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I should probably save this post for next month, but I thought I might as well get a head start on articulating my new years resolutions for 2013… just to get it out there to the universe.  Power of positive attraction, right?

This year has been an eventful year, to say the least.

Next year will be bigger and better…right?

About.com has a great list of Top Ten New Year’s Resolutions that gave me some inspiration for my own list.

Here are my New Years Resolutions for 2013:

Max Out TFSA

My goal is to contribute $5500 for 2013, and maybe even more if possible.. since my contribution room is actually $9400 for next year (sold some shares for a gain back in 2010 I believe… despite maxing out at $5000 each year).  We will see how that goes!  Darn Harper government, making all of our financial goals slightly more difficult to achieve! To contribute $5500 annually, that’s about $450 saved on a monthly basis.  Throwing in the tax return money into the TFSA is a helpful way help chip away at achieving this amount.

RRSP and Home Buyers Plan

I’ll need to continue chipping away at the RRSP home buyers plan since next year will probably be the last year of lower income.  I should be able to know exactly where I stand after I do my taxes in April after allocating X amount to the home buyers plan and X amount to RRSP deduction.

Spend (More) Time with Friends and Family

One thing I realized this year was that I wasn’t spending enough time with my family and friends.  Working part time while going to school full time doesn’t exactly help this, but really, there’s no excuse in neglecting the very same people who you can count on, who are there for you when times are tough, and who love you unconditionally.  Sometimes you take for granted the people who truly care about you and want to see the best for you.  This taking loved ones for granted business has left me nothing but to feel guilty whenever I saw a family member or friend infrequently or forget to contact them just to say hi. Continue Reading →

I’ve always hated my glasses.  Even after I got over the typical stigma of having frames grace my face, I still hated them.  I find them cumbersome and annoying, while failing to provide me with that “sophisticated” look or gravitas that has so many people purchasing “fake” glasses for purely aesthetic purposes these days.  The only thing that keeps the old coke bottles on my face is my absolute refusal to use contacts.  I tried them once for a couple of weeks, but I must confess that I am a creature of habit and I didn’t like the time it took to fiddle with them day-in and day-out.  Plus, as a personal finance writer I couldn’t help but notice the price tag on every box.  These realities have led me to the conclusion that I want eye surgery.   I think I would pay a fair amount for the service just as a personal luxury, but the interesting revelation when I started looking into the costs was that getting laser eye surgery is likely a decent investment as well.

To Each Their Own

Now before I come to any specific conclusions it is important to remember that no two people’s eyes are the same.  LASIK eye surgery (which has become the dominant name in the field where I live) costs are heavily how much damage there is to repair within the eyes.  Their advertisements that state, “Starting at $490 an eye,” with the tiny asterisk beside are exactly what a cynic might think they were – misleading scenarios.  I’m sure somewhere out there, an individual exists who got LASIK eye surgery done on both eyes (I always wonder who gets one eye done? I know times are tough but…) for under $1,000 before taxes and extras were included, but I couldn’t find evidence of this online.  One thing that thankfully seemed fairly consistent was the fact that as a young person with minimal problems related to being nearsighted I was a fairly ideal candidate for the surgery.  There were a large range of “average prices” that I came across for LASIK surgeries, and this is likely due to prices coming down in recent years as the service has become more affordable, as well as geographic differences.  One average figure was $3,425, while an AllAboutVision.com price report in 2010 stated the average was just under $4,300 for “a pair”, while USA Eyes recently put the average right around $4,000 in 2012.  We’ll use that round figure just for argument’s sake.  As I said before, everyone’s eyes are different.  When doing a personal calculation I have reason to believe my personal treatment would be closer to the bottom end of the range than the top end.

Count Your Dollar Bills With New Appreciation

That number does seem high at first I grant you, but think about all of the costs you currently need to take into account for your eye care.  If you have glasses and/or contacts you likely have to go for check-ups every so often to make sure your prescription is right.  While your insurance might cover part of that, there is still a premium to be placed on your time and transportation costs.  If you rely solely on your glasses, chances are you have a couple pairs lying around, and you buy another pair every couple of years either for fashion purposes, lost pairs, or damage inflicted according to Consumer Reports.  Continue Reading →