Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Well, in the first place, you are too late for this year to do your last minute RRSP stuff (sorry folks, my planning stuff isn’t always timely), but you can always start your RRSP work for next year, right now!

The data I mention are in the following posts: Case 1: Put It In The Bank , Case 2: Refund to RRSP, Case 3: Refund to Mortgage

I think what the plethora of numbers over the past few days has show is that:

1. Putting money in your RRSP is a good thing. The money is not just retirement money, it is “catastophe” money too, so if you have RRSP room, I would say use it.
2. Should I pay off my mortgage or max out my RRSP? Yes is my answer :-). Do either, but do at least one, is my advice. There isn’t a wrong answer here folks, both are good things and if you can do it, good for you!
3. An ideal “mixed” idea is to put your money on your RRSP, get your refund and then put that on your mortgage, and you then end up with a nice RRSP, and a mortgage paid off sooner. If you need my advice, that would be my suggestion.

If you want the excel spreadsheet to fool around with it, send me an e-mail and I’ll mail it to you (it’s pretty straight forward).

More real life rants to come. Happy Ash Wednesday, enjoy Lent. –C8j