Skip to content
Canajun Finances Home » Best of » Page 15

Best of

Clock

Teller Upselling, Auto-filling Taxes, Spring Forward and #MoneyTalk

Upselling Teller
Spring Forward This Weekend (but it isn’t Spring quite yet)

The CBC had a report this week from a TD Teller, who says that he or she is expected to reach goals selling (sometimes unwanted) customer services. This teller stated,  ‘I will do anything I can to make my goal‘. Am I surprised by teller up selling ? Absolutely not, every teller I have dealt with lately has engaged me about new services at the bank. I get harder sells at my bank than I have at car dealerships.  As Michael James has said, Canadian Banks are losing income streams, so they must work hard to get new income streams. Expect teller up selling , just have a polite (but firm) negative response ready.

I am not sure how to politely tell the teller, Sod off, I don’t need credit insurance!, or “No I don’t want to get another credit card“.

Auto-filling has come to the world of Canadian Income Taxes, isn’t it great! I did get a cautionary comment from a reader, to be very careful and make sure the CRA has all of your tax slips before you auto-file. Strangely you can’t blame the CRA for not having all your forms ready.

How goes your Lenten Financial journey? Mine so far is stinking it up big time, but there is time to adjust and fix my plans. Remember it is a journey, not a true false test.

My Writings for the Week Ending March 10th

A quieter week than last week with only 1 article, but an important reminder that it is Tax season with, Tax Tips to Remember 2017 (which is for tax year 2016). Lots of new wrinkles in the system, make sure you get back all the money you are owed. I have had discussions with other financial writers about the TFSA being misnamed. The TFSA makes people think it is a Tax Free Banking Account , which it can be, but not necessarily. Is it just semantics? Not if you are trying to save money.

A Money Thought

An excellent Dilbert cartoon about your level of Risk Tolerance

Read More »Teller Upselling, Auto-filling Taxes, Spring Forward and #MoneyTalk
Lent

Lent Begins, Loose Money and #MoneyTalk

Lent for 2017 has begun, and as usual, I hope folks use this period to enrich and change their lives (spiritually and financially). This is an excellent time to try new lifestyles, financial ideas, and concepts. The period is only 40 days, which allows for a short-term experiment.

The Bank of Canada has decided the Inflation scare from Stats Canada is to be ignored for now. The happy world of loose money continues on, but for how much longer? The Bank did comment on the current economic state:

“In Canada, recent consumption and housing indicators suggest growth in the fourth quarter of 2016 may have been slightly stronger than expected. However, exports continue to face the ongoing competitiveness challenges described in the January MPR…. In this context, Governing Council judges that the current stance of monetary policy is still appropriate and maintains the target for the overnight rate at 1/2 per cent.”

The days of incredibly loose money policies may be numbered, but I have been saying that for about 10 years.

Ontarians will be paying less for electricity soon (17% less?), but will be paying for it later. What will lower hydro bills in Ontario do to the Inflation numbers? Will this somehow salvage the Liberals’ chances in the next provincial election?

RRSP season is over, but it has also begun again for 2018. What if you put a little away every pay cheque, and adjusted your tax at source to reflect that? That way, you will not be loaning the government money this year.

It is Crashed Ice weekend here in Ottawa. Crazed skaters go up and down a roller coaster of an ice track, racing each other? Luckily it has cooled off. What better way to help celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday?

My Writings for the Week Ending March 3rd

It was a busy week for me, with plenty to write about. I started off with Gasoline Pushed Inflation to 2.1 %, which of course is from our friends at Stats Canada. The good news is that fresh fruit and veggies are cheaper. With RRSP season coming to a close on March 1st, I felt it important to remind folks about 5 Things to Remember about RRSPs. Finally with Lent starting on March 1, I gave a few good ideas of things to try out during Lent with, Money and Lent : Clutter too ?

A Money Thought

I sometimes like making flow charts, and this is one of my favorites. Yes the box shapes really mean something.

Read More »Lent Begins, Loose Money and #MoneyTalk
Volemort TFSA

RRSP Season, Tax Time, and #MoneyTalk

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

RRSP season is slowly coming to a close, if we are to believe the advertising campaigns from the banks and mutual funds. RRSP season is actually all year round, however March 1, 2017 is the deadline for contributing to an RRSP for the 2016 tax year.

Table of contents

It is bad planning (in my opinion) to buy RRSPs at this stage of the game, but if you find money (and don’t have debt to pay off), it is an OK place to put found money. I have over the years written plenty of articles on RRSPs, and here are a few for you to read:

RRSP Season disliker
Not an RRSP Season Fan?
Image used without permission of JK Rowling or Warner Bros.

