I love to read what journalists forecast and compare those predictions to the prevailing news. In this article, the author addresses today’s timeliest issues: interest rates and inflation.
Filling up your gas tank in recent months is like seeing the bill for your toddler’s birthday party – “how much?” For a smooth family life, however, both must be paid.
Inflation and interest rates have been the talk of the town in recent weeks. These are issues far-beyond our control with central banks all around the world scrambling to adjust and control them.
Higher interest rates may be unpleasant but banks have been bracing us for this trend for some time as evidenced by the stress-tests imposed on mortgages.
The tax deadline is April 30th and many Canadians will soon be turning their attention to getting their tax slips in order.
Calculating your affordable lifestyle may be the single most difficult aspect of personal finance. Prior to the pandemic, Canadians had record levels of household debt. Lately, Canadians have become world-leaders in saving. Which way will the pendulum sway when we can finally resume shopping, travelling, dining and spending normally again?
Join me on Tuesday, January 19th for a webinar which will help you to calculate your household’s affordable lifestyle and implement a reasonable savings strategy in real time so that when the economy opens up, you can be confident in the lifestyle that you can afford to enjoy.
I have only purchased one item using a “buy now, pay later” offer. It was a book-case for a television and I was on maternity leave with my son. Money was tight. What was tighter was the feeling in my chest that if I missed the deadline to repay, interest would be charged back to the date of purchase. I decided then and there that it wasn’t worth the bother.
This article provides valuable context in light of the strain that the pandemic has placed on many household’s cash flow. Newer deferred payment options have cropped up and the research sited in the article shows that consumers are spending more if they can pay by instalments over several months. Furthermore some of the retailers that are offering these plans likely have younger client bases who might lack the discipline to repay on time – costing them interest and the integrity of their credit rating.
I attended the 2020 CIFPs National Conference last week. With no budget to discuss, the conference focussed on discussions of the US Federal election and the manners in which the Canadian government will pay for COVID-related stimulus. Before making strategy decisions to ward off possible increases in the capital gains inclusion rate (the portion of a capital gain that is taxable), GST increases and the elimination of the principal residence exemption, consider the argument put forth in this article. The article suggests that as long as interest rates are low, and the government is the primary purchaser of domestic bonds, funding stimulus on borrowed money will help the economy to grow its way out of this very deep and pervasive recession.
As a fee-for-service financial planner, I have luxury of looking at investment portfolios in an unbiased manner. In so doing, it becomes easier – but by no means “easy” – to see when assets are over-concentrated in a portfolio. However, commenting on the over-concentration of an investment is one thing; convincing a client to act upon it is quite another. I wonder how many clients I spoke with last year (prior to the pandemic meltdown and economically-unsupported rebound) are still sitting on huge swaths of employer stock holdings, cash, real estate and other often over-concentrated positions.
This wonderful article describes the difficulties faced by working mothers in the US who are trying to “balance” the needs of isolated children and a work-from-home ideal. It also offers some interesting suggestions to help us manage through this time.
Closer to home, FP Canada recently published a study of COVID-related financial stress which also identified a gender gap in the pressures felt by men and women. In their study, women are 17% more likely to say that their level of financial stress has been impacted by COVID-19. Furthermore, unlike the recessions of the past – which disproportionately affect male-dominated fields such as manufacturing and construction – COVID-19 has devastated mostly female-dominated fields such as education, childcare and the service industry.
