Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Suppose you devised a plan to get the UK out of the EU, and it worked. What would you do? If you are Boris Johnson or Nigel Farage, you quit (while you are ahead?). After pulling off one of the more memorable upsets in the past little while, the two prominent faces of the Brexit crew have resigned, and now the UK has very little leadership on either side (having lost Prime Minister Mr. Cameron earlier on, and the Labour Party Leader seems to be under siege as well). Who has the rudder on the excellent ship Brittania? I don’t know, but the markets suggest they are not happy with the current situation. Now might be the time to book a vacation in the UK this summer?

More than once, I have written about how children should aspire to stop living with their parents as soon as possible, and for some, that has been construed as Millenial Bashing (to quote Rob Carrick), and while it does sound like harsh advice, I stand by the statement. Do you know how you learn to live on not much money? By living on not much money (and not living in your parent’s basement, claiming you are saving up for a down payment). My opinion is there are not that many more youngsters are doing this, but the mainstream media has latched onto it, as their cause celebre of the year. If you want to read an excellent book about Millenials and how much better than they are than all previous generations, read Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World (amazon link), well worth reading. My parents complained about me watching too much TV, and yes, I lived with them when I went to University too (for full disclosure).

I was sad to see that the Welsh Football (soccer) team lost in the semi-finals of the European tourney to Portugal, but it is an astounding result for the team (not quite as impressive as Iceland, but still pretty darn good). As I have said, I am the proud son of Welsh and English immigrants, glad to see Wales soccer is improving (Welsh rugby has been severely pounded by New Zealand, unfortunately).

My Writings for Week Ending July 8th

Another week with only 1 article, but hey, it was a long weekend, and it is the summer. I could be like the Blunt Bean Counter and leave up a Gone Golfing notice. More than one person has asked me whether I might be downsizing, as 3/4 of my kids are old enough to move out, but I am not thinking of it (for the next little while). My opinion is that Down Sizing: Another Money Maker for Real Estate Agents, remember it used to be you bought a starter house, and then the one you were going to live in for the rest of your life, now they have added one more major Real Estate transaction, Downsizing! It’s like McDonald’s creating a new meal Brinner (about 3 PM when you are hungry for a snack, have a Big Mac!).

Inflation?

Bank of Canada has some theories for the next two years on the topic of inflation.

Expectations for inflation over the next two years are largely within the Bank’s 1-3 % range pic.twitter.com/sEmN0UvSCi

— Bank of Canada (@bankofcanada) July 4, 2016

Read More »Brexit Market Mayhem, Millenial Bashing and #MoneyTalk

A bit of fun from 2016 but also a Celebration of St-Jean Baptiste Day or La Fête nationale in Quebec (land of my birth).

For those of you who did not grow up in Quebec, today is La Fête National or St. Jean Baptiste day, typically the start of the summer in Quebec. For me it was always the end of school, but that was 40 years ago. The rest of Canada waits for July 1st for the summer to really start (next Friday).

It seems the Canada Pension Plan is being revised to help Canadians retire. It seems to be to protect younger folks so more money is saved for their retirement, we will all pay higher premiums (phased in over the next little while), and the maximum payout will increase over time (but if you are already retired, you won’t benefit from this). I am still investigating, whether this will change much for someone like me who might retire within the next 5 to 8 years. I am searching for an actual Government document that explains the changes, nothing seems to exist yet. Is this a good thing? As usual, I will reserve commentary until I read an official document.

How will all of this change my retirement plans? I will comment when I can figure out how this new system works with my pension, but I suspect, at the end of it all, it won’t change my retirement plans much, but, I (55 year old) am not the demographic that these changes were put in place to help.

Will the Rio Olympics end up like the 1980 Moscow Games and the 1984 Los Angeles Games? There are many folks saying they will not be attending (or are being told they can’t attend), for many reasons. Is the Olympic movement still relevant? Yes, I think. However, the Olympic organization seems suspect.

The Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA Championship, how much money does that mean to the City of Cleveland? It will certainly mean less jokes about Cleveland, well, maybe not. Is Lebron James better than Michael Jordan? Not in my opinion, and the Warriors team from this year is not better than the 95-96 Chicago Bulls, but, only my opinion.

My Writings for Week of La Fete National

Another slack week for me, only writing one article, but to me, an important article, that needed to be written. RDSP the Savings Plan Nobody Knows About, came from a discussion I had with another parent about the Registered Disability Savings Plan, and how the people who seem to know the most about the program, are those who are trying to use it (not the folks who offer it, like the banks).

A Money Thought

People get very offended when you tell them how to raise their child, unless you wrote a book about it. Then they’ll pay you for it.  -ShowerThoughts Reddit

The same is true for Personal Finance.

If you had all the money in the world, you wouldn’t be able to spend it, as no one else would use currency.  -More Shower Thoughts on Reddit

Read More »La Fête nationale, Enhanced CPP and #MoneyTalk