Saving more is the only way | Page 2 | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

Brian, I agree, seems every generation produces its crop of profligates as well as of enterprising folks.
Norman1, my observations, both professionally and in my personal life, re. the ingratitude of heirs (generally, though of course not always) echoes yours. Just the way it is, luckily I won't be around to care.
Loonie, based on personal observation I would not pay for someone's tuition, I'd prefer to tell them I'll make my contribution, after the fact, upon production of successful completed courses or program. I had to take a year off university to work because I ran out of money, no negative effect on my life.
If one of your desires in life is for an expensive wedding, count me not financially involved. I saw something showing the divorce rate goes up as the cost of the wedding does, makes perfect sense to me.
I agree that RRSPs are a very good income smoothing tool, though I don't share the concern about a nasty income tax bill in the year of my death. That'll be down my list of concerns that year.
When your heirs are in their teens, tell them their inheritance slice will be based proportionately on their net worth compared to the other heirs net worths. You don't have to actually do it, but if they think you are their reaction and subsequent action (or non-action) might provide some useful insight into their character and what's apt to happen to (what used to be) your money.

Not so sure about that, Brian. I know someone who has become very wealthy and continues to get more, has made it clear he wants to leave as much as possible to his kids (even though he's already bought them everything including houses, cars, and pays their monthly credit card bill without question) and the kids, in their 30s now, are completely wrecked, useless, don't work. Also, they've each managed to attract spouses (geez, wonder why!?) that also have no real jobs or careers so the mess spreads. Plus through this person I'm sometimes at social events with others in the same "class" and it's much the same situation in their families, from what I can tell. What else would you expect? It's always portrayed that when you win cash for life or a big lottery the first thing you do is quit your job and go on permanent vacation. The lion doesn't hunt if someone throws it all the meat it needs every day.
Of course few bequests will be of that magnitude, but it's still instructive to see what people's attitude is to money that they don't have to go and get for themselves. It's (usually, not always) very different.
Plus it doesn't go to the "government", extra taxes go into the national treasury and it's ultimately spent for the good of Canadians (like you, Brian!) in general, so it might be a nice gesture to leave some to my fellow citizens in the awesome country I got to live and prosper in, no? Consider it a charitable donation. When I think of where my money might possibly end up a generation or two down the road in my family (i.e. in the hands of people or other families I never knew), the idea of leaving some of it to Canadian citizens in general isn't that distasteful a concept as it first might seem.

These are the costs of living in community.
All governments waste some money, and all of them spend some wisely.
No need to pick on one in particular. Just read the reports of any auditor-general and you will find all the ammunition you need.
What comes to mind for me is the millions Harper wasted on investigating and prosecuting senators, with no convictions whatsoever and many charges withdrawn or never even laid.
And in Toronto one need only look at the endless reports on subways and LRTs. And now we are going to be spending megabucks on a ridiculous subway that only goes to a big shopping mall.
Vote! Run for office! Debate! Participate in the democratic process. Hold governments to account. Nobody ever said it was easy or straightforward.

Brian, me too - while I'm alive and am using my money I absolutely minimize taxes for exactly the reasons you indicate. But when I'm done with it.......meh, whatever, I guess.
RCMP get government paycheques, not so sure their priorities are always due to "incompetence" - that's probably what they want you to think. Gov't worker unions are not pro-Conservative, to the detriment of Conservatives the Duffy affair was in the media during the early part of the campaign.

I can't think of any good reason why public service unions would have wanted to support the Harper government. He was committed to dismantling a vast array of necessary public services, from meat inspections to preserving the irreplaceable holdings in our national libraries and archives; and did so, to our eternal detriment.

Tunnel vision is common among all police forces unfortunately. Once they get a bee in their bonnet, it's hard for them to let go, right or wrong. Let's not forget, however, that Harper wanted to get rid of the Senate as part of his election platform and made every new appointee agree to leave the job once he got his wishes. He never got his wishes, however. So perhaps he hoped he could get his way by creating a major scandal to discredit a significant number of senators and create pressure on the provinces to agree. Yet, at the end of the day, it was the vague wording of government directives (a government he was in charge of) which demonstrated that the senators could not be convicted of anything. This, of course, was known at the beginning, by him. But pushing on with the investigation backfired at the worst possible time for Harper. And, yes, of course the media reported it - that's their job. - just as they have reported Liberal scandals such as HydroOne and Orange. What a colossal waste of money.

I too endeavour to pay only fair share of taxes as established by law - no more, and no less.

Saving has been our best investment too! I am trying to mentor youth in the power of saving, and to recognize the value of money.
I lose most of them at step1. Start a BUDGET!

True, Bill.
And I'll bet that most people on this site were the hoarders. I certainly was, and my father before me.
There may be a genetic component. It seems to go back a long ways in my case at least. I inherited some of the account books of my great-grandfather, a farmer, from the 1880s. Why did 3 generations keep them?? They're useless. There is no other surviving ephemera except photos until the 1950s. Only someone who enjoys keeping track would keep them. Further, I have learned recently that some of the account books of my great-great-great-grandfather reside in the New Brunswick provincial archives! Legendarily thrifty Scots, all of them. (True confessions!)

As for teaching, I would not start with budgeting when dealing with the recalcitrant. Budgeting is inherently uninteresting to people whose minds are focused on the here and now. Instead, I would start with focussing on the skills needed to figure out whether something is a good purchase and comparing it to what else one could get for the same money, and then add in what one could get if one saved even more money by not buying some other unimportant item the next week. Pretty soon, they're saving money and get to like the fact that they have real choices. You could even offer to hold the money for them until the ideal purchase comes along (otherwise known as learning to bank), but that may be a harder sell.
If you're careful about what you buy, in most cases the budgeting will look after itself.

Brian, it's true there are some differences in generations but those are mainly due to differing circumstances. Those growing up during harder times definitely develop different attitudes than those (like today's kids) who know only the incredible affluence we now enjoy compared to previous generations (e.g. my lower-middle class parents took us out for dinner a couple of times a year, that happens every week for a lot of kids now). So, yes, lessons learned during different times may not be applicable today, but I still think it's always good advice to not spend unnecessarily, no matter where and when in history you live. Haven't heard this one in a while but people used to say you should save "for a rainy day" - and the past indicates rainy times always come back at some point.