v33.4: The Big Sigh

Good morning folks,

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I hope everyone is having a great week.  This week hasn't been so great for me, but I'm making it through and I guess that's all you can ask for these days.  I'm sure you've all heard the saying "Money can't buy happiness".  Well, I'm here to tell you today that if I had money, I would be extremely happy!

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Today I'm sighing.  I'm not sure if it is a good or bad sigh yet but right now it doesn't feel very good.  As some of you may have already heard (through Buzz), the company I'm working for has decided there will be no annual raises again this year.  If you've been reading Musings over Coffee for awhile you'll know this came as a shock to a lot of us here.  This is the second year in a row we haven't had any raises and it happened 4 years ago as well.  In the last 4 years I've gotten one raise and that raise was such a joke it didn't even cover the average cost of living increase in Canada.

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There is this thing, I'm sure you've all heard of, call "Cost of Living" or Inflation.  It means exactly what it says.  Think about how much money you spend every year to simply live.  This cost varies depending on what you're talking about but generally covers everything from home utility bills to food (regular household groceries not fast food).  To put it simply, every year there is a hike in the cost of living.  While it may only be a few cents for some items, the overall cost of living adds up quite fast when you consider all the necessities people buy to simply live.

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The Bank of Canada has a nifty little Inflation Calculator which will show you how much the cost of living has increased.  Take, for example, how much inflation has increased since I was a baby.  In the last 34 years, inflation has increased 279.87% in Canada.  This means that what would have cost us $100.00 in 1976 now costs us $379.87 today.  Granted that is quite a long period of time to use as an example so let's use one a little more close to home; the last 4 years.  According to the Bank of Canada inflation calculator, a basket of good that would have cost $100.00 4 years ago would now cost you $106.38.  That's an increase of 6.38%.  Now that doesn't look like a lot when you compare it to $100.00, but what if you compared that to a year's worth of spending?  Let's say for example you make $30,000 a year.  Of that $30,000 a year you spend $20,000 a year to live (these are just rough figures folks).  Based on a 6.38% inflation over the last 4 years, what would have cost you $20,000 to survive in 2006 will cost you $21,275.42 today.  Now you're looking at spending an extra $1,275 dollars a year to survive; that's over $100 a month extra in the last 4 years.  I don't know about you, but I could really use an extra $100 a month right now.

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Of course these numbers are only estimates.  They don't take into consideration things like rate hikes or tax hikes in certain provinces or states.  They also don't take into consideration family changing events like having a new baby or hospital bills and other various "life" expenses.  Those too go up and every year will cost more and more.  Don't ask me how I got on this tangent, when I initially sat down this morning I wanted to avoid this topic but for some reason it took over and here I am writing about inflation and providing stats.  Perhaps I'm in the wrong field of work :)

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Anyway folks, while there may be a sigh of sadness at the beginning, there is also a sigh of relief and hopefully a light at the end of the tunnel.  As a result of this recent announcement (as well as other various issues that have happened over the last year), I've decided to finally start looking for work.  I know I've talked about it a lot but this time I've actually submitted resumes and already have a couple interviews scheduled.  I've been holding onto this job because I was comfortable here.  I know pretty much everyone in my engagement and I have a lot of flexibility in my job and time.  Unfortunately that hasn't been enough because regardless of how flexible things are at work there are still bills that need paying and when the company you work for doesn't recognize all the hard work and extra hours you put in, they never will and you will never get that increase in pay you deserve.

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Anyway folks, time to sign and get some work done.  When is Roll up the Rim going to start!!  I'm itching to get going on my 2010 Roll Up page :)

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Cheers,

Al