Friday, February 1, 2013

Short Takes: Bad Company Retirement Savings Plans, Collateral Mortgages, and more

MoneyNing has a great infographic illustrating the best and worst company retirement savings plans in the U.S. The difference between the best and worst plans is more than enough for a Virgin Galactic flight to the moon.

Canadian Mortgage Trends explains the pros and cons of collateral mortgages. One thing I would add is that because a collateral mortgage is more expensive to transfer to another lender, it allows your existing lender to charge you a higher interest rate when you renew.

Potato continues the housing debate arguing that an improving economy will bring both higher wages and higher interest rates, but that mortgage payments will rise faster than wages.

The Blunt Bean Counter finds estimates of the cost of owning a dog to be low. I always tell people I have the perfect dog. It costs me nothing, I see as much of it as I want, and it lives the rest of the time next door. (My neighbour might experience higher costs than I do.)

Retire Happy Blog explains the rules for getting money out of a Lock-In Retirement Account (LIRA). When I first got a LIRA, I thought that when I hit 55 I’d be able to just dump the money into an RRSP. But the rules are more complicated than this. The government wants you to get lifetime income from your LIRA rather than blowing it all in a weekend in Las Vegas.

Preet Banerjee interviews Ellen Roseman in his latest podcast.

Big Cajun Man says “Don’t BITCH about [your debt], DO something about it!”

1 comment:

  1. Something called a LIRA sounds so fun and exciting, why wouldn't I want to blow it all on a weekend in Vegas? Thanks for the inclusion, enjoy the frigid blast too

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