If this is RRSP season, remember that it is tax season as well. For folks in Ottawa who work for the Federal Government, there are tax problems. Over 50,000 have had issues with their T4 slips from the new Phoenix pay system. Ironically the CRA (who are also part of the Phoenix Pay system) say that there will be no dispensations for them. The CRA was kind enough to put up an FAQ Page for Tax Questions.

The ultimate concept in the #Fakenews? The status bar and how long it says it will take to install your software (several minutes, my arse!)

My Writings for Week Ending February 24th

Given we are in the RRSP Season, I had my own poke at the topic, which I borrowed from a discussion I had with Preet B. and Michael James about how so many folks seem to forget that an RRSP is a Tax Deferral Savings Plan. How many times have you heard someone tell you how much money they have in their RRSP and never mention the taxes they might have to pay on that sum?

Read More »RRSP Season, Tax Time, and #MoneyTalk
Winter Sucks

Farewell Vinyl Cafe, Snow, Monopoly and #MoneyTalk

I was saddened to hear of the death of Stuart McLean, host of the Vinyle Cafe. That radio show was truly a slice of Canadiana , and the good nature and happiness in the stories told will be sorely lost. Now is a time when we could use more of Stuart’s stories, and less of the other things on the radio.

Winter Sucks
Mr. Cardinal Confirms, Winter Sucks

Really not sure whether this Joe Trudeau chap has the chops to be PM.

For those who have not watched the 5th Estate piece on Betrayal of Trust outlining the 220 lawyers disciplined over the past 6 years for misappropriating over $160M from clients, well worth watching. Do you trust the folks you entrust with your money?

So far, Ottawa has had snow pretty much every day in February (except one), so we are quite the winter wonderland. As the cardinal on my birdfeeder can see, no one seems that happy about all this snow.

For those lovers of Monopoly out there, note the passing of the Thimble as a piece for a player, it will be dropped in future Monopoly sets. I don’t know many folks who will miss it (my Mum used to like to be the thimble).

My Writings for the Week Ending February 17th

We did have a Surprising Job Picture in Canada in January, with jobs created when none were expected. The economy continues to create part-time jobs, but maybe that is what the economy needs.

A Money Thought

We need more kids asking for personal finance education at schools!

Read More »Farewell Vinyl Cafe, Snow, Monopoly and #MoneyTalk
Ballet

RRSP , Tax , TFSA , RESP, and RDSP Time and #MoneyTalk

This is the time of the year when people get bombarded with a plethora of financial advice. Some might say that it’s RRSP season, while others might claim that it’s Tax Preparation season. But let’s not forget about TFSA season. It’s not just these financial aspects that you need to consider; it’s also RESP season and, for some, RDSP season. If you’re planning your finances and have children, it’s imperative to include RESP in your discussions. So, make sure you don’t miss out on RRSP, Tax, TFSA, RESP, or RDSP season.

Ballet
RRSP, Tax, TFSA, RESP, RDSP or Dance Season?
Image courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti, at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The decision point for a lot of parents is always confusing but allow me two possible lines of attack for your financial decisions in February:

RRSP Pas De Deux

  • Put an amount of money into your RRSP (assuming you have spare cash, and no debt to pay off, if you have debt, pay off debt)
  • From the Refund that you receive (remember you are only deferring your tax on this money, they should really rename the thing, the Registered Tax Deferal Program)
    • ½ of the money into your TFSA, to build up (tax free) the tax you will need to pay when you take the money out of your RRSP.
    • ½ of the refund into your child’s (or childs’) RESP up to the max for the year. The RESP payment will get you added money from the government too.

RRSP Grand Jete (redux)

  • Put an amount of money into your RRSP (assuming you have spare cash, and no debt to pay off, if you have debt, pay off debt)
  • From the refund (again only deferred tax here), do the following
    • ½ of the refund up to the max for the year to your family member’s RDSP
    • ½ of the refund up to the max put into your kids’ RESP
    • Any remaining moneys put into your TFSA to build up the Tax Payment needed to take your money out of your RRSP.

The funny thing I see online is that many writers do not consider that many folks have many different registered accounts that “need to be fed.”

My Writings for Week Ending February 10th

This week I saw an excellent article on the Stats Canada Web site, which inspired me, You are Spending More, where I compare the numbers in the Stats Canada report and report and contrast them. You can use these numbers to help plan your financial future if you are not tracking your numbers.

A Money Thought

As usual, the folks at the Fraser Institute pokes at the Public Service with their latest report on the differences between the Public and Private sector employees.

Read More »RRSP , Tax , TFSA , RESP, and RDSP Time and #MoneyTalk
Verified by MonsterInsights