24 Jan 2010 at 10:59
As we’re in full-on RRSP mode here in Canada (you can still make contributions to your RRSP now and have it apply to your 2009 tax year), we’re getting bombarded by ads for financial advisers and such. I usually ignore all of these, however this year I’ve been paying a little closer attention as I was thinking of meeting with a financial adviser to go over my situation and see if there was anything I could be doing better (aside from paying off my debt, natch). One of my colleagues had recommended her financial adviser, and I did send him an email last month asking for a meeting, but he never got back to me, so I figured he was too busy. His ears must have been burning this week though as he finally got back to me, and so we set up a meeting for next week to go over things.
I’m excited about meeting with him as I’ve a number of things I’d like to discuss:
- my current debtload
- my RRSP situation
This adviser works for my current employer (remember, I work for a bank), so I’m interested to see what type of things he can come up with. I was so excited and interested to hear what he had to say that I actually showed up to the appointment a week early! (I input the date incorrectly in my calendar, so I showed up this past Thursday when the appointment’s actually NEXT Thursday.) But he was quite gracious and we had a quick chat about things while I was there. I did offer to just come back on my actual appointment day, but he said it was actually good that I was there early as he’d be able to crunch through numbers and have some good suggestions for our appointment next week. (I had brought the latest copies of all my statements with me.)
The major thing he pointed out quickly was that as my car lease is up next year and I want to keep the car, we’ll have to figure out what to do with the lease buy out amount. Count 1 point for him, as I’d not really been thinking about this. What I’d ask him to figure out was this: Determine the best course of action for me so that I could pay off my debt as quickly as possible without severely curtailing my life, and save me money by consolidating the debt to one payment with a lower interest rate.
So while I’m pretty good at figuring out my finances, sometimes you do need to ask for professional help. Right now I’m plain tired of dealing with this on my own, so let’s see what Mr. Adviser can do for me. Stay tuned!
Edit: Had to postpone the appointment till next week as I came down with a nasty cold this week and couldn’t make the appointment. But I’ll let you know what he has to say!
18 Jan 2010 at 17:17
The financial snowflakes have been falling fast and furious lately, so I’ve updated the Snowflake widget on the site. Each month’s snowflakes will be listed out as they happen, but once the month is over, they’ll be rolled up into the first line.
Managed to sell off some of my brother in law’s comic books last week, so I earned over $36 from Amazon.ca, and then also another $22 from my colleagues as they purchased some of them too, which is nice.
17 Jan 2010 at 12:00
This weekend I was on the hunt for a new CD as I’ve looking for new music over the last several months. I heard a song that I liked on last week’s Grey’s Anatomy (I know, cheesy show, however I find they use music very well in the show, introducing new artists at the same time). I found the song in iTunes, but I was curious to know if I’d like the whole album, so I looked up the album and listened to the clips of the songs. Very cool. But I didn’t want to spend the $14.99 on the album download through iTunes if I could buy the CD for the same price in the store. I’m one of those that likes to hold the CD in my hands some times…not always, but most of the times.
This morning I popped on over to my local HMV to see if they had it, and first off, I think I surprised Mr. Cool Music Dude in the store by asking for the artist. Secondly, he wasn’t sure if they had any left. We looked high and low, with no success. He mentioned that it was on an end display at one point, but when we looked, it wasn’t there. Oh well, I thought, I’ll keep my eyes open for it later. I took a closer look at the display to see what else was there, and wouldn’t you know it, I found the CD I was looking for! Someone had hidden it behind another one. Heh heh, I’ve done that before, but this time I snagged it. And wouldn’t you know it, it was on sale for $9.99. So I saved myself $5 and got the song tout de suite. Nice. I listened to it all the way home, and I’m pleased.
Oh, and the name of the artist is Florence + the Machine, the album is Lungs. I highly recommend it, especially if you like Imogen Heap-type music. In fact, I actually thought the song was Imogen Heap when I first heard it on Grey’s Anatomy.
16 Jan 2010 at 15:02
Today I was running some errands and stopped into my local drug store to pick up some hair spray. It’s been a while since I’ve had to buy some, as I tend to only buy it when it’s on sale, but the sprayer on the last bottle I bought broke, so I was stuck. I wasn’t sure if there was anything on sale, but holy crap, was I ever surprised at how expensive the regular prices were. And this was on the “regular” products, not those “professional” brands that they sell. Wow.
Last time I paid attention, hair spray was around $3.99 for a bottle. Now those same bottles are $5.99 and $7.99! How crazy is that?
Luckily there was actually a brand on sale for $2.99, and while it wasn’t the exact “hold” I wanted (it was strong hold as opposed to flexible hold), the fact that it was $2.99 sold me. I realize that these days a lot of items cost a bit more than I’m used to, however this increase in price on hair spray surprised me the most.
What price increases have you surprised right now?
