Money management for the next stage in your life

Posted on May 7th, 2007 by Sacha Chua

I attended a personal finance seminar by Ellen Roseman, a Toronto Star columnist and University of Toronto alumna. I’ll write about it in more detail as I reflect more on personal finance, but here are a few new nuggets I picked up:

No RRSPs until I get my paperwork sorted out! Boo. Not fun knowing better practices and not being able to use them.
It might be a good idea to invest money into an RRSP while I’m young, then take a holiday—leaving the money there to take advantage of tax-deferred growth—and do something else with the money I’m already used to setting aside. For example, I could save up for a house.
You can carry forward the tax deduction you get when you invest in an RRSP, so you can invest now in order to take advantage of the tax-deferred growth and claim the deduction when it makes more sense tax-wise. Must figure out when that makes sense.
Four magic words: “Can I do better?” Ask for discounts!
Two good books: The Wealthy Barber, The Richest Man in Babylon.
Tour of Canadian personal finance blogs. Check ellenroseman.com for the link.
I should check out the TD monthly income fund or dividend funds to find a growth-oriented investment vehicle. Morningstar.ca has good reviews.
Might be more comfortable with a financial advisor within 10 years of my age.
E-mail car dealers to get good quotes without having to shop around so much.

Interesting tips came from the other attendees:

Skype now has a yearly plan. That’ll be worth signing up for.
Insurance brokers can be handy.

Worth the time.

Random Emacs symbol: bbdb-add-or-remove-mail-alias – Command: Add NEWALIAS in all RECORDS or remove it if DELETE it t.

May 8, 2012

I eventually graduated and started earning money, so I applied the advice to make the most of my RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan). The stock market hasn’t really grown much, but maybe it will in the future. Even if it doesn’t, I figured that I’ll be no worse off than most people, so I can afford the experiment.

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