Canada turns 150 tomorrow, and the City of Ottawa has put out its best for folks to celebrate. Should be interesting, I vaguely remember 1967, and I hope I am around for 2067 guess I should really push out the boat on this one.
My family, immigrated to Canada, and I am so thankful that they did. While I respect and love the land of my parents (Wales & Britain), Canada is my home, and it will always be with me.
The Bank of Canada Governor is saying he thinks low-interest rates have “done their job”, however:
“… certainly we need to be at least considering that whole situation now that the capacity excess capacity is being used up steadily.”
Yes, the first 1/2 of the final season of Game of Thrones starts soon too. Rising rates will bring financial winter for some folks.
Writings This Week
I have been working on RESPs and High Fee Mutual Funds for a while. It has languished, but I was able to figure out what I was trying to say (I think). Just because it is easier to use a Bank Mutual Fund account for your kids’ RESP accounts, doesn’t mean you should use it. If you ever hear someone from a Mutual Fund firm brag about how high their fees are, please drop me a line.
RESPs and high fee mutual funds seem to go hand in hand, unfortunately. Do not fall into this trap, this is what the Mutual Funds firms want you to think.
Guess what is back for a short time? The Dutchie! My old friend is back at Tim Horton’s to help celebrate #Canada150. For the true connoisseur of the dutchie, it is still available in the Atlantic provinces, it is just back in Ontario, for my enjoyment.
I spent a lovely day a few weeks ago at my youngest daughter’s graduation from the Queens Faculty of Education. She already had a Science Degree from Trent, so this means my investments have now paid out 4 degrees, not bad pay out. There is another degree I have a small stake in, so I am hoping that pays out next year. For those parents unsure if they should put money in an RESP, yes this is a very good investment (and not just for the free money from the government).
There will be higher non-repayable grants for lower-income students, which is good. Having graduates saddled with massive debts is a very American thing, let us remove it from the Canadian lexicon. Will this help lower-income families get their kids into University? My opinion is not likely that much. The funding is still too low, the tuition (and associated fees) continue to sky-rocket and the costs of living away from home at school can be very high (especially in large urban areas like Toronto).
The other part of the equation, is what will the Federal Government part of the Canada Student Loans program do?
Summer is now here, and the days are getting shorter (if you are in the Northern Hemisphere). Remember how you hated the winter months? These are the months you were waiting for.
Things I wrote
Given I haven’t put out a random thoughts post for a while, you’d think I’d have lots of things that I must have written, but I haven’t really. I did write Banking is Necessary, Banks are not , which pokes fun at the FinTech phenomenon that many folks are hyping.
Is there such a thing as Bad Budgeting ? Yes, if all you do is adjust your budget to balance your inflated spending, that is bad.
There are a few new features in Quicken 2017 update that are making it better than earlier versions. The Android and iOS clients are making things better, but there are still some odd crashes (and importing data is still kind of weird at times).
Fun Tweets
While my RDSP page is quite good, there are many people who have helped me and one of them is Milburn Drysdale. He has updated his website, and here is a great tweet to send to anyone looking to learn more about the Disability Tax Credit.
Banking is necessary however banks are not is attributed to Bill Gates, and I think I agree with him. How banks do business leaves a lot to be desired. Smaller on line banks area already cutting into bank profits, will this make the big banks change? I don’t think so…
A while ago I wrote a review of the Quicken Business & Home 2017 (Canadian Version) . In that review I mentioned the Quicken iPhone/iPad app (I think there is an Android version as well).… Read More »Quicken 2017 Update
