Merry New Year 2017, CPP, EI and #MoneyTalk

The year 2017 has begun and hopefully it is a Merry New Year for all of us, given how poorly 2016 seemed to go for some of us. Happy New Year 2017.

If you might have forgotten, CPP and EI restart for those of us who are not CEO’s or get paid over $400K. Those folks still have to pay those, but they only pay it on their first pay cheque.

Curious about how much you will be paying this year? Here’s your sign:

• CPP for regular employees (maximum): $2,564.10
• CPP for self-employed (max): $5,128.20
• EI maximum for non-Quebec folks: $836.19
• EI max for Quebecers : $651.51

Remember that if you tell your co-workers, “Hey I no longer pay CPP”, they can figure out your yearly income.

My Writings for the Week Ending January 6th

I started this merry new year throwing out a little click-bait, stating that I Hate Sean Cooper, which of course is not the case, in fact I admire his ability to pay off his house debt so quickly. It all started listening to a piece on CBC Radio about Sean, and how the Internet trolls were skewering him. I read through the CBC web piece on him, and sure enough there were just asinine comments that made me laugh, and the article wrote itself. Sean has a book coming out soon, that I hope to have a review done for soon.

Car Loans Lasting How Long?

When car loans start lasting 12 years, I have to start wondering when Car Loan Insurance (similar to mortgage insurance) is going to start being offered by banks? I keep cars 12 years, but I don’t want to pay for them for that long (and spreading a Corolla’s loan for that long, would take a lot of work).

TIL: High end car financing in the US is available for terms up to 144 months. That's 12 years.

— Preet Banerjee (@preetbanerjee) January 2, 2017

Another Year Begins (financially)

• Under the big flipping deal for the new year, in Ontario the Maximum per $100 charge for a Payday Loan has dropped to $18. Yes, big deal, still usury.
• The financial Post reports that TD’s new iPad/iPhone app has some lovely graphics, which seem to be stopping folks from overspending? Remember Red means STOP!
• Mark from My Own Advisor brings us his 2017 Financial Goals, luckily none of them are, “Get so rich I can buy the Big Cajun Man’s soul” (price is negotiable).
• Blessed by the Potato writes that Practical Index Investing Course is Complete, go over and check it out.
• If you are asking if I am loving all this Carbon Tax nonsense, that’s a Hard No! (see Letterkenny on Crave for a context check on that turn of phrase).
• It is weeks like this where I am sure that whoever decided to build a settlement at Ottawa, they didn’t do it in January (either that or they were imbeciles or loved cold, snowy and lousy weather). I am sure there is someone in Florida complaining about the heat, though.
• Rob Carrick included my piece on Smart Financial Goals, in his Carrick on Money this week, which I appreciates abouts hims (LetterKenny reference)
• Batten down the hatches, the NY Times says Canada is a great place to visit this year (look at #Canada150 on Twitter.
• RRSP season is almost here, remember to get your RRSP Bingo card.
• Do what you love and the pay won’t matter? Guess I am glad I do something I am ambivalent about, I need the money.
• What possibly could Michael James piece entitled, 59.9%, possibly be about? It is a very good rant about how instalment loans are the next Payday Loan in terms of milking maximum funds out of consumers.

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Learning About Investing, What is Risk?

Preet continues his very good YouTube videos on his Money School channel and this week he addresses the concept of Risk, that a lot of folk really just don’t understand.

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Speaking of SMART Goal Setting

And Sean Cooper as well, I was unaware that Sean had a YouTube channel as well, well worth subscribing to. SMART Goals, that is a good idea.

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2016 Random Thoughts Year End

• December 2, Air Miles Blinks, Advent Begins and #Moneytalk
• December 9, Xmas It Gift, Loose Money and #MoneyTalk
• December 16, Interest Rate Hikes, TFSA Limits and #Moneytalk
• December 23, Merry Christmas, Highspeed Internet a right, Inflation at 1.2 and #MoneyTalk
• December 30, Go Away 2016, Deep Thoughts, End of Year and #MoneyTalk

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