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Canajun Finances Home » More Pensions, New CTC, and #MoneyTalk

More Pensions, New CTC, and #MoneyTalk

According to our friends at Stats Canada more Canadians are in Pensions (up by almost 1.2%), which surprised me. This would suggest all this palaver and gum-flapping about Canadians not having enough money to retire was just Media over-reaction, however if you read the report a little closer, there is a telling statement:

Dangerous Pension Conditions Ahead
Dangerous Pension Conditions Ahead? More people using different kinds of pensions that is for sure.

In 2014, just over 4,380,000 employees were in defined benefit pension plans, down 0.5% from 2013, and down 8.3% from a high of 4,776,000 in 1992. Defined benefit plans accounted for 70.0% of employees belonging to an RPP in 2014, a drop from 71.2% in 2013, and down from over 90% in the 1980s.

So the Defined Benefit Pension Plan is slowly dying off (except in the Public Sector) and the Defined Contribution (and the hybrid mutations of that concept) are where there is growth. This makes more sense, most private sector companies cannot afford a defined benefit pension system (whether the Government can afford their pension system remains to be seen).

For those of us with kids, that aren’t making too much, the new Child Tax Credit (CTC) just kicked in. The good news it is tax-free, but if you make too much money, you get nothing. There is an old (but still helpful) video from Preet about this exact topic at the end of this article.

My Writings for Week Ending July 22nd

In summer mode, I am actually accumulating more unfinished titles in my writing pile, but What is Couch Potato Investing? came up as a question a co-worker (who is an occasional reader) asked me what it meant, and to my surprise I have talked about the topic a lot, but I have never really given as simple overview of what it meant, so there it was. I have written about the concepts of Couch Potato investing, but this article let’s folks understand the basics (I hope).

A Money Thought

Given Mr. Trump is now the Republican Candidate for the President, I have been researching some of his more interesting quotes, I like this one from “Trump University Entrepreneurship 101: How to Turn Your Idea into a Money Machine”

If you’re not satisfied with the status quo in your career, read this book, pick one key idea, and implement it. I guarantee it will make you money. —Donald J. Trump

I am reading the book for free on-line, so I feel I am already ahead of the game (i.e. I saved money by not buying the book).

Mostly Money News


Our amigo Kerry from Squawkfox seems to have a permanent gig with the Globe and Mail, and this week she wrote about those on-line loan companies, Can this instant online debt solution make your borrowing problems worse? The answer you can guess, but at least she got two free condoms out of the deal (although I might check them to make sure they don’t have any holes in them). Speaking of leaky loans, Robb from Boomer and Echo warns us Financing A Vehicle? Here Are Some Pitfalls To Avoid, financing cars are always a nightmare in my book (I try to pay cash all the time). Maybe you won’t need to get a loan if you are left an inheritance and Mark from Blunt Bean Counter asks, The Best of The Blunt Bean Counter- Inheriting Money – Are you a Loving Child, a Waiter or a Hoverer (not a hooverer)?

Do you feel safe putting your money in banks? This might make you feel a little more paranoid, U.S. banking regulator updates cyber security after data breach. One of the biggest Data Breach areas is old employees wandering away with vital info. Staying with Central banks Don Pittis at CBC brings us an interesting expose, The money revolution being perpetrated by the world’s central bankers, the word revolution implies dynamic exciting change, doesn’t it? (maybe not). You have to really admire anyone who can take the mick out of themselves like Elon Musk does, his new vision for Tesla is called Master Plan, Part Deux, I want to buy a Tesla just for that!

This seems to be moving season for a lot of folks, and Mark from 2nd Career Search gives us The Phases of Selling a House, hopefully his move will go smoothly. Some of my stupidest investments was buying WWE stock (I only lost some money), but now in the news, WWE Concussion Lawsuit: Everything We Know So Far. Speaking of investing, Barry from Money We Have gives us The Pros and Cons of DIY Investing, maybe start with a Couch Potato approach?

In real money news we note the passing of an important person, Robert-Ralph Carmichael, creator of Loonie design, dies at 78. I remember the $1 bill, and the furor about bringing the Loonie into the economy. With that real money there is tax, and Tom Drake asks What is Your Effective Tax Rate? I already wrote about your Tax Bracket.

The New Child Tax Credit

How does this all work? Preet explained this one a while ago, but here it is again to help you out.

2016 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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