Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for May 4th, 2009

This year I will not be receiving a tax rebate, thanks to a plethora of reasons, but if I did there is always the question what do you do with found money like this?

Found Money: Windfall or Savings?

Simple Savings Routine

Some people have a very good equation at tax time:

• Put moneys into RRSP up to Limit
• Take Tax Rebate from this saving and apply to mortgage as overpayment
• Repeat methodology each year

An excellent Savings routine, and if you can do this a good way to build up your RRSP and pay down your mortgage.

Let’s Go On Vacation

Other folks I know view Tax rebate moneys as “found money” and feel  that since it hasn’t been planned for, it can be spent however they wish and they typically use it towards a family vacation. Surprisingly, I don’t think this is a bad thing, if the family vacation is just that and not an excuse to spend more money on vacation and go farther into debt. Vacation and rest is important, as long as it is well planned (financially).

I Hate Tax Rebates

Another group of folks I know, despise getting a tax rebate, because that means the government has had your money for the year, when you could have had it instead, and they make sure their employer takes off as little tax as possible, while ensuring they don’t owe money to the government come April 30th either.

I like this concept as well, and usually try to make sure I pay as little tax as I can. 

At the end of it NOT owing money to the CRA is a good thing.

Found Money?

So what if I “find” money (say it falls off the back of a truck, or a relative gives me some)?

If you go with the RRSP routine, it becomes a savings windfall:

1. Money goes to RRSP and creates a tax rebate
2. Tax Rebate moneys goes onto Mortgage or into a savings vehicle if Mortgage is paid off.

I like that idea a great deal.

What do you do with found money?