Best of

United does seem to be the friendly skies any more, and also a collection of great Easter weekend financial reads for your pleasure.

I understand you’re aware of the profit-driven approach taken by banks, and the recent CBC coverage on this topic. It’s important to recognize that banks are not your friend, but rather they are businesses focused on generating profits for their shareholders. As a customer, you are simply an income stream that banks can exploit to meet their financial goals. We need to remember that our relationship with banks is purely a business one, and it’s up to us to be vigilant and protect our interests. The onus is on us to take charge of our finances and not rely on our banks to have our best interests at heart. Oh those naughty banks.

Remember those thoughts the next time you think your bank is helping you out, by allowing you to have a new service. The only reason they let you have it, was to make them money.

March Madness has begun, I am cheering for Deep State to take the whole thing. Curious stat I found that this time of year is when the most vasectomies occur (and around time for the Masters), so the patient can “recover” at home and watch the games in peace. Seems a little extreme just to have the family leave you alone, but, to each his own. One day I will write about my two vasectomies. Might this be March Vasness ?

Have I mentioned how much I dislike finding snakes in my car? As Bugs Bunny said, “Good Bye Florida!”.

It snowed, in Ottawa, too much. That is all.

My Writings for Week Ending March 17^th

I took a week off, given it is March Break. Stay tuned we will be celebrating my 12th year of being the “Cranky old man of Personal Finance”, next week!

A Money Thought

Stan Buell has the correct view on the whole, “The Banks are out to get us” statement.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

RRSP season is slowly coming to a close, if we are to believe the advertising campaigns from the banks and mutual funds. RRSP season is actually all year round, however March 1, 2017 is the deadline for contributing to an RRSP for the 2016 tax year.

It is bad planning (in my opinion) to buy RRSPs at this stage of the game, but if you find money (and don’t have debt to pay off), it is an OK place to put found money. I have over the years written plenty of articles on RRSPs, and here are a few for you to read:

• The Spousal RRSP the Forgotten Savings Tool, is a useful tool.
• Are you getting tired of listening to all the financial jargon?RRSP Bingo is for those lucky folks who might be visiting their investment folks.
• RRSP Rebalance Season, if you are going to be looking at your retirement investments, maybe it is time to rebalance them too?
• Which do you do? RRSP then TFSA ?  Of course I am assuming you have paid off your debt.
• In a more snarky line, TFSA Retirement Welfare Bums, is a discussion about all those rich folks who can put money in their TFSA for their retirement.

If this is RRSP season, remember that it is tax season as well. For folks in Ottawa who work for the Federal Government, there are tax problems. Over 50,000 have had issues with their T4 slips from the new Phoenix pay system. Ironically the CRA (who are also part of the Phoenix Pay system) say that there will be no dispensations for them. The CRA was kind enough to put up an FAQ Page for Tax Questions.

The ultimate concept in the #Fakenews? The status bar and how long it says it will take to install your software (several minutes, my arse!)

My Writings for Week Ending February 24th

Given we are in the RRSP Season, I had my own poke at the topic, which I borrowed from a discussion I had with Preet B. and Michael James about how so many folks seem to forget that an RRSP is a Tax Deferral Savings Plan. How many times have you heard someone tell you how much money they have in their RRSP and never mention the taxes they might have to pay on that sum?

Yesterday, a rodent may or may not have seen his or her shadow and winter may or may not be ending sooner or later. What would financial ground-hog day be like ? This happens pretty much every month, when the Bank of Canada sets key interest rates, maybe they decide on the basis of the Governor seeing his own shadow? No, but that is a worthwhile indicator I suppose.

It is the year of the Fire Rooster, to our friends who observe the Chinese Lunar Calendar. If you are a Rooster, this may not be a good year for you, but I still enjoy the Festive Celebrations for this new year. We shall see how fortunate a year it ends up being, but it will be a long year, with 13 months .

In Ottawa we begin Winterlude , the festival celebrating the winter here. The weather rarely co-operates, it is either too warm and the canal melts or so cold no one wishes to be outside. The forecasts suggest  this might be a good year to enjoy the festival.

My Writings for Week Ending February 3rd

I have been meaning to publish this week’s article for a while, but wasn’t sure whether I got it right. I have been approached by a few “Promoters” of companies that charge a fee (or percentage) to help folks get their Disability Tax Credit, and I have ignored their offers, as I feel they are taking advantage with their fees. When I came upon Bill C-462 I thought that finally the government was agreeing with my opinion, however, as I wrote in Bill C-462 : Protecting Disabled Canadians or a Paper Tiger ? it seems this act is dead on arrival.

If anyone has any more insight on this, please contact me as I am very interested to find out whether this Act will ever be put into practice.

Editor’s Note: I have now included the last update date on all my articles, so you can see that those that I may “reprint” in social media, has usually been updated (or edit’ed to make it more readable).