A puzzle piece, which symbolizes Autism, and other mental health issues, in the financial advent calendar. The Disability Tax Credit is an important aspect of financial health for those with these brain injuries. #DTC #Disability
What is the best financial decision you have ever made? For me, it was a decision I made out of spite, but it ended up paying off very nicely, and gave me a path to victory for my retirement.
According to our friends at Stats Canada more Canadians are in Pensions(up by almost 1.2%), which really surprised me. This would suggest all this palaver and gum-flapping about Canadians not having enough money to retire was just Media over-reaction, however if you read the report a little closer, there is a telling statement:
Dangerous Pension Conditions Ahead? More people using different kinds of pensions that is for sure.
In 2014, just over 4,380,000 employees were in defined benefit pension plans, down 0.5% from 2013, and down 8.3% from a high of 4,776,000 in 1992. Defined benefit plans accounted for 70.0% of employees belonging to an RPP in 2014, a drop from 71.2% in 2013, and down from over 90% in the 1980s.
So the Defined Benefit Pension Plan is slowly dying off (except in the Public Sector) and the Defined Contribution (and the hybrid mutations of that concept) are where there is growth. This makes more sense, most private sector companies cannot afford a defined benefit pension system (whether the Government can afford their pension system remains to be seen).
For those of us with kids, that aren’t making too much, the new Child Tax Credit (CTC) just kicked in. The good news it is tax-free, but if you make too much money, you get nothing. There is an old (but still helpful) video from Preet about this exact topic at the end of this article.
My Writings for Week Ending July 22nd
In summer mode, I am actually accumulating more unfinished titles in my writing pile, but What is Couch Potato Investing? came up as a question a co-worker (who is an occasional reader) asked me what it meant, and to my surprise I have talked about the topic a lot, but I have never really given as simple overview of what it meant, so there it was. I have written about the concepts of Couch Potato investing, but this article let’s folks understand the basics (I hope).
A Money Thought
Given Mr. Trump is now the Republican Candidate for the President, I have been researching some of his more interesting quotes, I like this one from “Trump University Entrepreneurship 101: How to Turn Your Idea into a Money Machine”
If you’re not satisfied with the status quo in your career, read this book, pick one key idea, and implement it. I guarantee it will make you money. —Donald J. Trump
I am reading the book for free on-line, so I feel I am already ahead of the game (i.e. I saved money by not buying the book).
The epiphany about my biggest purchase only hit me a while ago. I was chatting with some co-workers about purchasing houses. Yes, I bought my house last century, so the price was not nearly as high as the… Read More »My Biggest Purchase Was Not A House