Advent continues, and hopefully, you are getting all your festive duties completed with not too much stress and strain. Remember Advent is the time of preparation for your holiday calendar. Just remember you can still get gift cards at any gas station (that is open) on Christmas Day (helpful present gift of the week).

The Liberals continue to do as they promised, and have announced that the TFSA limit for 2016 will be $5500. Will this cause all those rich folks to charge out and deposit $10000 in their TFSA? Not really sure but it might happen. The alleged middle class tax cut will be implemented as well, which will save you about $600 or so, unless you make more than $200000 in which case, the new tax measures are gonna hurt. I have asked the CRA whether the Family Income Splitting Tax Break is now off the table (i.e. cancelled), but haven’t heard back yet. Will the new trumped-up (pardon the pun) Nanny-gate take the shine off the Dauphin? We shall see.

There is a chance that Canada might actually have a negative interest rate from the Central Bank? The Governor of the Bank of Canada said it is not very likely, however it is not completely off the table either. What would a negative interest rate be used for? To stimulate spending, since keeping your money in a bank would cause it to decrease, but isn’t that kind of what is happening with bank accounts with 0.01% interest and $20.00 month bank fees? Sorry, I couldn’t resist. We do seem fixated on stimulating our economy.

My Writings for Week Ending December 11th

Our tree is not up yet, but I did do some writing this week:

Less jobs and more people looking for work in November

Isn’t redundancy a bad thing ?

Some fun Christmas stuff from the past

Facebook Post of the Week

Friend of this site, Kerry from Squawkfox was on the television last week talking about managing kids’ expectations at Christmas. Does this mean she is giving me a lump of coal this year?

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Tweet of the Week

It was very nice of the CRA to answer my tweet and now we have confirmation that the CRA does have an RN on call to help out with the T2201 forms (learned that from a commentator ):

@bigcajunman To get help with filling T2201, pls. call 1-800-959-8281 and provide your contacts and an RN will call you back.

— Canada Revenue Agency (@CanRevAgency) December 7, 2015

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Read More »Advent, TFSA Drops, Negative Interest and #MoneyStories

The Ontario Auditor General’s report for 2015 pointed out what seems obvious, Hydro One and the Ontario Government have been mishandling the power grid and have overcharged Ontarians for their electric bills. The report is scathing in its commentary on Hydro One’s mismanagement of the power grid, and the McGinty Government increase of our hydro bills. It is well worth reading, but will it change anything, I doubt it. The Premier is already “Plan B”‘ing the whole thing by blaming it all on the previous Liberal Government?

There is also a section about Autism Support programs, called Autism Services and Supports for Children, an important read for anyone who has a child on the autism spectrum. The Audtor General states:

In 2014/15, transfer payments for autism services and supports totalled $188 million ($182 million in 2012/13).

The Bank of Canada continued on with its loose monetary policies, with no change in the key interest rates.

The Bank judges that the risks around the inflation profile remain roughly balanced over the projection horizon. Vulnerabilities in the household sector continue to edge higher while overall 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.

I think they are saying they are too scared to raise interest rates, for fear of breaking the economy?

Our friends at Stats Canada also put out a very interesting set of data in their bulletin, Developmental disabilities among Canadians aged 15 years and older, 2012 which made the following worrisome statement:

The employment rate of working-age adults aged 15 to 64 with a developmental disability was 22.3%, less than one-third of the rate for people without a disability (73.6%), and the lowest employment rate of any disability type. Even when employed, this group had a lower median employment income compared with those who did not report any disability. Those with a developmental disability were more likely than those without any disability to rely on government transfers as their major source of income (71.9% versus 18.7%).

For those of us with loved one who have been identified with developmental disabilities, that is quite scary (the 22.3% employment rate).

Advent is here, that means you can officially put up your Christmas decorations, and such.

My Writings for Week Ending December 4th

Not as much writing as last week, but still some interesting ones:

• Up Selling in Banking came about after Mrs. C8j was accosted by a TD Teller about how our financial planning might need help.
• The concept of the Financial Long Shot came to me after reading an interesting article on Chico Marx, and how while some folks have gambling issues, others are addicted to taking risks, and this is a bad thing financially.
• From my archives, for those of you who are unaware I loath article with numbered lists and thus I wrote the Top 5 Reasons You Are In Debt. For someone who dislikes this type of article, I sure do write a lot of these lists.

