Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for the ‘Rant’ Category

RRSP Spectacular!

The deadline is looming and Canadians still ponder about whether they should put more money into their RRSPs?

When is the Deadline? According the to TD Waterhouse web site the deadline is Midnight on March 1st (so you get an extra banking day) for contributions to count on last year’s income tax. So you still have plenty of time to ponder this.

A useful tool for this exercise is Quicktax’s RRSP scenario tester (it’s too bad no one gave away copies of that software, too late from me, but other bloggers still are giving out copies). I will announce the winners on Thursday morning (as you can tell I write the day before usually).

If you really want to “last minute” it, you can do it on line, but I won’t be doing anything like that, since my income was lower last year, I am in a lower tax bracket (for the first time in 20 years), so I will save any RRSP room for next year’s taxes (and instead take advantage of my TFSA to put any extra money in).

Haven’t opened an RRSP yet? Maybe it’s time to think about doing that, but this might not be the best time to do it, given the crush of folks trying to make last minute payments (but then again, I went to my bank yesterday and it didn’t look too crazy (yet)). I would suggest a self-directed account is the best place to put things, but remember that those accounts typically have a hefty yearly charge if you don’t carry a minimum amount in them (I forget that sometimes, given my accounts are above those levels).

What should you invest in? That’s not my call, I can only say that if you aren’t sure if you have a self-directed RRSP you can “park” money in there (simply deposit it) and then figure out what to invest in later. Hasty decisions now could mean unwanted consequences later, so keep that in mind.

Where is my T4?

Your employer should have sent you your T-4 by now as well. They have until March 1st to get it to you, so don’t forget that you really need that to correctly fill in your tax forms. I received 1 of the 2 I should receive, however my former employer’s info is still not received. This will hopefully show up this weekend and then I can submit my returns and be done with this.

T2202A Receipts

I checked with my daughter about the receipts I should receive from her University for tuition payment and I was not happy to see that they leave this all up to the student to collect. It used to be they mailed those to your home address, however now, the burden is on my child to go to the correct web site, and print out a copy of the receipts and send them to me, so I can get my taxes done.

This does save the university a great deal of time and money not having to mail these out, but getting my daughter to collect this data for me, is going to be no easy feat for me.

I guess I got on a bit of a rant on the concept of Chutzpah this week, so I will leave you with one more post on some of the things in my life that I view as chutzpah that I run into in the financial world of today:

• Bank Fees: An institution that used to simply make money by loaning your money to other folks and doing business in the greay area between loan rates and savings rates, now charges over $10 a month for the priviledge to put your money in their bank. You have heard my rants about Free Banking before, but the banking racquet has a corner on chutzpah, that is for sure.
• Credit Cards: after watching the PBS Front line special The Card Game, the entire Credit Card business is a shrine to Chutzpah. The Canadian Capitalist has a link to the special, well worth watching, but unmitigated temerity and complete contempt for your customers is so prevelant in the Credit Card world, it should be renamed the Screw You We Get Your Money Card business. The fact it still exists and is not very regulated, shows that Chutzpah works.
• Gas Prices in Canada: How gas prices are set in Canada is claimed to be by free market pressures, I disagree. To tell a consumer that gas that has been refined and delivered and sitting in holding tanks at your local gas station has gone up in price, due to International Shortages, is Chutzpah.
• Financial Bail Outs in the U.S.: that was gall, and chutzpah combined. TO have created the entire credit crisis via your own foolish (if not illegal) practices, and then going hat in hand to the government asking for Trillions of dollars to bail you out is chutzpah. You lose consumers money, through flawed methodologies, and then ask for more money from that consumer (through their taxes) to not lose more money? Staggering.

Anybody else wishing to chime in with their own private financial chutzpah examples, please feel free to comment!

Chutzpah?

For those of you who still don’t get the concept of chutzpah the best explanation I can find is from Leo Rostein (author of the Joys of Yiddish ), who stated:

“…that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.”

Now that is chutzpah!

After yesterday’s tale of Chutzpah I figured I’d show that I can show just as much temerity if I am pushed.

Over Christmas we purchased a new washer and dryer (a purchase we had been putting off but decided it needed to be done, as our washer treats our clothing the same as if you beat the clothes on a rock by the river). We saw that Home Depot was having a “Boxing Day” sale, and we actually walked down to Home Depot to purchase a washer and dryer. My wife had done her normal extensive investigation of the topic, so she knew what she wanted, so I let her have at it with the sales lady.

I wandered off and found that Home Depot did sell “liners” for my new green bin, and I looked at various other building supplies. I returned to find that my wife had settled on a model and price, which seemed reasonable and we then needed to decide when to have the new washer and dryer delivered.

Our previous configuration had a Natural Gas based clothes dryer, so to remove it and replace it with an electric dryer would mean a gas fitter would need to come and “cap” the supply line, so we pushed the delivery into mid-January which we were told was not a problem. We also “qualified” for the “don’t pay until next year (and then we gouge you with ASTRONOMICAL interest rates)” payment plan, so we signed up for all of this and left the store treading carefully (Ottawa had an Ice Storm on Boxing Day).

