Death and taxes….

A lot has been written and said about the untimely death of part-time Canuck Luc Bourdon. His tragic accident was just that – a tragic accident. Accidents happen. Sometimes it means a dropped plate on the kitchen floor, poopy pants a week after going diaper free or spilling the beer of the biker dude sitting next to you at the football game. All preventable and regrettable but it happens. This has brought out cries to ban hockey players from riding motorcycles.  But why should they? Because he was a hockey player? Are you not as important to your work place?  Banning beer would save more lives wouldn’t it? (Especially if you knock over the biker dudes beer.)

Luc’s death is tragic because of his age and all of the things he wasn’t able to accomplish on and off the ice: Getting married, having children, spending time with his family and friends, playing golf, telling jokes and sharing stories. His story was just cut short.

I think one of the reasons people were touched by his passing was the fact he jumped the queue.

After a long, happy life, grandparents are supposed to go first, then many years later your parents, and then many, many, many years later – you. And so on and so on.  His death was a reminder things don’t always go the way they are supposed to. Life is precious and we should make the most of every day we have AND we should tell the people we love that we love them.

I’m at an age where some of my friends have recently lost a parent, which makes me wonder how much longer I will have with my own? Could happen tomorrow or it might happen 30 years from now. Who knows? And on top of the grief and loss you feel when you lose your parents is the fact that you are now at the front of the queue.

I guess we all felt a bit of a connection to Luc Bourdon because of his association with the Canucks and the closeness we all feel to athletes and other public figures/celebrities. Let’s not forget that he was more than just a hockey player.

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And in other news… the death tolls are now at 135,000 in Burma, 69,000 in China.

Perspective:

Function: noun

2 a: the interrelation in which a subject or its parts are mentally viewed <places the issues in proper perspective>; also : point of view b: the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance.

Below is a list of the assessed value of the average dwelling in each city, the year to year average dollar increase, the total payable after increases and the percentage increase from last year.

Vancouver $716,900   $3   $2,220   0.10%

West Vancouver $1,412,603   $97   $3,035   3.50%

Burnaby $529,105   $109   $1,951   5.93%

Coquitlam $520,000   $112   $2,179   5.50%

Port Moody $515,500   $89   $2,155   4.00%

Port Coquitlam $493,883   $119   $2,293   5.49%

Pitt Meadows $362,974   $116   $1,816   6.84%

Maple Ridge $406,192   $108   $2,000   5.68%

Langley Township $473,000   $168   $2,023   5.95%

Langley City $309,395   $93   $1,797   5.43%

New Westminster $395,230   $113   $2,200   5.40%

North Van District $843,494   $139   $2,832   5.20%

North Van City $540,387   $82   $1,678   5.14%

Delta $496,000   $103   $2,336   4.60%

Richmond $501,048   $78   $1,843   4.41%

Surrey $479,500   $71   $1,697   4.40%

White Rock $534,775   $88   $2,127 4  .34%

If you have any real estate questions or know someone thinking about selling or buying property – give me a call, 604-New-Home.

 

Allan.