The Pope, Autumn, Elections, Volkswagen and #MoneyStories
The Pope in 2015 said that if diocese don’t take in refugees they should lose their tax exemption? Sounds good to me.
Surplus, What Surplus, NBA Frugality, National Debt and #MoneyStories
The week started with the Government announcing a surplus in the 2014/15 budget year of almost $1.9 Billion, and it kicked off a bit of a reaction from many sides. A surplus is a good thing. How the surplus was created is questionable, but it did happen (unless the Government hired all of the old Nortel Accountants). Stories about forced spending cuts in key ministries and the infamous huge savings from Mr. Clement’s Sick Leave changes. However, it is a surplus that cannot be argued (if you view the term surplus as a specific accounting term). Just an observation, but when did the NDP become more “centrist” than the Liberals?
Glad to see some money sense with the story of a Brooklyn Nets rookie (who makes $1.3M a year) who has roommates because rent is whacked in Brooklyn! It’s easy when you get money fast to give in to the “Live Now, Pay Later” mentality that our society pushes, but glad to see one young person who realizes that all wealth can be fleeting.
The one interesting thing from the Annual Financial Report of the Government of Canada Fiscal Year 2014-2015 is the statement of the National Debt. Remember, the National Debt is how much money Canada owes to Creditors (many of whom are CSB owners and such, see Page 24 for the exact details of the debt). If I am reading the report correctly, Canada’s Net National Debt is $612.3B (if that is what is on Page 26 of the report). To quote the report exactly:
With total liabilities of $1.0 trillion, financial assets of $336.7 billion and non-financial assets of $74.6 billion, the federal debt (accumulated deficit) stood at $612.3 billion at March 31, 2015, up $0.4 billion from March 31, 2014
So we really owe $1Trillion, but thanks to accounting fun, we say our debt-load is $612B ? I’ll have to remember that the next time I go talk to the bank. Financial Crisis? What Financial Crisis?
Luckily the US Federal Reserve kept their rate near zero. No sudden stock market crashes just yet.
My Writings for Week Ending September 18th
The days are getting shorter as Autumn is coming (in the Northern Hemisphere). :
- Are you a big lover of the Twitter Machine? If so you’ll want to check out Talking about Money on Twitter this Week, another kind of best of article.
- Yes, it only takes 10 kicks in the shins before I take my own advise, I have closed the mutual fund account mentioned in More Blocked Mutual Fund Transactions at TD, but I am always happy when I can have Dikembe Motumbo mentioned in an article.
- Yes, I am a cranky old man, “… get off my front lawn, ya rotten kids…”, and in that spirit I wrote, Don’t Be Afraid to Live With Your Parents, yes it is an example of swerve writing.
Tweet of the week
The Government just told us about how they spent our tax money, why aren’t you reading this?
Read More »Surplus, What Surplus, NBA Frugality, National Debt and #MoneyStories
That Day, I Miss Jack, Easy Money and #MoneyStories
It is 14 years since that day, when the world changed in 2001. Is the world a worse place because of the events of that day? It’s a different place, is all I can say with certainty. History will tell us the rest.
The election continues to show that the Tories are lagging, the Liberals are not wowing, and the NDP seems to be turtling their way into a slight lead, but none of the party leaders are running away with the race. It would have been exciting to see this election if Jack Layton had beaten cancer, but we will never know, won’t we?
Apple introduced some “new” technology, including the iPhone Maxi (6S Plus) and the reintroduction of the Apple TV. I get the feeling that the media world (specifically video streaming) is about to change, but I also suspect it may not be Apple that wins the fight.
Our friends at the Bank of Canada continued their rates on Wednesday with the following statement about the economy (hopefully, one day it will come with a helpful decoder ring to explain all the jargon as well):
Increasing uncertainty about growth prospects for China and other emerging-market economies, in contrast, is raising questions about the pace of the global recovery. This has contributed to heightened financial market volatility and lower commodity prices. Movements in the Canadian dollar are helping to absorb some of the impact of lower commodity prices and are facilitating the adjustments taking place in Canada’s economy. While the overall export picture is still uncertain, the latest data confirm that exchange rate-sensitive exports are regaining momentum.
Meanwhile, risks to financial stability are evolving as expected. Taking all of these developments into consideration, the Bank judges that the risks to the outlook for inflation remain within the zone for which the current stance of monetary policy is appropriate. Therefore, the target for the overnight rate remains at 1/2 per cent.
A simple translation? “risks to financial stability are evolving as expected” the known unknowns are known? The unknown knowns are better understood?
My Writings for Week Ending September 11th
With Labour Day being so late this year we are already well into September, however, it is still hotter than most of the summer, 2015 an odd year for weather :
- Over the weekend I continued my best of twitter world with Laboured Personal Finance Tweets of the Week, some fun tweets in there.
