Marching on...

March 8 is International Women's Day!

I am celebrating by going to a women's march on March 3rd. My main interest is
"equal pay for equal work"! 

Sometimes it feels like no progress is being made when you consider how long women have been marching for something that should be a given. When I worked for the Royal Bank of Canada for 14 years I wasn't paid equally to the men working there in the same positions - the saddest part was I accepted that - that's the way it was!! My eyes are OPEN now and I realize how heavy the foot was that held me, and millions of women around the world DOWN!

And so I march on and on...

In other news...I have closed off February's budget and have set up my budget for March. I hope March isn't as spendy as January and February!!! I hope the money I put into savings this month stays there!
OH MY!! 
But the good news is my brother and I have purchased our flight tickets for September's trip. Money well spent as was all the money I have spent recently. Two new pairs of glasses, a very healthy Lily, memberships to ancestry.ca & amazon renewed, invalid food, many household purchases made, car had it's semi-annual inspection & oil change etc etc etc! And let's not forget my big tax bill grrrrrrrrr!!

I've decided to pay my taxes with investment interest as those two items are linked together so it seems fitting: I benefited greatly with big, and I mean BIG tax refunds when Kazi was a dependent and I maxed out my RRSP account yearly. NOW I get to pay back those benefits - aren't I lucky?! Me and millions like me. I used to let that interest compound but now I am going to put that money to use.

 Any RRSP money not withdrawn by age 71 becomes a RIF and I'll be forced to withdraw a certain percentage annually. So from now on any tax payments I need to make will be covered by interest. It feels less painful when I look at it that way :)

That about wraps up the past week. Kazi is over the flu but has a couple of other health issues - she has a weird bump on one elbow and a similar one on a toe. A biopsy has been down and we're awaiting the results. Then yesterday she whacked her foot on a piece of furniture and is going for an x-ray and ultrasound - they're concerned about a blood clot as her calf was tingly all day yesterday. So I've checked my phone about a million times so far this morning hoping for some good news! Nothing...

The weather has been amazing - warm and sunny - helping the ground dry up. My daffodils and snow drops are emerging once again though I hear more snow is in our future.

THIS IS NOT SPRING!! 

Oh darn...

What are YOU Saving For?

Why do we save? Is it just to have savings? Is there a specific goal or goals for our savings? Is it just a pile of money that makes us feel safe? How has your savings evolved over the years? Have you always been a saver? Or have you never been a saver? Do you wish you could save more or are you content with what you have? Do you feel anxious when you take a big chunk out of your savings? Do you have 1 savings account or several that reflect a goodly number of goals?

Maybe I should answer all of those questions myself starting with...

Why do I save? 
My reasons for saving have evolved over my lifetime.  I started earning money at the age of 12 (picking strawberries, cucumbers, rhubarb, raspberries, babysitting, working on a tobacco farm etc) and I saved most of my earnings. I bought/made my own clothing, records, candy, makeup, hobbies etc and paid for my first trip (Yugoslavia) when I was in high school(about $450.00 in total). What an incredible experience that was!

In the hotel dining room - Split, Yugoslavia

In my family you saved up for what you wanted and my dad had a real aversion to debt. I remember clearly how happy he was when he paid off the house - the mortgage payment was $25 a month!! Can you imagine!

Then after highschool I used my savings to buy a used Datsun for $1,000 which I used to drive back and forth to my first REAL job as a bank teller and because I didn't make a lot ($6250/year) I didn't save a lot but I did save. Being a bank teller was actually a good first job as I gained a lot of knowledge about money and opened my first RRSP.

I must confess I do like to maintain a certain level of savings and always have- it does help me to feel secure. There was a period of time when I first had Kazi and we were living on one income which changed from month to month (occasional teaching) and other than RRSPs my savings were pretty non-existent. That was a very scary time and lasted for 7 years when I applied for and got a permanent contract! Happy days!!

After 2 years of occasional teaching I cashed in my two little life insurance policies and my RRSPs, borrowed a little from my dad for moving expenses and lawyer's fees in order to purchase the condo we still live in. We were really living on the edge then! But each year I put the maximum into my RRSP even if I had to borrow the money and once I got a permanent contract (at age 43!!!) my income gradually increased and I became more solvent.

Crabapple Landing

 A lot of my savings in those days were related to Kazi's dance career. It cost about $1500 every couple of years for new dance outfits and shoes and as she became competitive we travelled all over Canada. I don't regret one penny of those expensive years as the memories will last forever and it re-awakened my love of travel.

