Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Stats Canada posted some data that confirmed my guess that Canadians are generous when they donate to charities (one of the reasons I love living in this country).

The statistics show that there is a core of about 25% of folks who give most of the money, but also the most time to these charities, but on a whole, Canadians still are very generous folks (when they can).

Canadians donated a total of $10.0 billion in 2007, up from $8.9 billion in 2004. In 2007, the average donation was $437, compared with $400 in 2004. These increases were not adjusted for inflation.

The total amount of time volunteered through groups and organizations amounted to about 2.1 billion hours, which was equivalent to almost 1.1 million full-time jobs. On average, volunteers contributed 166 hours each.

That’s an important factor for folks to remember as well, that volunteering your time can be just as valuable to any organization. I give money to some charities and I give my time to organizations that want my help (and talents) as best I can (most of the time I have so much fun, I think I am the one getting the most out of the time).

Where does our time and money go?

Where do Canadians Give their Time and Money?

This graph lines up pretty much how I give, where my monetary givings are mostly to my Church whereas my time is given to Recreation activities.

More Interesting: Start Young

According to the survey, people were more likely to volunteer and donate to charities or non-profit organizations later in life if they had participated in a range of community or youth activities during their primary or secondary schooling.

These activities included participating in student government, a religious organization, a youth group such as girl guides or scouts, or an organized team sport.

This data is very useful, and topical for me, as my wife did a talk on the youth stewardship program at our Church and made that exact same point. You need to get kids and teens to understand WHY they should give, and that giving their talents (not just money) is an incredible gift they can give their community. Simply forcing kids to give won’t teach them the importance of the gift (and more likely those kids won’t give later in life either), get them to understand why, and they will gladly give when they are adults.

That is the oppositions’ screams today about Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s miscalculations on the budget deficit for this year. 

I think this is a little extreme, given how screwed up the economy currently is, and how many interesting things are happening in the economy (can we say Perfect Storm?), but it does make for good political fodder, that is for sure. As I stated yesterday, I believe this is a sandbagging technique and in October they will state how they have saved the day and the budget is in fact only $45B instead, we shall see (either that or it will balloon over $60B and hyper-inflation will be the next major topic of conversation).

Stewardship or Charity with Kids

My wife is doing a talk to a group of adults on how to get kids to actually give to charity (by choice). Surprisingly if you simply tell your kids, “You must give $10 to the Church”, they might cough up the money once, but will resent it and more likely never give much again (even as Adults).

Explaining to kids that they don’t just have to donate money, they can donate their time and talents, instead,  is a first step. Getting kids to understand the importance of charity (and how they have so darn much anyhow) and helping those who need help is not easy and if anyone has any good stories about when they tweeked into the importance of Charity (and what age they were at the time), please feel free to include them in the comments section.

Mardi Gras is on Tuesday, so that means that Lent begins Wednesday this week and this is a perfect opportunity for folks to start something new with their Personal Finances (and their spiritual life, if they wish as well). Easter is the time for new beginnings or restarting something you need to start doing again, and most people view Lent as a time to “find something to give up”.

That is one way of viewing your Lenten journey, but another way is to look for something to Enrich your life for the 40 days of Lent (leading up to Good Friday and Easter). 

Financial Lenten Journey

What areas of your personal finances could use either Enrichment or Better still a sacrifice that might help your financial well being? There are some very simple ones that I think about every year (and have done a few of them):

• The Latte withdrawal penance. Cut out buying coffee for the 40 days of Lent and put that money aside, to either save, give to charity or pay down your debt. Keep track of this and see how much money you might be saving here, it’s worthwhile finding out where this discretionary money is going.
• Read 4 Personal Finance books over the 40 days to enrich your understanding of your personal finances or your investing adventures. Building up your expertise over Lent is a good thing.
• Brown bag it for 40 days, give up buying lunch at work, and bring your lunch instead. Another way to find out where your discretionary spending is going.
• Take the bus to work for Lent. Leave the car at home, buy a bus pass and take the Bus to work. Yes gas is cheaper right now, but not driving might have other benefits for you (less stress, more exercise, etc.,). 
• Live on cash for 40 days and get rid of your credit cards. Freeze them in your freezer, lock them in your safety deposit box, or cut them up, but live on CASH only (no debit either) and see if you can do it, does it change your spending habits?

Think about these or suggest others, I am open to suggestions myself. Shrove Tuesday is tomorrow and then Ash Wednesday means Lent begins and your journey begins that day.

Since I am doing my taxes here are some other important deductions you should remember (if they apply to you, of course) .

Transit Pass Credit

Remember if you take the bus (or your kids do), you can use the Public Transit Tax Credit . Remember if your kids use a bus pass the following as well:

Yes, you can claim the tax credit for public transit passes on behalf of your spouse, common law partner, and your children under the age of 19, to the extent that these amounts have not already been claimed.

So the expense is transferable as well, useful to know that one.

Education

Having a child in University means I can claim her tuition on my taxes, which is not a bad thing. Since this is the first year for me with this, it is important to get all the forms done right, so please read over the web page and such and make sure the student involved fills in all the forms to allow for the transfer of these credits to you. I am still muddling through this one and will keep you posted on my progress. 

The maximum tuition, education, and textbook amount transferred from a child (or fromeach child), is $5,000 minus the amounts that he or she uses, even if there is still an unclaimed part. Tuition, education, and textbook amounts that the student carried forward from a previous year cannot be transferred.

So $5000 max per child is another important point to remember. This is where the High Price of University comes back to help you a little.

Charitable Donations

Now is the time to rummage through your papers to find ALL the receipts that you so carefully stored away when they arrived (yes I am being sarcastic, about myself, I may one day take a picture of my home “work space” to show you just how cluttered and disorganized it is). Each one of these receipts is money back in your pocket, so make sure you find them all. 

I have a cross-reference method, since I use Quicken, I check in Quicken for my Charitable expenses and then go and hunt down the receipt (or send the charity a note asking for a duplicate).

Also make sure this is a valid charity, you can go on the CRA site to see which charities have had their Charity designations revoked.

Manual or Computer?

This is an interesting question I ask folks and sometimes get an interesting answer. I have been using various computer software to do my taxes ever since it was possible (I have a Math degree, not an Arithmetic degree), but I do know that Michael James on Money enjoys doing his taxes manually using forms and pencil.

Does anybody else use pencil and paper still? Do you use a service to make up  your taxes, and if so why? My taxes this year are going to be confusing, but still not complicated enough that I would pay to have someone else do it, but that may change in the future.