Being in the forty-fifty bracket that Coyne identifies as ‘troubled’ I can relate.
We all just did our taxes. Being a self-employed small business owner I like doing taxes. They help me develop my annual plan and budget. I know I’m going to have to bump up my capital costs next year and that means I have to budget for new hardware and software. I know power costs are killing me as running four computers and a NAS 24/7 grossly inflates my power bill. So the percentage I declared as a business expense was more than the 12h/40% sq ft. function that I used with other utilities.
I also know what I put in retirement funds. You should know exactly how much CPP cost you last year. Now whether you think that’s a good investment or not is totally subjective. I know I’d very much prefer to have that money go into my self-directed retirement savings, and honestly, if I still lived in Ontario then having an even less trust-worthy gov’t handling my pension would scare the be-jesus out of me.
There’s no greater coward than money.
I actually hope this doesn’t lead to an exodus…
http://www.google.ca/search?source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=P3JlU6u-B8mHogS6uAE&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1206&bih=631&q=welcome%20to%20calgary,%20fuck%20off%20we're%20full#facrc=_&imgrc=hgQ1r1a7TTqpKM%253A%3BnjetItKBwBYggM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fi.imgur.com%252FNNEML.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.reddit.com%252Fr%252FCalgary%252Fcomments%252Fwb93h%252Fchanging_the_rcalgary_slogan%252F%3B604%3B453
The time is now to have some off-shore assets. And maybe an off-shore server.
Born in Ontario and lived here all my life.
Would move west in a heartbeat if all my family wasn’t here.
Watching this province go down the toilet bowl is depressing.
Paul – bring your family with you.
I agree
Government burns thru the money — my father worked for an agricultural implements manufacturer his entire life and was sold out by both the NDP & the unions representing them.
The proposed Ontario Pension Plan is another trough for unemployed Liberals to sink their teeth in. The Ontario deficit has been growing faster than a global warming hockey stick — oh my. This does not speak to the provincial debt nevermind the uncontrolled spending via “liberal law firms” that buy government contracts — this was the MO under federal liberals and moved over to Ontario once they secured power.
Lance – how much could four computers and a NAS possibly cost you a month? Even 2kwh per hour 24/7 at 15 cents per kWh is only 215$/month. Surely your business isn’t pushed into the red on 2500$ per year.
Almost every self-employed person I know including myself doesn’t contribute to the cpp – paying themselves dividends instead.
What is missing is a program that allows self-employeds (34% of the Albertan workforce) to contribute based on some kind of gross income net of cost of goods sold formula (as is used by the insurance industry) – a modification to the new PRPP program would be the most logical.
It’s oh so glaringly obvious that the Ontario Liberals intent is to create a slush fund……just like the Fed LIBRANOs did.
Gord, I exaggerated the impact of the cost, it isn’t ‘killing me’. I’ve id’ed it as the single largest recurring expense outside of gas and so I use a different formula in calculating the business use of home expenses than I did for other utilities.
I haven’t opted out of CPP, or into EI. I’m ‘sole-proprietor’ so the biz is me and I am the biz. Dividends aren’t realistic as all profits are Lance’s income. They are one and the same.
And the QPP…
As an Ontarian I’m terrified about the government administering a pension plan.
These morons have screwed up ehealth, Ornge, etc.
Wouldn’t trust them to organize a pissup at a brewery.
Coming to a liberal campaign event in the near future is the following quote:
“If you like your companies pension plan, you can keep your company’s pension plan”
Good topic Lance, I was hoping this would show up some time. Between RRSPs and TFSAs – they’re *NOT* investments btw, they’re accounts – most should be ok with their current plans. There is no crisis. The people that haven’t saved enough suffer from a lack of life planning and basic financial skills. I’m self-employed, so I have to stay on top of these things. At 32 I’m starting to heavily invest in my retirement, however a lot of it is in non-traditional vessels such as my business.
The general public mostly doesn’t realize that self-employed folks pay both halves of CPP contributions, currently 4.95% (or 9.9% total). Even increasing that to 13% or 15% represents a significant out of pocket expense that would likely be better spent elsewhere. A close friend of the family is by no means a high IQ person, he’s a simple of the earth type. He managed to raise a family of 4 working a basic entry level job all his life and currently has a nest egg well into the 6 digits. If he can do it, anyone can there really is no excuse.