After her dancing days ended I put the money aside to help Kazi with tuition costs and into saving for retirement. I used a line of credit to purchase the trailer we enjoyed for several years and to help pay for the house in PEI. I don't own either of those properties anymore and my savings now helps me to travel and maintain my home. I have zero debt. I have another pension starting in June which will help fund more trips. I'll always keep a certain amount in savings "just because" but the rest I will enjoy.

Saving for big ticket items is important but it's also important that some savings is spent on joyful things which differs from person to person.

What would you joyfully spend your savings on??

Lucky Lucky Ducky Duck!

I am a lucky ducky. I realize that. I have spent the morning being lazy  reading the Personal Finance section of The National Post's new E-Magazine (and it's free)!  The Donald can keep his billions, I neither want nor need them.  Not that I'm wealthy....I'm not!! To make it into the top 1% (in Canada) I would have to be earning $191,100 - even in my last years of teaching I wasn't making even half of that and now that I am on a pension I earn less than 30% of my former gross income. If I look at net income I make about 50% as I no longer have most deductions that made my teacher's paycheque look like it got hit by a land mine!

With that said I am still such a lucky duck with my employee pension for life! In Canada 47% of people between the ages of 55  and 64 do NOT have an employee's pension and of that 47% only 15% have enough money saved to live on in their senior years and the rest will live in poverty. Lower income folks, those earning between $20,000 and $50,000 have an average of $250 saved for retirement! Those of us with kids in their 20's know how hard it is these days to even get a job with health benefits let alone full-time hours and/or a pension.  It's a huge crisis!!

Now...I'm not saying I don't deserve my defined benefits pension or that I didn't work for it. I do and I did. And I contributed an average of 13% of every paycheque for the privilege. I lived on way less when I was working so that I would be comfortable when I retired. I don't have a huge pension but it's enough for one person. The poverty line in Ontario for a single person is just under $20,000. I'm in the $30,000 range now and would find living on $10,000 less possible, but probably not comfortable!

What is the answer? I don't know. The gov't of Ontario is creating a mandatory employee pension plan for those without one starting in 2017 with equal contributions from employees and employers. This has caused a lot of dissent as people will have to learn to live on less and many don't want to do that. Also companies aren't excited about it as that will be less profit for them. It's hard to look ahead to retirement when you don't have enough to live on NOW!

Conclusions:
1) I sure wish Kazi had gone into teaching instead of her current minimum wage jobs.
2) I'm thinking I'll open up an RRSP for her and make small contributions. Eventually I hope she'll be able to take over the contributions. People need to start saving for retirement as soon as they get a job!
3) I'm a very lucky ducky! And I'm in the minority, not the majority so I need to do my part. Part of that is being an activist in the $15.00/hour minimum wage battle currently being waged in Canada and the U.S. In Ontario the minimum wage is a whopping $11.25 per hour. A livable wage is considered to be $16.60 per hour. We're not even close.

Thoughts?

Financial Goals - Do I Have Any?

What's today....Sunday?  That's the retired life people! Not knowing (or caring) what day it is!

I got a little melancholy as I packed up the Christmas decorations this afternoon - then I had a beer. And 2 pieces of cashew brittle - I feel much better now, at least until I crash after all that sugar.

Yuck yuck.

So where was I? .... oh yeah, financial goals for 2016. Let's see....well, there's good news and then there's bad news.

GOOD NEWS:

• I'll get a wee pension increase.

BAD NEWS:

• it won't cover fully the increases in my condo fee, electricity, insurance etc etc

GOOD NEWS:

• Union Gas (heats my house, heats my hot water tank, runs my dryer) is GOING DOWN a little bit next year!! Woot woot - no bad news there (to my knowledge!)

GOOD NEWS:

• I turn 60 this year (wait...that's not the good news)...so I will start drawing on my Canada Pension!! Yes, that's the good news! Hundreds more dollars a month added to my budget - I estimate I can go from saving $350 a month to saving $1,000 a month! I see more travel in my future!! 

BAD NEWS:

• Had an expensive repair on Dougie the Dodge  but...

