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Canajun Finances Home » Family Allowance, Diving Dollar, Access Sharing and #BestMoneyStories

Family Allowance, Diving Dollar, Access Sharing and #BestMoneyStories

The Conservative party has made a significant change to the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) by making it a taxable benefit. This has resulted in the reinstatement of the Family Allowance cheque, which was previously issued and then withdrawn if the recipient earned enough money. It’s worth noting that while the new UCCB is currently being paid out, many people are not aware that it is a taxable income source and may not realize this until after the election. However, the Liberals, NDP, and I will be sure to bring this to people’s attention long before the election.

Now there is talk of a real deficit this year (not a big one, but no balanced budget to go into the election with either). What with all the talk of recession (check out the CBC’s panel at the end of this and their views on this) and it looks like the economy may be a liability for the Tories, instead of a rallying point for voters.

Thanks to the drop in Interest rate drops last week, the Canadian Dollar is at an 11 year low, and doesn’t really show any sign of dropping either (so if you were planning a fun trip to the USA, it is going to cost you some more). For our American friends, come on up, everything is now much cheaper than it was last year.

Bell is now being forced to share their high-speed internet home connections? I applaud the CRTC for helping make sure there is competition for home high-speed internet access.

My Writings for Week Ending July 24th

Glad to see I am living in “sin city” in terms of Ashley Madison subscriptions :

I am still on this fine list from LSM Insurance:

Is the Deficit Causing the Recession ?

While Mark and the Blunt Bean Counter he continues to bring up some interesting stuff from his archives including How Much Do I Need to Retire? Heck if I know (Part 5). Remember that how much each of us need to retire with is really an individual calculation (but if you still owe over $1M in debt, my guess is retirement is not in the cards for you).

Mark from My Own Advisor asks Should you cash in that childhood life insurance policy? I haven’t had to make that decision, as I don’t have that set up for my kids, but as usual Mark has thought about this one (more than I would have, at least).  My mind continues to wander to marriage when children are mentioned , and Our Big Fat Wallet wants to help out with Finance Lessons Learnt from a Newlywed. When I was a newlywed I had a great deal to learn about money. Remember that just because you love someone does not mean that you both share financial theories of life, as was pointed out in this article from the Atlantic, In Love, and in Debt.

I do enjoy kibitzing about technology in general and the topic of Rob Advisors really has me curious, and Barry from Money We Have asks a good question, Are Robo Advisors in Canada Right For You ? I have an understanding of what is behind the Robo Advisors in terms of algorithms and such, but whether they are “good” or “bad”, only time will tell (hopefully they are at least cheaper). Maybe a hybrid solution would be better and Robb from Boomer and Echo has, How This Unconventional Pairing Can Save you Money on Your Investments, and yes, it does include our technological buddy the Robo Advisor (resistance is futile). Are you reading Larry Swedroe ? You really should, and he points out a very good point in Chasing Active Managers Is a Losing Proposition, past performance means nothing.

The financial media seems excited about how the Stock Market must be overvalued, but Michael James asks a better question, So Stocks are Overvalued – Then What ? Information has value, only, if you do something with that information, so what are you going to do? And why? Do you really have all the pertinent information? I forwarded to Michael James an interesting e-mail that was letting me in on the ground floor of a great real estate deal, which once you read a little further, you realized was a Time Share Condominium concept, which had me remember the worst advice I ever gave (financially).

Are We In A Recession?

What do Preet and the folks at the CBC round table think?

How Much Food is Wasted in North America?

John Oliver goes off on food waste in the US, but he isn’t wrong either.

The MIT Poker Course ?

Yes, MIT offers an intro to Poker Theory course, don’t remember the U of Waterloo having this (I would have taken it, instead of Hi Fi Sci).

2015 Random Thoughts

My Twitter feed is where I re-tweet many great articles by some of my featured writers (and make the occasional odd or off colour commentary on life (in 140 characters or less)). I am also on reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest , Flipboard, Instagram and other Social Media sites (look for the BigCajunMan userid) as well. If you have social media accounts, do not forget to vote for my posts (see the nifty dashboard on the bottom of each article, where you can cast your votes).As they say in Quebec, vote early and vote often!

Feel Free to Comment

  1. My Own Advisor
    Reply

    Thanks for the mention.

    Just watched Preet on the panel video, man is that guy articulate.

    Back from an overseas vacation and getting caught up on emails and blogwork!

    Cheers!
    Mark
    Mark

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