Canadian Personal Finance Blog

For me, not much really. The official news release about the budget can be found here. The only highlights that affect me indirectly and directly are:

• $1.5 billion, three-year Skills to Jobs Action Plan, which really doesn’t touch me directly, unless of course I get laid off and want to learn a real trade, then it might.
• Lots of spending in the health area, which should touch me in some fashion ($40.4 Billion)
• $18.8Billion in Education grants for class size, since my kids are still in school that is a nice addition.
• “…$385 million over three years for an annual Textbook and Technology Grant that will help every full-time university and college student…”, that would help out because text books cost a BLOODY fortune.
• And there are no tax increases, which is good too, since I don’t like tax increases no matter what, I am funny that way.

Kind of ho-hum budget, some perks for businesses, but nothing much for me, but some useful infrastructure spending (mostly in Toronto) too.

Best of: Library our Frugal Friend

One of the best places to get any financial information is your local public library and I just remembered a post I did a while back about The Library Our Frugal Friend.

Given I am an unpublished author (well not really an author, but a writer), here is a great tip for you folks who want to READ and LEARN about Financial things:

GO TO YOUR LIBRARY!

Pretty simple. Here in Ottawa the one thing that amalgamation did do is create a large very well stocked Library (click on Go To Your Library to see their web site).

I take out Music CD’s, DVD’s, VHS Videos, and most importantly books. Pretty much any and all books I might mention here in this blog, I have taken out of the library (I can’t afford to BUY books, but I can afford to take them out, read them, and maybe jot down in a notebook the parts which I agree with, or think are a good idea).

Usually your local library membership is FREE (in Ottawa it is), and most are relatively cheap, and you get your money’s worth very quickly. In fact DONATE to your library to keep them up and running (heck, even Volunteer, they are usually looking for those too). Libraries are great resources for the CHEAP and FRUGAL!

Let me leave you with a Simpson point of view on the Library:

Homer: Now, who’s up for a trip to the library tomorrow? Notice I no longer say liberrie or tomorrie.

Today the McGuinty provincial government will announce their budget for this year, and so far the only person making any ruckus about it is Jim Flaherty. Jim thinks that since he is a Federal MP from Ontario he can comment on what the Provincial government should and should not be doing in this budget. All in all it makes for a good read, but so far very little substance has been leaked about what might be in this year’s provincial budget, other than more spending, maybe?

Is Ontario so boring that no one cares? I don’t think that is the case, but here are some things I’d like to see in the budget:

• A stop in the spendthrift attitude of this government, and no you can’t blame the Tories for this any more, you guys have been in power long enough, that YOU are as much to blame as any previous government.
• A provincial household income or income splitting capability? Yes, I know, I say that every time, you caught me.
• Lower taxes for businesses, since we need to attract more business to Ontario to keep it strong and free.

Just some ideas, but my guess is nothing like that. Hopefully no tax increases or hidden taxes for us rich folk, would make my day. I have given up on tax cuts, but a real plan to pay down the Provincial Debt would be cool too (or a statement about how it is being paid down).

What to do with a refund?

I think in my case the best thing to do with a refund is take 10% and blow it on something frivolous to enjoy it in some way, and then take the rest and pay down debt. My guess is my debt is my best investment point for the next 10 years, since controlling it and/or lowering it is the main goal of any plan I attempt.

If it suddenly rained money, I might not follow that advice as closely, but I think it is a sound idea. My ability to invest intelligently and pick the right investments aside (and I really am not very good at that), paying down debt is a much easier investment, since it is sitting right in front of me.

As an update, I submitted my taxes on the 15th and I got my refund on March 20th, so that is quite the speedy response. I did e-file, which I think speeds up the process, but I thought because I had waited a little later I might not get that quick a response, but in fact, I got the expected refund as did my wife and my daughter, so the taxes for last year are now closed.

The major helper for my larger than average refund were:

1. Mass transit bus pass refund
2. Donations to my Church
3. Active Child tax credit

Since those are really my only non-standard tax deductions (oh and my safety deposit box for investing). I should actually adjust my tax deduction schedule so that I don’t get such a large refund (and instead get the money back during the year), but every year things change so I like to carry a certain amount of “cushion” in case I have unexpected income (like my wife working part time or a sudden win-fall from my financial blogging ).

As a point of information I used Quicktax platinum again this year, mostly out of laziness and they had a package where I got a new copy of Quicken a Quicktax Platinum for about $100, which fit my purposes. I am not endorsing or slagging Quicktax, it worked fine for me, but I would guess other programs might have worked fine as well. I have a very “vanilla” tax return these days (don’t think I really needed the Platinum either).

End of Quarter

Yes this week is that last week of this financial quarter, so I will need to put together an updated financial statement for my wife. It is always interesting and useful to do this for me, just to see where I have made progress and areas where I need to keep working hard.

Time to also look at starting a new financial plan, given my Lenten plan didn’t quite work as hoped, but that is why pencils have erasers, mistakes happen. Start a new plan and see if this is the one that maybe gets you back on track.