Fast forward to 3 days before the new washer/dryer was due to be delivered. By this time Home Depot had already put the purchase on my credit card (interesting, I never like paying for something I haven’t received yet), and the gas fitter had just come and capped our Natural gas line, leaving us with no clothes dryer, but for only 3 days (or so we thought).

That very afternoon my wife got a phone call from the manufacturer of the Washer/Dryer (LG) that our delivery was going to be delayed by over a month because there were no more Washer/Dryer models in North America of the type we purchased. Now that in itself is a type of chutzpah but at least they called, leaving my wife at a level of aggravation which if it was on a scale of 1 to 10 would be around HOLY CRAP! level.

I got on the phone to the manager of Home Depot to voice our displeasure about the fact that:

• We no longer had any ability to dry our clothes for more than a month (at least).
• When we “purchased” the washer/dryer it was not actually purchased, it was in fact simply us saying we’d like them and if they were in stock, we might get one when we wanted. No one went into the “warehouse” and marked a set “Property of Mr. & Mrs. C8j, deliver in January”, we simply put in an order which might be filled.
• The purchase had appeared on my credit card yet I was not going to have it for more than 2 months after I allegedly “purchased” the product.
• The manufacturer was the one who told us about this, and not Home Depot
• He had upset my wife and I got to enjoy her wrath, when in fact she was mad at him and his store

After assurances that the situation would be remedied, the Manager never called me back, but did call Mrs. C8j and offered her a “loaner” clothes dryer until our actual washer/dryer pair arrived, for free, so that we could continue to have clean clothes and such. Mrs. C8j was happier with that solution (although still secretly seething with hatred for Home Depot) and we now have this dryer in place and we are able to have clean clothes until our new washer and dryer appears.

Was this Chutzpah on my part to get a loaner dryer? Not really, but I do think it is truly chutzpah on the stores part not to ensure that they had stock enough to make their deliveries for the next month.

My guess would be someone looked in the inventory for the warehouse, saw there was a set left and sold them before they could be delivered to us, so someone else got a “great deal” and “fantastic service”, while I ended up with a loaner dryer and a wife with the disposition of a Wet Wolverine.

Where are your savings?

I guess a better question is “Do you have any savings?“, before asking “Where are you putting your savings?“, but which is the better question to answer?

Do you put most of your savings in RRSPs or do you have it easily at hand in a trading account? Are you really traditional and have your money in a nice save “Savings Account” (which pay effectively no interest)?

Is Should you have savings, an even more interesting question? If you are carrying heavy consumer debt (i.e. pay day loans, credit card loans and the like), should you have money in savings, or should you be paying off that debt? Is it smart to have a “rainy day” fund if you are already in a financial hurricane of debt?

If you find money (i.e. windfall profits, inheritance, or won a beauty pageant) is it better to save it, or should you use it to pay down your debt? Is this really found money, or should you really just view it as an extension of your normal income and treat it that way? Can you show me where you found this money, so I can maybe find some too?

What if you are really lucky and have no debt to deal with, is that the time to start worrying about saving money, or should you have started sooner? Should you put your savings in RRSPs or is it smarter to put the money in a traditional trading account and build up wealth that way?

Does anybody still buy CSBs? Why? Are bonds as safe as you think they are?

Why did I write an entire post of questions today? Am I hoping you might comment on these questions? Isn’t it interesting, that someone who always asks questions is called an expert, yet they never seem to have answers?

Did you notice I never really answer any questions?

As eyes turn towards the juggernaut coming at us called the Christmas spending orgy (I am thinking of trademarking that phrase), let me reflect on the idea of using Charity as a present.

Let me first point out that I feel that I do a fair amount of charitable work, and I do give to charities as well, so as a rule and as a concept I completely support charities and feel their good works are a wonderful thing. I strongly suggest to you, good reader, that you give at this time of the year (and all year round). Remember that giving is not just a monetary thing, many charities would love your skills and time as well, so please remember that as part of your charitable works.

What a Crock of Beans!

Now, for those of you who plan on sending me a card that says something like:

“We thought of you this holiday season and have made a donation to the Human Fund in your name”

let me be very succinct: BULLSHIT (note the Seinfeldian reference).

If you wish to give to Charity, wonderful, I applaud your giving, however, do not believe that your “giving” in any way, shape or form makes me feel more festive because of it. You giving to Charity is not a gift to me. If you don’t want to give me anything this year, that is cool, and you don’t even need a card, just drop me an e-mail something like:

“Dear Scrooge, we didn’t feel like sending you jack this year, enjoy the Holidays you unlikeable so and so”

No, I have not completely gone off my nut, but I am really kind of tired of Pious folks showing me how Good they are by “giving for me”, I give as much as I can, and that is as good as it can be.

If you want to give, please do, but don’t masquerade that it has anything to do with me, thanks. Oh and if you send out a card like that and DO NOT give, Karma and or the wrath of whichever God you worship will get you eventually (isn’t that a Happy Holiday thought as well).

Happy Thanksgiving my American Brother and Cousins

Enjoy your deep friend TurDuckEns and gorge yourself on this Happy Festival day.