Give your finances a boost this new year. Here is a list of financial resolutions to help you become better off at the end of the coming twelve months:
Front lawns across Canada are sprouting For Sale signs. That this annual phenomena occurs at about the same time as the tax refund season may be purely coincidental. Understanding the financial incentives for home ownership available in the Income Tax Act may save you thousands when buying a home.
Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) were introduced in 2009 and they seem to be struggling to catch on. Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs), however, have been around for over fifty years and attract billions of dollars of deposits each year. If you are serious about saving for your future, it is important to know the differences between the two.
With so many doom & gloom news headlines, it is refreshing to know Canadians can still get very low fixed rate mortgages. A recent Financial Post article (March 9, 2012) explains that with big banks competing strongly for new mortgage business, now is a great time for Canadians to refinance their mortgages to improve personal cash flow.
Some financial decisions get made without enough thought given to the long term consequences. Here are some financial mistakes you can avoid:
Mortgage amortized too long:
With lenders offering 30 year amortization periods, it may look attractive to go with a smaller monthly payment to get into a larger house, but the extra interest charges only benefit the lender.
In a 2010 report to the Minister of Finance, it was found that approximately 160,000 Canadian seniors were not aware of the full range of benefits they were entitled to in their retirement years. In fact, nearly $1 billion in retirement benefits from the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) have not been paid out to eligible recipients.
