Wed 1 Feb 2012
Holiday bonus is going into the pocket of debt collectors
Posted by admin under Debt Consolidation
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After the recent financial cries, a large number of individuals are struggling hard to
mange their finances, and in lieu of doing so they are incessantly falling into debt.
According to the latest statistics from the Federal Reserve, the total amount of consumer
debt in the U.S. stands at nearly $2.4 trillion. If you are also one among this staggering
number of debt stricken individuals, it is recommended to pursue consumer debt
consolidation.
However, people in recent times are concern about their debt and want to wipe it off as
soon as possible. Most of the people who are expecting to get a bonus this year intend
to use the amount towards paying down their credit card bills, line of credit, car loan or
mortgage. According to the Bank of Montreal survey, Canadians getting a holiday bonus
are using the money to pay down the household debt.
Financial planner, Rona Birenbaum says that people are largely paying down their debt
keeping in mind the Christmas time as there will be a fair amount of over-indebtedness
among people.
A report released last week stated that Canadians have set a new record for household
debt and that record has surpassed those in the United States. According to Mark Carney,
Governor of the Bank of Canada, household debt is one of the major financial struggles
for almost all individuals.
He has also commented that Canadians are drown under the sea of outstanding debt so
any kind of financial shock like job losses or high interest rates can make it difficult for
them to meet financial obligations.
However, the BMO survey shows that if people do not use their bonus to pay down the
debt, they use 23 percent of the amount for holiday spending, 17 percent for consumer
purchase, and 15 percent for a vacation.
Mr. Birenbaum further says that bonuses have been traditionally used for consumption,
for trips and for investment purposes. This is how the usage of bonuses should be. Salary
is meant for the basic necessities of life, while bonus is for luxury. But on the recent
economic surface, the question arises that how many Canadians expect to get a bonus
during this Christmas.
According to the recent survey of BMO, one-third or 29 percent of the workforce are
expecting to get a bonus at the year-end. Among them, half are anticipating that it will
be the same as last year, 22 percent are assuming that the amount will be less, and 28
percent are predicting that the amount will be more.
However, the worse part is that money received by employees as a bonus will be
taxed, which means a fair chunk will end up in government coffers. For an example, an
employee earning between $83,000 and $129,000 will have to pay tax on bonus at 43
percent.
In conclusion, people getting a bonus are contributing half or whole of it towards paying
down the debt. Therefore, it can be said that debt collectors will largely get your holiday
bonus this Christmas.
