Guess what is back for a short time? The Dutchie! My old friend is back at Tim Horton’s to help celebrate #Canada150. For the true connoisseur of the dutchie, it is still available in the Atlantic provinces, it is just back in Ontario, for my enjoyment.
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Table of contents
I spent a lovely day a few weeks ago at my youngest daughter’s graduation from the Queens Faculty of Education. She already had a Science Degree from Trent, so this means my investments have now paid out 4 degrees, not bad pay out. There is another degree I have a small stake in, so I am hoping that pays out next year. For those parents unsure if they should put money in an RESP, yes this is a very good investment (and not just for the free money from the government).
One of the areas in Queens we visited had information on the “new” OSAP. If kids have parents that make less than $50,000 their tuition is “free”. The wording there is unclear to me. The Ontario budget stated, “Students from families with incomes under $50,000 will have no provincial student debt.“. This is also misleading (in my opinion).
There will be higher non-repayable grants for lower-income students, which is good. Having graduates saddled with massive debts is a very American thing, let us remove it from the Canadian lexicon. Will this help lower-income families get their kids into University? My opinion is not likely that much. The funding is still too low, the tuition (and associated fees) continue to sky-rocket and the costs of living away from home at school can be very high (especially in large urban areas like Toronto).
The other part of the equation, is what will the Federal Government part of the Canada Student Loans program do?
Summer is now here, and the days are getting shorter (if you are in the Northern Hemisphere). Remember how you hated the winter months? These are the months you were waiting for.
Things I wrote
Given I haven’t put out a random thoughts post for a while, you’d think I’d have lots of things that I must have written, but I haven’t really. I did write Banking is Necessary, Banks are not , which pokes fun at the FinTech phenomenon that many folks are hyping.
Is there such a thing as Bad Budgeting ? Yes, if all you do is adjust your budget to balance your inflated spending, that is bad.
There are a few new features in Quicken 2017 update that are making it better than earlier versions. The Android and iOS clients are making things better, but there are still some odd crashes (and importing data is still kind of weird at times).
Fun Tweets
While my RDSP page is quite good, there are many people who have helped me and one of them is Milburn Drysdale. He has updated his website, and here is a great tweet to send to anyone looking to learn more about the Disability Tax Credit.
However, Michael James wins with the best retirement financial tweet of the week
Summer has Begun
Canada 150 is next weekend, and Ottawa is already starting to get overrun with tourists.
- Blunt Bean Counter is giving away free stuff, and is looking to do some data collection with his article Book Giveaway and Financial Survey. Go on over and answer a few questions, and get a free book (maybe).
- Bloomberg had a bad title on the article, Robots Are Eating Money Managers’ Lunch, Robots? Really guys? AI might be doing that, but Robbie the Robot ain’t doing jack here.
- Is there a difference between Canadian and American systems? Well 2nd Career search points out one difference with, Canadian Customer Service Compared to U.S. Customer Service
- There is a very interesting article in the latest Scientific American (July 2017) theorizing Raise Alcohol Taxes, Reduce Violence (by Kumi Sobowale). You can read it on-line if you use Flipster (most likely on your local libraries homepage).
- Are you part of the Index Revolution ? Michael James reviews a book about that very topic, some interesting insights.
Big Numbers
Really large numbers are an important thing to understand, and Stephen Fry (one of my favourite raconteurs), tries to help you understand 52! (52 factorial)
2017 Random Thoughts
- Bank Profits, Loose Money, Used House Salesfolk and #MoneyTalk (May 26th)
- Avocado Toast, Victoria Day, Ransomware and #Moneytalk (May 19th)
- RDSP, DTCs, Mother’s Day and #MoneyTalk (May 12th)
- Thanks Prince Phil, More Old Than Young and #MoneyTalk (May 5th)
- MLM, Balanced Budgets, and #Moneytalk (April 28th)
- Overheated Housing Market, Rent Controls and #MoneyTalk (April 21st)
- Ladies on Panels, Good Friday, Friendly Skies, Loose Money and #MoneyTalk (April 14th)
- Tax Time, Housing Bubbles, Financial Easter and #MoneyTalk (April 7th)
1st Quarter 2017 Random Thoughts
- April Fools, High on Life and #MoneyTalk (March 31st)
- Ho Hum Budget, Brackets Busted and #MoneyTalk (March 24th)
- Naughty Banks, March Madness, Big Snow and #MoneyTalk (March 17th)
- Teller Upselling, Auto-filling Taxes, Spring Forward and #MoneyTalk, (March 10th )
- Lent Begins, Loose Money and #MoneyTalk (March 3rd )
- RRSP Season, Tax Time, and #MoneyTalk (February 24th )
- Farewell Vinyl Café, Snow, Monopoly and #MoneyTalk (February 17th )
- RRSP , Tax , TFSA , RESP, and RDSP Time and #MoneyTalk (February 10th )
- Year of the Fire Rooster, Financial Groundhog Day and #MoneyTalk (February 3rd )
- Alternate Financial Facts, 1984 and #Moneytalk (January 27th)
- Bungled Mortgages, Friday the 13th and #Moneytalk (January 13th)
- Merry New Year, CPP, EI and #MoneyTalk (January 6th)
I wish government do something to reduce the tuition itself instead of figuring out who has to get more assistance. We don’t have enough doctors and the system is not doing much to make more doctors. People are going to Caribbean and Europe to get into med schools. Why the number seats cannot be increased? I can see many degree holders working under paid jobs. Thant includes a female civil engineer from UofT.