GOOD NEWS: 

• my mechanic told me Dougie should last at least another 4-5 years! Right now it's 16 years YOUNG! So I've decided it makes more financial sense to keep driving Dougie instead of spending big bucks on a small car. What I also like about having big ol' Dougie sitting out there in the parking lot is I tend to walk/bike more to do errands instead of driving. Good on gas and good for me!
• More good news - I had exactly enough money for Christmas and all of the many December needs. On Dec. 31st I had $70 left in my wallet and I used it to rent movies and buy Chinese food. I stayed on budget this Christmas and I feel really good about that. But I was anxious about it all month so tonight I'm going to sit down with my day planner and make a notation each month to buy a Christmas gift so that when next December arrives it won't be so anxiety provoking. I just gotta do it!
• I have NO debt. Not one nickel.
• I've been saving my change - I have almost $70. It's just a wee household emergency fund. For example....today I don't really feel like cooking so I might order a pizza. Saving my loonies and toonies and some $5.00 bills means I always have cash "on hand" just in case. 
• I received a Starbucks gift card and a Tim Hortons gift card for Christmas - that will augment my misc budget this month
• It's time to transfer $5000 from my RRSPs once again. I can do this once a year and it goes into my travel account - of course the gov't takes their share (10%) right off the top so I really only get $4500.  I'm interested to see what my tax situation will be like this year - this is my first tax season that I've been on my pension the whole year. I know I won't be looking at $2,000 tax refunds anymore but I hope I get a little bit back at least and don't have to pay!!

So...to sum up my 2016 financial goals - SAVE SAVE SAVE and spend less than I make each month! I have no large purchases to make (as of this particular moment in time - touch wood touch wood touch wood!!); I don't plan to buy and then immediately sell any real estate this year :(  (I was on a learning curve, what can I say?), and IT'S FINALLY SNOWING A WEEK AND A HALF AFTER CHRISTMAS!!

Do you have a NEW budget for 2016 or is it the same old same old?

I Just Lost $500.00

This is essentially what I did. I just paid $500.00 in taxes in order to withdraw $5,000.00 from my RRSPs. I have begun the process which will take a number of years to complete as I want to pay only the minimum of withholding tax which is 10% for $5,000.00.  Now I wait for another year to pass by before I can remove another $5,000.00.  Are we having fun yet?

I just did a straight transfer from my RSP savings account to my TFSA account. And magically $500 disappeared in between the two accounts. You don't even get to look at it or hold it or anything...it just vanishes into thin air...well, not really...it disappears into government coffers. Maybe, just maybe, when it comes time to do my taxes next year some of the $500 will find its way back into my pocket. I can hope can't I?

I decided to open a TFSA GIC today in order to get a few more cents in interest. There's not much of that to be had these days but I'll nab what I can. I'm finally in a position that I would be happy to see interest rates go up...lucky me I have no debt and a few more percentage points would really help out my monthly income. I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon however.

Just another day of riveting financial news!!

Eligible or Ineligible

First of all...SLUGGY IS HAVING ANOTHER GIVEAWAY!! Go HERE to get on board!! Someone has to win and it might as well be YOU!! It's a "PAMPER YOURSELF" basket of goodies and who doesn't need pampering at this time of year!! Go on...I know you want to!!

Feeling sluggish (no offence Sluggy!) This winter is killing my energy and motivation. I dragged my butt through vacuuming today and I did my taxes!! I also wasted a lot of time waiting for phone calls. Phooey.

Taxes: I made a mistake this year. I've been doing my own taxes for 40 years or more and have never had any issues...until now. I over-contributed to my RRSP.  Yessir, I did, I confess. Please don't use the handcuffs officer.....

The problem was the $5,000 early retirement incentive the school board gave me last June. I assumed, incorrectly as it turned out, based on what I read on the Canada Revenue Agency website, that I could put all of it into my RRSP, that it was eligible.  But when I got my T4 yesterday the whole amount was listed as ineligible. I was only allowed to put part of it into my RRSP. Well, I did my taxes anyway and sent them away. I'm still due a good-sized refund so if I owe CRA any money they can take it out of that.

Alternately, I'm also allowed to remove the excess out of my RRSP and pay the tax on it. OR (and I like this idea the best) I can send a letter to CRA explaining:

• why you made excess contributions and why this is a reasonable error; and
• what steps you are taking, or have taken, to eliminate the excess contributions.

As I'm planning to withdraw $5,000 after March 1st I may be covered. I'm going to give it the old college try anyway and mail off a letter in a couple of days begging that my stupidity be forgiven.

Have you ever had issues with Uncle Sam?