Bill's Bulletin Board
By Bill Rea

I was taken a little by surprise at last Monday's meeting discussing King Township's 2007 budget.

Kettleby resident Bob Martin was one of the deputants, and he cited information from Statistics Canada, which indicated the average Canadian household carries about $5 worth of debt for every $4 of income.

I was a little skeptical when I first heard this. But as is often the case, people are skeptical of facts until they go to the trouble of actually thinking about them. Such was the case here.

When I started pondering this little tidbit, I naturally thought first of my own household. Neither my wife or I are fond of carrying debt. We try (and are almost always successful) in getting our bills paid in good time. In fact, I took a couple of minutes in the middle of writing this piece to run out to the bank and pay my VISA bill, a full day before it was due. There are a couple of household bills sitting on a table at home, and they will probably be dealt with tomorrow (Thursday). I get my paycheque every other Thursday, and that auspicious day usually starts with me asking my spouse if there are any bills that need to be taken care of.

And beyond that, we try to avoid being in debt, and with the exception of our mortgage, we're successful.

The mortgage! Oh yeah, the mortgage!

I factored that into the mental math I was doing, juggling my estimate of the outstanding mortgage on our home with what I figure Beth and my combined income works out to. All of a sudden, the figures cited at last Monday's meeting made a lot more sense.

The fact is our debtincome ratio is probably a bit lower than the Statistics Canada average (in keeping with the below-average opinion so many people have of me), but I realized the figures cited by Martin were very realistic.

But I also think my philosophy of avoiding debt makes a lot of sense too. At least it does for the lifestyle I have always tried to pursue. The result is I will likely never go broke, but I will never be a high-powered entrepreneur or a selfmade millionaire. I'm not sure if that's necessarily a positive statement to make, but I think it's a realistic word self-portrait of myself.

The fact is I don't like owing anybody anything, be it money, drinks or favours. I like to think I have a generous streak. I make regular charitable donations, and if someone (friend, foe or total stranger) approaches me for a small favour, I'm usually inclined to oblige, assuming the necessary time and resources are available. There are some things most of us are often approached to lend out, such as pens, etc. I've had the odd person in need of something to write on ask me for a couple of pages from my note pad, and I'm usually delighted to accommodate.

But by the same token, I hate being in the position of the borrower. That's one of the reasons why I carry so many pens - I don't want to risk running out, especially on the job, and have to appeal to someone for assistance. Beth has been known to chide me a bit on that ("asking you if you've got a pen is like asking Bugs Bunny if he's got ears," she once giggled after I had been approached by a pen-moocher), but she stopped a couple of weeks ago when she was cleaning out one of her purses and discovered the inventory of pens at the bottom put the supply in my jacket pocket to shame.

It's interesting to reflect that I seldom borrow from the person closest to me, namely my wife. About the only thing I bum off her is her car, but that's only for days when my wheels have to go into the shop, and I usually make a point on such occasions of paying her with elaborate amounts of charm.

Now it could be argued that I borrow cooking services from her, but by that standard, she borrows laundry services from me. She does most of the cleaning around the house, while I do most of the household bookkeeping. We split most of the rest of the household chores, with me acting as labour and Beth taking on management duties, meaning she gets to boss me around. I know my place.

There's nothing like division of responsibility in domestic situations.

I think even a guy like me can understand a little borrowing and lending of small items back and forth is part of life. We people do have to get along with each other. One of my neighbours asked to borrow my ice chopper one evening recently, and I was happy to cooperate. It was on my front porch, as promised, when I went out the next morning

It hasn't always been that way in my neighbourhood. For some reasons, I was one of the first guys on my street to buy my own electric lawn mower, and I was cutting the grass one day when I realized one of the fellows from down the block (who has since moved away) was watching me. And he had a look resembling pure envy in his eyes. I think he really admired my lawn mower, and I was tempted to remind him that I had a mind too. He even asked me a whole bunch of questions, like where I got it, how much I paid, did the extension cord come with it, etc.

I started to worry that I might be approached to lend it to him. The look in his eye made me wonder if the Tenth Commandment covered lawn mowers, and I resolved to keep mine locked up, bringing it out only when I was confident that he was not around.

And I would never borrow a lawn mower from anyone. Fact is it might do something to my debtincome ratio, which I'm still obsessed with getting it