Tighter Money, the 13th , Hydro Savings and #MoneyTalk

Money is starting to tighten up with the Bank of Canada raising their key overnight rate by ¼ percent to 1.5%, which is great news because that mean savings accounts will go up as well? Sarcasm aside all major credit levels with most banks have gone up a corresponding ¼ %, but there has been no word about Savings account rates going up (and don’t hold your breath about that either).

If this increase has you worried, you really should be paying down your debt, or you need to figure out how to get out of this mess. In earlier years, the Bank of Canada has raised  rates by 1 % or higher, what will happen when these rate levels become a reality? We have a US  President hell-bent on starting a trade war with everyone, will those tariffs cause an inflationary jump? Very possible, is what the “Big C8j Magic Financial 8-Ball” answers.

If you owe $200,000.00 you now owe $500 more for the next 12 months (about), so let’s just say you owe $40 more a month. If the interest rate had gone up 1 %, you’d owe (about) $2,000 more per year or about $160 more a month. Now that is assume a single compounding and simple interest so the real calculations might be higher.

The new Ontario Government is doing what they promised they would do (and have done in the past), yet there is a howl of disbelief. Who did you people think you were electing is my only question?

Would you walk away from a $6 Million a year job, with no severance? Allegedly that is what happened to the now former head of Hydro One (in Ontario). He is getting $400,000 as payout in lieu of post-retirement benefits and allowances, but his agreement states he should have received $10.7 Million if he was fired by the board, wonder what happened there? Glad to see that he won’t be leaving penniless he will get $9 Million in stock options paid out.

Bitcoin the cryptoCurrency (note not cryptolnvestment) continues its downward drop in value. Gone are the days of $20,000 per coin (US), it is now down to around $6200 (US). Will it go back up again? Maybe, but I wouldn’t put any money into it, unless I needed to use it like currency (i.e. to buy something). Will cryptocurrency speculation move into the realm of FOREX speculation? One can only guess.

It is Friday the 13th, time to Celebrate King Friday’s birthday!

My Recent Writings

FUD is a powerful tool used by politicians and other operatives, but FUD Financial Messages is rampant. The entire Fear of Missing Out story is a simple part of the FUD. You need to be confident when you make a decision, don’t do it out of fear.

I must be getting soft because I allowed yet another Guest Post with Everything You Wanted to Know About Credit (But Were Petrified to Ask) by Sean Cooper. Do you know about Credit? Are you confident you know what you need to know?

Bankruptcies Up

Doug Hoyes gives us a worrisome statistic pointing out that bankruptcies are rising in Ontario. With higher interest rates coming, I doubt this will get better before it gets worse.

JUST RELEASED:
Oh crap.
For the first time in six months, the insolvency rate in Ontario increased, by a huge 5.2%.
Biggest monthly year-over-year increase since November 2016.
A blip, or the start of a trend?https://t.co/S77AW9ccSb pic.twitter.com/87DuemJJ1D

— Doug Hoyes (@doughoyes) July 3, 2018

Summer Financial Swoons

With a dry hot summer, comes summer swoons, and lots of folks on vacation, but a few writers are still out there getting the job done.

• Twitter killed off millions of bot and fake accounts, strangely I didn’t lose any followers on Twitter, guess bots don’t like my stuff?
• Montreal is where all that money that isn’t in Toronto or Vancouver real-estate went according to the National Post. A real-estate boom in Montreal might be interesting to see if it affects the fall election in Quebec.
• Barry Choi had a good guest post about Why I’m Afraid of the Next Bear Market. I suspect the next bear market is going to be a long and nasty one, but when it will happen, I have no idea.
• Do you trust your Financial Advisor? Read,
  Financial ‘predator’ Daniel P. Reeve gets longest fraud sentence ever in Canada — 14 years, and ask yourself are you protected from something like this?
• Michael James asks the lyrical question, When is a Zero Percent Interest loan not a Zero Pct Interest Loan? As usual it is not a 0 % loan.

The New 2018 Random Thoughts

• Ganja Tourism, Sneaker Smuggling, Solar Potential and #MoneyTalk (June 22^nd)
• Mothers Day, Counterfeit Reality, Higher Stress and #MoneyTalk (May 11^th)
• Decisions, Bitcoin, Inflation and #MoneyTalk (April 20^th)
• Stock Picking Update, Crypto Credit, and #MoneyTalk (April 13^the)
• RDSP, Easter, Thanks Rusty and #MoneyTalk (March 29^th)
• Facebook, Spring is here and #MoneyTalk (March 23^rd)
• Still Financially Crazy after 13 Years (March 16^th)
• Steady Interest Rates, Spring Forward and #MoneyTalk (March 8^th)
• Budgets, Phoenix Death, Inflation and #MoneyTalk (March 2^nd)
• Potholes, Tuition Increases, and #MoneyTalk (February 23^rd)
• RRSP, Lent, Happy Year of the Dog and #MoneyTalk (February 16^th)
• Roller Coaster Markets , Olympics and #Moneytalk (February 9^th)
• Superb Owls, RDSP Deposit and #MoneyTalk (February 2^nd)
• OHIP Overload, Doomsday minus 2 minutes, and #MoneyTalk (January 26^th)
• Tighter Money, Best Investment, Go North! and #MoneyTalk (January 19^th)
• Paper Delivery, Bitcoin and #MoneyTalk (January 12^th)
• Polar Vortexes, Minimum Wage and #MoneyTalk (January 4^th)

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