Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Well, another year starts and yet again, I am taking home less money. Is it because of inflation? Yes, kind of, if you don’t get a pay raise, you lose to inflation (that is pretty much a given). I can see what has become more expensive as well, so it is not something theoretical, I know I am paying (or going to pay) more for heating my house, driving my car, insuring my house and car, and eating the same food I ate last year. OK, slice 1 taken from my virtual pie.

The next slice worries me even more, and that is the cost of my “benefits” package at work. My Employer (a large high tech company, but I will not mention them by name), brought in about 10 years ago something called FLEX benefits. This allowed young single employees to effectively OPT out of the benefits program, and allowed older fogies like me to get more insurance if they wished. Previously this was all covered by the company, now I had to start paying out of my own pocket for this. Initially I paid somewhere around $20 a pay for this, not bad, since I did get a fair amount of stuff. Well thanks to my increasing age, my benefits now cost 400% more after ten years (mostly due to Life Insurance and disability Insurance premiums). I cringe to think how much more I will pay each year as I zone in on the magic “50″ age. As an FYI, I get paid every 2 weeks, where previously I paid $500 I know pay over $2000.

On the positive side, my CPP payments stayed the same and my EI premium actually dropped, so there you have it, I got a small break from the Government.

The interest rate on my floating Mortgage went up, so I am paying more for my house, and on my debt payments. This is why getting out of debt is a GOAL!

This is a depressing, but worthwhile exercise for everyone to do at the start of the year. Compare how much you are taking home this January compared to last, how much different is it? If it is less, adjust your spending, to live within your means. If it is more, maybe this is an opportunity to speed up your debt pay off, or even better your savings goals!

Start of the year, is always a good time to analyze your financial world –C8j