Weekend Reading: Ending Canada Savings Bonds Edition

Canada Savings Bonds are still a thing? The legacy savings program that was built to fund the Second World War is now in its 70th year of sales and costs the federal government $60 million per year to run. But savings bonds that once paid double-digit interest rates now yield a paltry 0.5 percent in today’s low rate environment.

Is this a case of the federal government, and employers in turn who continue to offer CSBs to employees through automatic payroll deductions, simply doing the same thing year-after-year because that’s what they’ve always done?

It seems to me like Canada Savings Bonds should go the way of the penny. Accounting firm KPMG agrees, saying “there are no valid economic reasons to justify this program.”

Finance Minister Bill Morneau is taking a close look at that report and seriously considering ending the program in his next federal budget. Rob Carrick of The Globe and Mail says if it’s time to bury CSBs, pass him a shovel.

Rogers Media cuts

Print media is dying. Rogers announced a major overhaul to its media division this week. Disappearing from the newsstands are MoneySense, Canadian Business, Flare, and Sportsnet, while Macleans, a flagship weekly magazine since the 1970s, will now be published monthly.

It’s a sad reality for the industry as we continue to see major shutdowns of newspapers and magazines every year.

This Week(s) Recap:

Last Monday I wrote about doing what you love, on the side.

Last Wednesday Marie looked at traits of The Millionaire Next Door.

And last Friday I shared some advice to Millennials about how to start investing.

On Monday I explained the next tax bracket myth and how working overtime won’t mean taking home less pay.

On Wednesday Marie continued her financial planning for couples series with a look at protecting your assets.

And on Friday Marie opened up the mailbag and answered a question about retirement planning for single women.

Weekend Reading:

Here’s an interesting look at how children are taught financial literacy from coast-to-coast. How’s your province doing?

A Vancouver real estate developer who was at the centre of an investigative report into possible fraud and tax evasion wants to set the record straight.

Everyone thinks they’re middle-class, whether they make $22,000 or $200,000.

Investors Group is discontinuing the deferred sales charge (DSC) purchase option for its mutual funds as of January 1, 2017. It doesn’t appear this change will help investors who are currently stuck in a deferred sales charge schedule.

ModernAdvisor shared a portfolio review from an Investors Group client which included the understatement of the year:

“As we expected, the fees on his Investors Group funds were on the high side.”

Yes, shockingly high. As in, an average MER of 2.66%!

Dan Hallett explains how to make sense of your new CRM2 performance report.

Mark from My Own Advisor writes a thoughtful post about why his thinking around dividend investing hasn’t changed (to counter my post about why my thinking around dividend investing did change). Go for the article, stay for the comments.

Frugal Trader talks about investing for his kids.

Start a family or buy a home? The big compromise couples face amid soaring house prices.

Jamie Golombek does the Canada Child Benefit math for different income groups. It adds another complex calculation to your earnings and taxes.

Here’s how to get more pleasure out of retirement spending.

How much do you make? We’ve all heard the question before. How do you answer?

Sheryl Smolkin says you can work after 65, just don’t expect the same benefits.

Black market dealers reveal the secret to super cheap cellphone plans. And here are the provinces with the cheapest cellphone plans and why the rest of us don’t get them.

Sweet tooth rewards examines the Air Miles expiry debate.

Finally, LoyaltyOne Inc. CEO Bryan Pearson comes off as arrogant and out of touch when explaining how Air Miles changes were aimed at growing customer engagement. Yeah, right.

Have a great weekend, everyone!