Home Buyers Plan – When I did my tax planning I messed up a little bit and forgot about my home buyers plan repayment, which is about $700.
All in all it’s not much that I owe, about $300 right now. So from a tax planning side I did fairly well, I’m just off a little bit from owing/refund goal of $0. A reminder the deadline to file is April 30 in Canada.
So how did you do on your taxes this year? Are you having a refund or do you owe?
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Filed Under: Tax
Posted by Canadian Dream on April 14, 2010
I’ve got to be a very small minority in Canada right now: I actually want interest rates to start to rise. Yes I’m ready for those higher interest rates that every economist in the country is predicting over the next few years (I have noticed a wild differences on the details of when and how much).
Well how bad is the rate speculation right now? Well I haven’t been keeping score but I’ve seen predictions from a 1.5% increase by 2011 up to a 5% increase for that same time frame. To be honest I don’t think anyone can really know. Raising rates is a reactionary event to the data available at that time, so predicting the when/how much is sort of like gambling.
Unlike a lot of people a rise in rate won’t be a negative for me. I have no balances on my line of credit or credit card. I just signed a five year fixed rate mortgage just last year so I’m not worried about the short term rate increases. Also I’m well on my way of paying off the mortgage before my current term ends so I don’t really worry about how high or fast rates go up in the medium term.
On the other hand I will have a large free cash flow that I can start investing into GIC’s as rates come up and I pay off the mortgage. One little game I will have to watch out for is if the rates come up fast and high I might want to invest in GIC’s more than my mortgage is the rate spread gets too big (ie: I’m getting paid significantly more for a GIC over a mortgage payment). Obviously if I play that game I’ll have to still make sure I pay off the mortgage by the end of my current fixed rate term to avoid getting burned with higher rates myself.
So what if you aren’t ready yet for the higher rates? Here are a few ideas on what to do.
- Pay off variable rate debt. Lines of credit, margin accounts…just about anything linked to the prime rate should be paid off if you can in a short time frame (less than a year). If you can’t pay it off in the short run, look at your highest variable rate debt and go after that one first.
- Consider locking in your mortgage rate. I used the word ‘consider’ for a reason. This is worth a look, but not everyone should do it. For example, if you have a dirt cheap variable rate and can handle the higher payments you might want to take the risk of rising rates in order to pay off more of your principle in the mean time. I personally didn’t want to play that game so I went to a lock in rate last year. It was a personal choice for me.
- Have some savings. To avoid adding new variable rate debts make sure you have some savings on hand for those little accidents in life. Also you will want to get in the habit of delayed gratification and saving for something before you buy it.
If any of the above suggestions sound familiar they likely are because just about every personal finance blog you have ever read says these same things. It’s just a bit more important now that you start listening when the negative consequences of too much debt is about to get a bit more painful in the next few years.
So are you ready for higher interest rates? Is so, why? If not, why not?
