Where are the Videos?
I ran out of videos that I could post that were of Personal Finance interest so I have decided to try out a review of the comments that I got this week, since I did seem to get a lot of comments about a few of my posts. All of the “How to run a Blog” documentation suggests the success of a Web Site can be reflected in the comments that the site receives, but I just like comments because many times that is where I get my best ideas for posts and such.
Andy R. commented: “Just saw an Ontario HST charge on a parcel shipped to me in Alberta. Doesn’t seem right, but apparently everyone gets to share the pain and pay Ontario taxes now? CPI increases for all around, yeah!”
If you’d like Dalton McGinty’s mailing address I can supply it to you. I bet you can get that rebated if you filled in 6 forms and mailed each of them individually, but then again you will have spent more than your rebate doing this.
With Trust Only In Fire I was mostly fiddling around with video, and was surprised at the number of comments that I got:
Michael James said “It might be fun to shred and then burn. I’m guessing that shredded paper would burn incredibly quickly.”AndyR chirped in with “The shredded paper does burn real quick. Shred and burn is better than just burning. If you don’t shred, burn AND stir, you soon find that even loose paper may not burn completely, leaving charred fragments that THEY may forensically reconstruct to rip you off. BTW, an open fireplace is so last millennium and quite energy inefficient. Install an air-tight unit, use a stainless steel pipe inside the old brick chimney, then you can slow cook those financial records, and scrub the soot yourself with the brush and pole kit from Canadian Tire. In the winter, we have few recyclables since they all get converted to BTUs.”
I’d like to point out I am nothing, if I am not old School, and as for using this as a methodology for heating my house, I waste more BTUs up my chimney burning this crap than I do getting any kind of heating benefit. Interesting comments though.
My Advice to Future University Students caused a flurry of responses (which just goes to show if you write about Teenage Drinking you can never go wrong). You should go over and read all the comments, but some of the more interesting ones are:
Elizabeth wrote a long tome outlining what you can do in first year to get involved, very useful.
Nancy (aka Money Coach) pointed out “…In retrospect though, I think I would have hung out more with some of the high achievers. It’s a way to start building a network and also pick up good habits and ways of engaging with the world…”,
Garrett commented “There were many mornings in University where I’d wished I’d taken that sage advice from your father!”, see sometimes free advice is worth something!”
Echo of Boomer and Echo Fame, did a thesis on using Gatorade in the equation, lots of useful commentary there.
I don’t condone Teenage drinking, I simply offer this as a service, but the Gatorade comments were an interesting twist on the advice (and at the time, Gatorade was not as prevalent as it is these days).
With RESP Wrinkles I managed to mix up the CESG and EAP and was told about it by a few folks.
Money Smarts Blog pointed out, “This is really interesting information the government has always required financial institutions to verify enrolment when someone requests a withdrawal, so the fact that TD wasn’t doing that is a serious breach of the RESP promoter rules.”
Michael James added, “Just a few more wrinkles and RESPs will become deposit-only accounts.”
George pointed out my blundering with the wrong terms, but did point out “One thing to note, though you should be able to make a withdrawal of your contributions to the RESP without ANY documentation regarding enrollment. The contributions are after-tax money and they are always owned by the account contributor. You should be able to withdraw some of your contributions to cover the initial payments to the university, and then make an EAP withdrawal later on to pay for subsequent expenses.”
Personal Finance added,“I’m not surprised at all. This seems to work in every field. Just because few knuckle heads to quote you, took advantage of the system, now they screw the entire system. I often wonder if RESP is really the best. I have my kids money in trust founds. Is less headache and less government involvement and the boys will have a chance to do whatever they choose to.
Do you know how long is going to take until you will receive the money? Do universities charge you for their documentation? “
And Alex C chirped in with,“I’m surprised you never had to prove it before? I always had to get a Verification of Enrollment letter which cost me about $10 each year. (actually it was only $3 the first 2 years which then went up to $10, but that’s a gripe with the university not the RESP system).
Even bigger issues come if you don’t have the cash to cover the tuition prior to the RESP collection, which can often be a while after the tuition deadline. The same thing happens with student loans, in that you dont receive them till well after your tuition is due, causing students who already can’t afford school to incur excess fees and interest while they wait for their loans to arrive.”
All very good points, I think I should be allowed to take out the money I put in directly with no need for documentation, but needing it for the EAP portion (which includes the CESG and growth) makes some sense, but now the Universities are piling on by charging me to get a letter of Enrollment, so I am not too happy about all of that either.
Carnivals this Past Week
I was mentioned in a few Carnivals too:
- Festival of Frugality #244 – pointed out I have been at this for over 5 years and mentioned Snake Mittens too!
- Carnival of Personal Finance #271 The Secret to Successful Budgeting eBook Edition mentioned my post on Large Wallet Syndrome
- Best of Money Carnival #65 had my post about Dumber Than Snake Mittens as well.
- Carnival of Money Stories #2 Back To School Editions had my postOK My Man! (Rudeness in my Opinion)
- Carnival of Financial Planning Edition #154 had my post Found Money Trap
