Anyone out there cut their cable cord?

[Razgovory]

Oops, I read your post & thought Youtube, not Netflix 

Having profiles on Netflix now helps.  I didn't like having my wife's zombie/horror movies show up in our queue 

Ugh, I go the same problem.  I have a netflix account which my mom uses quite a bit and it recommends to me the most boring British television.

[Admiral Yi]

Tax free savings account, TSFA.  5000 (now 5500$) per year max though.  Revenus grow with no taxes on them.

That sounds like your IRA equivalent.  A money market account has no special tax treatment.  It's a hybrid checking/savings account.

[Ideologue]

Wife and I have been discussing cutting back on some expenses, and one idea we keep coming back to is cutting our cable.  There's an awful lot on Netflix, most of the hockey I watch is on GameCentre, and I have to remind myself that over the air broadcasts still exist.

Has anyone out there gone for it and ditched cable tv entirely?

I do not have cable television.  In fact, I don't get broadcast TV either.  I don't have the gear.

[crazy canuck]

Tax free savings account, TSFA.  5000 (now 5500$) per year max though.  Revenus grow with no taxes on them.

That sounds like your IRA equivalent.  A money market account has no special tax treatment.  It's a hybrid checking/savings account.

We have the same thing.   But with TSFA's nobody uses them much anymore.

[OttoVonBismarck]

What are the withdrawal rules on a TFSA? People use money market accounts or regular savings account because they are ultra-liquid. IRAs are easy to put money into, but you can't pull it out without paying a 10% penalty unless you're over the age of 59.5.

[Scipio]

Wife's not working, and we've probably gotten a bit sloppy in our spending habits.  We're not running up debt or anything, but we're finding ourselves with nothing left by the end of the month (when we used to always have a good balance in the ole bank account), so just trying to go back and look at our expenses.

Plus, there's a weird deduction I only have to make for approx the six months of the year, which will start coming off my paycheque again in January.

You're not asking for budgeting advice and I'm sure you're a smart enough guy to run your own finances, but I thought I'd mention the "budget to zero" philosophy I and my wife have used for years.

Basically at the beginning of each month, we total up our income for the month and then "budget to zero", basically meaning we allocate every dollar coming in to predefined expense categories. That way there is no "unassigned" money. The category balances build up over time if you don't end up spending them. After a certain period of carry overs you can decide on what to do with the excess. Some categories we frequently carry over would be things like electric / natural gas budgeted money in low usage months. With those, we let that money stay "assigned" to those categories because we know in higher usage months we'll want to draw from the surplus.

For other categories at the end of the year we take all the excess out and put into long term savings.

What I found great about switching to this system (which we did over ten years ago), is you no longer have to work throughout the month wondering if you're over or under spending. Everything is assigned a budget. To keep things on track you also record every transaction you make and make deductions from budget so you know where you're at. It sounds more involved than it is, for me it was an afternoon setting up an excel spreadsheet to do exactly what I needed and then just copying a new one for each month into a new worksheet. It sounds laborious to log your transactions but it works out to like 5 minutes a day.

My wife and I started doing this when we got married, and we have eliminated a ton of debt, and have about 10k in cash put back, plus we refinanced our house, saving us a ton of money. We upped our grocery budget after four years of $50/week to $62.50/week because we were zeroing out and missing out on something each week, and we're basically a week ahead at this point. And all we really had to do was plan. We're not as disciplined as OvB, but then, we're not high rollers, because we're still mostly paying off debt. This week, we killed my last credit card. Now, we are going to be flush.

[Grey Fox]

Lola was hooked on this really annoying French (?) cartoon "TroTro" on Netflix.  The kid's (well actually he's a little donkey) voice is so annoying and he's a total narcissist.

Still better than that whiney piece of shit Caillou, though.  One thing the wife & I agree on is not allowing that show on at any time in our house.

What's wrong with Caillou?

It' certainly better than my nemesis Fireman Sam.

And yeah, Timmy has found some pretty bizarre cartoons on Netflix, stuff I'd never heard of.  And weirdly one off his favourites is the 90s childrens classic... Barney. 

Caillou is the poster child for the Child King phenomenum. His parents let him do everything he wants all the time.

If you are serious about Netflix, you need a netflix switcher, like adfreetime. https://adfreetime.com/region-unlock/



I can't cut cable, I want to watch the Habs play & those games won't be on Gamecenter for me. There's also the kids channels, the cooking & home improvement channels my gf & I watch almost constantly.

Maybe in a couple of years when Videotron's Netflix has more content.

[Grey Fox]

What are the withdrawal rules on a TFSA? People use money market accounts or regular savings account because they are ultra-liquid. IRAs are easy to put money into, but you can't pull it out without paying a 10% penalty unless you're over the age of 59.5.

It depends on the institutions you use. Most seem to be a 25$ fee per cashing out.

[Josquius]

A thought: Kids having video on demand.
How does this affect their likes and dislikes?
Beyond getting to see and like odd stuff of course.

