A quick financial tip: embrace automation

August 14th is Financial Awareness day, and unlike some of the other silly “holidays” – I bet National Left-Handed Scissors Day is on the list somewhere – financial awareness/literacy actually matters.

Financial literacy is generational: unless you come from a family where credit, debt, interest rates, and income are discussed, you may have grown up without an understanding of these topics. Our first paycheque should come with some instructions on how to manage our money, but it doesn’t, so most of us are left to muddle our way through our financial journey on our own.

One financial tip I can share is to embrace the human trait of laziness. By that I mean don’t pretend that you’ll always have the mental energy to think about savings and set money aside. Instead, take human nature out of the equation and automate your savings by pulling money into a high-yield savings account on your payday. I use Wealthfront myself. There are many options, but none of them are likely to be with your bank. The day you get paid, the money is taken out. You never see the funds in your bank account for more than a day.

It doesn’t have to be a lot – it should be an amount you can handle not having and won’t go “Ouch!” and re-think whether you should save it. Maybe it’s $50 a month. Automate it and pretend that account doesn’t exist. Ignore it entirely if you can. Do this for five years.

$50 a month over 5 years at 4% interest is $3381. Imagine yourself “finding” that money five years from now and being thankful to your past self for making that choice. What if you could save $100 a month? That’s $6763 after five years. Could you maybe do $300 a month? That’s $20,291 after five years.

Compound interest is nice, but what’s even more impactful is automating your savings and taking human nature out of the equation.

Concrete Equities’ Varun “Vinny” Aurora Pleads Guilty to Fraud

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted anything on this blog about the debacle that was Concrete Equities, but the wheels of justice move slowly – when they move at all – in the realm of white-collar crime. Finally though, some good news:

“While one of his victims sobbed in the back of a Calgary courtroom, a city man pleaded guilty Friday for his role in bilking $23 million from hundreds of investors. Varun (Vinny) Aurora pleaded guilty in provincial court to fraud over $5,000 in a scheme centring on Mexican real estate investments. His own father lost the largest amount — $901,000 — in the fraud run by Concrete Equities Inc. that roped in 1,200 investors, about 20 of whom showed up in court. The play, which began in 2007, sold investor units in a Mexican development known as the El Golfo project, whose purchase price Concrete Equities greatly inflated for investors.”
Calgary Herald Article

What kind of a person would defraud his own father out of $901,000? I’ll leave that for you to decide. While I’m glad to see him charged and his guilty plea, I am stunned at the “justice” being served here: according to this CBC article, he will spend no time in jail. Incredible – just incredible. ? $23 million dollars was stolen from 1200 people – much of it retirement savings – and he doesn’t go to jail. His punishment?

Continue reading Concrete Equities’ Varun “Vinny” Aurora Pleads Guilty to Fraud

Canada: Paying More Taxes, Getting More Services

I don’t often delve into politics or healthcare economics on this blog, but I’d spent some time writing up a reply on a Facebook thread that I felt was worth re-posting here. The single biggest struggle I’ve had since moving to the USA has been the healthcare system. It’s…insane. The people who have lived in it their whole lives don’t all grasp how insane it is. This response was written to one such person who brought up the Canadian tax system and said the taxes were too high.

Yes, you pay more taxes in Canada. But you know what you don’t need? Basic healthcare insurance. Guess how much I had to pay out of pocket in 2015 for health insurance? Just under $10,000. My employer also paid $5300 above that cost, so figure $15K all-in to insure two non-smoking adults and two kids. Oh, and another $6500 off my paycheque for the HSA because I’m on a high-deductible plan and I have to pay for ALL my healthcare until I hit the deductible for the year (which is about $2000 per person or $6500 for the family I believe). The HSA is a great invention, but since it’s only for healthcare, it’s another healthcare cost – so figure I’m paying $21K per year so my family has healthcare coverage…yikes! The only good thing is the HSA rolls over each year and helps people save for the more expensive years of healthcare. And that I can pay for dental stuff with it – which of course I have ANOTHER plan for the costs me $1300 a year for. Oh, and vision…
Continue reading Canada: Paying More Taxes, Getting More Services

PayPal: The New Credit Pimp on the Block?

