Budgeting

Is a Consumer Proposal Worth It?

Many years ago, the Government created a second path to deal with debt, but many consumers still don’t know about this choice. It’s called a consumer proposal.

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November is Financial Literacy Month

Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (“FCAC”), FLM is a coordinated effort “to strengthen the financial literacy of Canadians and empower them to manage money and debt wisely, save for the future and understand their financial rights and responsibilities”.

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The Up-Sell

You can’t make it through a drive-through without “do you want to upsize that?”, “can we add a muffin?”, “do you want to make a donation to….”; no, thank you, I just want the coffee I ordered!

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Budgeting 101 – Part 5 of 5

Catastrophic expenses are those expenses that you have no reasonable expectation of knowing that they are coming and they have a material and negative impact on your finances to the extent that you cannot recover from the impact and, in fact, may not even be able to deal with the expense in the first place..

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Budgeting 101 – Part 4 of 5

Lumpy expenses, as I call them, are expenses that we know (or should know) are coming down the track and will have to be incurred but only happen once in a lifetime or only once every couple, few, 5, 10 or 15 years (or so). Lumpy expenses can cause significant stress if you have not prepared for them. 

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Budgeting 101 – Part 3 of 5

Like monthly expenses, most annual expenses are predictable; at least to the extent that you know they are going to happen.  Sometimes the amount is uncertain or the amount is discretionary (you set it – requires some internal fortitude to manage).

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Budgeting 101 – Part 2 of 5

Monthly expenses should be the most predictable of the expense categories.  They happen every month.  Some are fixed and some are variable.  With your household income, you should be able to comfortably cover these expenses including covering seasonal variations. 

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