money – rich text

I guess they like me

Rich — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:40:58 +0000

Just got mail from the admissions folks at the U of O school of management: they’re offering me a (partial, but substantial) scholarship.

Yay! Maybe this was a good idea after all! (I kid, I kid.)

Now I just have to get the rest of the financial stuff ironed out (RRSP withdrawals and a line of credit in case of emergencies). Last time I tried to talk to the folks at TD Canada Trust I must have come in right before lunch or something, because I couldn’t convince them to pay attention to me or their own materials, and I ended up giving up. As of a couple weeks ago, my stepmother manages a TD branch in Marmora, though, so I’ll probably just give her a call instead.

file file file file file

Rich — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 16:01:53 +0000

Taxes completed and netfiled. Awaiting refund, even what with Candice’s self-employediness. Yay! That will make me feel a little better about the pending laptop purchase.

Did you know you can still file Canadian income tax returns over the phone? I can’t imagine. “Please enter the dollar value from line 132 and press pound. Please enter the dollar value from line 133 and press pound. If you are claiming home office expenses, press 1, otherwise press 2.”

Finally, a gem from the Netfile web site, where you upload your completed tax return data file:

I will not attempt to disrupt the NETFILE service by uploading files other than my own eligible tax return. If I do, the CRA will deny me access to electronic services.

Don’t stuff beans up your nose!

In the (red)

Rich — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 20:23:16 +0000

Turns out that buying a t-shirt and an iPod might not be helping Africa much after all: Project (RED) has only pulled in $18M in donations for $100M of marketing outlay in its first year. (RED)’s CEO responds: It’s never been a charity! It’s not about the money, it’s about the exposure! The first seven months don’t count!

I think I’ve got this Costco thing figured out

Rich — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 14:51:11 +0000

I went back to Costco last night (alone, Candice was working), and left with a cartful of things, none of which I got home and went “What was I thinking?”, so I think it went well. Most of the stuff I bought was stuff we always buy right away when we’ve run out, which I think is a good rule of thumb.

I’m kind of glad I went when it was quiet, because there were a few things I wasn’t prepared for, like the “people on one side, carts on the other” process at the cash, or the fact that they don’t bag what you buy. I should have taken a picture of the trunk of the car filled with loose food. IKEA bags to the rescue!

Our take from our first shopping trip there (since this weekend we just got a membership and looked around):

1kg of Parmigiano Reggiano
320 kitchen garbage bags, which I figure will last us about six years
Sliced chicken breasts (11 breasts’ worth)
A case of San Pellegrino orange soda for about 50c a can; in the grocery store it’s $1.50 a can
A bottle of water for the water cooler (no deposit! but only 15l instead of 18l, what?)
six red peppers
45 crunchy granola bars
a litre of Neutrogena shampoo
a giant bottle of Tide
eight magic erasers
a pack of sliced processed cheese the size of a brick
three jars of pasta sauce
1.5 lbs of salad croutons
two giant bags of chips

and a new MP3 player for me.

The MP3 player might sound like an impulse purchase, but no! I’ve been downloading a lot of new music lately, and found the one case in which my Shuffle doesn’t really work out: when you aren’t familiar with the music you’re listening to! The little Sansa doesn’t have much of a screen, but it does have one, so I can look and see what’s playing, or choose to listen to a whole album, and so on. From what I’ve saved on CDs it made sense.

1.5 lbs of salad croutons!

Costco for dummies

Rich — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 01:24:45 +0000

Candice and I went to Costco today and picked up a membership. We forced ourselves to only look around on our first trip, lest we accidentally come home with a new TV or something. It’s pretty much what I expected, with a bit more grocery and a bit less other stuff.

One thing I have realized, though, is that it really takes a different kind of shopping than the grocery store does, because of the shifting inventory and the club-pack quantities. I know that some of you folks are die-hard Costco fans. What techniques have you found useful for getting as much out of your Costco membership as you can?

Up, up, up, up, up.

Rich — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 11:28:00 +0000

Via the always-excellent Get Rich Slowly, a New York Times graph of
U.S. housing prices since 1890, with inflation factored out:

(click image to enlarge)

Holy cow. Candice and I are on the brink of beginning a home-buying stage, but it’s hard to imagine that bubble being sustainable for much longer. Get Rich Slowly’s take on it is here, and the New York Times article is here.