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Canajun Finances Home » Loopy Hydro, Loose Money, Disabilities, Advent and #MoneyStories

Loopy Hydro, Loose Money, Disabilities, Advent and #MoneyStories

The Ontario Auditor General’s report for 2015 pointed out what seems obvious, Hydro One and the Ontario Government have been mishandling the power grid and have overcharged Ontarians for their electric bills. The report is scathing in its commentary on Hydro One’s mismanagement of the power grid, and the McGinty Government increase of our hydro bills. It is well worth reading, but will it change anything, I doubt it. The Premier is already “Plan B”‘ing the whole thing by blaming it all on the previous Liberal Government?

There is also a section about Autism Support programs, called Autism Services and Supports for Children, an important read for anyone who has a child on the autism spectrum. The Audtor General states:

In 2014/15, transfer payments for autism services and supports totalled $188 million ($182 million in 2012/13).

The Bank of Canada continued on with its loose monetary policies, with no change in the key interest rates.

The Bank judges that the risks around the inflation profile remain roughly balanced over the projection horizon. Vulnerabilities in the household sector continue to edge higher while overall risks to financial stability are evolving as expected. Taking all of these developments into consideration, the Bank judges that the risks to the outlook for inflation remain within the zone for which the current stance of monetary policy is appropriate. Therefore, the target for the overnight rate remains at 1/2 per cent.

I think they are saying they are too scared to raise interest rates, for fear of breaking the economy?

Our friends at Stats Canada also put out a very interesting set of data in their bulletin, Developmental disabilities among Canadians aged 15 years and older, 2012 which made the following worrisome statement:

The employment rate of working-age adults aged 15 to 64 with a developmental disability was 22.3%, less than one-third of the rate for people without a disability (73.6%), and the lowest employment rate of any disability type. Even when employed, this group had a lower median employment income compared with those who did not report any disability. Those with a developmental disability were more likely than those without any disability to rely on government transfers as their major source of income (71.9% versus 18.7%).

For those of us with loved one who have been identified with developmental disabilities, that is quite scary (the 22.3% employment rate).

Advent is here, that means you can officially put up your Christmas decorations, and such.

My Writings for Week Ending December 4th

Not as much writing as last week, but still some interesting ones:

  • Up Selling in Banking came about after Mrs. C8j was accosted by a TD Teller about how our financial planning might need help.
  • The concept of the Financial Long Shot came to me after reading an interesting article on Chico Marx, and how while some folks have gambling issues, others are addicted to taking risks, and this is a bad thing financially.
  • From my archives, for those of you who are unaware I loath article with numbered lists and thus I wrote the Top 5 Reasons You Are In Debt. For someone who dislikes this type of article, I sure do write a lot of these lists.

Facebook Post of the Week

What is Preet doing above the fold line on my Friday post? This isn’t how it works, but Preet wants to help you understand the CCB

Advent is a Time to Prepare

Are you trying to build your retirement nest egg by having rental property? Good luck to you, I decided I didn't want to do that very early on, after seeing what a former girlfriend's parents had to do with their rental properties, however, Mark from the Blunt Bean Counter brings us Should You Claim Capital Cost Allowance on Your Rental Property? If you are in the real estate game. Speaking of Real Estate Kerry from Squawkfox wrote in the Globe and Mail about a very odd topic, Meet the mortgage-free 30-year-old whose frugality riled the Internet, how can frugality upset people? Guess you better read and find out. Speaking of the Globe and Mail old friend Larry MacDonald wrote a follow-up article for them Meet a dividend investor who’s on his way to early retirement, you may recognize this investor too.

Barry from Money We Have points out that there are financial firms that are actually trying to help with his article Financial Services Companies Going Above and Beyond, which is heartening to read this time of year. Mark from My Own Advisor hops on the Debt loathing bandwagon with the rest of us in his article Debt is another four-letter word for most of us, and I agree it is a quite rude 4 letter word (might even get you a fine on the TTC Link to Pearson Airport). Did you realize that EI offers Employment Insurance Compassionate Care Benefits? If you need to care for a severely ill loved one EI can help out and Million Dollar Journey outlines how this can be done.

Michael James asks, What is the Value of a Public Service Pension ? As you can guess, pretty darn valuable, as I also mentioned in my article I am a Civil Servant, as well. The only better pension is the one that the MP's and crew get. If you aren't going to have a rich pension, you might need a side-hustle to get to a comfortable retirement, and luckily Robb from Boomer and Echo helps us out with How I Turned A Blog Into A Profitable Online Business . Robb talked about this at a Personal Finance Conference as well, and I respect anyone who wants to hustle to make a buck, I am just too bloody lazy to do it. Remember, don't hate the player, hate the game (unless you are a Browns fan like Robb, then you can hate the team too).

High Price of Ball Players

David Price is going to get $240M for 7 years to play for the Red Sox, the following Tweet sums it up nicely.

Greek Mythology Meets LEGO

The story of Sisyphus sums up many careers, and this LEGO kinetic sculpture sums it all up nicely (or painfully, if you think about it)

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 color 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, don’t 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!

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