Money Saving Tips

Save Money To Achieve Your Life Goals

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of creating savings goals.  Although I’ve written about this before, I thought I would jog your memory and have you think hard about what you want to achieve during your lifetime.  Once you’ve determined your life goals, the next step is to decide how soon you’d like to reach each goal, as well as how much money you are going to put aside each paycheck in order to achieve each goal.

To get you started, I am going to list examples of life goals that many people aim for.  Choose the ones that are most important to you and then we can move on to the next step.  Be creative.  There are so many things you can achieve with your unique gifts and talents.

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January 30, 2010
Money Saving Tips

Some Great Ideas On How To Save Money On Flowers For Your Wedding

Weddings are very expensive occasions, and saving money becomes a challenge. As you look at dresses and decorations, churches and dance halls the dollar signs get larger and larger. Everyone wants to find ways to save a bit of money without cutting too many corners on their wedding. Flowers are one way you can change the amount you will have to spend without sacrificing the beauty.

Some people go to extremes with trying to save money by opting for no flowers at all. If you aren’t ready for that big of a sacrifice there are other options to save money. A new trend is to have a single flower instead of a traditional bouquet. Having only one flower does have a bit of romance especially when the bride carries a calla lily which is a very elegant flower. If it is hard for the bride to give up the full bouquet a single flower could be given to each bridesmaid.

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January 28, 2010
Investing

Using The First Time Home Buyer’s Plan For A Home Down Payment

What Is The First Time Home Buyer’s Plan?

If you are planning on buying or building your first home and you want to use money from your Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) to use for your down payment and other house expenses, instead of making a regular withdrawal and facing the tax consequences, you can take advantage of the First Time Home Buyer’s Plan (HBP).  When you take advantage of the HBP, what you are essentially doing is borrowing money from yourself that will eventually need to be paid back into your RRSP.

Who is eligible?

In order to be eligible, you must enter into a written agreement to buy or build a home.  The home must be your principal place of residence, and you must be a Canadian resident.  The most you can withdraw is $25,000, and you can either withdraw it all at once, or you can make a series of withdrawals throughout the same year.   If you plan on buying a house with your spouse, your spouse can also take advantage of the HBP.

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January 26, 2010
Investing

What Benjamin Franklin Taught Us About Compound Interest

We can all learn something about saving and investing from Benjamin Franklin.  Upon his death, in his will, he donated one thousand British pounds to both Boston and Philadelphia to be used to help apprentices to start their own businesses.  The interesting part of the request was that he wanted the money to be invested for 100 years.  After the 100 years was up, the Philadelphia investment had grown to $172,000.00 and Boston’s fund ended up with $2.3 million.

This goes to show you how important a role compounding interest can play in your investments.  The more time you have to invest, the more your money will be able to work for you.  As well, this lesson from history shows us the importance of choosing investments wisely.  Obviously Boston did a lot better job of selecting investments than did Philadelphia.

If you are unsure of what you are currently investing in, or if you haven’t started to save for your retirement, I would encourage you to book an appointment with a Financial Planner at your local financial institution and build a strategy for retirement and your other savings goals.  The sooner you make a plan and stick to it, the better off you will be.

For more detailed information on the full story about Benjamin Franklin, check out this article.

January 24, 2010
Wealth

You Don’t Want to Be a Millionaire!

If I ask you what you want out of life, your first answer will probably have something to do with money — lots of it. You want to win big at the casino. You want to hit the lottery when the jackpot is at $200,000,000. You want big money! Right?

Wrong!

Think about it. If your ultimate goal in life is to be rich, what are you going to do when you achieve that goal? Remember — a goal is the final destination of a journey. When you reach your goal, you’re at the end of your journey.

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January 22, 2010