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Canajun Finances Home » Christmas Treats, RESPs, The Markets and Polkas and #MoneyTalk

Christmas Treats, RESPs, The Markets and Polkas and #MoneyTalk

With Advent upon us, it is not much time until Christmas will be here (and then gone). Did you realize there is actually a Financial Advent Calendar on this very site? You can consult it here.

With interest rates slowly rising, is it time to rethink short term savings? A good example is your RESPs for your kids. Should you be thinking about using GICs to ensure the money grows slowly but safely? Can you even use GICs in your child’s RESP? All good questions. Now you can get GICs with interest rates above 2%, maybe you should at least be putting your kids’ Grant money and put that in  there? Remember it is near year end, if  there is room still left you should  put a top up to get to your $2500 yearly maximum payment to the RESP.

My view of the Stock Market is it is currently having a shart. If you are unclear on what a shart means, please clock on the link. This shart might become something worse soon, given the trade stupidity going on, but for nice it is a mess caused by someone thinking they were only letting off gas.

Are planning on playing the Christmas Money Polka this season? It’s a simple game where you have bought many things on credit, and when the bill arrives in January, because you didn’t budget well you take the cash you got from family and pay off some of those bills. The money just goes round and round, and at the end of it you feel sick (just like a Polka), and broke.

Did you start your Emergency Fund with the idea that you were going to pay off Christmas with it? That’s not an emergency fund, that is a Christmas Fund. Maybe you should have both? Remember starting to plan for Next Christmas can start before this Christmas. You will have a better Christmas perspective now, than in July next summer.

Recent Articles

I really need to read letters more carefully, as I ended up blundering my way into a very large tax bill because of my inability to read letters well. I outline the predicament of my own creation in CRA and me: Assessment Excitement, the CRA was very helpful is the moral of this story.

Podcast of the Week

Finally you get to see what I actually look like, and you may realize why I have commented that I have a face for Radio. I do like the preview photo makes you wonder what I was thinking.

A Face Only a Mother Could Love
EQ Bank Savings Account
No Bank Fees here though

Advent is Here

Financial Advent is here, which is a time of waiting. No, it is not time to wait until your huge credit card bills arrive in January. It might be a time to wait before you dump your entire portfolio?


Tweet of the Week

https://twitter.com/squawkfox/status/1073608554093801473
Kerry gets the point across nicely here, and is her normal professional self on TV (as opposed to others, like me).

The 2018 Random Thoughts

My RSS feed is available.


Feel Free to Comment

  1. I’m curious when would you shift to a GIC from a relatively safe high(ish) yield dividend producing stock. The Canadian banks are all quite stable and all have yields higher than GICs?

    I understand the risk mitigating aspect of the move but with GICs return rates so low when does the move start making sense.

    1. Given the shart the markets are currently taking, GICs might prove better now? Yes GIC rates needs to be higher, however, you should read Michael James’ article on Dividend Stocks, as well, just to stay well rounded.

      If the markets recover, then stocks will prove a better investment, if they continue to shart we shall see whether GICs may make a comeback.

  2. “That’s not an emergency fund, that is a Christmas Fund.”
    When I was a young’un my mother used to put money in to a Christmas fund during the year so she would have money for gifts at Christmas. The bank (CIBC) paid a little extra interest for that fund as you could not use it until December.
    Gone are those days when the banks paid you interest so they could use your money – to lend to other people. Now you are charged for letting them use your money if you have been prudent with your spending

    RICARDO

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