What I mean is...with conventional TV it was an episode, maybe two if you're lucky, a week. Shows lasted for years. Kids could grow up with one or two main shows for each time of their life.
With this video on demand stuff...then they can blow through every episode ever made of each show several times over within a month. Its much more disposable. Or do they forget they've seen every episode? Or just plain not care/see it as part of the fun? (my mother says I watched my one Thomas VHS tape front to back so often she knew it all by heart).

I'd wonder further on this how it would tie into the whole TV-show/marketing tool thing...

[MadImmortalMan]

Oops, I read your post & thought Youtube, not Netflix 

Having profiles on Netflix now helps.  I didn't like having my wife's zombie/horror movies show up in our queue 

Ugh, I go the same problem.  I have a netflix account which my mom uses quite a bit and it recommends to me the most boring British television.

You really should give Doc Martin a chance.   

[Barrister]

A thought: Kids having video on demand.
How does this affect their likes and dislikes?
Beyond getting to see and like odd stuff of course.

What I mean is...with conventional TV it was an episode, maybe two if you're lucky, a week. Shows lasted for years. Kids could grow up with one or two main shows for each time of their life.
With this video on demand stuff...then they can blow through every episode ever made of each show several times over within a month. Its much more disposable. Or do they forget they've seen every episode? Or just plain not care/see it as part of the fun? (my mother says I watched my one Thomas VHS tape front to back so often she knew it all by heart).

I'd wonder further on this how it would tie into the whole TV-show/marketing tool thing...

Timmy can watch the same episode of whatever, be it Team Umi-Zoomi, Barney, Caillou, or whatever, multiple times and not care in the least.

[PRC]

You're not asking for budgeting advice and I'm sure you're a smart enough guy to run your own finances, but I thought I'd mention the "budget to zero" philosophy I and my wife have used for years.

Basically at the beginning of each month, we total up our income for the month and then "budget to zero", basically meaning we allocate every dollar coming in to predefined expense categories. That way there is no "unassigned" money. The category balances build up over time if you don't end up spending them. After a certain period of carry overs you can decide on what to do with the excess. Some categories we frequently carry over would be things like electric / natural gas budgeted money in low usage months. With those, we let that money stay "assigned" to those categories because we know in higher usage months we'll want to draw from the surplus.

For other categories at the end of the year we take all the excess out and put into long term savings.

What I found great about switching to this system (which we did over ten years ago), is you no longer have to work throughout the month wondering if you're over or under spending. Everything is assigned a budget. To keep things on track you also record every transaction you make and make deductions from budget so you know where you're at. It sounds more involved than it is, for me it was an afternoon setting up an excel spreadsheet to do exactly what I needed and then just copying a new one for each month into a new worksheet. It sounds laborious to log your transactions but it works out to like 5 minutes a day.

My lady-friend and I have a similar system, but don't you have an issue with the administration of it?  You're basically checking every receipt to track every dollar spent, no?   

[Brazen]

My lady-friend and I have a similar system, but don't you have an issue with the administration of it?  You're basically checking every receipt to track every dollar spent, no?

My version of this is a spreadsheet with all my monthly, quarterly and annual bills with the next debit date. Each month, I subtract what's coming out that month and transfer what's left minus a safety net to a separate cash account which I use for food, petrol and all out of pocket expenses, as far as possible using actual cash. If I haven't touched the safety net, it goes as an extra credit card repayment. I swap my credit card debt between interest-free offers as they run out. My savings will equal my credit card balance in a few months, I may take the plunge and pay it off entirely, but I'm not happy without having some savings in case of emergencies.

Yeah, I seriously micro-manage (I check my balance pretty much every day) but having been in financial strife the last couple of years it's the only way I sleep at night.

I get my TV (including on-demand TV, some movies and a sports channel with most of the premiership matches), broadband, telephone line rental and calls (but who uses a landline these days?) for £47. No cable, it's an aerial/broadband thingy.

[Malthus]

What are the withdrawal rules on a TFSA? People use money market accounts or regular savings account because they are ultra-liquid. IRAs are easy to put money into, but you can't pull it out without paying a 10% penalty unless you're over the age of 59.5.

No penalty. You can put in, and take out, as much as you like from the total TFSA "space", up to the maximum contribution - the amount you put into that space has a maximum (which grows by $5500 each year).

http://www.tfsa.gc.ca/

It's really useful.

The big question, for Canucks, is - put into RRSP, or TFSA?

The diferences - RRSP is for retirement, you are not taxed on money you put in, you are taxed on money you take out. TFSA - for anything. You are not taxed on the increase on money inside the TFSA "space". You can take out whenever you want.

For high-income types, filling up the RRSP to the max seems to me to be a no-brainer: if you are in the over-30% tax bracket, it's like being handed an instant extra third of the money you contribute. Then, fill up the TFSA, the RESP (the education savings plan) if you have kids, etc.

[Malthus]

There is no way I could micro-manage my finances like you guys do, let alone make my wife do the same. I find it hard enough to docket my hours at work. 

I just say "every month I save X$. The rest we spend".