Hope everyone’s having a great weekend so far.  It’s beautifully sunny here in Vancouver and I can’t wait to get outside to enjoy some of that rare sunshine.

I finally got my act together and signed up for a self-directed RRSP Questrade account.  I’m transferring over the BMO investorline RRSP account to Questrade.  I found that I was hesitant to rebalance my portfolio in the BMO Investorline account because of the $29 trading commissions.  Also, I was getting sick of paying the $100 yearly administration fee (that the guy neglected to tell me about when I signed up a few years back) that they charge if your portfolio is less than $25,000.  I’m not even allowed to contribute more than $25,000 in RRSPs because of the pension adjustment I get.  I should have done this a long time ago, oh well- hindsight is always 20-20, right?

LOL I might as well change my middle name to Questrade.  I now have a non-registered margin account, a TFSA account, and an RRSP account with them.  You really can’t beat the $4.95 trades.

And the winner is…

youngandthrifty.ca had a giveaway of the book “Enjoy Your Money; How do Make It, Save It, Invest It, and Give It” by Steve J. Miller. I used random.org and drew the winner of the book giveaway.

And the winner is….Kevin! From Financiallypoor.com. Congrats, Kevin!

Some weekend Links:

• CanadianFinanceBlog examines how frugality can lead to happiness
• DeliverAwayDebt talks about how hiring someone to cut your grass isn’t really worth it (as I hear my neighbours getting their grass mowed)
• FinancialSamurai tries to give some reasons why East Coast living isn’t that bad (sorry, can’t give examples here because I’m a west coast girl!)
• Million Dollar Journey gives some tips on how to attract the best tenants
• The Financial Blogger calculates how you shouldn’t be scared into a fixed mortgage because of media hype
• Couple Money considers whether now is the time to by BP (let’s just say I feel bad for people who were holding BP before this disaster struck! Can you say.. OUCH?)
• MoneySmartsBlog (previously Four Pillars) tells you to Under Promise, Over Deliver
• Money Reasons reveals his Movie Secret Frugal Weapon
• Well Heeled Blog talks about how sushi can be an expensive culinary habit (mmmm me hungry now)

Since everyone is likely busy finding money to fill their RRSP’s (the deadline is March 1, 2010 to claim for the 2009 tax year by the way), people probably aren’t focusing on the TFSA’s right now. If you are a 20something and are in school and aren’t making that much money (aka you’re not getting taxed to the nines), you should think about contributing to a TFSA instead.

The TFSA’s were introduced in the since January 1, 2009 and is basically the greatest thing since sliced bread (or RRSP’s which were introduced almost half a century ago- before we were even born, shucks!)

Like RRSP’s, TFSA’s are not an investment per se, think of it like a glass jar.  It’s a container where you put your investments.  Anything that you EARN from putting stuff in this container is withdrawn tax free.

The TFSA is basically the inverse of the RRSP (DANG, Jim Flaherty- you’re not just a pretty face after all!)

• In the TFSA you invest with your after-tax hard-earned bloodsweat money, and money that is withdrawn from it is NOT taxed.
• In the RRSP, you invest with pre-tax dollars (yes, the tax refund is supposed to reflect this) and money that is withdrawn is taxed– the caveat is that most people who retire are at a lower tax bracket so they will pay less tax on the money withdrawn.

You can hold many things in the TFSA (except USD holdings- only Questrade TFTA’s allow this) and it’s the same for an RRSP.

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The Wealthy Barber

By David Chilton

The Wealthy Barber was lent to me by a friend who wasn’t very keen on financial planning (her boyfriend gave it to her)- she hadn’t finished yet. So I borrowed it.

It’s an easy read. It’s an older book (published 1995) but it’s very relevant… timeless! It’s kind of a page turner in a way- you want to find out what Roy says next, or what happens next to the characters in the book… I guess it’s like the Harry Potter or Twilight of financial planning. Somehow the author manages to pack in everything you need to know about finances (wills, RRSPs, insurance etc) into this neat storyline.

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I’m not actually sure what the current mistress count for Tiger Woods is, but last I checked, it was 16.  I thought I would write up a post about the last minute tax tips before the end of the year to help decrease your tax burden for 2009.

This post isn’t really about Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods doesn’t live in Canada, anyway.  He’s probably getting a lump of coal for Christmas because he hasn’t been a good boy this year.  Anyway, here you go:

16 Last Minute Tax Tips:

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2009 is coming to an end.  I can’t believe it’s been a year already… I can’t believe we’re heading into 2010!

(Vancouver is going to be a gong show in 2010, by the way with the Olympics.  I just know it.)

Here’s an update on my financial status:

Total Net Worth: $79,300

Here’s the breakdown:

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Now we want to think OUTSIDE the box (aka RRSP).

What should we keep outside of the RRSP or Tax Deferred Shelter?

Well, after you maximize your RRSP’s and TFSA, then you can keep investments in the “spillage”

Basically you want investments that are the least “taxing” to you, to keep outside of an RRSP.

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My interest in all things “finance related” all kind of started a few years ago when I went to a “free investment education session” from work sponsored by Investors Group. They were showing us these fancy charts about how your money can be compounded when held in mutual funds. They asked each one of us in the session to put our names down so they can contact us personally afterward to arrange a free individual session- they told us repeatedly that they are “commission free” so I trusted them.

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So what should one hold in the RRSP?  I have heard some people say that an RRSP should be “safe” and should have more low risk investments held in them (e.g. think GIC’s), some people say more growth-geared investments because it grows tax deferred.

From what I have learned, I would say that looking at how investments are taxed would be a good starting point.

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