Power Meter

For Christmas, I got a power cost meter.
It measures how fast your power dial is spinning and turns it into an instantaneous cost and a cumulative total you can reset every month.
It has been a lot of fun to see how much various things around the house cost.
It is also very helpful for someone like me who can have numerical evidence that everything is off before I leave the house.

Here is a table of my early data:
$/hr
$0.06 Baseline (clocks, Fridge, DVRs, etc), everything else off.
$0.20 Heat (just the blowers, we also pay for the gas used)
$0.04 Plasma TV
$0.03 Outdoor flood lights
$0.10 Vacuum
$1.20 Dryer
$2.00 Pre heat oven to 400F
$0.25 Electric Heater for bathroom

My first thoughts were I did not think a baseline of $0.06 per hour seemed too bad. I had heard stories that all the little devices like phone chargers and VCR clocks etc, really waste a lot of energy, but this didn't seem too bad at first.
I was surprised at how much using the oven cost. Next time someone cooks a TDay turkey for you, bring them some wine or something for the hours of expensive cooking.

We spend about $80-$100 per month for electricity which doesn't seem too bad. But if you do the math, that is only $.14/hr so our baseline $0.06 represents ~$40/month or ~40% of our total usage.

Energy saving bulbs are great, but they can't help lower your baseline at all.

The good news is this means even a small amount of solar or wind power, like 1KW could do a lot to save energy even while you are at work which most of us assume would be off peak time versus all of the lights and TVs when we get home at night.

World Market

I can't believe World Market is closing all of their stores in Cincinnati.
I hate shopping, but that is my favorite place to go. We were able to furnish our dinning room, Rachel's study, and our outdoor furniture from World Market. Their stuff is really nice and not too expensive.
Article
They had good wine, blood orange soda, Cadbury Flake etc.

I prefer Best Buy, but it is weird to have Comp USA and Circuit City both go out of business. That may hurt competition and keep some prices higher on TVs etc.

Also, an old shop in Glendale closed as well. It's getting ugly out there.

The reason I get my news online.

Also, after Toronto, I prefer Yahoo.ca to Yahoo.com.

Time to Relax

I got back from Toronto Dec 14th, we have fixed most of the issues and things are starting to go well.
Then we went to Boston for a few days to see my family, and had 2 snow storms with about a foot of snow each (but missed both power outages). We were lucky our flight home was one of the few not canceled.
We went to Matt and Shannon's for Christmas eve and hosted Christmas day here.
Now we get a little time to do nothing before I head back to Toronto on Jan 3rd.


Amsterdam looks nice this time of year:

Bad Day at MSNBC

Canada Day 5

Best Food: The Keg and Montana's
Worst Food: Wayne Gretzky's and Tuckers

I love listening to Canadian's opinions of the US and learning about how their systems are different.

I am convinced the US needs to modify our 401k system to be similar to Canada's Registered Retirement Savings Plan.

It is very similar to our plan, but has a few basic principles that I think are lost in our plan:

While very Socialist, Canada (the Govt') does not want to pay for your retirement, so they make it very easy and risk free to start or catch up saving for your retirement.

The key differences are:
-You can contribute up to 18% of your salary (minus any pensions to a specified maximum)
-If you don't contribute your max one year don't worry, you can carry over that amount you did not contribute to next year...or over and over forever until that one great year where you can make a big investment in your retirement.
-And to make it low risk, if you ever need that money back, you can do so at any age without any penalty aside from paying current income tax rates (it is your money right?)

Canadian RRSP

This keeps people off of goverment assistance for retirement because there is literally no risk to maximizing your retirement savings.

How many Americans are gun shy about saving in a 401k because it is gone until you are 59 1/2?
"I'd contribute more, but what if we buy a house in a few years, or what if we have a baby, or what if we get sick, or get laid off?"
All of these concerns go away when you can constantly maximize your savings and still use it as an emergency fund if needed.

This is the only system I have ever heard of that guarantees you will retire with the maximum amount possible while still being able to have some funds to cover you if you are out of work or have some tough years.

Here are 2 other crazy benefits:
Special withdrawal programs

Home Buyer's Plan (HBP)
While the original purpose of RRSPs was to help Canadians save for retirement, it is possible to use RRSP funds to help purchase one's first home under what is known as the Home Buyer's Plan. Canadians can borrow, tax-free, up to $20,000 from their RRSP (and another $20,000 from a spousal RRSP) towards buying their residence. This loan has to be repaid within 15 years after two years of grace. Contrary to popular belief, this plan can be used more than once per lifetime, as long as the borrower did not own a residence in the previous five years, and has fully repaid any previous loans under this plan.


Lifelong Learning Plan (LLP)
Similarly to the Home Buyer's Plan, the Life-Long Learning Plan allows for temporary diversions of tax-free funds from an RRSP. This program allows individuals to borrow from an RRSP to go or return to post-secondary school. The user may withdraw up to $10,000 per year to a maximum of $20,000. The first repayment under the LLP will be due at the earliest of the following 2 dates:

1. 60 days after the 5th year following the 1st withdrawal

2. The 2nd year after the last year the student was enrolled in full-time studies

Toronto Day 1

After eating at Wayne Gretzky's downtown, we stopped in to grab some quick groceries.
Before paying the 13% sales tax, we noticed a lot of the products were identical to what we have but with different names.
We do this as well, the Arctic Ice Gillette deodorant is named Storm Force for Canada.
Junior Mints are...Juniors.
Caramello's are.. CaraMilks.
Hot Pockets are...Hot Stuffs(They taste just like a hot stuff).

Much to my co-workers dismay, this is our 6th trip to Toronto and we have yet to find any Diet Mountain Dew.