Category: Personal Finances

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Nailed it: On why “How I retired at 35” stories are extremely irritating…

“All of these early retirement articles are the same. They all say things like, “Make it a goal”, “Track your expenses”, “Establish a system.” Blah. Blah. Blah. But none of these things are the actual reason for how they retired early. Because the actual reason is either (1) earning a high income or (2) having an absurdly low level of spending, or both.”
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As a public service, the article includes more realistic headlines for retiring early, “Wanna retire at 27? Marry rich” and “Foregoing Procreation, Living Like a Hermit, and 4 Other Ways to Retire in Your 30s”.”
 
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“Canadians paid more than $1.2 billion in wireless data overage fees last year”

https://business.financialpost.com/telecom/canadians-paid-more-than-1-2-billion-in-wireless-data-overage-fees-last-year

What can you do about it? Android users can install a no-root firewall called “NetGuard”. I’m not sure if Apple users can do anything. I did a quick search and nothing came up.

If you’re not too technical, use my NetGuard import file (link below) to auto-configure the app for you. I had to troubleshoot some google system apps to make it run seamlessly. The app works basically by stopping anything from using your data plan unless you say so. You can set apps up to not use data unless you are actually using them as well (screen is on and actively interacting with it). It’s pretty slick. We use about 200MB a month just by using this app. We still get maps/GPS, email, etc. Things we try to avoid doing while on data is using a web browser and video. That doesn’t mean we don’t watch videos. We just indicate that the video is downloaded for offline viewing only while on Wifi (you can do this with Netflix and Plex).

NetGuard link: https://www.netguard.me/
Link to import file: Right click this link and select “Save link as…” netguard_20181128 – If it says “zip can’t be downloaded securely”, click the “arrow up” and select “Keep”. Download to a desktop/laptop and unzip this file with password “1234”. Due to wordpress security it doesn’t allow .xml files so using password zip to get around this. Then transfer this file to your phone (e.g. maybe by emailing or certainly via USB transfer).

 

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CRA – No Government mandate to ensure Accountability

Liberals and NDP block M-43 a bill to help ensure CRA is accountable. This should have been unanimous and bipartisan. How many families have been unfairly ruined by the CRA? It is well known that ruling political parties use tax agencies as a weapon against those who oppose them.

In 2001 I was a victim of fraud and identity theft on my SIN – somebody had accidentally used my SIN # to claim EI payments (CRA does not validate that the SIN used matches the person claiming). CRA’s response was “oh, that’s horrible but we can’t fix that”. It was a 1000 hours of forcing CRA to do their job. I had to “know someone” in CRA to get a fraud investigation started and then I got shuffled around from place to place once the investigation determined it wasn’t my fault. All the while they sent creditors to my house… even when I was absolved, they wouldn’t erase the other person’s debt from my account.

Update Oct 7, 2018: CRA conducted a similar campaign against this man for EI payments. CRA wouldn’t correct until “Go Public” made it public:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/jobless-man-pays-for-ei-mistake-1.4848974

Update Jan 2, 2019: CRA employed gang member who then operated on behalf of organized crime:

https://www.sudbury.com/police/tax-workerbike-gang-member-targeted-financial-records-of-police-transcripts-show-1001681

Update: Feb 22, 2019: CRA over-reporting additional revenue from its compliance activities to make itself look better. CRA charging interest and penalties for delays when the delay is their fault. CRA continues to violate the “Taxpayer bill of rights”. Auditor General’s report:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cra-auditor-general-1.4912862