Woke Up This Morning, Decided to Lose Money
Given all the brow beatings, and ranting I have done in the past while, you might think I have a very low view of my fellow humans, but I actually am optimistic about a great many things (I wouldn’t write about money and finances if I thought it was hopeless).
The best way I can describe my view of the world is in the following Lemma (call it Big C8j’s Lemma of People):
No one wakes up wanting to screw up, but sometimes it just happens.
Now, there is a counter lemma as well
If you do wake up aiming to screw up that day, please call me, and I’ll stay in bed.
Individuals are rarely dangerous by themselves, however, when you put them into a group, that is where dangerous ideas find commonality, or worse kindred spirits (and nothing is worse for one of my bad ideas, than finding someone who agrees with my bad idea) and thus we have Bad Ideas by Good People.
Bad ideas and screw ups can be annoying and even dangerous, but in Finances it is going to cost  you money! When is the biggest potential for screwing up, at RRSP time, because you have rushed people, who don’t have time to research and an entire Financial Mechanism to suck that money in.
Screwing up at RRSP Time
Especially at RRSP season there is the risk of a Compendium of Catastrophic investment choices. If I rush to my local bank branch, or to an investment firm, with the idea, “I am going to put money into my RRSP”, but I don’t have a plan on how I want to invest this money, what type of investment vehicle I want to use, and how much risk I want to take, I have created a perfect storm for a Financial Screw up of enormous proportions (i.e. I may as well throw the money out the window of my car on the way there).
I could stagger in the door thinking if I put $2000 into your RRSP and get money back from my taxes and I’ll be saving for my retirement, but walk out having bought $2000 worth of an Asian Commodities Based High Margin High Management Fully Leveraged Lavender Smelling Mutual Fund. What the heck is that? (yes there is no such thing (I HOPE))
I wanted to plan for my retirement and instead got convinced to buy something that I did’t understand, nor did I Â really want. Voila, I have screwed up!
Nobody wants to screw up, but if we are not prepared, the potential is really there. If you don’t understand where you are putting your money, or don’t feel comfortable with the decision, keep your darn money, you can put money in your RRSP any time, don’t rush, make the right decision.
