Some schools have started this week, and most will be open on Tuesday after Labour Day. Plenty of back-to-school sales going on and plenty of pressure to buy your kids all the things they “need” to go to school. The problem is that some stores’ definition of “need” is a little out of wack. Do Students need a home computer, laptop, tablet and also iPhone? That seems to be implied by many of the tech stores. Isn’t a Hilroy Exercise book, a pencil and a pen enough? It seems that lifestyle creep has worked its way into the back-to-school.

My yearly pilgrimage to the bank to extract money from my RESP continues to create more and more content for this site, so I must send a Thank You note to TD for all the great stories that have come from their product. As I mentioned in my article this week I did manage to not run into the TD E-series Beartrap, where I cannot do anything in my local branch with the E-series funds, so I must first transfer the funds into a TD Money Market account so that then my local branch can release the funds in that savings vehicle.

I thought my issues with TD and RESPs were bad. However, Mrs. C8j pointed me to an article in the Ottawa Citizen about a woman (who she knows) and her issues with Scotiabank and their RESP (another classic example of “Banks Behaving Badly“). It seems they would not release the funds in the account until Ms. Adeney answered some Marketing questions about her net value and income. Read that previous sentence again, they would not give her HER money, until she answered the questions? What the flip? I am glad to hear that Scotiabank admitted their mistake, but at least TD never did that to me.

My Writings for Week Ending September 4th

The summer is slowly coming to a close and an entertaining fall lies ahead (with plenty of election shenanigans and tom-foolery) :

• I started the week with yet another fun list of great financial tweets, with More Great Personal Finance Tweets for the Week,
• I went “off script” a little with a peek at the new economy with In App Purchases and the New Economy, which does have a very naughty video included with it as well.
• Yes, I do rant about my exploits at my local bank, but this one did miff me more than previous visits with, No I can’t Do Anything about That, which just goes to show that “Brick and Mortar” storefronts (ort banks for that matter) are less and less useful to most folks.

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Tweet of the week

Ellen Roseman (if you aren’t following her on Twitter and on Facebook, you are missing some good stuff) gives another example of “Banks Behaving Badly“. I note I am only 8 new twitter followers until I reach 2500 followers (hint, hint).

I hear from Star readers about banks not delivering great service unless they're trying to sell you something. https://t.co/1WsjekWP0F

— Ellen Roseman (@ellenroseman) September 2, 2015

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Read More »Back to School, RESPs, Banks Behaving Badly and #MoneyStories

The last 10 days or so have been quite volatile on the markets with wild drops, sudden spurts up and indecision and confusion on whether this is a “correction,” a “collapse,” or a “great time to buy.” To quote a well-known media maven I’m an Indexer I don’t Care What the Index Did Today, although I did buy in the middle of all of this, because I had money to put in my son’s RDSP (but that is very long-term savings, so again, who cares). There is agreement that China’s economic cogitations seem to have been a catalyst for all this market tom-foolery, but we will only know for sure in a few months when we look back on things.

Is this a good time to buy into the market? Will oil stocks rebound? How will a minority government affect our economy? To quote Kent Brockman, ” Professor, without knowing precisely what the danger is, would you say it’s time for our viewers to crack each other’s heads open and feast on the goo inside”.  Do you have any Gorgonzola (see video at bottom for explanation)? I can answer this and many other questions: “I have no bloody idea!”.

It seems like my Twitter feed might make it to 2500 actual followers (I haven’t paid for any followers, nor have I used skullduggery to inflate those numbers either).

Back to school is here again, with schools opening next week, and in some corners schools have already opened. I can tell it is back to school time, as there is Haloween candy in the stores as well.

My Writings for Week Ending August 28th

The summer is slowly coming to a close and an entertaining fall lies ahead (with plenty of election shenanigans and tom-foolery) :

• More inflation numbers seem to be ignored on the campaign front, with Gas Dampening the CPI for July. Oil at $40 a barrel is a doubled-edged sword that is cutting the Canadian economy to pieces.
• I went back to my archives for a follow-up on my problems with loyalty cards getting hacked with Auto Loading Your Loyalty Card is a Bad Idea, and it really is a very bad idea.
• A real oldie but goody for me is to remember that In Banking All is Negotiable, and I will be going in to spread happiness at my local TD branch following my own advice.

