I met with a husband and wife today in our Kitchener office to finalize the paperwork for their consumer proposal. Turns out, the monthly cost of the consumer proposal is less than the monthly minimum payments they have been making on their credit cards.
At the end of the meeting, the woman breathed a sigh of relief and told me that she felt like she could finally afford new brakes on the family car. That made me think of an article I read just this morning in the Waterloo Region Record.
This article quotes some statistic that Canadians are spending less on car repairs compared to a year ago. Nothing earth shattering there. What caught my attention is that the geniuses collecting the data think that the reduction in spending is because cars are more reliable than they were a year ago.
What do you think? Does something smell funny here?
My strong suspicion is that people are not spending money because they simply don’t have it to spend. Obviously, I do not have fancy statistical analysis to directly back that up. What I do know is that 2009 was a record high for bankruptcy and consumer proposals filings in Canada. Though there are signs of recovery, a lot of citizens of Waterloo Region still find themselves on shaky financial ground.
The point I come back to over and over is that most statistics are pretty meaningless. What matters the most to you is planning a stable future for your family.
If you are struggling with your finances, feel free to give me a call at 310-PLAN (310-7526 with no area code). I will review all of your options when you are having trouble making your payments. You can also send me your questions by e-mail.
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