Happy New Year! I hope you had a great Christmas and holiday season with your family and friends.

Beginning of the year is when my website gets a lot of visits. It seems like many people are eager to improve their finances. Perhaps it’s time to do some financial tidying up. There are so many different areas such as day to day finance, insurance, debts, estate planning, investing, etc.

Here are a few tips for now.
1. If you received a raise, consider:
- increasing your giving, saving & investing, but
- keep the same standard of living (there may be increased cost of living due to inflation).

2. Track your spending, do a budget, continue tracking your spending. Investing more money with lower returns yields better results than investing little money with higher returns. See Preet Banerjee’s YouTube: 
https://youtu.be/ugLJm9fU1nw?si=0eAirpgi110_O_7U

3. If you have not done so, now is a good time to take inventory of all your finances. Make an emergency folder that contains your:
- bank accounts 
- credit cards
- debts, including mortgage 
- life, long-term disability and any insurance
- pension
You can also add other important information into your emergency folder such as your:
- Social Insurance Number
- health card number
- name and contact information of your lawyer, accountant, financial advisor and any other professionals you have.

4. Perhaps you already know that the 2024 TFSA contribution room is $7000. You can save your emergency fund there or invest it. Here is breaking it down into bite size pieces:
- You can set aside $26/day x 5 days/week x 52 weeks = $6760.
- Or you can set aside $125/week & put $500 at the beginning of the year. 
- If you would like to invest and have a lump sum, it’s better to invest it all at once. 
But first, ensure you have emergency funds. 
If you didn’t max out previous years’ contributions or if you withdrew your TFSA in previous years, you have more than $7000 to contribute. 

That’s all for January. Let’s take better care of our finances this year. A small improvement is better than none.

Have a great month! :)

I can't believe we are at the end of 2023. It didn't seem so long ago when we entered the new year 2023. For this month, I will post my top 3 most viewed reels on my Instagram account. Here they are in reverse order.

Number 3
Summary of June 2022 Tax and Money Tips
- Watch out for post-assessment letter from CRA, asking for proof of your tax claims. Respond as soon as you can. 
- June 15th is deadline to file your 2021 taxes if you or your spouse/common-law partner are self-employed. 
- To charge or not charge GST? Understand when you need to register and start charging GST. Go to 
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/gst-hst-businesses/when-register-charge.html

I posted a reel on June 12, 2022 and it has more than 3,000 views. The general information still applies even though we are not in 2022 anymore. 


Number 2 
Procrastinators, good news for you! You have extra TWO days to file your taxes. Deadline is May 2, 2022, so make sure you file on time. Yay? Please do not wait until May 2nd to submit your taxes.  June 15: If you or your spouse/common-law partner are self-employed, your deadline to file 2021 taxes is June 15th. However, any balance owing is due May 2nd. Don’t forget to pay your GST owing too. 

This reel was posted on April 1, 2022 and generated 2nd highest views at more than 4,000 views. Again, the main information is that if April 30th falls on a weekend, the Canadian tax deadline is moved to the next business day. 


Number 1
Always check your receipts, bills, invoices, statements, etc.       
a. Check to see if items listed are what you purchased.      
b. Check to see if the numbers add up correctly. For example, I usually try to do a quick scan of my receipt after grocery shopping (before leaving the store) to see if all items shown are what I purchased and the price is correct. 
Checking receipts has saved me some money - sometimes a little (less than $10), sometimes quite a bit (more than $10). 

This most watched reel was posted on July 17, 2022, generating 5,006 views! 


Have you watched any of those reels? Which one had new information for you? If you are on social media, follow me on YouTube   Instagram   Facebook   LinkedIn   X 

Thank you again for reading. I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season!