Canadian Capitalist

CBC is reporting that many Canadians are saving thousands of dollars by shopping for cars and trucks in the United States. It is not surprising given that our dollar has crossed 95 cents (US) and a wide disparity exists between prices on some models. For example, Toyota Sienna XLE Limited has a suggested retail price [...]

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Our boys will pretty soon be two years old and we now appreciate how expensive it is to have a baby. If you are going to be a new parent soon or are planning to have a baby, here’s what you can expect:
Capital expenses - Crib, stroller, car seat, changing table etc. would fall into [...]

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Lately, I’ve been watching the TV show, Till Debt Do Us Part, and a common thread in every episode is that the participants have no clue on how much money they are spending and on what. While I’ve never been deeply in consumer debt, I started becoming smart about our finances only when I began [...]

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Statistics Canada released its 2005 Survey of Household Spending today. The survey found that Canadians spent an average of $66,860, up 5.1% from the previous year’s average spending of $63,640. Household spending is growing at a brisk pace in recent years (4.5% in 2002, 1.8% in 2003, 4.0% in 2004 and 5.1% in 2005). For [...]

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The Christmas shopping rush has already started and it is a good bet that most stores will be aggressively selling their extended warranties to unsuspecting customers. However, these warranties are a poor bet for consumers according to yet another story on this topic. The story quotes Consumer Reports as saying that these warranties only make [...]

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As you can imagine, we are very careful about spending money. We clip coupons from the Sunday paper, buy necessities in bulk when they are on sale, brown bag our lunches, find ways to save on recurring expenses and avoid a daily latte habit. Sounds great, right? But then, I go out and buy a [...]

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I recently replaced our 17-year-old furnace with a new mid-efficiency furnace bought from Costco, of all places. The old furnace was a low-efficiency model (it had a pilot light) and was probably on its last legs (the salesman said the average lifespan of a gas furnace is about 20 years).
It is difficult to say if [...]

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Why do we get the urge to spend money? Why are most of us on a hedonic treadmill, endlessly upgrading stuff with “better” stuff? Is it because credit is so easily available? Are credit cards, which makes it oh-so-easy to spend money that we don’t have, to blame, as we argued sometime back?
I am convinced [...]

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Would you pay $1,055 (US) for a pair of men’s khaki pants? Last weekend’s Financial Post featured a story titled “Men’s khakis get hefty price upgrade”, which mentions that the pricey khakis are available from Dsquared2. The story also mentions that Polo Ralph Lauren is selling four khaki models humbly named Milkman, Postman, Bartender and [...]

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I use Virgin Mobile’s prepaid service and have been very impressed with their 120-day expiry period for top-ups of $15 or more. I referred many friends to their service and now find that Virgin Mobile has significantly shortened their expiry periods. While Virgin Mobile continues to offers the best value for occasional users, I would [...]

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