Hi again dolcemia, I am pleased that your husband has a retirement plan ... and that you have one, as well. At what age can you begin to draw on them? Usually they are set up to begin at age 65 ... can you choose to begin drawing before that? For example, in Canada, the Federal pension, to which we all contribute, which began over 40 years ago, intends to have us retire at 65, with full pension (if we made full rate of contributions ... which you don't, if you earn anything near minimum wage, meaning that low income hurts, even into retirement). If I choose to retire earlier, they won't allow me to do it before age 60, and for each 2 months that I retire before age 65, they reduce my pension by 1% ... which means 6% per year, and if I chose to retire at age 60, there would be a 30% reduction. On the other hand, if I choose not to retire until after age 65, I get a bonus of 1% for each 2 months extra that I work and contribute, 6% per year. Is your pension set up so that as inflation continues over the years, does the amount of your pension increase, as well? If there is a provision for it to increase due to inflation, it's almost certain that it won't increase at the same rate as the rate of inflation, but less ... which means that it won't cover as many expenses as the years go by as it would earlier. They call that a pension being indexed for inflation. Is your husband's pension indexed to inflation? ______________________ Do you owe money on credit cards, that you don't pay in full each month when the bill arrives? Is it/are they mainline cards, or cards issued by stores? Do you know what rate of interest that you pay on those unpaid balances? Usually on mainline cards it's about 15 - 18% annual rate. Usually on store-issued cards it's up around 25 - 28% annual rate. If I loaned you $100. and said that you owed me $25. per year for the use of it, would you consider me some kind of rascal? May I ask you a question ... have you heard the saying, "A penny saved is a penny earned"? Do you believe it? If you say that you agree, I'd like to disagree, in terms of much of the stuff that, when you buy, you might be able to save a dollar on the purchase. When you consider most of the stuff that you buy ... when you prepare your income tax, can you deduct the price of it as you calculate the amount of tax that you owe? For much of the goods that most of us buy ... the cost is not deductible. Which means that we have to buy it using money that we've already paid income tax on, i.e., after-tax money. Let's suppose that you could save $1.00 on a purchase that you make. If you're in 25% marginal tax rate (i.e. the rate of tax that you pay on your top dollar of income), that means that you have to earn $1.33 before-tax, then pay 33 cents tax, leaving yu with $1.00 in hand to go out to buy that item. So .. if you save $1.00 on the cost of the purchse ... you've saved $1.333 of extra earnings, right? Plus... if you pay that 28% on a store-issued credit card, most of the things that you bought when using it were not tax-deductible, right? Which means that, if you're in 25% income tax rate, you have to earn $36.00 pre-tax income, then pay the 25%, or $9.00 income tax, leaving you with $27.00 ... oh,oh ... not quite enough to pay that $28.00 owing. Drat!! When you buy a car (or do you lease) do you pay cash for it, or do you finance it? If finance, do you shop around to find the best rate of interest and terms? Are you a member of a credit union, or are there some in your area? Sometimes they offer lower rates, or better terms, than the usual market offers. Do you try to pay the loan off as soon as possible? I recommend that. Be sure to pay off the loan quite a while before you need to replace the car. Then keep putting away that amount of money (or nearly as much) each month, building a fund to enable you to make a far larger down payment on the next car. It would be best if you can pay the full cost in cash ... that lets you put the amount of interest into your own pocket that you'd been paying earlier to a lender. I like keeping my money in my jeans over paying others to borrow theirs. Do you have an emergency fund? That is, if you had no family income for 3 months (or, even better, 6 months ... or, better yet, a year) would you have anough money available that you would still be able to live fairly comfortably? It's important to have such an emergency fund, in case unexpected expenses crop up ... including if we get laid off from work, especially if permanently, as your husbnad is dealing with at the moment. I recommend learning how money works - it's an interesting hobby. And, know what? It pays well ... very well. As I said earlier .. pay off your store-issued credit card balances fully when they come in each month ... save yourself 35%. And that saving is ... guaranteed. Where else can you earn 35% on your money ... guaranteed!?!? Good wishes for making your money work harder for you than for the other fellers! ole joyful

Just moving it back up a bit. Some who might find it useful may not have seen it earlier. That amount that a single person can earn without being liable to pay one cent of income tax claimed above is incorrect. The correct figure was $46,345.00. in 2006 ... if solely dividends on Canadian stocks, with no other income, no income tax is payable by a single taxpayer. Have yourselves a lovely late?-winter weekend, everyone. ole joyful

>>b-4 our new marxist regime takes over.Ummmmm. Last I checked it was the BUSH administration putting the government in the business of bank ownership? And it's the BUSH administration and the rest of the Republocrats handing over OUR tax $$$ to a bunch of their cronies like GM and Citibank whose firms are going to go bankrupt because of their poor foresight and inability to meet market demands while paying their CEO's billions? And lets see, it's the BUSH administration took a budget surplus in 2000 and turned it into a record-breaking deficit, while creating the biggest government and government debt in history, including an entire new cabinet-level beaurocracy (Dept of "Homeland Security") to suck billions of dollars towards creating an atmosphere of fear? Are you safer now than you were in 2000? Think again. And the NEXT guys are the "marxists" and crooks who will create big government and mishandle our tax dollars? What planet are you on? I'm just glad BUSHCO didn't get their hands on privatizing my Social Security. At least the money I'm losing in my 403b isn't my social security for the future, just my own damn money. Perhap I'll have something to live on in my old age, thanks to FDR. I hope that Obama can provide us with the "Next Deal" to get us out of the Great Depression II that Bush has pushed us into. World War I was just known as the "Great War" until World War II came along. Now we'll have the "Depression I" and the "Depression II" to tell our grandkids about.

Our hearts aren't all cold, Marie ... ... the Alberta people ship down a lot of crude oil to run your vehicles, etc. ... ... plus gas to heat many homes. So we do, sort of, compensate for those chilly cold air blasts. Asking pay for the heating systems, of course. Not too much of the milk of human kindness in our hearts, it appears. Well, generosity, anyway. Of course, one can scarcely blame us ... ... for we've supposed to have had free trade across our border. But a few years ago your country's producers of timber, unhappy about Canadian lumber coming in, unfairly, they said, got a duty slapped on. When the Canadians took the issue to the evaluation tribunals ... ... they won the point. Five times they won it. Then ... the U.S. Ambassador up here said that we need to talk about the issue. Yeah, right! If you're a rabbit, sleeping next door to an elephant ... better keep one eye open! So ... the 5 Billion or so that had been collected was divvied up - about 4 billion sent back to Canada. And they kept the One Billion ... that some Canadians said was given to the timber boys! By the way ... have you noted how much these primary election bashes must cost ... and that's just to select the candidates to run for the Presidency? Anyway - have a good election year! We may be having a federal election up here shortly, for there's a minority parliament in place now, which usually results in the guy in power making friends among the opposition. But our current Prime Ministr is very much a run-your-own-show kind of guy. Right now our federal treasurer is speaking to parliament, presenting the Budget for the coming year. He's been running around for weeks telling how poor they are, and not to expect good news, etc. I have some errands to run, so guess I'd better go get shaved. Hope we don't get skinned, about now! Better turn on the radio in the bathroom, I guess. Have yourself a great day - it's snowing here and they're talking storm, so I hope that I get home safe and sound, later tonight. ole joyful P.S. Just announced a new tax-reduction investment system, aimed at folks nearing retirement. o j