I don’t use PayPal as much as I used to – maybe a couple times a month – but I noticed something earlier this year that struck me as odd. Every time I logged into my PayPal account, rather than taking me to my home screen showing my balance and transactions, PayPal would show me a page promoting their credit card, or promoting their “pay later” service.

paypal-credit-pimping-2015

Recently, in this holiday season of buy-buy-buy, I used PayPal a couple of times and in every instance the default was “Pay After Delivery” and it was set to withdraw money from my bank account.  You have to dig a layer down to find what should be the logical default: PayPal Balance.

PayPal has been spun off from eBay, and there’s clearly maneuvering afoot to re-invent PayPal as more than just a digital payment tool. They want to finance your purchase, and touch your bank account more often – they don’t want to be an isolated island like many of us (myself included) use them.

We have enough credit cards companies in the world destroying the financial lives of average people – we don’t need more of them. PayPal shouldn’t be going down this road…

A Quote About Credit Cards

“Credit cards are like chainsaws: the more of them you juggle, the greater the odds you’ll lose a financial limb.”

– Anonymous

Quote About Paychecks

“Your first paycheck, and every one after that, is what you save part of in order to prepare for life after your last paycheck.”

– Anonymous

Writing Cheques Like It’s 1993: Having a Dedicated Chequing Account

Personal finance management and investing is one of my newer personal passions, so I’m going to start blogging about those topics here on a regular basis. I’d love to hear from people on how they manage their money!

I still use cheques now and then (those are “checks” for you ‘muricans) but they tend to be larger values (my son’s school tuition, summer camps, community HOA fees, etc.) and I despise the unpredictability of not knowing when they’ll be cashed. I’ve been burned more than once by having a cheque I’d forgotten about be cashed, pushing my account into a negative balance and triggering an overdraft move of money from another account (and sometimes a fee).

Leaving money in my chequing account is a pain since I zero it every week (on Thursday nights to be precise). If someone was doing old-school cheque-book accounting, and keeping a running tally, they wouldn’t have this problem – but I just can’t run my financial life using a model so restrictive, and, frankly, cumbersome. I wanted a solution that would work for my financial management style.

I decided instead to take an approach that would give me more control, but took the essence of the chequebook approach: you make sure for every cheque that is written, there are sufficient funds to cover it, and those funds are never touched because they’re already spent. I created a “Write a Cheque” bank account where I move the exact amount of the cheque over from my main chequing account, and leave it there. So over a period of weeks the “Write a Cheque” account goes to zero as each cheque is cashed. I’ve been using this method for several months and it has completely solved my challenge.

How do you deal with cheques in your day today financial life?

Photo above courtesy of eComm Merchant Solutions.

Having The Money Talk With Your Kids: Part 1

In the past six months, I’ve had a few conversations with parents of young kids (8 and under), and none of them are actively teaching their kids about money, instead figuring they’ll do it “later”. According to this study by the UK’s Money Advice Service, basic money habits are formed in kids by age seven. By the time most parents think their kids are “ready”, the money habits are already formed. In these conversations I’ve had, some of the common reasons for avoiding “the money talk” among parents are have included:

The Myth: “My kids aren’t old enough to understand much about money yet.”

The Reality: There’s a great saying that goes “More is caught that taught”, and having been a parent for the past six years, I can vouch for the truth of it. Your kids are watching what you do, and learning from it. They’re watching you spend, and save (or not). They’re watching what you buy, and they’re listening to what you say about money in your home. If you’re having financial struggles, they may be watching you and your spouse fight about money. If you’re not purposefully explaining your actions regarding money, your kids are going to come up with their own interpretations of what money is all about. You’d be surprised what your kids have picked up about money along the way, but don’t leave their education half-finished.

Continue reading Having The Money Talk With Your Kids: Part 1

Elizabeth Warren: “You Didn’t Build That”

I’m a believer in capitalism and working hard to make profit and succeed – but I find myself feeling almost like a left-wing socialist when put in the context of the American political system. The raw, unchecked power American corporations have over the political process – and thus over the laws the regulate their behaviour – is truly terrifying. Things are just broken, and they’ve largely remained broken since the financial meltdown of 2008. Not much has changed.

Elizabeth Warren is playing a vital role in power-checking the big banks and corporations that have, for the most part, completely abdicated their socially-responsible role in our society. Here’s a great article about Warren, and a great quote that sums up part of the problem:

“You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear: You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did.” – Elizabeth Warren