Log In
Register
Home
Topic RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Email this11:24 am
September 11, 2013
Offline
christinad, you're certainly not alone, pretty much everybody uses some "games" to ferret some savings away. I used to contribute to RRSPs when I was young even though I knew it was likely a bad deal in the long run (i.e. I'd be paying taxes at a much higher rate during retirement plus I'd just be ensuring I later wouldn't be able to maximize certain tax credits or income support program benefits) but I did it because I knew I (or my wife!) couldn't get at it (very conveniently anyway) so it was just a extra pile I'd have some day.
And I'll never be convinced it needs any education beyond elementary school arithmetic to figure out how much dough you've got, or owe, or how to calculate interest. I've noticed people tend to be pretty astute re what their personal numbers are, to me it's missing the point to say that's what's causing their inability to save.
11:41 am
October 29, 2017
Offline
It would be very helpful if advertising, tv shows and movies stopped bombarding young minds about borrowing money to get what you desire. Of course that’s just commercialism and what we need is to teach young minds to ignore the lure and think logically about finances, especially when it comes to low interest rates that will eventually rise. We have an entire generation that believes borrowing is always cheap and you can get anything you want.
I’m quite sure elementary arithmetic didn’t cover interest rate changes and costs of debt servicing.
EDIT: good luck trying to get those changes, as government makes the laws and school curriculum and they love to see everyone spending and generating the revenues for government coffers.
11:54 am
December 17, 2016
Offline
Vatox said
I’m quite sure elementary arithmetic didn’t cover interest rate changes and costs of debt servicing.
Maybe, maybe not BUT one certainly gets an education on their credit card statement EVERY month, that reads something like this -
Reminder: If you only make the minimum payment every month, it will take approximately 50 year(s) and 4 month(s) to pay the entire new balance shown on this statement. This estimate assumes each statement period is 30 days and that you pay your minimum payment on time every month.
12:16 pm
October 29, 2017
Offline
And how many people actually read those statements or even consider the costs to pay back the debt as a monthly cost. That’s the problem. The fifty years to pay it back isn’t important to them, it’s the monthly cost to get what they want now, that they consider. And over time the balance keeps rising until it can no longer be serviced. That’s why 46% of Canadians are $200 or less from insolvency each month.
The Q4 data is coming out in a few days and I seriously hope the situation hasn’t worsened.
12:41 pm
December 17, 2016
Offline
Making the minimum monthly payment probably only becomes worrisome to many were it to start affecting their credit score - depends on the weighting and how much weighting is given to say credit utilization - otherwise they may be on to something that the rest of us are missing.
Anyway, I'm not the hall monitor and nor do I really care about my neighbour's spending habits. If he defaults on his mortgage, I guess I get a new neighbour.
12:49 pm
October 29, 2017
Offline
I don’t read my credit card statements other than reviewing purchases for verification. So do statements warn people about the amount of interest each month that is lost money? How about a big bold letters statement saying “you just lost $XX from your wallet because you are not paying your full balance”
Please write your comments in the forum.