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Facebook Post of the Week

What is Preet doing above the fold line on my Friday post? This isn’t how it works, but Preet wants to help you understand the CCB

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Read More »Loopy Hydro, Loose Money, Disabilities, Advent and #MoneyStories

Black Friday is here with alleged savings as far as you can see, even in Canada? The claim is that even in Canada, there will be excellent Black Friday sales? What happens if you don’t want to buy anything? The entire Black Friday thing is getting out of control and seems to be an excuse to entice folks to spend more darn money, whether they need to or not! How many deluxe, left-handed, artisan cheese straighteners do you need?

Don’t spend all your hard-earned cash on Friday either, because there are the Cyber Monday sales that will be astounding and eye-popping? Again, if you have no reason to buy anything or don’t need anything, why would you care?

I want to propose a new day after American Thanksgiving, and we should call it Regretful Tuesday, where folks look back on the orgy of spending and eating they have done, and they suddenly get a bad case of guilt? My guess is that is precisely what does happen.

For those watching the Ontario Legislature, Rowan’s Law has been introduced and should be passed soon. There is a petition for this law, and it should be interesting to see how this changes children’s competitive sports and coaching.

Ottawa’s football team is in the Grey Cup for the first time since before I moved here. It indeed will be a RedBlackGrey Cup. Go RedBlackRenegadeRoughRiders!

My Writings for Week Ending November 27th

It was a busy week, as I got out three posts this week. It is not quite like my prodigious hay days when I used to pump out five posts a week, but better than usual:

• Canadians Paid Even More For Food in October (4.1%) and things are not looking like they are getting any better in terms of Canadians trying to keep their families fed. Thanks to cheap gas (which we can’t drink) we continue to have a skewed view of inflation.
• We were very happy to get the Notice of Determination on Disability Tax Credit letter in the mail, as it was in our favor in terms of tax considerations for my son’s disability. Mrs. C8j did a great job, so we can continue saving for my son’s future.
• What the Hustler Taught Me About Banking is another one of my ideas that has been percolating for a while, in my archives of unfinished work. Given the reaction in terms of comments, other folks liked the idea too.

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Facebook Post of the Week

What is the difference between a concussion and a simple bump on the head? The National Post takes a run at that question.

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Read More »Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Regretful Tuesday and #MoneyStories

The world is again left scratching its head and asking, “Why?” after ISIS attacked Paris. Honestly, I have no idea of why this would be done, but as a wise man has pointed out, follow the money, and you will see the reason why.

One of my favourite memories of Paris is when my friend and I boldly ran around the Musée du Louvre, snapping pictures in front of all the famous paintings and exhibits. After that, we confidently walked into a lovely restaurant with a McDonald’s shake in hand, just to prove our boss wrong. He was complaining about how tourists in Paris only went to the Louvre and ate at McDonald’s, but we showed him that we were different. To this day, I still wonder why we didn’t do it sooner.

Black Friday began at the start of November, but for those purists, the actual Black Friday is next Friday (the 27th of November). Traditionally that was the day that pushed stores “to the black” (or into a profitable stance), however, it is now yet another excuse to entice folks to spend money.

Financial Literacy month continues as well. Have you learned something new about your finances today?

My Writings for Week Ending November 20th

It is truly the dark days of November here in Ottawa, but there were two new posts this week:

• Cheques, Cameras and Banking Apps I rehashed some of my security concerns with Wi-Fi in general and banking applications specific on your smartphones or tablets. However, if you try to be secure, these apps will mean fewer visits to your brick-and-mortar banks, but be careful with post-dated cheques.
• From the archives, remember that in Banking Everything is Negotiable. However, that does not guarantee you will get a better deal, just that you can always ask for one and see what happens (remember the answer is always NO unless you ask).

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Facebook Post of the Week

Do you remember Y2K and all the craze about how the world was going to come to an end? Here are some other interesting computer bugs you might not have known about.

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Read More »Paris, Black Friday, Financial Literacy and #MoneyStories