- Ironic Labour Numbers on Labour Day for August, not only included the rather ho-hum jobs numbers from last week, it also included a mention of Das Capital by Karl Marx.
- It is that magical time of the year, Back To School and RESP Time, but do you really care about RESPs if you are going to leave the post-secondary school costs to your kids?
Tweet of the week
I found this one in my twitter feed and was horrified when I read the story
Read More »That Day, I Miss Jack, Easy Money and #MoneyStories
Back to School, RESPs, Banks Behaving Badly and #MoneyStories
Some schools have started this week, and most will be open on Tuesday after Labour Day. Plenty of back-to-school sales going on and plenty of pressure to buy your kids all the things they “need” to go to school. The problem is that some stores’ definition of “need” is a little out of wack. Do Students need a home computer, laptop, tablet and also iPhone? That seems to be implied by many of the tech stores. Isn’t a Hilroy Exercise book, a pencil and a pen enough? It seems that lifestyle creep has worked its way into the back-to-school.
My yearly pilgrimage to the bank to extract money from my RESP continues to create more and more content for this site, so I must send a Thank You note to TD for all the great stories that have come from their product. As I mentioned in my article this week I did manage to not run into the TD E-series Beartrap, where I cannot do anything in my local branch with the E-series funds, so I must first transfer the funds into a TD Money Market account so that then my local branch can release the funds in that savings vehicle.
I thought my issues with TD and RESPs were bad. However, Mrs. C8j pointed me to an article in the Ottawa Citizen about a woman (who she knows) and her issues with Scotiabank and their RESP (another classic example of “Banks Behaving Badly“). It seems they would not release the funds in the account until Ms. Adeney answered some Marketing questions about her net value and income. Read that previous sentence again, they would not give her HER money, until she answered the questions? What the flip? I am glad to hear that Scotiabank admitted their mistake, but at least TD never did that to me.
My Writings for Week Ending September 4th
The summer is slowly coming to a close and an entertaining fall lies ahead (with plenty of election shenanigans and tom-foolery) :
- I started the week with yet another fun list of great financial tweets, with More Great Personal Finance Tweets for the Week,
- I went “off script” a little with a peek at the new economy with In App Purchases and the New Economy, which does have a very naughty video included with it as well.
- Yes, I do rant about my exploits at my local bank, but this one did miff me more than previous visits with, No I can’t Do Anything about That, which just goes to show that “Brick and Mortar” storefronts (ort banks for that matter) are less and less useful to most folks.
Tweet of the week
Ellen Roseman (if you aren’t following her on Twitter and on Facebook, you are missing some good stuff) gives another example of “Banks Behaving Badly“. I note I am only 8 new twitter followers until I reach 2500 followers (hint, hint).
Read More »Back to School, RESPs, Banks Behaving Badly and #MoneyStories
Boom Goes the Markets, Market Cheese, and #BestMoneyStories
The last 10 days or so have been quite volatile on the markets with wild drops, sudden spurts up and indecision and confusion on whether this is a “correction,” a “collapse,” or a “great time to buy.” To quote a well-known media maven I’m an Indexer I don’t Care What the Index Did Today, although I did buy in the middle of all of this, because I had money to put in my son’s RDSP (but that is very long-term savings, so again, who cares). There is agreement that China’s economic cogitations seem to have been a catalyst for all this market tom-foolery, but we will only know for sure in a few months when we look back on things.
Is this a good time to buy into the market? Will oil stocks rebound? How will a minority government affect our economy? To quote Kent Brockman, ” Professor, without knowing precisely what the danger is, would you say it’s time for our viewers to crack each other’s heads open and feast on the goo inside”. Do you have any Gorgonzola (see video at bottom for explanation)? I can answer this and many other questions: “I have no bloody idea!”.
It seems like my Twitter feed might make it to 2500 actual followers (I haven’t paid for any followers, nor have I used skullduggery to inflate those numbers either).
Back to school is here again, with schools opening next week, and in some corners schools have already opened. I can tell it is back to school time, as there is Haloween candy in the stores as well.
My Writings for Week Ending August 28th
The summer is slowly coming to a close and an entertaining fall lies ahead (with plenty of election shenanigans and tom-foolery) :
- More inflation numbers seem to be ignored on the campaign front, with Gas Dampening the CPI for July. Oil at $40 a barrel is a doubled-edged sword that is cutting the Canadian economy to pieces.
- I went back to my archives for a follow-up on my problems with loyalty cards getting hacked with Auto Loading Your Loyalty Card is a Bad Idea, and it really is a very bad idea.
- A real oldie but goody for me is to remember that In Banking All is Negotiable, and I will be going in to spread happiness at my local TD branch following my own advice.
Tweet of the week
I did a Tweets of the week already
Read More »Boom Goes the Markets, Market Cheese, and #BestMoneyStories