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Tweet of the week

I did a Tweets of the week already

Personal Finance Tweets of the Week (End of Summer) ? http://t.co/Dr6J2BTHAP

— Big Cajun Man (aw) (@bigcajunman) August 23, 2015

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Read More »Boom Goes the Markets, Market Cheese, and #BestMoneyStories

Elections, Heat, Cheap Oil, and #RandomThoughts , and election that Mr. Harper maybe should not have called?

The Conservative party has made a significant change to the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) by making it a taxable benefit. This has resulted in the reinstatement of the Family Allowance cheque, which was previously issued and then withdrawn if the recipient earned enough money. It’s worth noting that while the new UCCB is currently being paid out, many people are not aware that it is a taxable income source and may not realize this until after the election. However, the Liberals, NDP, and I will be sure to bring this to people’s attention long before the election.

Now there is talk of a real deficit this year (not a big one, but no balanced budget to go into the election with either). What with all the talk of recession (check out the CBC’s panel at the end of this and their views on this) and it looks like the economy may be a liability for the Tories, instead of a rallying point for voters.

Thanks to the drop in Interest rate drops last week, the Canadian Dollar is at an 11 year low, and doesn’t really show any sign of dropping either (so if you were planning a fun trip to the USA, it is going to cost you some more). For our American friends, come on up, everything is now much cheaper than it was last year.

Bell is now being forced to share their high-speed internet home connections? I applaud the CRTC for helping make sure there is competition for home high-speed internet access.

My Writings for Week Ending July 24th

Glad to see I am living in “sin city” in terms of Ashley Madison subscriptions :

• RDSP Questions and Answers is me trying to help folks trying to set things up (and reusing some research I did for an ill-fated interview simultaneously).
• I have said it before, but I will repeat it, The CRA Does Not Like Changes, and they will call you on them every time (in terms of asking for receipts).
• I am sure most folks know that the new UCCB (or the old Family Allowance) is a Taxable Income, but I figured I’d point it out to ensure my Captain Obvious points for the week.

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I am still on this fine list from LSM Insurance:

The 50 Top Personal Finance Websites in Canada, ranked by the numbers: http://t.co/1jIuoDPc0n pic.twitter.com/dRHp43rE0h

— Lorne Marr (@LSMInsurance) July 21, 2015

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Read More »Family Allowance, Diving Dollar, Access Sharing and #BestMoneyStories

Thanks to the odd placement of July 1st this year, I am enjoying two 2-day work weeks (unfortunately with a 1-day weekend in between). I did my best to stuff as much as possible into my 1 day weekend.

It is the 4th of July on Saturday, and our American relations will show how a Real Party is done. More than one comedian has quipped that the 4th should be renamed Blow Something Up Day, but I am OK with seeing a country truly revel in its own freedoms. Oh, and for those who have said, “I am moving to Canada now that same-sex marriage is legal”, you might want to reconsider things a little. 🠽

Greece, ’nuff said. By the way, who loaned them the money, Money Mart?

According to our friends over at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation Bill C-518 died “on the vine”, in the Senate. Bill C-518 was the bill passed in the house of commons that was, “… (the law to revoke taxpayer-funded pensions from criminal politicians)…”, I guess I am curious to ask, “And you thought the Senate would pass it?”. The CTF is always fun to read (I agree with the National Post on that one).

My Writings for Week Ending July 3rd

Now that Canada Day is done, what next? August long weekend? Simcoe Days? Labor Day? Christmas? Yikes! :

• Did you realize that inflation is low? Stats Canada told us last week Inflation at 0.9% for May, but is it? As usual, all is not as it might appear to be.
• Canada has its own (smaller scale) blow things up day, and to help celebrate it, I even included a video of Bill Shatner singing Oh Canada, so Happy Canada Day Celebrate out Nation
• On this site’s sister publication, there was another weekly roundup with Medical Concerns and Best of Technology and Security This Week. I am also fiddling around with a Raspberry Pi 2 at home (as if I didn’t have enough to do).
• And now, deep thoughts with Preet Banerjee:

Oh, the airport: in men's room a guy had his elbows on ledge above urinal so he could text while… urinating on his feet.

— Preet Banerjee (@preetbanerjee) June 27, 2015

Read More »2 Day Work Weeks, 4th of July, Greece, and #BestMoneyStories