Saturday, March 14, 2009

Catching Up

Now that I'm home, I get to catch up on a few things.

One of the things that's been on my mind is the amount of paper mail we get. I was on the phone with my bank to ask them to discontinue sending paper statements.

Apparently, it is the law in Canada that even though I get my statements via epost, they have to send a paper copy. How backwards is that?! I'm sure it has something to do with covering their behinds with respect to people missing payments but I feel the law has got to change.

On a similar note, I have a few 2 yrs magazine subscriptions that will be ending this year. They seem to come at the same time and prefer to come when we are away so our mailbox is overflowing -- not a great security sign to give out.

So I've changed the mailing addresses to my office. Why has it taken me so long to figure this one out?! (It's my years of living in a gated community that has spoiled me for some things)

I've pretty much decided on the insurance policy we are going with for the cottage. The process to cancel the existing one will be easy -- yeah!

My annual mortgage statement came in the mail while we were gone. One fact on it kinda blew us away.

We started Jan 1 2008 with a 5.1% interest rate and now we sit at 1.6%... How low can it go? I, for one, want to find out.

To end, my Feb month end for work showed an increase in take home pay of $697.90 for March. I'm 3 for 3 in beating the spreadsheet estimates so far this year.

On another lucky note, someone dropped off a piece of Turquoise and Rose Quartz for me yesterday, just like that. They are supposed to promote balance and harmony. Works for me!

I'm going to start my "getting rid of one piece of something a day" venture in hopes to "lighten up" my load at home.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

7 comments:

  1. My mortgage went from 4.75 when I bought my new house last May to about 2.1 right now (I think its 2.1... haven't got the latest update in the mail yet). Its unbelievable how low they've gotten, and how much quicker I'm paying off my 25 year mortgage! Isn't it great? And I thought 4.75 was a decent deal!!!

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  2. I have gone paperless with both of the banks that I deal with. I do not receive paper statements at all from them.

    Can they at least email you the statements instead of printing them and mailing them?

    Also, we have a sign on our mailbox that says "no unaddressed admail please" this tells Canada Post that you do not want any flyers/junk mail unless specifically addressed to you. It works - we found this tip on their website.

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  3. HI flirty*almost*30! I would have also thought 4.75 was a great rate too. Who would have ever guessed we would be where we are now? That's one upside of having suffered such drastic paper losses this last year or so!

    Hi Money Minder! I get e-statements AND paper from Scotiabank. I will try calling again and see if someone else gives me a different answer...sigh! Thanks for Canada Post tip! That's awesome!

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  4. That is a crazy low rate, are adjustable mortgages the norm there? Here they were popular but are now seen as the ticking time bomb, I have one. I can't believe they still have to send out paper statements, they probably need to pass a digital paperwork law before companies can start ceasing paper.

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  5. Hi Miss M!

    I'm not sure if adjustable mortgages are the norm or not. It is available and my banker was the one who convinced me to switch from my fixed rate one long ago and I've never looked back. He has done me a huge favour!

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  6. There are services now that will image and put your mail online. That way you can get your mail anywhere in the world, even if the company won't stop sending it.

    You just have to sign up and change your address. One's called Earth Class Mail.

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  7. Really?! That's amazing Carlos! I will look into that. Thanks!

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