Weekend Reading – Our tax code mess, screeners, doing it all wrong, Aeroplan and more

Posted on October 2, 2015 by | 13 Comments

Welcome to October Weekend Reading friends. Although I’m not a huge baseball fan I was happy to see the Jays win the AL East title this week.  I’ll probably start watching more baseball now the playoffs are coming and the Jays are in it to win it.

If you haven’t entered already, get on this: enter my giveaway to win a copy of Mark Goodfield’s book Let’s Get Blunt About Your Financial Affairs.  I also critiqued this MoneySense article that said you should be more than fine in retirement, as long as you work 47 years, contribute the maximum to the Canada Pension Plan every year and save at least few thousand dollars per year for 40+ years straight without fail.

Enjoy these other fine articles and see you here next week – when I’ll begin a series profiling some bloggers who are on their way to retiring early by living off dividends and distributions.

According to the CBC our tax code is now almost 5 football fields long; putting page-after-page on the field.  The total cost to Canadians filing taxes and trying to figure this garbage out?  About $6 billion per year according to the Fraser Institute.

Dan has been playing with stock screeners to find stock deals.

Early and extreme retiree Mr. Money Mustache thinks if you’re not getting rich in your 20s you’re doing it all wrong.

Aeroplan is changing its rewards structure again.

The Blunt Bean Counter thinks curiosity is a good thing.

Big Cajun Man provided a roundup of money Tweets.

Here are some ways to save money on your mortgage.  At the top of my list, just make more payments more often.

Fortis provided investors a 10% raise this week.  Thanks for the raise.

Boomer & Echo wrote about GICs.

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13 Responses to "Weekend Reading – Our tax code mess, screeners, doing it all wrong, Aeroplan and more"

  1. Dividend Diplomats · Edit

    Thanks for compiling the list together. I am a huge baseball fan and will gladly welcome any team that is not the Yankees or Red Sox to win the East. I am pulling for the Jays this year and hope they can win it all.

    Have a great weekend. I’m excited to dive into the articles while sipping on this freshly brewed pot of coffee.

    Bert, one of the Dividend Diplomats

    Reply
  2. Davis · Edit

    It’s a shame that the CBC would succumb to importing American terminology. Canada no more has a tax code than it has a congress or an internal revenue service. Parliament has passed tax acts that are administered by Canada Revenue Agency. And it is pronounced “zed”, not “zee”. [End of rant]

    Reply
  3. Stephen Weyman · Edit

    You’re right Richard, if you focus on the other ways to save money on your mortgage, then the variable vs. fixed rate part of the equation doesn’t amount to a whole lot. It could mean more if you go for a 25 year amortization only making the regular payments though.

    Thanks for the mention Mark!

    Reply
  5. Henry · Edit

    Enjoyed Boomer & Echo article about gic’s. The reasoning is sound and those are exactly why many people use gic’s. But many people who have money sitting in gic’s, don’t ever expect or really need the money, it’s just savings. My sister was in that category, she had over $250k in laddered gic’s. Each year she would roll over the ones that came due and for the non-registered ones had to pay taxes on the meager interest earned.

    Since I’ve converted her holdings to DG stocks, her income has increased considerably. She still doesn’t need the money, though she is drawing down more in dividends than she made in interest, and reinvesting much more than the interest she made on her gic’s.

    But DG is not for everyone, like every other choice there are pro’s & cons. But in my opinion gic’s should be one of the last choice to consider, not the first.

    Reply
    1. Mark · Edit

      Unless you are absolutely afraid of losing money, I think GICs are not so good. They are losers to inflation over time. You are almost just as good in today’s low rate environment to keep a modest cash-wedge.

      A GIC ladder is an excellent move for those that need capital preservation, albeit a slower loser to inflation.

      This comment made me smile: “….she is drawing down more in dividends than she made in interest, and reinvesting much more than the interest she made on her gic’s.” I hope to be in that position to simply “live off dividends” Henry. Stay tuned for the posts next week my friend.

      Mark

      Reply

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