Ten years, eh? Gee, I bet the women are just rushing to find such a committed man?

the neighbours are all taking their vacations
going to the dominican
and florida and cuba

they are still spending tons of money and buying
cars and trucks

well i would love to know when it will happen

i am fourty two and would like to find a woman
that wants to be loved and married for the next ten years
and grow our own food and care for one another

Also, American lenders write a mortgage for the full term (usually 15 to 30 years), not five year intervals with renewals (Unless that has changed since I lived in the U.S.?). Therefore, with a fixed rate mortgage the only thing will change will be taxes and insurance payments. The P&I remain fixed unless one opts for variable rate mortgage.

So you actually believe the interest only accumulates every six months on a Canadian mortgage, eh?

American banks charge compounded interest too, as do all the credit card companies.

I will put together a comparison between simple and compound interest and post it when I have more time. Remember that compound interest charges interest on the interest, whereas simple interest is only charged on the principle. That is my point.

You actually get credit cards in your mail? We get ‘offers’ for credit cards. Mostly from those banks in the U.S. wanting ‘buy’ our debt at a reduced rate for 6 to 10 months (Then WHAMMO, back up to the highest rate they can rape people with).

In the U.S. they used to send out the cards, but that stopped over a decade ago.

Here we use InterAct (Debit Card/Bank Client Card) which is in Europe as well, and it draws directly and instantly from our bank account. Visa takes about three days to even post payments or transactions. Amazing considering it is all on computerized systems, and the same bank’s as well.

We do all our banking and bill payments online. I always know to the penny what our balances are. That’s the way I like it.

A former friend of mine worked for a company that furnished forms to a large bank in the U.S. He told me they deliver a large truck load of NSF (Non-Sufficient Funds) forms every day because the bank goes through them so fast. Figure that is usually $25 per pop they are raking in. I have had one NSF charge in the past 16 years and that was do to a mistake by the bank which they gladly reversed. NSF charges are a major revnue source for banks and they LOVE THEM!

Author Unknown

There will be a lot of additional work required to guide individuals and companies through “the system” as financial restructuring will be an inevitability for many. The rub is that the individuals and companies who are already doing the work are simply going to get additional work.

I am already seeing the implications of this in the engineering and consulting world. It’s all about planning and development now and working on “infrastructure”. Unfortunately, those of us who do that work are already full-up. Take a ticket and stand in line. We were already looking at upwards of 18 months of work in the pipeline BEFORE everyone jumped on the bandwagon to “look to the future”. In the last few months, it’s turned into “It’s going to be a challenge to get all of this work done”.

Sure, this sounds great and people say “oh, well that’s fantastic that your business will be able to expand”. Unfortunately, the answer is “no”, unless any prospective employees can hit the ground running. And by running I mean “at sustained race pace”.

Yes, the Stantecs and Lavalins and KPMGs and PwCs of the world will be able to pick up professionals laid off from other jobs and put them to work. Those who work in highly-specialized areas and offer what are essentially boutique services have a much harder time of it because it is much more difficult to find those specialists.

I’m not trying to be a jerk here, but when you were loaned to another department, you had the base credential of a Chartered Accountant! It’s not like you had just graduated with a certificate in bookkeeping. When people have critical issues on their plates – medical, financial, lifestyle – you want the most qualified person you can get your hands on. The road to hell is paved with good intentions by nice people.

Don’t get me wrong – there are great people who have very flexible skills and can probably do a myriad of examples of great work in a number of different capacities. I just don’t want to be their proving ground when it’s my “life” on the ropes.

Anyone who has ever had to negotiate the medical or legal system will likely have learned the degree to which you need to become your own very vocal advocate, lest you get processed like one of the herd by an overburden bureaucracy. We may be the edge of seeing what that is like in the financial world.

Everyone else’s mileage may vary.

That is the mortgage calculation I have described – canadian standard. Your comment 95 said the bankers should replace the compound interest they charge with simple interest. I wanted you to try that to see how it
would work out in comparison.

My point is the real power is in knowing how payments are calculated. To lower the amount that is paid back, you
have to lower one of the three variables – principal
borrowed, interest rate, or amortization period.

I most certainly did the article, twice actually. When you “read between the lines”, I see a man who is utterly terrified over the implications of what really might happen. I see an individual who is nothing short of a used car salesman, trying to pitch us a “sweet deal” that we simply can’t refuse. Mark my words. Come springtime, Carney will be singing a different tune, but I’m sure the big-money boys will see that he’s well taken care, no matter what happens. As I said before, we shall see if Mr. Carney’s crystal-ball forecasts come true.

Ah, you must be Charlie Can’t Surf’s brother, eh? Great view from their patio BTW.