Canadian Personal Finance Blog

In Canada our Unemployment Rate has remained the same (seasonably adjusted). This continues to be a 33 year low, which shows the Canadian Economy continues to roar along, and as a Citizen of Canada I cheer!

Stats Canada loves sneaking in interesting little anecdotes as well like the following

May saw a large increase in the number of self-employed, up an estimated 56,000, while the number of employees in the private sector fell by 58,000. Since October 2006, the number of self-employed has jumped 6.5%, well ahead of gains for both public (+0.9%) and private sector (+0.4%) employees.

That’s really cool, more folks are viewing themselves as “self-employed”, now is this by choice, by necessity or some other reason? I wonder. I really respect the self-employed folks out there, because I don’t have the nerve and the self-discipline to do this (ok this blog is kind of a self-employed job, but I haven’t given up my day job (yet)). Good on the self-employed folks!

Enjoy the weekend folks, come back refreshed knowing the soaring Canadian Dollar may change these numbers very soon!

A lot of the literature I have been reading lately (not just financial stuff) says that the biggest problem most folks have these days, there are TOO MANY choices, which causes decision paralysis (an inability to decide). The first time I heard this theory I thought this was just making excuses, but now that I have time to think about it, this might actually be the case.

Look at RRSP decisions that I need to make:

• Do I create an RRSP for me or a spousal RRSP for my wife? (right now I have both)
• Is it going to be self-directed or something else? (it is self-directed right now)
• Do I put in lump sum payments, or do I set up a per pay cheque withdrawal?
• My office offers RRSP’s, should I open one there?
• Should I opt out of my company’s pension plan so I can have a larger RRSP allowance? (don’t have to decide that any more, the company is dead ending the pension).
• Do I put more money in my RRSP or do I pay down my debt?

That’s a lot of concepts and ideas to think about, and a lot of areas where there is a need to study and read about what my options inside the options are. Another option is to do nothing and figure that my retirement is so far away, that I don’t need to worry about it right now (yes, you guessed it, that is a WRONG answer).

If you have a decision to make, and you can’t decide, make A decision, don’t just stop and do nothing. Do you want another opinion? Watch this interesting video, his point is quite compelling.