- We frequented 16 - Wednesday, March 2, 198% - North Share News BUSINESS MAKING FINANCIAL PRIORITIES There is a time to save...and spend IS FT TRUE old penny-pinchers never dic, they just spend away? Lately, I’ve begun to wonder — and worry. [ can remember just the other day (well, maybe it was 20 years ago) when my wife Mandy | ate out, we budgeted 75 cents each. dollars and sense Mike .Grenby Little the on Rob- sonstrasse, where 75 cents bought a three-course meal. Last week, Mandy and I went out to celebrate our anniversary. ‘Please ask the chef to prepare Heidelberg restaurant a special menu:for us,’’ I had said when I called Amil Brito, maitre d’ at The Cannery; a couple of weeks earlier. (After I hung up, } remember thinking: ‘‘What is happeniifg to me? I must be losing my penny- pinching grip. I didn’t even set a price limit,-or.ask how much the meal would cost.”’ Computer show opens CONNECT WITH the latest in computer hardware and software at the third annual ComputerLand Business Show opening today at the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver. New products highlighted at the show will be the IBM operating system/2; Apple’s- new Laser- Writer Il series of desktop laser printers and Lotus’ new business softwares, Modern Jazz, Sym- phony 2 and Agenda. Working with the theme of in- tegration, industry majors in- cluding IBM, Toshiba, Compaq, Apple and Lotus will be holding Solution Seminars on topics in- cluding desktop publishing, net- working, accounting, education and service. (I also. wondered what Brito would think — and do. The last time our paths had crossed, I'd been researching a feature on what $25 would buy for a couple dining out at various restaurants. (Brito had been working at Le Pavilion, at the Four Seasons, one of the poshest places in town —— where the $25 bought one glass of wine, one bowl of tomato gin soup and one fancy salad, all of which Mandy and I shared.) Well, our anniversary dinner was delicious and the bill didn’t quite hit three figures (left of the decimal, that is). I guess there really is a time to save, and a time to spend. As the years go by, my budget doesn’t protest as much as | lean more toward the spending. Perhaps (will my reputation stand the revelation?) we should even have spent a little more in the early years. For example, when son Matthew was born, we had just bought our first house, in Capilano Highlands. 1 was driving the seven-year old Volkswagen van in which I'd _ camped around Europe for a year, then brought back to Canada. “We've got to put all our extra money into getting rid of the mor- tgage,’’ I remember telling Mandy one evening when we had discussed buying a second car. She had just come home ex- hausted after taking baby Matt to the doctor by bus, then pushing him home up the three-block hill from the bus stop. But my financial logic prevailed. Mandy suffered for three more years until the mortgage was paid off. Then we got the second car. If we had jit to do over, we would buy the second car sooner even if it meant an extra year or The show is open to the public from J p.m. to 8 p.m, today, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on March 3, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on March 4. Ad- mission is $10. TOO BUSY? HATE PAPERWORK? for personalized, expert INCOME TAX PREPARATION at very reasonable rates call MURIEL MOFFAT 988-3048 DON’T LET A GERMAN CARMAKER TAKE YOU FOR.AN EASY MARK. With many German cars selling for more than $40,000°, German carmakers are taughing all the way to the Bundesbank. Make sure the joke isn't on you. Visit your Volvo dealer and take a serious look at the Volvo 740 GLE. You'll see it cosis thousands less than its competitors from Stut- P Igart and Munich - yet stil! offers more. With a three-year new-car % limited warranty** that puts no limit on mileage. (Mercedes and BMW limit miteage.) An eight-year corrosion protection limited warranty.** And a long-standing seputation for building a car that fasts. So before you pay an exorbilani sum for a German car, consider the Volvo 740 GLE. You'll consider it time - and money - well spent. * Manufacturer's suggested rstail price. *¢ See your Volvo dealer for details, terms and conditions. PHONE ME TODAY! DEREK HOLTON wr TS ew Arwry wise \ Naps A toate pecedioser SPECIALTY MOTOR CARS 1970 LTD. 1235 MARINE DRIVE, N. VANCOUVER 980-2464 two of mortgage payments. After all, quality of life is what counts. How about you? Do you (and your partner, if you have one) take the over-all view of your personal and financial lives — with the em- phasis on ‘‘personal’*? Perhaps your approach, whether it has been to put saving or spen- ding first, is due for a review and possibly an adjustment. A couple of months ago, | pro- vided a New Year's Resolution form in this column to help you focus on your personal and finan- cial objectives, in order or priority. If you completed that exercise, take a look at what you decided. If you didn’t — or even if you did — take a moment now to write down your three main priorities. (Then compare them with what you wrote carlier.) Promote health, prevent cancer. fanapun | soc SOCETYV DUCANGER SRT Rae CCE Abed NEE Oy OL Tn ee Typically, you might choose from ‘‘spend and enjoy,’’ “carn more,."’ “‘repay debt,"* ‘save and invest to build up a reserve or toward retirement,’ and so on. If you live with somebody, make separate lists and comrare. Are you planning and living your life according to what is most important for you right now? If not, what changes should vou make? Your. objective need not be mutually exclusive. For example, you can spend and enjoy while you pay off debt and possibly also put something aside for the future. Simply note the proportion of your money that goes to each of your objectives. Is this the ap- propriate mix? Review both the priorities and the percentages at feast once a year and adjust as necessary. Try to write down these points. Otherwise, ideas and even resolu- tions have a habit of disappearing as another thought or crisis looms. Finally, balance realism and idealism. Reach, but only toward a fevel you can achieve, Do you have a financial or con- sumer question for Mike? Or a Story you think should be in his column?. Please write to Mike Grenby, North Shore News, 1139 Lonsdale, North Vancouver V7M 2H4. Mike cannot reply in- dividually but will answer as many of your letters as possible through The North Shore News. 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