Warm Greetings from Calgary!
I hope you are keeping well and looking forward to the summer.
I'm still expecting the North American money markets to go down to pay for our expensive and erratic responses to Covid. It would be very different if our governments had billions stored in reserve—like the vast amounts of resources the ancient Egyptian government stored during the seven years of plenty, which preceded seven years of famine. Not so for Canada or the USA; our spending was all debt-driven. Our bills will come. When? I don't know. To put things in perspective, when Justin Trudeau debated Stephen Harper back in 2015, Trudeau forecast an annual government overspending of about $10 Billion. The latest projection for 2020-21 is about $350 Billion. (35 times higher!) Of course, no one foresaw the pandemic. Nonetheless, we must deal with its financial consequences sooner or later. Let's remember the big picture.
Zeroing in on personal finances, we all fight a financial war with four battle fronts: $erving, $pending, $aving, and $haring.
In February we learned about ways to reduce $pending and to live within our means. In March, we reviewed reasons to save and how to improve $aving. This month we look at the last battle front: $haring.
There are two kinds of sharing: involuntary and voluntary. For most Canadians, April was tax month, so I'll deal with the involuntary sharing first. As you probably know, I am not a fan of big government. Someone once said "a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have." Thus if we demand more and more government services, we can expect more and more taxation. Currently, our government is poor and deeply in debt. In contrast, our Father in heaven is rich with inexhaustible resources. Therefore, it is better to trust in the Heavenly Father more than in government. I recommend clients pay the required taxes and be guilt-free, than to use sophisticated financial techniques and instruments to be free from taxes. When it comes to paying taxes, pay all that is legally required, promptly. For more on this subject, here are three links dealing with taxes. As always, let us know if you need help in accessing the
wisdomwithwealth.org website.
In moving from involuntary to voluntary giving, did you know that Alberta has the best charitable giving incentive in Canada? After the first $200 in gifts, we get a credit of about 50%. That means we can give $50 to the government in taxes, or $100 to our favourite charity—and thereby bless both the charity and fulfill our income tax obligation. Wise charitable giving has many benefits. It breaks the power of greed. It boomerangs blessing to the giver. It links the rich and the poor. It results in thanksgiving to God. Regardless of our wealth or poverty, it is ALWAYS wise to be aggressively generous.
On a personal note, our family celebrated a wedding in late December. Thankfully the limit of ten people PLUS an unspecified number of support staff allowed most of our family to attend.
P.S.
The following video captures some of my biggest concerns with the
recent federal budget, inflation and the printing of more money.
