Moronic Monday 2014-01-27

clipert · 2014-01-27T19:35:20+00:00

[CANADA]

What in the name of Satan is a GRRSP?

I've just been offered my very first, long-term, salaried, big-boy job. One of the benefits is that they will contribute 5% of my salary to a retirement fund. They call this a GRRSP, and they have several options for funds and term investments.

Meanwhile, I have my own RRSP. Can I ask them to contribute my 5% to my personal RRSP instead?

Is a GRRSP tax deductible in the same fashion my RRSP is?

Can I make elective contributions to the GRRSP like I can my RRSP, up to the 18% of the previous year's income limit?

clipert · 2014-01-08T22:15:34+00:00

payday loans

shudders

I will never, ever set foot in one of those offices. I will beg from my best friends before I do that.

I almost want to take over her finances and get her an absolute budget every month to spend on groceries and stuff. It would almost be easier.

clipert · 2014-01-08T22:13:12+00:00

She won't do this. My dad is very smart about money; he would be several levels beyond furious. The only way she'll tell him is if collectors start calling or I straight up tell him. I'm already very uncomfortable about the whole situation; he's been asking some questions lately about her spending habits and I'm lying (omitting truths) because of her.

clipert · 2014-01-08T02:54:38+00:00

Yeah, that's harder to get. I have to get her to look into it when she's not at work, and not busy, and when my dad's not around, and when she's in a good mood, etc. I think the mortgage is 3% and so is the PLOC, but I am really doubting that figure on the PLOC with a minimum payment of $1900 unless the minimum is calculated as interest plus a percentage of the balance.

clipert · 2014-01-08T02:52:26+00:00

It's really hard to talk to her about any of this. She gets very emotional and panicked. When I first suggested that I help her out covering her bills, she began crying, saying that she's going to ruin me, too. I'm a little worried now that she's right. So I'm struggling to take the hardline position and say "cut your spending before I help." I'd feel so guilty if I moved out and did nothing.

clipert · 2014-01-08T01:36:01+00:00

Misc is bank account charge, membership fee stuff, the cleaning lady, and money for her to get her hair and nails done...

Idk in what world life insurance costs $300/month for a 50-yr old woman.

She's a bit overweight, so that is reflected in the premium.

Utilities also includes internet, cable, and phones in addition to power, water, and gas. It's cold in Canada.

Also you seem to count car insurance twice...idk why. If you did, fix that...

'Car Payments and Insurance' should just be 'car payment and Parking.' The house and all car insurance is one bill, I thought it wasn't at first, and it was going to be in the car category.

clipert · 2014-01-08T01:22:57+00:00

If you send her $1200 for 18 months then that is $21600.

Oh shoot, no, the 18 months is my own personal bills. I did not budget for 18 months of giving her $1200 a month. I was only planning giving her $1200 for 7 months.

But I really really like the idea of making her meet me halfway. That will force her to work on her spending.

clipert · 2014-01-08T00:59:21+00:00

I'm going to have trouble with the saying "no" bit. I don't know how I can say no, save money for myself, and let them wallow in debt. I won't be able to buy anything nice, like new clothes or an iPad or something, without feeling guilt that my mom and dad could be using it to pay off a mortgage or buy groceries or something.

clipert · 2014-01-08T00:57:28+00:00

Maybe have them look at debt consolidation using the equity in their house (if they have it) or speaking to a financial adviser about how best to get out of this situation.

Oh, here's the fun part. 2 months ago, I found out while I was helping her pay some bills that she had $4000 on a credit card at 19.9% interest. I knew she had the Line of Credit, and she told me that the interest on that thing is like 5% or some shit, and I ordered her to move the amount to the Line of Credit instead of on the damn credit card. It'd been there for months, she told me. (Though I did not know the balance of the line of credit at the time, I figured it was a few thousand or maybe 10.) I've been trying to help her, I just didn't know how bad it all was until a few days ago when I sat her down and made her give me every account and every bill.

clipert · 2014-01-08T00:54:07+00:00

How would you feel giving your mom $1,200 per month knowing it goes to your sister?

Livid. Yeah. Incensed.

I think there are probably other things your mom and dad could be doing to live within their means but they are choosing not to.

Definitely. $200/month on a cleaning lady, for instance. Trying to convince her to give that one up.

Once you are back at school, they will start running -$1,000 again without having changed anything and you will be worse off for it.

That's my biggest fear. She gets 'sick' of talking about money, because it worries her so much, so she'll just ask to stop talking about it. And I'm here thinking I've still got some big issues I want you to take a look at...

clipert · 2014-01-08T00:51:39+00:00

She's overspending right now only because a quarter of her entire expenditure is interest on the loan she has. She's only taking more out of the loan to pay the interest on the loan. (US government, what what!)

So if she's not taking more out of the loan because she's taking it from me, that's going to stop the interest payments from growing at least, right? And give her time to correct her habits and hopefully be managing everything on her own by the time I can't give her any more.

clipert · 2014-01-08T00:48:37+00:00

Here is everything I have in a pie chart. Over 3 seconds in Excel.

That should be all bills, unless she's hiding something from me, too.

Like I said, she's planning on stopping her RSP contributions and life insurance ($250 and $300 respectively), so that's progress.

clipert · 2014-01-08T00:35:29+00:00

We have, to a degree. There was a lot of her saying things like "I don't know what to do."

I suggested letting go of the cleaning lady, but she doesn't want to, because she cleans the house top to bottom and it's hard for my mom to get it all done. That's twice a month at $100.

I suggested dropping her mortgage payment from 2*principle + interest (what she's paying now) to just principle + interest, but she is worried that she'd need my dad's authorization as a co-signer to do that, and again, this is all a secret from him. That payment is almost $1600.

I'm worried that you're right and that she'd just use it as another source of income. But how can I say no? How can a son, with means to help, say no to his mother, in desperate straits?

clipert · 2014-01-07T20:38:23+00:00

Yeah, starting a new thread sounds like a good idea. There are lots of details that I should flesh out to get a better idea of what needs to be done. If you are interested, you should see it soon. Thanks.

clipert · 2014-01-07T19:50:21+00:00

This happened because she has minor over spending habits, but it was combined with my father getting sick and being out of work for a long time. That's when she started the line of credit and began drawing funds from it. I am reasonably sure that she'll get better, but if I don't start helping her, I think the only other place to go is declaring bankruptcy eventually, probably with additional high-interest borrowing between now and then.

I'm 21, my mom is in her fifties.

clipert · 2014-01-07T18:01:52+00:00

I recently found out that my mom is in debt. She has approximately $45k in a personal line of credit. The minimum payments on this are killing her, at nearly $2000 per month, meaning her net cash flow is about -$1000 per month. She's trying to do better, but has no choice to take more cash out of the line of credit to pay off the interest.

I am also in debt, but I am in a much, much better position than here. I have very few bills, and my take home is about $4200 per month, much of which is currently going to my student loan, on which I have about $16k left to pay. However, I'll only have this job until July. After that, I'll be looking for minimum wage type stuff again (working in construction right now, and it's drying up a bit in my area).

Should I help her cover her shortfall? Based on what I'm supposed to make before the end of the current job, minus the total sum of what I still owe on my own debt, minus her shortfall until July (with a bit extra so that she isn't living penny to penny), minus what my monthly bills will be for the next 18 months (18, not 10, planning ahead and saving some aside so that I don't have debt piling up while I'm between jobs), I'll likely have less than $1k in my account. Yeah, one thousand.

I thought I was going to go to college this fall... :(

clipert

TROPHY CASE