Fun Fake Money

One of my sons recently spent a few days in Las Vegas, where he brought a few souvenirs for himself - fake money that made him smile...

The Barack Obama "bill" claims to be worth $44 - as Obama was the 44th US president...

The fake Trump bill, on the other hand, is supposedly worth a billion dollars!

I thought my son might enjoy displaying his fake money, so I hunted for some simple acrylic frames...

I got an extra one for a fake million dollar Canadian bill I bought (at Canadian Tire) as a Christmas socking-stuffer for one of my kids years ago... I thought it was cute! It's been sitting in a desk drawer for years.

The queen looks so young -  and Canada now has plastic money - so this bill has been around for a long time!

I guess we now have the beginnings of a fake - joke - money collection!

SPAM!!

I recently received an email claiming to be from the Canadian government, informing me that I was owed government money... They wanted me to click on a link to claim my rebate...

I quickly deleted it...

How did I know it wasn't real?

For one thing, it wasn't addressed to me... It was addressed to my email. The government knows my name!










Second, the email came from a source that I know isn't a Canadian government email address. But if I wasn't sure I'd google the government or even call them.

This is the email address that sent me the email...

Canada.Revenue.Agency.CRA.ARG.GC-CA.5486087483msg.ONWS-.5486087483.crg-cra54860@crg-message.highland.edu

I wonder if this spam email really comes from highland.edu the last segment of the email address. It's apparently a community college in northern Illinois...

(Or maybe that's a lie as well!)

"If You Want To Get Specific..."

Canada has very few post offices. In the 1980s, Canada Post became a business... (a Crown Corporation)...not a government service.

To save money, most small post offices were shut down, replaced with postal kiosks in drug stores. The employees in these kiosks work for the kiosk owner, not for the post office.

I was recently in a shopping mall, hunting for a post office. Eventually I found it - not in the drugstore, where I expected to find it - but in the back of the Hallmark card shop. A postal clerk was nowhere to be found, and soon several of us were standing in line waiting.

Eventually a young man in jeans and a sweatshirt wandered over from across the store, where he had been chatting.

I need to add postage to this letter to the USA, I told him. I need a stamp for 80 cents. I already have a 40-cent stamp on it. 

You need to add a dollar, he said, slapping a stamp onto my envelope.

No, I replied. I checked online and letters to the US cost $1.20.

Well, if you want to get specific... he retorted.

I came here to get specific, I answered.

What to do?! The dollar-stamp was already affixed to my envelope... The line of customers behind me was growing. Did I really want to hold everyone up, arguing over 20 cents?

Reluctantly I gave him $1.15 - the cost of the stamp plus sales tax, 20 cents more than I should have paid. I was fuming... It wasn't the money, but the principle of the matter that angered me...

A few years ago, Canada stopped using pennies as currency... (Too small to be bothered with...)

Now I couldn't help but wonder:  Have we actually reached a point when nickels and dimes have also gone out of style?

Financial Principles I Live By

(Funny how our spending habits date back to our youth...)

Being the older sibling, my parents took great pains to make me "earn" my spending money and to teach me to budget...

(I don't remember my younger brother getting the same training!)

To encourage saving, my father would equal any savings I deposited in my bank account.

My first fun purchases (made with baby-sitting money) were for movies, records and books. I did Saturday chores for my allowance, with which I had to buy clothing. The memorable year of my growth spurt (age 12), winter arrived and none of my clothes fit! My mother quickly decided that I would have to earn money to buy the things I wanted. (That was the only time I ever remember going out and buying an entire wardrobe!) My mother (a working mother who needed help around the house) decided I should "earn" my clothing by working for her!

Both my parents - who had been impressionable youth during the Great Depression - remembered the days when people considered themselves lucky if they had food on the table and a roof over their heads. They didn't want me to take anything for granted.

(Looking back, if I regret anything, it is that my carefree childhood - when money was not an issue -ended too soon! But I did develop financial discipline - I knew that the same money couldn't be spent twice! And I absorbed strong ideas about how I was going to spend - and save - my money. Some of them came from my parents. Others from the successes and failures I saw around me. Still others came from mulling over Biblical principles...) Here are some of them:

Avoid Debt.

• Never go into debt for anything except to buy a house, or to go to school (which are investments).
  
• Only buy a house you can afford, and pay it off as soon as possible. (Fortunately in Canada - unlike in the US - there is no tax benefit for carrying a mortgage - which, in fact, subtly encourages debt.)
  
• Don't rent an apartment that is above your means. In fact, I always rented one that was below my means, allowing myself to save extra money for things I enjoyed, like travel.
  
• Only buy a car if you can afford it - or unless you absolutely need it for work. (At which time it becomes a work investment!) Taxis and occasional car rentals are cheaper than owning a car.
  
• Never take a vacation unless you have the money to pay for it before you go!
  

Put away some savings every month.

• The only time I would break this rule, is on a vacation month... but then I would expect to have enough to pay for the vacation before I went!

Live within your means.

• By that I mean, spend no more than you earn.
  
• Budget, if necessary: At critical times in my life (going to university, buying a home) I have religiously tracked everything I spent - to see where my money was going and where I could make potential cut-backs, if necessary.
  
• Be willing to do without, if necessary. After buying our first (and only) home, Terry and I didn't go out to a restaurant for about three years. Instead, on shopping outings with babies in strollers, we "treated" ourselves to a few tasty muffins we'd buy at the mall.

Get a second job, if necessary, to avoid debt.

• I did, whenever I didn't have enough to meet my needs.

And for me - equally important...

Pray!

• For wisdom in making wise financial decisions.
• For God's provision (for work, home, food, clothing, spouse, children...)

Praying for needs - determining which "desires" are "needs" - then seeing how God meets them - are an ongoing lesson in faith.

One attitude I try to avoid is that I DESERVE THIS. Rather - with a sense of wonder - I remind myself that...

• All these things are gifts from God - so appreciate them!
• And in faith, share in the cycle of giving by giving 10% ... from the top, not what's left at the end - to the church and to the poor.
  

I have always been awed by this "promise" in the Old Testament...

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

I have always tried to fill my part, expecting God, in return, to provide all my needs...

And of course, blessing is much more than money!

Life's Basics

Aliza, my Israeli neighbor, was born into a wealthy family in Europe. Her parents led an active social life and were often away, leaving her in the care of a trusted, beloved housekeeper, who was a second mother to her.

She hadn't been neglected - but she had felt deprived - deprived of her parents' love. A poor little rich girl, she had everything she craved, everything except her parents' time and attention.

Later in life, as a mother and grandmother, she would wistfully look back on her childhood and comment...

Money - what's it worth? How many beds can you sleep on? How many meals can you eat?