Financial Literacy Month - November 2022 Prudent Money Coach Tax and Money Tips

Wow, it's November already! Are you busy shopping for Christmas or do you have holiday parties planned out already? Generally people are generous around Christmas time. Here's a question for you: if you budget your Christmas spending, should you also budget your Christmas giving? Does it sound strange to have a budget for donations? Short answer is no. You may get a lot of requests for donations as it gets closer to Christmas. Having a budget will allow you to know that you're not giving beyond what you're willing to give. And yes, it's ok to turn down donation requests.

Anyhow, November is Financial Literacy Month in Canada. The government of Canada has a website dedicated to this:
https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/campaigns/financial-literacy-month/about.html
Check it out. There is so much information there.

Now, let's get right to this month's tax and money tips.
1. Let’s start with a basic principle.
Income - Expenses = Net Income
Income is not just your salary, it may include government benefits, investment income, rental income, pension, or others. If you receive company benefits, you may want to convert it to dollar equivalent and count it as your income to get a true picture of all sources of your income. Your actual income may be higher than you think.

Whether a lot or a little, your income MUST always be greater than your expenses. If you can’t cut your expenses, you need to increase your income.

If you need help with budgeting here are some resources you can look into.
a. The Government of Canada has a website dedicated to money topics and there is a lot of good information and tools there. Check out canada.ca/money
b. McGill University also offers free personal finance courses. Check out https://mcgillpersonalfinance.com/
c. I listened to a podcast today from Money Wise; the topic was Budgeting Basics. Here is the link to listen to it: https://www.moneywise.org/moneywise/budgeting-basics-4274


2. If you believe God owns everything, then you are just a manager of what He has entrusted to you. Have you been managing it well? How much of His money are you giving back to Him via tithing or giving? How much of His money are you using for yourself? Did you know that there are more than 2,000 verses about money in the Bible? Here is a catalog of 2,350 Verses on Money and Possessions from Compass: https://compass1.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/2350-Verses-Catalog.pdf   Were you surprised that there are so many verses?


3. OK, now on to tax-related financial literacy. Are you familiar with financial abbreviations in Canada such as RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan), TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account), or RESP (Registered Education Savings Plan)? Did you ever wonder what GST/HST credit is? Or BCCATC? Or CCB? All these are acronyms that you probably see in a letter from CRA. So, in brief, here they are:
a. The goods and services tax/harmonized sales tax (GST/HST) credit is a tax-free quarterly payment that helps individuals and families with low and modest incomes offset the GST or HST that they pay.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/child-family-benefits/goods-services-tax-harmonized-sales-tax-gst-hst-credit.html

b. The BC climate action tax credit (BCCATC) is a tax-free payment made to low-income individuals and families to help offset the carbon taxes they pay.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/child-family-benefits/provincial-territorial-programs/province-british-columbia.html

c. The Canada child benefit (CCB) is a tax-free monthly payment made to eligible families to help with the cost of raising children under 18 years of age.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/child-family-benefits/canada-child-benefit-overview.html


Visit https://PrudentMoneyCoach.com/blog.html or follow me on LinkedIn, IG, FB, Twitter for more tax and money tips. Have a great November!
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