Personal Finance

Enter this month’s reader contest to share your best tips and earn a chance to win a prize. What's one good thing that happened in 2020?

My kids and I have a father and ex who refuses to willingly pay child support. We deal with a justice system that delivers an imperfect version of justice very, very slowly. And we have an enforcement agency that’s been made impotent by funding cuts. That's the triple whammy single parents face, floundering in the Canadian family legal quagmire. If this is hard for me, a professional in the upper echelons of society, imagine the mental strain our Canadian ‘system’ of upholding families and children puts on the single parent working as a PSW or at Tim Hortons.

As the pandemic continues to financially challenge businesses countrywide, the Government of Canada has recently announced extensions to existing programs as well as several additional support measures to help those who may be struggling. For a number of physicians across the country, these updates are particularly relevant.

Lakshmi gave every appearance of being perfect. Her marks in undergraduate medical school were exceptional. She was intelligent, well prepared, charming and efficient. Always beautifully dressed, her hair was professionally blown out, her nails never ragged or chipped. Unlike the other often frazzled and sleep-deprived members of her resident cohort, she never looked flustered, exhausted and overworked.

If you have recently retired and are in your mid-60s, you have a choice to make. Do you take your government pension entitlements, or defer them to a later date in order to receive a higher amount?

Forging a new relationship with money—a timeless lesson comes back because of COVID.