Remembrance, Friday the 13th, Financial Literacy and #MoneyStories
A Friday the 13th after Remembrance Day? It can happen, it seems along with a great many financial stories from 2015.
A Friday the 13th after Remembrance Day? It can happen, it seems along with a great many financial stories from 2015.
Do you realize that November is Financial Literacy month here in Canada? This means more interesting articles this month from some of your favorite authors banging home some of the more important topics in Financial Literacy. A good month to start reading some new finance sites and learning more about things you might not know enough about.
It’s a bold move on Mr. Trudeau’s part to have chosen a Cabinet that is made up of half women. However, only time will tell how successful this decision will be. The new finance minister undoubtedly has a tough challenge ahead of him. He must choose between blaming the previous government for leaving an empty treasury or resorting to creative accounting. Sadly, this is a common practice among elected officials.
The Hydro One IPO is coming up very soon, with a great deal of hub-bub and foofera. Is it a good thing? Is it a good deal? Should you invest in it? I most likely will invest in it, as it will most likely be reflected in one of my core Index Funds, but I will not be buying the stock directly.
A busy week for me this week at home so not a great deal of new content for your Financial Literacy learning, but still some new content:
Halloween is tomorrow, and it seems to have become yet another excuse for folks to lose their minds decorating their houses. I think a significant growth industry would be convertible home decorations, which can change from Halloween to Christmas with a simple switch. The lights should be easy enough, but I am unsure how you might change a 10-foot-tall inflated ghost into a 10-foot inflated Rudolph? Did you realize in 2011, 13.3 million Canadian homes gave out Candy? That is a lot of homes (and even more Candy).
Some very spooky food prices this week as well, OK, last week, but I note that no one seemed to really care that much about it. The election is, however, a hot topic with many of our regular contributors in terms of how the change in government will affect their lives (and yours as well).
Also, remember that on Sunday morning (really early) the clocks go back an hour, which means that if you don’t do anything, you will be early to work on Monday morning. The only way I remember is Spring Forward, Fall Back. The one nice thing about most technology is that they change their clocks themselves (except for older technology which changes on the wrong days).
For me, it is a lovely weekend ahead as well as the Rugby World Cup Final on Saturday, with New Zealand playing Australia. I think this time, I will cheer for the All-Blacks.
It’s another fun Halloween ahead, or as we call it at my house, my youngest daughter’s birthday. Halloween is an OK time to have your birthday. You don’t end up getting short-changed on presents as much (like those unfortunate folks born on Christmas Day or around then).
What do you mean there can be negative interest rates? In Sweden this may well be the case!
Well, that was a very interesting election result that I suspected might happen. However, it does make for a very interesting future (note I am not saying good or evil, just interesting). Trudeau is PM, and it was back to the Future Day on Wednesday? Welcome to the ’80s? Guess I need to find my Nash the Slash T-shirts?
For the direct money view, we go to the Globe, which explains 9 Things that the Liberal Victory will change in your financial life. I am going to miss that income splitting with my spouse, maybe they can bring it back later, or I may have to retire to do it with my pension. Everything else is kind of meh to me, but the $2000 back on my taxes last year was mighty sweet. You realize these new MP’s will be paid $167,400 per year, right?
One of the big topics is how exactly is Mr. Trudeau going to change the TFSA limit back to what it was? A general amnesty for a year? Really not sure, but it should be interesting to see how he treads gently around the topic.
What happened to the NDP? The Jack Layton Party returned to being the NDP again, and are back to their normal historic seat counts, which is too bad in some ways, and good in other ways (remembering Bob Rae in Ontario for one thing). Interesting that the popular vote levels are not that different, but all it takes is a few areas to change their previous voting habits (i.e. Quebec) and voila, a change of government.
In Ottawa, there was much rejoicing in the demise of the Harper Government (in the Public Service area, remember I am a Civil Servant) and here is one of the reasons that Ottawa was part of the Red Tide, an open letter from Mr. Trudeau to Public Servants. I may do an article on how Mr. Clement’s plan to revise the sick leave system in the Public Service might have been a good idea. However, it had some flaws.
It was pointed out to me that Mr. Harper’s hair was never really mentioned in the election (even though Mr. Trudeau’s had its own catchphrase “Nice Hair Though”), but am I the only one who said it looks like LEGO hair?
In celebration of the Liberal victory, the Bank of Canada did not change their key overnight rate, and money continues to be as loose as can be (all right, it had nothing to do with the election). You should really read the Monetary Policy Report for 2015 as well. The bank’s exact statement was:
The Bank judges that the risks around the inflation profile are roughly balanced. Meanwhile, as financial vulnerabilities in the household sector continue to edge higher, risks to financial stability are evolving as expected. Taking all of these developments into consideration, the Bank judges that the current stance of monetary policy remains appropriate. Therefore, the target for the overnight rate remains at 1/2 per cent.
I actually felt very re-energized by my attendance at CPFC15 (and am thinking I will be back next year), however, that still doesn’t expand my schedule, but I will be trying to write more soon. I did enjoy chatting with my peers and some very experienced writers and enjoyed the fellowship.
Dave Ramsay does have a way of summing it up in one line
Election day 2015 was quite exciting, but there was still a large number of great financial articles about other things too.