Allow me to be clear on my opinion of GM shutting down their Oshawa plant, F*ck you GM! You take government bail-outs (fail-outs?), and you then turn around and do this? As a tax payer I am disgusted by this attitude. Yes, I realize this is a business, and it is only a “business decision”, but as a regular person, I still think the thing stinks. I have had 3 GM cars, and all have had issues, and the last one was a Lemon. My opinion of their products is they are low quality.
I recorded yet another Podcast with Doug Hoyes last week, and dropped in on the Hoyes-Michalos offices in Ottawa. Spoke to a few of the folks in the office, and heard about the scope of the Phoenix pay debacle has had on Ottawa. The chap I spoke to said he has seen plenty of folks who ended up being burned badly by the Phoenix “Pay” system. This included folks who didn’t get paid, and tried to live on their credit which cause the entire “financial apple cart” to fall over. I passed on my personal findings of folks who are turning down promotions, for fear of it causing a “Phoenix Profile” change and endangering their pay.
The content of the Podcast was well-defined by Doug and he had questions written down, but as usual it all broke down quickly, and I am not clear exactly what the real topic ended up being. Stay tuned on the Debt Free in 30 podcast and see how he edited it together. There were cameras as well.
Banks News?
The Banks will be announcing their results, TD already has, and they seem to be doing well. Somewhere along the line things will change, but not today.
Speaking of banks, President’s Choice has redesigned their PC Mastercard site, and have decided that an ability to download into Quicken or Quickbooks isn’t needed. You can download in CSV format (for Excel or a spreadsheet), but not directly from your bank account. Given how competitive the marketplace is for Credit Cards, taking away functionality for customers isn’t something rd assume was a good thing. I have voiced my displeasure, we shall see whether I take action, or not.
Recent Articles
It’s been a while since I did one of these so here are a few of my articles from the fall of 2018.
Never was So Much Owed by So Many outlines the latest numbers from Stats Canada about household debt, and how consumer debt is a hobby Canadians dearly love. My apologies to Mr. Churchill for such a crass paraphrasing.
Make More by Reducing Debt has been sitting in my almost finished queue for a while. Again, I am being quite cheeky about the subject, but sometimes the simplest explanations are the best. Continuing in that cheeky line, Savings Motivating System really was just a quick bad bit of humor I thought up one night. Remember with interest rates going up, a savings account might not be a bad place to put money.
Do credit cards just appear on your doorstep? In Farewell New Credit Card I outline how an old credit card (that I had forgotten about) morphed into a new card, which I didn’t want. The one really important part of a credit report is to see which credit cards you thought you closed are still open.
Deep Financial Thoughts
Doug Hoyes has thoughts everywhere, and here he is in his car telling us why high interest lenders (59% rates) are causing stress.
Advent is Coming
Financial Advent is almost here, and we all know that Advent is a time of patience and waiting. I realize most folks view Advent as a time of spending, eating, and drinking, but it is really supposed to be a time of reflection and waiting. Keep that in mind this holiday season.
- Michael James wonders about The Value of Delaying CPP and OAS .For me my pension is actually tied to CPP, but I will still do some math and see when it might be best for me.
- Things in the states sure are weird, as we can read in Your Credit Score Isn’t a Reflection of Your Moral Character, but homeland security is using it as one of its parameters about whether you’d make a good immigrant.
- Questrade agrees to pay $2.9 million to OSC for acting contrary to public interest, which upsets me as Questrade advertises on this site. May have to rethink this one.
- Cut the Crap investing brings us, Investing in the all stock ETF Model Portfolio. Take on the risk, if you can. With bond prices being buffeted by rate increases, folks are starting to look at GICs again, but should we be running away from stocks?
- I don’t usually link to the Huffington Post, but their article Canadians Believe The Average Salary They Need For ‘Comfort’ Is $250,000, shook me. Do Canadians you need that for total income, or do both salaries have to be this? Guess I am not very comfortable?
From The Archives
If you follow me on Twitter you will note that I do bring back many of the favorites from my huge archive, and this past while is not exception:
- My Four Best Investments – and I put a lot of money into my pension too (so really 5 if you think about it)
- Is it Safe? – What is safe? Is who safe? Are we monetarily safe is the question being asked #MarathonMan – really three of the most chilling words, especially when Larry Olivier asks you.
- A series on Financial Risks from my archives http://bit.ly/2Thhj0i http://bit.ly/2A6oiAmhttp://bit.ly/2zZ3smH back in the day when I wrote multi-day articles
Financial Tweet of the Week
Another interesting list of Financial Bloggers, and somehow I am the first one they mention? Wonder why?
The 2018 Random Thoughts
- RDSP Awareness , Volatility and #MoneyTalk (October 12th)
- Tech Infiltration , NAFTA/USMCA, WiFi, Tornadoes and #MoneyTalk (October 5th)
- Back to School, London Calling, Basic Cable and #MoneyTalk (September 14th)
- Tighter Money, the 13th , Hydro Savings and #MoneyTalk (July 14th)
- Ganja Tourism, Sneaker Smuggling, Solar Potential and #MoneyTalk (June 22nd)
- Mothers Day, Counterfeit Reality, Higher Stress and #MoneyTalk (May 11th)
- Decisions, Bitcoin, Inflation and #MoneyTalk (April 20th)
- Stock Picking Update, Crypto Credit, and #MoneyTalk (April 13the)
- RDSP, Easter, Thanks Rusty and #MoneyTalk (March 29th)
- Facebook, Spring is here and #MoneyTalk (March 23rd)
- Still Financially Crazy after 13 Years (March 16th)
- Steady Interest Rates, Spring Forward and #MoneyTalk (March 8th)
- Budgets, Phoenix Death, Inflation and #MoneyTalk (March 2nd)
- Potholes, Tuition Increases, and #MoneyTalk (February 23rd)
- RRSP, Lent, Happy Year of the Dog and #MoneyTalk (February 16th)
- Roller Coaster Markets , Olympics and #Moneytalk (February 9th)
- Superb Owls, RDSP Deposit and #MoneyTalk (February 2nd)
- OHIP Overload, Doomsday minus 2 minutes, and #MoneyTalk (January 26th)
- Tighter Money, Best Investment, Go North! and #MoneyTalk (January 19th)
- Paper Delivery, Bitcoin and #MoneyTalk (January 12th)
- Polar Vortexes, Minimum Wage and #MoneyTalk (January 4th)
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thanks for your great post. very informative & helpful….
I wouldn’t blame GM. I’d blame the unions. They priced their workers out of jobs as compared to US-based plants, even with the advantage of the current exchange rate.
Maybe the higher wages aren’t unreasonable for the cost of living of the area. But they were unreasonable for the work being done. So either way the right decision is to relocate the jobs elsewhere.
Out of curiosity, after owning 2 GM vehicles you’ve found to be of poor quality, why buy a 3rd?
The first two were purchased at a large discount, due to family, the 3rd was a complete BLUNDER on my part (I own that very bad decision).
I do agree that the Unions may have over priced their workforce, but then again, GM agreed to it. Like Homer Simpson says, “There are two parts to a lie, the person telling it, and the person stupid enough to believe it”.