Another very basic financial lesson that most people don’t understand: Tax brackets!
How many times have we heard the following: “I shouldn’t do any overtime because it will put me in the next bracket” or “if I get a raise my after tax income will actually be less”. All baloney. The applicable rates only apply to the money made within the bracket, hence “tax bracket”.
Well said, and good for you starting at 32. I started at age 42 saving in RRSP type investments as well as being frugal in the farm, and now renting out a section.
Paul, what Joe said.
If the Ontario Pension Plan would be run like the Saskatchewan Pension Plan it actually would be a good thing. But, a big but, would you trust any program any Liberal put forward?
To your point, a forced investment that might have legs would be something more akin to the 401k system of the states.
But anything that essentially adds to gubmint coffers, especially Liberal/union coffers, is just a BAD idea, in too many senses….
One thing I forgot to mention, and is the achilles heel of the CPP. The death benefit is very low, if it exists at all.
The Ontario Liberals have no intention of establishing a solid investment path for a putative OPP. They’re going to do exactly as the US government did with Social Security. They’re going to take the money and use it to pay for all their expensive transit promises, school lunches and whatnot. The OPP itself will be filled up with a lot of Ontario government bonds paying squat for interest.
“By unlocking value from its assets and encouraging more Ontarians to save through a proposed new Ontario Retirement Pension Plan, new pools of capital would be available for Ontario-based projects such as building roads, bridges and new transit.”
Surely we’re all bright enough to understand what “new pools of capital” really means. This is straight-forward theft being proposed in the guise of pension plan contributions.
Why does Canada follow all the stupid idea’s of US Democrats.
Obama’s “MYRA”, that he announced at the state of the Union, has been silently forgotten, for good reason. The Fed is saying spend..spend and the dick heads are saying Save..Save.
Do you think they have the same “Stuck on Stupid” Harvard advisers in Ontario?
There needs to be a warning included when posting links to stories that feature pictures of that disgusting hag.
The Opp, even if it’s even remotely plausible, or even defined, or even desirable, is a terrible diversion for the Ontario Liberals, particularly in the context of, or coupled with, an attack on Stephen J. Harper.
Whether folks across the country like it or not, to be blunt, here in Ontario, when Stephen J. Harper says “no, thank you”, that means, “no, thank you”: I won’t bother with the comparisons between him and Andrew Jackson or Abraham Lincoln, but “no” really means “no”. Ms. Wynne has picked a bone, now, on a great many fronts, I can assure you, with a great many people, greatly to her detriment.
This will not end well for Ms. Wynne.
Quite true, David. You can always tell when an Ontario Premier is in difficulty. They pick fights with the feds. Unlike Quebec, this rarely goes well for them.
J & M are a young couple I know who just moved to Saskatchewan. He received an offer’ to good to refuse’. That is the real long term consequences of our socialist society, the flight of the furture. I wish the best for them as it is clear the corruption of our province won’t be readily solved by rearranging the seats in Queens Park.
When the CPP was established by the liberals all premiums simply went into general revenue to be pissed away by the liberal government. Had the premiums been properly invested the average CPP pension tody would be double with a large surplus. Any dollar given to a liberal government is a total waste.
Own your home – that’s the most important thing. Stay away from consumer debt. Use your parents’ inheritances wisely. Assume cost of government is going up. Don’t insist on having every new toy that comes along – get your truck, trailer and boat, or whatever else you garner, without debt. Try to save some money in blue chip securities and hold them for the long term – I know it’s not easy.
Work towards some self-employment in retirement, if you make it there financially. I will retire at 60 because I worked hard and, yes the military made me save for a pension. I understand not everyone has that advantage. Even owning your home unencumbered will allow you to at least slow down in later life – Though there’s no guarantees, everybody can strive for that.
Oh, and don’t vote for Liberal idiots.
I see some very fat liberal arses running this pension plan. Ah, the gravy is so sticky
But here’s the real problem. There won’t be one word from the so-called “Conservative” camp that this pension idea nothing but a money-grab by a corrupt government that is in desperate need of cash infusions to maintain themselves and their public service and crown corporation buddies in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed.
Once again a Liberal columnist rewriting history to begin in the 60s. Was I the only one that caught that Coyne believes that the CPP predates RRSPs? Dief brought in RRSPs in 57. The CPP was in 66.