Canadian Personal Finance Blog

May 3rd, 2007

Canadian Investment Internationally

We Canadians are shrewd investors, if not at times overly cautious (as a general rule). Our investment in the outside world continues to expand, even with the dollar strengthening due to our richness of resources. Stats Canada says that in the past 8 years our holdings in foreign securities has doubled (2x), which is very interesting (Year end 2005).

Where are we investing? Are we just looking below the 49th parallel? Nope, not just there, but all over the world (in fact not as much in the U.S. as I thought). This is a good thing, since I suspect the American economy’s relative strength in the world is weakening (slowly). The Far East and Pacific Rim are areas of growth in Canadian investment (moneys spent in that area, not growth of the investment), so we Canadians are looking far and wide for investment opportunities.

Well, if we can invest so much, does that mean we are making that much more money? The median income for a Canadian family (of two or more people) rose about 1.4% to about $56,000 which is not bad really. The problem is the gap between the “have” and “have not” families and the fact that it is widening significantly.

The gap between the top and bottom quintiles started at $83,800 in 1980, and fluctuated between $79,500 and $84,500 until 1996. By 2005, the gap had reached $105,400.
(…)

Average after-tax income in 2005 was $128,200 for the 20% of families with the highest incomes, compared with $22,800 for the 20% with the lowest.

That is amazing, over $100,000 now separates these fifths of the population? I think I have talked about this gap before, but this data really does bring it home, that there is a world of difference between those who “have” and those who “do not” in Canada.

While that one is concerning here is another one to ruminate over:

The 20% of families and unattached individuals who took home the highest amount of after-tax income in 2005 collectively paid almost 60% of all personal income taxes that year, up from 50% in 1980.

Paying their fair share, is what comes to mind. Here is a good table to end with:

Selected income concepts by main family types, 2005
	Median
	Market income	Government transfers	Income taxes	After-tax income
	2005 constant dollars
Economic families, two persons or more	57,700	3,900	8,600	56,000
Senior families	22,100	22,000	2,900	40,400
Non-senior couples without children	63,700	200	10,400	55,700
Two-parent families with children	72,800	2,700	11,600	65,700
Female lone-parent families	22,200	6,800	500	30,400
Single persons	18,100	500	2,000	21,400