Senior citizen slamming seems to be the new lucrative trickery that various sales outlets have adopted. This kind of flim-flammery really does upset me greatly. Simply handing a senior an unknown piece of technology, is the same as handing a child a sharp knife.
It’s the Super Bowl weekend in Minnesota, but as a dedicated Vikings fan, I have no interest in the game whatsoever. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind if both teams were disqualified and no winner declared. I am a die-hard Vikings fan and I am not afraid to admit that I am bitter about the whole situation. So, if you’re planning to watch the game, you better have some chili in the slow cooker, plenty of beer on hand, and be prepared for what will undoubtedly be the longest football game of the season!
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Spent another 20 minutes on the phone to make my semi-annual RDSP contribution to my son’s account at TD Direct Investing. No, my son’s account is still inaccessible directly on-line for deposits or transfers (i.e. I can automatically deposit to his RDSP from my chequing account). I continue to ask how to fix it, but I keep getting told that is how the system works. Evidently someone who has their own RDSP, that they can contribute to their own account, so that might be the issue, but I also continue to get no explanation from TD why I must follow the circular payment method that I do?
There is a very interesting set of documentaries on Netflix called Dirty Money. The first episode was about the VW Clean Diesel scandal, however, the second episode is even more insidious as it is about Online PayDay Loan companies in the USA. The dirty tricks in the agreements are shocking. The story is also about the owners and their prosecution by the Federal Government, but I was just so disgusted by the way the loan customers were tricked into believing they were paying off their loans, when in fact they were only paying a service charge to roll-over their loan to the next period. I would recommend watching the series just on the basis of the first 2 episodes.
Been a busy week for me, so I didn’t put out any new content this week, but I do continue to update and edit many of my 3000+ posts, and if you follow my Twitter feed you will see those updated articles. For #BellLetsTalk I did bring back I’m an Adult Now?, where I lamented the passing of my father 7 years ago. Also remember that Debt is a Four Letter Word.
I hope that Mr. Buckley’s comments about fee erosion is true, too many people are making too much money off my investments.
Can OHIP and Medicare survive? Stats Canada has an interesting report to worry you (and points out the Tsunami of Alzheimer’s and Dimentia cases), High use of acute care hospital services at age 50 or older. The aging population will tax all parts of the Social Safety net, but can our hospitals deal with this? We will need more structures, more Doctors , more Nurses and more support staff, where will they come from? My guess is the full impact of OHIP overload and other services is not completely clear (yet).
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
CPP should survive, but what are our OHIP rates going to be is a much better question to ask.
Maybe the Doomsday clock moving closer to our demise is a good thing? See below for further details.
This year I finally followed my advice and unlocked my Bell iPhone 5. I followed the advice of How to Save Money, on how to do it on-line, and it worked (I think). The problem is I need a SIM card from another company to test it, so I haven’t actually tested that it worked.
Thanks to a comment by an Anonymous Banker, I learned about a Canadian banking regulation, and thus I wrote, Banking Regulations our Friend. Banks cannot force you to open a bank account with them if they offer you a loan, however, they can offer you a better deal to entice you to open that account.
I follow Jason Zweig from the WSJ and he does an excellent job with the extra characters Twitter has given us, to make a bit of biting financial satire.
I got a very good comment from someone who calls themselves Anon Banker, about the Tied Selling Banking Regulations and how that should stop banks from forcing you to have a chequing account with them… Read More »Banking Regulations our Friend
The Bank of Canada went and done it! They raised the overnight rate to its highest rate in 9 years! This is going to ruin the economy! The rate is now at 1.25%, oh my God! Yes, I am being sarcastic about tighter money from the Bank of Canada. Their overview paragraph from the report was quite telling.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
While the economic outlook is expected to warrant higher interest rates over time, some continued monetary policy accommodation will likely be needed to keep the economy operating close to potential and inflation on target. Governing Council will remain cautious in considering future policy adjustments, guided by incoming data in assessing the economy’s sensitivity to interest rates, the evolution of economic capacity, and the dynamics of both wage growth and inflation.
Talk about hedging your bets, I guess they are trying not to scare folks? Rates will be going up, but not in the near future, maybe? Does sound like tighter money policies are coming soon.
On the downside, the rate hike has caused all the banks to increase their prime rates, and mortgage rates, which is going to hit us all in the pocketbook. Most of the major banks have raised their “prime” rate to 3.45% and all mortgage rates have gone up as well.
For those curious, what would be the best investment given these changing times? GICs will start becoming more interesting to folks, but what might be a good investment? Hmm… How about Pay Down Debt! It now has even higher pay backs! What other investment can give you a guaranteed pay back of around 5% (on a mortgage)? On the plus side my guess is GIC Ladders is going to be a popular search on Google very soon.
Bitcoin lost value this week. Why? I have no idea really, but as I type these letters it is worth less than $10,000, but it might have recovered by the time you read this. To say this is a murky investment area is an understatement. Are you thinking of becoming a Bitcoin Miner? Go North young folk (Northern Quebec that is). Hydro Quebec is luring Cryptominers to Northern Quebec with very low electric rates. Evidently Quebec Knows How to use their excess hydro-electric resources, to make money.
This week I queried Can I get a Deal from a Chatbot ? Given the use of automated (some might say AI) on-line and social media bots being used for customer service, it is a valid question. I guess you are not likely to get too much from a Bot, although they may offer occasional perks just to keep folks from complaining about the lack of deals.
The importance of keeping your important financial information safe is nicely summed up in the following meme, which is a twist on an old adage.
