Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Canadian Governments as a whole continue to run a surplus for the fiscal year ending March 31,2007, announced Stats Canada today. These groups of government built up a surplus of over $29 Billion which is quite impressive, until you realize that heavy weight on your back is YOU paying that money. The problem we currently have is our free spending parents in the 70’s and 80’s racked up huge deficits in government which then led to HUGE debts, which now have to be paid back (yes I am being facetious here, a little).

Spending increased 4.9% in 2007, a somewhat faster pace than the increase in revenues of 4.7%, reversing the trend of the past few years. During the last five years, expenditures have increased by 25%, slightly lower than the growth rate of 29% in revenues.

The three main components of revenues are income taxes, consumption taxes and contributions to social insurance plans. Combined, they account for over 70% of total revenues.

That answers our questions about where all this money came from. I realize in a Social-Democratic nation like Canada there is an importance in the government and their programs, and a lot of this spending goes into useful things like health care and such, but given the expenditures include payment back of debts owed:

Debt charges represented 7.6 cents out of every dollar of government revenues in 2007, down from 7.9 cents in 2006. This continues the declining trend of the last 10 years.

(this declining is a good thing (in that they are actually paying DOWN the debt, where other nations are not doing this, currently)), but where is this surplus going? Straight onto owed debt or into NEW spending? I hope onto the debt mostly and then onto existing programs like health care.

In other news, if you remember my Thomas The Tank Engine and Financial Planning article, you might also be interested that these same toys have been recalled due to lead being in the paint of some of the engines. My son’s toy collection is now a little smaller, as we have taken away the affected objects. Read more about the Thomas the Tank Engine Toy Recall here.

Related Articles:

• Canadian Net National Debt
• Zen, Thomas and the Art of Financial Planning
  

OK so the increase is only 0.1% from last month by our friends at Stats Canada, and 2.0% year over year and remember up is better than down! The Energy industry continues to help the Canadian economy hum along nicely, which lines up with our position in this world (natural resource provider to the world). Is this a good thing? Maybe, it’s better to be a “have” in this situation, however, what will happen when the “have not” countries can’t pay for it? Just an opinion and concept I am looking into.On my tax front, I received my tax rebates from the CCRA, which is great and no complaints from them about my return, and my RRSP limit continues to remain quite large (I keep thinking that I am driving it down, thanks to a large Pension Adjustment, but that is not the case). Nice to have that found money, but I am using it to pay down debt right now!

Good response to my help me make my blog better posting, which is great. As you can see there are some small changes already made on the site, and more is coming. Remember feedback in comments on this kind of stuff is ok by me, I may not take the advice, but I always appreciate feedback.

Zen and the Art of Financial Planning is mentioned by No Credit Needed in the Carnival of Personal Finance #94, as well!

If this was actually a plan, it’s quite complicated, but at the end of it all, it really doesn’t seem to go anywhere, does it? Yes, a very cheezy attempt at Zen and Canadian Financial Planning but still an interesting metaphor. This track is one of the many set ups that my daughters create for my son. They spend a great deal of time creating the intricate loops and sidings, attempting to use as much track as possible, and to make it fit on the two tables we have to set up the trains.

And then my son comes along, plays with it for a while, gets bored and tears the whole thing apart, throwing track everywhere. That is what 2 year old boys do.

AHA! Now that is an excellent metaphor for canadian financial planning! You spend hours, days and months putting together your plans, adding your hopes and dreams, and then LIFE appears and acts like a 2 year old, and plays with it for a while, and then tears it all apart, forcing you to redo it, after you have got over your frustrations.

Zen Thomas the Tank Engine and the Art of Financial Planning you heard it here first.

Also on the horizon, a US equity firm is looking at taking over Bell Canada Enterprises (aka BCE) one of my larger holdings. I hold it mostly for it’s dividend capabilities, so I am not too happy to hear it might go private, unless they plan on making an exorbitant offer for my shares.