Budgeting · Book
The Floor Gives Way
Ray, 54 · Budgeting
When income stops overnight, Ray has to stabilize the cash before deciding anything — EI sickness, LTD, the DTC that unlocks everything, and a budget rebuilt on less.
Chapters
The Floor Gives Way
A stroke ends Ray's working life overnight. Before deciding anything, he learns to stabilize the cash: see what income stopped and what keeps costing.
The Short Bridge
EI sickness benefits can bridge the first months after income stops. Ray learns to apply the day he can, and what the waiting period means.
Reading the Policy
Ray reads his long-term disability coverage closely: own-occupation versus any-occupation, taxable or not, and how CPP-Disability offsets it.
The Form That Unlocks Everything
The Disability Tax Credit and form T2201 are the gate to almost everything downstream. Ray learns to get certified first.
A Budget on Less
A smaller, fixed income still needs a plan. Ray rebuilds his budget around what is truly fixed and sorts needs from wants at the new number.
The Benefit Maze
CPP-Disability and AISH stack and offset each other and LTD. Ray maps the benefits together, not one at a time, and meets the asset and income tests.
The Window That Closed
At 54 the RDSP matched-money window has already closed. Ray names the loss plainly, and learns the DTC refund and his TFSA are still wide open.
The Money Coming Back
Ray can claim backwards too: the retroactive DTC, the medical expense credit, and the disability supports deduction can refund years he already paid.
Naming a Person
A real plan includes who helps Ray decide if one day he can't. He works through the advocate and power-of-attorney conversation with dignity intact.
Standing Again
The new-normal budget runs steadily on disability income. A rebuilt plan can still be a calm one, and it bridges to what little can still grow.