Canadian Personal Finance Blog

So I had completely forgotten about the new child tax credit in the last budget, that started on July 1st, but thanks to our friends at Canadian Capitalist he mentioned in This and That about how the program started already. Thanks to his reminder, I found out that my employer needed me to send them an updated Tax form, so I missed out on this pay cheque but should be OK for my next one. I believe I owe him a beer!

The new Credit gives me $2000 per child under the age of 18, and in my house that adds up to $8000, which is just a little less than what I get as a tax credit for being married, but, I am not complaining, I take all tax breaks with a smile! More money in my pocket now, is better than any tax refund I get in March next year as well (hence why I am making sure that my employer adjusts my tax deductions at the source).

The Stats Canada census review point out that more and more people are living much longer which means, we should all be planning to have a much longer retirement. For those with pensions, that isn’t as big a worry, but for those with RRSP savings and such, you might want to recalculate on the assumption that you are going to live past age 80

The 2006 Census enumerated 1,167,310 people aged 80 years and over, up 25% from 2001, the second fastest increase of all age groups. This age group accounted for 26.9% of all seniors in 2006, up from 24.0% in 2001 and only 14.6% in 1956.

You are going to need a little more money, so plan accordingly folks.