BREAKING: The Bank of Canada Cuts Interest Rate to 0.75% + MORE Jan 27th

DOVER, Del. – Changes to DuPont’s portfolio and improved productivity boosted fourth-quarter earnings and helped to offset the negative impact of a stronger dollar.The company, based in Wilmington, Delaware, boosted its estimated costs savings from operational redesigns by $300 million, to at least $1.3 billion by 2017DuPont also plans to return most if not all of an estimated $4 billion in dividend proceeds to shareholders from the spinoff of its performance chemicals unit into a separate company called Chemours. It will do that, it said, through a share repurchase program.The company has been under pressure from activist investor Nelson Peltz to reward investors.”In 2015, we remain focused on generating superior returns for our shareholders, including through return of capital from the expected Chemours dividend, while positioning DuPont for our next stage of growth,” said CEO Ellen Kullman.For the quarter, the company reported net income of $683 million, or 74 cents per share, up from $185 million, or 20 cents per share, for the fourth quarter of 2013…

With countless baby boomers set to retire, they’ll need to determine if their RRSPs will be sufficient to cover life expenses during their golden years. My mother, Maureen, who’s only a year or two away from retirement, finds herself in this very situation. After being a lifelong saver, she’s started to seriously look at her RRSPs to help figure out the best strategy to draw them down.
After my mother downsized from an oversized family house for a condo, she found herself with $100,000 in savings. Maureen has always been a diligent saver and paid off her mortgage five years ago. She chose the strategy of focusing on her mortgage in order to be debt-free upon retirement. Although she has a defined contribution pension plan at work, it will only provide $150 per month – not nearly enough to retire comfortably on.
Like many baby boomers, she found herself ‘house rich, cash poor’. After working so hard to pay down her mortgage she wasn’t too keen on a reverse mortgage, so she sold her house for top dollar and moved to a low maintenance, less costly condo…

The Bank of Canada last week unexpectedly lowered its key lending rate, in the hope of stimulating an economy sucker-punched by falling oil prices. The idea, of course, is to make it easier to borrow.

The banks seem to be following suit quickly, with reports already coming in of lowered mortgage rates. Some analysts are even forecasting some types of mortgages will be going for below 2 per cent soon. Clearly, the people at the top want Canadians to borrow more.

But do Canadians want to? New data from Google suggests consumers may be feeling stressed out over the money they’ve already borrowed.

Searches for “pay off debt” hit a record high in Canada this month, according to Google, up 9 per cent compared to January of 2014.

Meanwhile, searches for savings accounts have grown 100 per cent in that time, the search engine company said, suggesting Canadians may be ready to make the switch from borrowing more to saving more.

According to Statistics Canada, average household debt hit a record high in Canada in the third quarter of last year, at 162…

What an eventful week! The Bank of Canada has changed the name of the economic game with an unanticipated rate cut – with implications for YOUR mortgage and YOUR savings! Meanwhile, mobile banking apps take centre stage with consumers – lenders who aren’t up to snuff are getting passed by for those who make banking on the go a breeze.
Get the full story below.
The Bank of Canada Cuts Interest Rate to 0.75%
Talk about a shakeup! The Bank of Canada surprised economists and markets this week by cutting their central interest rate for the first time since 2010. This means variable mortgage holders and savers alike will see a reduction in their interest rates. Read on to see how this will affect you, your mortgage, and the Canadian economy.
Read Penelope’s Blog | The Bank of Canada Cuts Interest Rate to 0.75%
Turning an RSP Into Income: My Mom’s Story
So you’ve been dutifully contributing to that RSP over the years – now it’s time to turn that nest egg into your day-to-day income…

The Bank of Canada is officially worried about the drop in oil prices – so much so that they have cut central interest rates for the first time since September 2010. The BoC announced this morning in their January rate announcement that the overnight lending rate, which sets the Prime rate (the cost of borrowing applied to the banks and sets the cost of variable loans in Canada), has been lowered to 0.75 per cent from 1 per cent.
Stated the Bank in their announcement, “This decision is in response to the recent sharp drop in oil prices, which will be negative for growth and underlying inflation in Canada.”
The rate cut comes as a surprise; while economists expected that the BoC would lower its growth forecast and hint at how oil may change monetary policy in the near future, it was not anticipated that an actual cut would occur today. In fact, it’s an abrupt about-face from wide-spread belief that there would be a rate hike in late 2015 – a sentiment felt as recently as the beginning of January…