“It’s not quite what I had in mind” (Financially)
We can sometimes be a little too polite especially when it comes to our finances, so answering “It’s not quite what I had in mind” is not the best answer.
Bye Bye CSBs, 36 Million Strong and #Moneytalk
The government is investigating whether they should abandon the Canada Savings Bonds program, and when I heard that, I thought, What will all the Grandmas invest in now? There are about $500M worth of unclaimed CSBs out there, too. Remember the good old days when CSBs paid out
| 1980 Nov S35 11.50% | 1981 Nov S36 19.50% |
| 1982 Nov S37 12.00% | 1983 Nov S38 9.25% |
| 1984 Nov S39 11.25% | 1985 Nov S40 8.50% |
| 1986 Nov S41 7.75% | 1987 Nov S42 9.00% |
| 1988 Nov S43 9.50% | 1989 Nov S44 10.50% |
| 1990 Nov S45 10.75% |
Yes, remember those heady days when CSBs paid 19.50%. I do! I also remember 15% mortgage rates. However, for all those lovers of CSBs, don’t lament. You can still buy them this year and set up a payroll savings program too! The population of Canada is now over 36 million, according to Stats Canada. We added 139,645 from April to July of this year! Now that is an immigration boom (or one hell of a baby boom!). Funny, it doesn’t feel that crowded, but I don’t live in Toronto either.
In Ottawa, the Glebe has decided that the stores in that area can open on Thanksgiving (and on five other holidays). Do we need that many days to shop? I remember not shopping on Sundays.
The only comment I can make about the American election is, what I have said previously, Overt Zealotry of any kind (religious, political, or any other) worries me a great deal. How is everyone so darn sure they are right?
Stuff I wrote this week
It was another somewhat lazy week for me. However, I have many more ideas percolating in my brain (including one where I am asking MPs questions). Still, this week, I wrote about the Shocking Electricity Price in August (CPI Canada). Ontario is leading the way with ludicrous electricity price increases.
I continue to get comments and questions from my article CRA Child Disability Benefit (How To). Hopefully, folks are being helped by it (it is one of my favourite articles).
Read More »Bye Bye CSBs, 36 Million Strong and #MoneytalkShocking Electricity Price in August 2016 (CPI Canada)
Electricity prices in August 2016 were a major contributor to Inflation.
Rate Rises, Winter is Coming, Access Neutrality and #MoneyTalk
Autumn has arrived in Ottawa, which of course means that Winter is Coming, but unfortunately the financial pundits down south are also warning of Financial Winter, in the face of possible Fed Rate increases by December. If the US starts ratcheting up interest rates, Canada might follow suit, or might not, to make the dollar weaker? I can’t remember what is in vogue these days, a Weak Dollar helping trade or a Strong Dollar, helping trade?
If Financial Winter is coming, maybe it is time to think about whether you are ready or not?
The CRTC is trying to make sure our Internet Access (at home) is not only available from specific companies, however, the Monopolies (Bell, Telus, Rogers) are not playing very nice, as outlined in ‘We need to fix this’: Big telcos hoard fibre optic networks despite CRTC order. Companies like Teksavvy have been trying to compete, but continue to run into the Monopolies lack of co-operation.
Preet and Money
We see him here, we see him there, that Preet B. is everywhere!.
Unemployment Up, On the Money, Debt and #MoneyTalk
Stats Canada published their Labour Force Survey, August 2016 last Friday and the numbers continue to underwhelm, if not discourage folks. While employment is up 26,000 jobs, unemployment rate is up 0.1% as well, leaving it as 7.0%.
I always look to see what kind of jobs are being created, and this line from the report is quite telling:
Compared with 12 months earlier, employment increased by 77,000 (+0.4%), with all of the gains in part-time work. Over the same period, the total number of hours worked fell slightly (-0.4%).
So more folks working part-time jobs is not a ringing bit of good news for the current economy. The types of jobs being created is also telling:
There were more people working in public administration, and fewer people working in professional, scientific and technical services.
More admin folks, is that a good thing? For me I am glad there are more folks over 55 finding jobs, but us old folks clogging up the market can’t be good for the young folk looking for work.
CBC Newsworld launched a new show about money, On the Money, looks to have regular contributions from many friends of this humble site. It uses Flash Player for its videos (CBC should really get to HTML 5).
Stats Canada also reported on Household Net Worth this week, and as you might guess there is more debt out there.
The household debt service ratio (seasonally adjusted), measured as total obligated payments of principal and interest as a proportion of disposable income adjusted to include actual interest paid, increased from 14.1% in the first quarter to 14.2% in the second quarter. The interest-only debt service ratio, defined as household mortgage and non-mortgage interest paid as a proportion of disposable income, was 6.3%.
Let the media storm around this data commence!
My Writings for Week Ending September 16th
Seems to be RESP season these days, but if you have kids, are there any times when RESP Sometimes Doesn’t Make Sense ? Yes, but only in obvious areas that you can already guess about. It is free money after all.
A Money Thought
Have I mentioned that text books are expensive lately ?
