Hope you all had a great Christmas. We sure did. It is always fun spending time with my family. I have a sister and a brother and we can talk about anything under the sun. There are no subjects that are Taboo for us. Our conversations are never boring - they are usually about religion, money and politics. And when things get ugly (not as much anymore - we're all in our forties - so, we have learnt a thing or two about each others' body language to know when to back off), my mom steps in to force us to apologize to each other. That is one lesson I've learnt from my mother - sibling comraderie is taught, encouraged and maintained to a great extent by parents. I credit the fantastic relationship I have with my siblings to my mother. I hope to do the same for our kids - I am already seeing the fruits of our labour come to fruition - my two kids love playing (and fighting - with mom and dad as peacemakers) together. But, that was not the topic of my blog today! I digress. We are here to talk about toys we got for Christmas and other times of the year.
We got a Wii this Christmas as a present for the whole family. We bought a 6 months old unit from Kijiji, complete with 2 remotes, 2 nunchuks and 3 games for a grand total of $170. This kid we bought this off of paid over $325 for everything. That sure demonstrates depreciation! Glad I'm the beneficiary of this depreciation. I remembered my kids asking me for a Wii when it first came out a few years ago. I said to them, "we will wait until people get tired of their Wii in 2 years and they will want to sell it for a good price - that's when we buy". It took us a few years, but we did buy it when it was not such a "hot" game anymore - the new thing now is the Kinnect. We are still thoroughly enjoying our Wii now, even though it is not "hot" anymore. It's new for us!
It often baffles my mind how folks could justify spending so much money on the newest toys, cell phones, technology and gadgets. I understand if they had a household income of greater than $100K and are not in debt. Take my brother for example, no debt, mortgage payment of $32 per month because it's almost paid off, great household income (greater than $100K) - I have no issues with him running out to get the ipad when it first came out. Even he, Mr. Techno Buff, waited till this year to get a Wii and he got it for $170 at Zellers because he went to line up when it was on sale (I still think I got the better deal because I got the extra remote, nunchuk and games for the same price). He has a Smartphone but it is neither an iphone or a Blackberry - it was some phone he got from the US for a song.
There are so many who strive to have the toys and gadgets, the big house (when they cannot really afford it), the big car (when the bank owns most of it and they have difficulty making payments), the gold credit cards (that cost $190 per year for no good reason) - all looks - and yet, has a large debt to income ratio - have we become such a deprived society that we need to have these "things" prop up our self image?
Being a Financial Advisor on the side, I saw a person I know whip out their CIBC Aerogold card the other day to pay for a meal. This is someone who cannot really afford to have that card. So, I really want to talk about this. I remember carrying the CIBC Aerogold visa card for many years - I got it the first year it came out - back in the 80s. I gave that up when I realized that I could get a not so prestigious CIBC Visa Dividend card where they paid me money to use the card instead of me paying them money to use it. Last year, I was paid $261.26 to use my card! As for the rental car collision insurance benefit, I got a CIBC Platinum Visa card which was free but still gave me that benefit. I remember this one card - Diners Card International. It costed me over $200 per year to have this card. The benefit? I could use the Air Canada Lounge every time I travelled - that was the privilege of carrying this card. Yes, it was nice and prestigious (and very comfortable when I did a lot of traveling) but once I stopped all that traveling, I cancelled the card because there was no longer need of that benefit - prestigious or not!
The moral of this story is, delayed gratification pays. Looking for more cash flow? Cancel that prestigious looking credit card! Get a free one or better yet, one that pays you to use the card.
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