Hey, it's Mark!
Financial Literacy Month
Welcome to November! It's financial literacy month and happens to be the anniversary when I received my licence to practice insurance planning.
I took a formal route to educate myself about finances as I feel my progress toward financial freedom is as slow as a slug and many times feels like I'm falling behind.
How can you tell you may ask.
You know when your income started at the minimum wage and grew overtime and still living pay cheque to pay cheque? That's how you can easily determine that there's definitely something wrong with what you're doing.
This was my case. Even when I get paid well doing my job, there are times that my bank account is slim and there are times when I want to buy something but I couldn't because I ran out of money.
And so I dig deeper on what's going on with my finances to put an end to slim wallet and start making it fatter.
This weekly newsletter is one of my ways of sharing the things I'm learning about personal finance and the strategies that I'm implementing.
Enjoy this publication.
Feel free to connect with me if you are looking for strategies to successfully achieve a specific financial goal.
Personal Finance
These end-of-year tax tips will help those who received CERB and other pandemic benefits
Halloween plays an important role in the lives of many tax professionals as it signals there are only two months left for some year-end tax planning. But year-end tax planning need not be a scary affair if you focus on a couple of tips unique to 2020, one for individuals who received COVID-19 government benefits, and another for persons living with a disability.
30 days to a more financially secure future. It’s possible — here’s how
Financially organized people save more money, have less debt and lower stress. Even through the financial uncertainty of 2020, these folks have their house in order; following best practices to simplify their accounts, aligning with their partner on money mindset, protecting their household from financial losses and growing savings for their family’s future.
If a financially strong household is what you want, there are a number of things you can do in the next 30 days to improve your cash flow and net worth.
Smart Spending
How to e-Transfer safely and avoid scams
Sending money online — an elegant option for a more civilized age. Why bother writing out a cheque or trying to make change when you can just tap a few times on your phone?
The appeal of cashless transactions only increased when the pandemic hit. The Bank of Canada had to plead with retailers to continue accepting cash, and on May 1, Canadians sent a record 3.75 million Interac e-Transfers.
If you need to get $2,000 to your friend down the road, an e-Transfer is a lot faster and probably a lot safer than walking around with a wad of cash sticking out of your pocket. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bulletproof system.
When you’re dealing with money and your personal information, it pays to take a few precautions. Here’s how to keep yourself safe and avoid online fraudsters.
2020 Income Tax: What you can’t—and can—claim for your work-from-home office during the COVID-19 pandemic
You furnished a functional home office, you’ve got face masks ready by the door for when you need to run an errand, and you bought sanitizer (so many bottles of sanitizer). You’ve done your part to stay home and help flatten the coronavirus curve. The question now is: Can you write off working from home during the pandemic and any of these things you bought because of COVID on your taxes?