Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for December 30th, 2008

The end of year is fast approaching and here are a couple of points that you might want to think about before you close the books on 2008.

Charitable Donations

Why not top up your charitable donations for the end of the year and take advantage of the holiday season to give to folks who might need your help (and give you a bigger tax credit as well). 

RESP Top Up

Given this is paid quarterly it isn’t as important really, but still a good idea that if you have extra money or were given money for Christmas or Hanukkah, maybe put it in a savings vehicle that will help you save for your child’s education?

TFSA 

Go to your bank and get set up for a TFSA, but make sure there are no hidden fees as I found out when I went and talked to TD about their TFSA. This makes a lot of sense for anyone who is going to save, or just use it as a place to store your Christmas fund every year? 

Christmas Fund

Start a Christmas Fund for next year. See how much you spent this year, divide it into chunks for each pay cheque and set up an automatic savings vehicle to put money aside so that you have money for Christmas next year. I did this with CSB’s for the longest time and it worked very nicely.

RDSP

The Registered Disability Savings Plan comes into effect now (I think), and if you have a child or loved one who can take advantage of this new vehicle, set one up and get it moving as well. I know of many parents who could take advantage of this program for their disabled children, hope they do.

Remember only two days left in 2008!