With my reassignment at work, I am required to have an automobile. I looked around at my options and I am having a pre-owned vehicle inspected tomorrow.

If everything checks out — that is if I can afford to make the repairs required to certify it — then I will need insurance before I finalize the sale.

I have been looking around for auto insurance and there are several comparison sites and sites that give free quotations.

After entering personal information and driving history there are still several options on coverage and deductible. Those inputs affect what premium I would pay.

I decided to collect data from one particular provider for $1,000,000 coverage and graph the results to see the cost and sensitivity of difference choices.

So below is annual premium graphed over collision deductible. The different series are comprehensive deductible.

It seemed to max out at 13 quotes so I had to be strategic about what data to choose, so I could get the best picture of what options I should take.

I got this message after a while:

You have exceeded the number of premium calculations permitted. In order for us to better assess your needs, we invite you to communicate with one of our insurance professionals at the following number . . .

You can see how the lowest deductibles result in the highest premiums. But as the deductibles increase along the x-axis and through the series (in rainbow order) the premiums decrease exponentially. In some cases a change in deductible of $500 results in a change of a few dollars over the year.

It’s also interesting to see how much the premium still is even after the deductible exceeds the value of the car. It shows how much a part of the premium covers liability.

I linked to the web version of my story on Sunday (Wrote about Chin national day). Here is the print version.

Growing group from Myanmar celebrates national day Chin grateful for freedom in Canada, hoping for democracy back home The Record 25 Feb 2008

Dressed in colourful, handwoven clothing, they came together to dance, sing, eat and make speeches.

They are from Myanmar, although they use the country’s old name, Burma. They have a separate, language, culture and religion from the ethnic majority that rules that country.

They are members of the Chin community, most refugees from the military regime in Myanmar, and they gathered Saturday to celebrate their national day.

Two weeks ago we took a trip to New York City for an extended long weekend.

We took the bus for carbon reasons starting in Buffalo even though the cheapest flight from Buffalo to New York was the same as the bus fare bought a week ahead.

The round trip fare on Greyhound from Toronto to New York is $382.20 regular and $350.70 non-refundable. They don’t offer any discounts on that route.

By comparison going from Buffalo to New York costs $46 each way buying 14 days ahead and $61 each way buying 7 days ahead, which works out to $184 and $244 for a pair of round-trips (regular is $81 for a total of $324). This, of course, is treating the dollars as equal.
So, it was worth $106 dollars for us to start in Buff rather than The doT.

Of course given that the Canadian hound overcharges this way it might be worth looking at buying a round trip ticket from the U.S. and using it in reverse. That would cost $334, which is a savings of $16.70 and $48.20 over the rate from Toronto.

I wrote a story this weekend and it is published here:

Ethnic Chin, refugees from Burma, celebrate their national day 24 Feb 2008

Here is a piece of it:

Pu Lian Uk is one of the elected representatives from Chin state.

Uk, who now lives in Washington D.C., visited the local celebration as a guest speaker. He said he had come directly from a meeting last week in a border area in the jungle of Burma.

There exiled MPs and prodemocracy workers drafted an alternative constitution to the one proposed by the current military rulers.

Bill Gates is coming to Waterloo in two weeks as part of what David Johnston calls his “farewell tour,” after having stepped down as chief software architect last year.

The Record reports that he will be touring five North American campuses, similar to his visits to six campuses, including Waterloo, in 2005. Gates will also visit Stanford University, University of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon and University of Texas at Austin.

Last time Gates encouraged students to pursue software and had some cool demos; this time Dean of Math Tom Coleman says, “It’s more on the social importance of technology and IT (information technology).”

A weird thing though is that a story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says that he is speaking at Carnegie Mellon in the afternoon of the same day The Record says he is at Waterloo.

He will speak to students Feb. 21 on the UW campus, confirmed Stephanie Bell, a senior consultant with Media Profile, which is handling the visit.
– Bill Gates to include UW in his ‘farewell tour’ The Record 8 Feb 2008

Retiring Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates will visit Carnegie Mellon University Feb. 21 in the final stop of his “farewell tour” before stepping down from the company.
– Bill Gates to visit CMU this month Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 8 Feb 2008

I am considering getting an RRSP loan. I have been looking around and most RRSP loan offers from banks seem to require you to invest with them. That is just a bundled service.

I think there is some prohibition in Canadian banking law against tying one service to another, but this RRSP loan could just get past it by just offering a more favourable rate on the same service.