Some may view the Federal Budget on Thursday as a Baseball Bat to the head, but it really does seem to me that the Harper Government pulled their punch a little, given they didn’t really slash the Federal Civil Service the way it was being predicted. As I mentioned on Friday, I actually am in one of the target groups for age, so I can actually get Old Age Security when I am 66 and 8 months old, but anyone born in 1961 after June 1st is up to 67 years before they can receive that benefit.

There are other things that are changing that affect me directly:

• Pension contribution increases for Public Servants, which makes sense to me, if it ensures the system manages to stay afloat.
• Changes to the RDSP system, which I will elaborate on next week (since that is very important to me).
• Travelers exemptions have increased a bit more, so more nice things can come back even if I only stay in the U.S. for 24 hours.
• Elimination of our beloved penny, no more penny for your thoughts, penny candy or penny whistles, it’s sad, but it really does have to go too.
• Many other interesting things that you should go and read about.

On my twitter feed I continued to find some old and gold posts from the past as well as a lot of interesting retweets in both official languages:

• Saturday I pointed out the problems of waiting too long for things to happen with The Good Wine: A Personal Finance Parable.
• Is there ever such a thing as Free Banking? For me there have been times (and for others that I know as well).
• Should Parents Pay for University, I have asked that question a bunch of times, and I know what I am doing, but what do you folks think?
• Is anything as Dumb as Snake Mittens ? It’s hard to think there is, but I am sure there is.
• My Dad passed away about a year ago, and I still miss talking with him, but especially about money, thus Fathers and Money, the post is important to me.
• Can Boobs be a Metaphor for Earthquakes, yes, I went off on a tangent on that one.

I did find a fun version of the budget on video, done by iPolitics, which is a Pop-up Video version (with very Civil Service leanings, I will freely admit):