Coming Out

 

In case you had not noticed, I have had limited activity on this blog in the last few weeks. I have not lost my enthusiasm, run out of photos or ideas, or forgotten how to do it. The important ingredient that is missing is energy.

 

It seems that I have temporarily come out of retirement for a while and after a day's work I am good for a few games of internet Scrabble and them I am done. I am a Zombie after a day of work. I can barely move.

 

Why, you might ask? As to coming out of retirement, I actually never officially retired but only tried, successfully, to slow down. However, a few lucrative jobs came my way and at the time of considering them, I felt energetic enough to take them on, no doubt due to the fact that I was well rested.

 

Fatigue will dampen one's enthusiasm to get out there with a camera, load and process the photos, and them come up with something to write about. The two photos here were taken with a minimum of effort, right here in our garden.

 

As to a continuation of work, yes, I have taken on more contracts and will have a busy summer. I am slowly getting back into shape and even though very tired at the end of the day, all systems benefit from physical work. Walking every day is great but is not as beneficial as the activity I do when working.

 

If this all sounds crazy for an old semi-retired guy like me, it gets crazier. We are receiving word any moment now about a 2 week contract that requires working through the night!

"What does not kill you will make you stronger". We will see about that.  

 

 

Changes Coming?

 

There are meetings scheduled for December at Meech Lake, starring the provincial finance ministers and their federal counterpart.  The topic is all about how to improve the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP). Of course, there is only one way, and that is for the worker, who will some day be eligible, to pay more for it now. The government should pay more you say? Did you not know that the government only has our money? So be prepared to pay more, to get more.

There is one thing I do not hear in the debate, nor have I read in a lengthy article just last night. It is the predicament of the self-employed person. Someone like myself whose business is a proprietorship, and right now has no employees. I have contributed to CPP virtually all my life and from day one when it was first instituted. For all but five of those years, as a self-employed person, I have contributed double, the employee and the employer portion. It is mandatory. So, now when they call on an increase of say $2000.00 per year for every working person, that translates to a $4000.00 contribution to someone who is self-employed. This is hardly something that most of us can afford. As a tradesman, I am already cutting prices to the bone to stay competitive, yet my overhead continues to rise.

In the coming debate, who will speak for the self-employed?

Goodbye Tension, Hello Pension

 

I have been 65 for 1 month and 24 days and still no pension cheque. Hello!

 

And if that doesn't hurt, I got a letter this week from Canada Pension Plan stating what my "Extra Benefit" would be since the CPP rules changed two years ago. You remember. It used to be that when you took your CPP as early as age 60, you no longer had to contribute. That made a lot of sense for a self employed person as we put both employee and employer portion into the plan. Then two years ago, the new rule stated that even if you were collecting CPP you had to contribute if you had employable earnings. So I did contribute for the last two years, and up to my birthday this year. My benefit for all that contribution? $13.51 extra per month.

 

And, one more whammy against the aged. I applied for the extra home-owners grant for my municipal taxes today. At age 65, one can get an increased grant to offset the taxes. My extra grant was $225.00. I am on a 10 month equal payment plan so that is $22.50 per month. But, guess what. My taxes went up by $12.00 per month. I am, as an old age pensioner, now saving $10.50 per month.

 

The bottom line is this. If you are not preparing in a big way to look after yourself in your golden years, you have a big surprise coming. The government is only throwing crumbs and finding creative ways to make the crumbs smaller.  

Weathering the Storm

Coquihalla backwoods cabin

Once upon a time, there was a very large housing complex (650 units) that the owner wanted to sell. She thought that it would be easier if she divided the property into 4 strata titles, that way, if need be, she could sell to four owners, or just one. As it turned out, a group of investors purchased the whole project and it remained under the management of four strata management entities. It was a bit cumbersome, but the cost of amalgamation was high and as long as everyone co-operated things ran smoothly.

One day, several very greedy people decided they would hi-jack one of the strata entities and guarantee the owners of that particular strata low overhead and bigger rent cheques. How they did it was to lower the standards of who they would rent to, to guarantee full occupancy, and when problems would arise, they would not address them, but continue to simply 'milk the cow'.

Conditions deteriorated even more when they began to rent to a certain African ethnic group of young men who were the drug dealers in town. Soon there were drug deals in the parking lots, the hallways and the lobbies. There were shootings, stabbings, and fights. The others in the complex began to move out. Revenues fell and soon everyone who was an owner in the development became very concerned. The owners in the other three quarters of the development had their hands tied because any changes required all four stratas to agree.

Over the last few years, there have been steps taken to rectify this situation, mainly to amalgamate all four stratas. With many lawyers involved and much money spent, it is beginning to look hopeful again. Over the next few days the results will become known. Why do I care?  My hopes and dreams for retirement depend in large part to the outcome of this battle.  

Mushrooms Are Fun Guys

A few days ago I wrote about the advancing ages of retirement in various countries. Today there is news out of Ottawa of a Canadian plan to keep us out of our pension years longer. The earlier we take our pension, the less we receive, and it has been that way for quite some time. But now on the other end, there is a rather large incentive to delay our withdrawals as long as possible. Indeed, if one waits until age 70 to start withdrawing, one would get $10,000.00 more a year in pension money. 

This will no doubt entice many, but one would need some money to live with in the interim. The one big factor here is the inflation rate. If inflation is strong, one would have missed out on ten years of pension income just to receive more, but in inflated dollars making the purchasing power the same as it was had he taken pension much earlier. Because there is risk involved, I would say take what you can get when you can get it. Besides, the older one gets, the less one needs for survival. An elderly person can always go to the Fraser Canyon and live on wild mushrooms because they grow everywhere.