Spending and Dating
OK, since I’m single I have to keep up on these kinds of surveys. This one is from match.com and surveyed a ton of singles on their opinions on spending and dating. It turns out that men and women have very different expectations:
Men are three times more likely to consider the cost of a date.
On the other hand, 58% of women prefer a casual date, and not one that involves spending a lot of money.
While I’m guessing it’s not a big consideration for men, 53% of women do spend money before the date on things such as a new outfit, manicure, or stylist. I hope the date is worth that money! Or maybe it shouldn’t be called spending – maybe it should be called an investment…
For both sexes, 82% of respondents say their interest in the other person increases if they see an act of financial generosity. That could be many things ranging from a larger tip, or some kind of charitable giving.
On the downside, three-quarters of both sexes are turned off if they find out that their date has more than $5,000 of credit card debt.
First time home buyers:
With the requirement of a 5% down payment, and pretty high average home prices, it keeps getting harder and harder for someone to get into their first home.
I read some interesting stats the other day on using the RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan: Since inception in 1992, almost 2.5 million people have taken advantage of the program, with an average withdrawal from their RRSP of just under $11,000. In total, over $26 billion has been withdrawn from the program.
Over the past five years, the numbers and average withdrawal have both decreased. It may be a good idea to sort of borrow from yourself, but you have to remember that it’s money that is now NOT growing in your RRSP for retirement and you DO have to pay it back over the next 15 years. If you don’t, one-fifteenth of the total is added to your income that year, and you’ll be paying taxes on it. You also need to remember that this payback in on top of your new mortgage payment, utilities, property taxes, etc. Those are all likely to be a much larger part of your income now.
Who cares? Well, most of us do – or should. Almost 70% of Canadians own their own home – well, have a lender who lets them live in the home. And almost 40% of our entire wealth is tied up in the equity of our homes.
If the US government were a family:
Here is an interesting way of taking the staggering U.S. debt of over $14 trillion and breaking it down to figures we can understand:
This family would earn $58,000 a year, and spend $75,000, and have $327,000 in credit card debt. The proposing so-called “huge” spending cuts would cut expenses from $75,000 to $72,000 a year.