Dominique Chénard, CPA, CA, Financial Security Advisor

Considering an RRSP contribution before March 1? Here's a handy calculator to see the taxes you would get back. Example: Making a $10,000 RRSP contribution would get you a tax refund of: Income $50,000 - $2,301 Income $100,000 - $3,838... Income $200,000 - $4,819 Aside from the refund, some things to consider: - Do you have another use for that $10,000 - such as an upcoming reno, emergency savings, down payment on a property? - Is your income in retirement also high? Make sure the taxes paid on taking out the RRSP later would be lower than the refund you get today - Are you saving the RRSP room for a need later on - such as smoothing the taxes on the sale of a property, or a severance package? https://www.eytaxcalculators.com//2020-rrsp-savings-calcul

How would working with an advisor benefit me? What's special about working with me specifically? And how much does it cost? This is the first of a 3-part series - starting with the key benefits: One key benefit is to resolve a "pain point" in your finances. ... - This "pain point" may be that your money is not being invested, when you know it should be making you money, but you feel stuck and don't know where to start. - Or that you have RRSPs in a couple different places, a TFSA in another, get your statements twice a year in the mail, have to call a 1-800 number to figure out what's going on with your investments... and even though you see how much your money went up and down last year on the statement, you just can't tell whether you're "on track" for your goals... or how your goals even relate to these investment accounts! Another key benefit is to get some clarity on your entire financial picture. - You may be pretty savvy with saving money - but aren't sure how to transition into investing. - Or you are confident with investing and do so pretty aggressively... but are concerned you may need to protect the downside of your plan, to avoid dipping into your investments during an emergency. - Or you did great managing your finances when you were single - but now that you have a spouse and a family, there's many goals to work towards and it got a little more complicated than you're used to! And one more key benefit - is to have a trusted member of your advisory team with you along all of life's ups and downs. Whether you have a large advisory team of lawyers and accountants - or whether I'm the first one to join your advisory team (oh shucks!), I am thrilled to be there for you. In my 3+ years in this career, being part of clients journeys through life events like career changes, pregnancy announcements, their first big promotion, all the way to being there for them as they mourn the loss of a loved one... has deeply reminded me of why I love what I do Know I am here for you through all these life changes - and that's whether you need financial advice, or simply need someone to talk to. ...Follow up coming next week to answer your other questions - take care

The first step to organizing your finances, in my opinion, is to get clarity on what your goals are It's not to stop spending "too much" money getting things delivered to your house, or to open savings accounts, or even to make a budget. Because a budget means nothing if you don't know why you're trying to spend less money ... ** So let me ask you this - because it's such a common theme when people try to organize their finances - why do you think you should spend less money? What could you do with that money that makes you more fulfilled and is more aligned to what makes you happy today, AND in the future? For many of you - making progress every payday on your house fund or towards retiring early - saving for your next trip - or spending those dollars at the farmers market instead of stuff on Amazon will make you more fulfilled. It's up to you to figure that out for yourself I encourage you to document what you're after - write down why you think you're "spending too much" or how you feel when you have very little savings, or when you go another month without increasing your contributions to your investments, what this behaviour is keeping you from doing instead. This will help you to eventually get clarity on what your goals really are - and from there, knowing what to do will be really easy. You can do this on your own, then bump up your debt payments accordingly, open some savings and investment accounts, and keep yourself accountable to your journal or to a trusted friend. Or you can do this with an advisor to help you put numbers to those goals, and help you figure out the best strategy to reach them. To help figure out whether to bump up the debt payments or to invest - whether to use a TFSA or an RRSP - and open your accounts and set up your investment contributions on autopilot! Both are super valid - either way, setting clear goals that are truly aligned to what's important for you, and monitoring your progress towards them, is a winning strategy! Do you journal? Do you set goals for yourself? On what timeline do you set goals - new year resolutions? quarterly? monthly? Feel free to share in the comments :)

Ce message est pour tous mes clients francophones! Je travaille a mieux identifier mes clients francophones, et m'assurer que les communications sont dans la langue préféré. Je comprend que tout le monde a des différentes préférences - par example, beaucoup de clients préfèrent discuter en français, mais recevoir leurs communications écrites reliées aux finances en anglais. Je vais travaille a m'assurer que chaque client francophone est identifé et que les communications soient faites dans la langue préférée. Si vous lisez ce message - merci de menvoyer un courriel si vous aimeriez un changement (par example - recevoir les relevés annuels en anglais, mais continuer de parler / envoyer des courriels en français). Merci beaucoup!

If you haven't reviewed your RRSP or life insurance in over 10 years, or lost track of those $50-100 amounts going all over the place - this video is for you! Let's align those savings with a goal. Let's refresh your goal you set over ten years ago, as well as update where your money is going, as alot has changed since then, and your priorities have changed! Let me know if you found this helpful - and have a wonderful rest of your Tuesday