Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Deficit? Booo!

Yes, Jim Flaherty announced the likelihood of a budget deficit in 2009 for the first time (a planned one at least) in a while.

“There tend to be delays in infrastructure projects and, given the seriousness of the economic situation, it’s important that shovels get in the ground, that repairs on buildings start as quickly as possible,” Flaherty told CBC News.

He also warned of much higher unemployment as well. The year 2009 is shaping up to be a very “interesting” year economically.

The Day the TSX Died

Unbelievable but, the TSX did not open yesterday due to a network glitch? Amazing. An allegedly world class stock exchange is crippled by a network problem, in the middle of the Financial Apocalypse?

“Because the data feeds provide information to investors to guide their trading decisions, trading was halted to ensure market integrity,” the TSX said in a statement.

Integrity may have been saved, reputation on the other hand, who knows?

Are Banks a Bargain?

For those who remember, I still hold banks in my portfolio, mostly because I view them as a good Dividend providing investment.

BMO

Bank of Montreal had a new stock offering and thus added more shares and lowered their stock value thanks to this, which doesn’t make me very happy, but on the converse side of things, thanks to this my DRiP(Dividend ReInvestment Plan) will be buying more this quarter for this stock.

TD

Toronto Dominion continues to get hammered as part of the Bank Backlash with all the shenanigans that have gone on in the U.S. (and around the world).

Again, this means my dividend reinvestment program will be buying more shares, so that is good.

I am holding these stocks as a long term investment vehicle, which creates dividend income as well, and they continue to be good for that.

Advent Financial Calendar Box Day 19

Opening this box, you find a card, a Library Card. The Library is our friend, because we can do our Personal Finance research without having to buy books to do it. In Ottawa you can get books on CD, DVDs and a lot of on line information as well. Research is a cornerstone of your Personal Finance Journey, the more you read, the more you learn and the more you can apply to your financial planning.

If you are planning for next year (as you should in Advent), visit your Library and use your Library card.

Jim Flaherty came through with an interesting and I would say very optimistic Economic Update (mini-budget, whatever), yesterday that took aim at something that all voters love to see under financial siege, Government Agencies and MP’s. 

No Debt Financing?

With some very creative and optimistic accounting the Finance Minister is promising to try to have either balanced budgets or very small surpluses up to 2013, which is very contrary to what most economists are saying is possible in the current economic instability (i.e. Financial Apocalypse). 

Flaherty did couch his optimism with the following cold statement:

“Any additional actions to support the economy will have an impact on the bottom-line numbers in our next budget. These actions, or a further deterioration in global economic conditions, could result in a deficit.”

So he isn’t saying there isn’t going to be deficits, just that there will be measures taken to avoid a deficit if possible.

Take that Ottawa Fat Cats

Not Really an Ottawa Fat Cat

No that is not a real Ottawa fat cat, it’s my cat from when I lived in Kitchener, but he is a good Metaphor for the “Fat Cats” in Ottawa.

Some of the measures against the “Ottawa Fat Cats” taken will be:

• Elimination of the $1.75 per vote allowance to support political parties that receive more than 2 per cent of the vote, staring April 2009. I really like this one, because all of the politicians are howling about it, so it must be a good thing. 
• Wage controls holding increases to public servants, including MPs and senators, to 2.3 per cent for last year and 1.5 per cent for each of the next three years. I really like this one, because the MP’s are mad about this as well, and the public service doesn’t like it either.
• Slash cost overruns on government travel, hospitality, conferences, exchanges and political services, this sounds like something they should have been doing already? What exactly were they doing before this, wait, I don’t want to know the answer to that one, so please don’t answer.
• Provincial equalization payments are gauged to the average GDP growth over a three-year period. Can’t wait to hear Dalton McGuinty tirade about this one.
• No mention of any extra taxes, but since this is not a budget, then I guess nothing has to be mentioned about that (yet).

Some pro-active steps being taken are:

• Giving $350 million in equity into the Export Development Canada and another $350 million in equity into the Business Development Bank of Canada. Interesting, guess I should send my resume in there since they might be hiring soon.
• A scary one for soon to be pensioners is allowing federally regulated pension plans to spend 10 years instead of five to make solvency payments if necessary. This is a slippery slope I think and it could end up like some of the private pensions that are woefully underfunded these days.
• Only allowing seniors to withdraw $7,500 instead of $10,000 from their Registered Retirement Income Funds (RRIFs), which is supposed to slow the cashing in of stocks and mutual funds I guess. 

Good Graphic to Show Canada is Doing Better than Most:

Canada Doing Not Bad with Debt

Happy Thanksgiving

To my American readers I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and wish you all the joy and happiness of this holiday season. It’s odd to read that the Thanksgiving weekend is actually a bigger traveling weekend than the Christmas weekend in the U.S., in Canada Thanksgiving is big, but not that big. Black Friday looms on the consumer horizon, with stores in Canada getting into the act!

BCE Not a Well Company

I should have known better but BCE announced atrocious numbers on Tuesday and the stock went into the tank on Wednesday, which is not a big surprise. The company is in limbo, with it’s “sale” still not confirmed yet they are laying off management like it’s the new national pastime (come to think of it, it just might be for 2008).

I have held the stock for some years as a Dividend asset, but now it doesn’t even seem to pay those any more, thanks to this misguided sale (at least last quarter) and now the company itself seems to be trying to follow in the footsteps of Nortel? (I really hope not, but then again, BCE has managed to make some very odd decisions in the past two years as well, so who knows).

TSX a Winner Otherwise

Other than BCE’s plummet, the TSX seems to be at leveling off, and it is trending neutral to positive, which is a good thing to see as well. A leveling off is a good thing, a positive trend is even better but a leveling off may mean most of the panic selling is over, but we shall see.

RSS Feed Issues

For my readers who read over my RSS feed, there have been issues the past few days, and I am not sure what exactly is causing it, but I ask for your patience and hopefully I can get to the root of this issue.