Skip to main content

Author Archives: Kristina Tahnyak

Avatar photo About Kristina Tahnyak

Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.

Older posts
Newer posts

DINKS Reality: Who Wears the Financial Pants in Your Couple?

Posted on by 11
financial advice, financial tips, couple finances

As you know I am not married, so I don’t have any personal stories to share about my wedding. However, I am 30 years old, this is around the age when people start to get married and settle down both personally and financially. Rich Bride, Poor Bride is a show that details the wedding process on any budget, from very small to extremely big.




I have been to a few weddings over the last few years and although I haven’t seen the planning process, I have been to the final product. I can definitely tell the difference between a $5000 wedding and a $40,000 wedding.  I have heard that the bride takes the front seat during the wedding planning, but I would also hope that the groom gets to have his say. Once again, since I am not married I don’t speak from experience.

There was a recent episode of the television show Rich Bride, Poor Bride that discussed a couple named Amy and Jon. Amy is a controlling wife who micromanaged their wedding, and Jon is an adoring husband who is afraid to say no.  Afraid. Is that even a word that should be used in a relationship?

A couples wedding may be their first major expense together, if they haven’t already bought a house.  In my opinion the wedding process will set the tone for the rest of their financial lives together.  If both people financially contribute equally into a relationship, then shouldn’t they both have an equal say in how the money is spent?

Most relationships whether they are a marriage, a friendship, or within a family, have one member with an A Type Personality.  There is a difference between taking the lead and being a relationship dictator.  The last time I checked it takes two people to get married, so why should only one person have the right to make all of the financial decisions?

I am not sure why someone would want to be married to a control freak.  I also don’t understand why weddings are such a big deal!  Isn’t the point of a wedding to get married to the man or woman of your dreams?

We don’t need to spend $40,000 on a wedding to prove our love to our husband or wife.  We also don’t need to spend $40,000 on a one day ceremony to prove our love in front of our family and friends. Why are weddings such a spectacle? I can think of at least 5 other things that I would rather do with $40,000 other than spend it on a wedding.

If you spent a lot of money on your wedding, would you have rather spent it on something else?

(Photo By Ben Sutherland)

Weekly Roundup: Budget Spreadsheet Blowout

Posted on by 4

Happy Friday Dinks! This week we are reviewing the number one financial rule of all time…Live within Your Means.  How can we live within our financial means? We have to create a budget and stick to it.  It is that simple.  We must effectively manage our money in order to save and preserve our wealth.

What is a budget?

According to Investopedia a Budget is “an estimation of the revenue and expenses over a specified future period of time.  A budget is a microeconomic concept that shows the trade-off made when one good is exchanged for another.”

An estimation of our expenses means that we will need to project our future expenses. Of course we can’t predict our future expenses, but we can hypothesize based on past spending habits.  A great way to keep financial records of our past spending is by using a budget tracking spreadsheet.

A budget tracking spreadsheet will not tell us where to spend our money, but it will show us where our money is being spent.  This will allow us to make adjustments in our spending habits, and make cuts in our expenses where necessary. DINKS offers a Free Budget Template on the right hand side of our page.

Here are two great budget tracking spreadsheets that I found around the web:

Mint.com offers a free online money management tool to help you live a richer life.  The Mint.com page is fun, friendly, and helpful.  It allows us to link our bank accounts, investment accounts, credit cards, and other debts to allow us to keep track of our spending.  Mint.com is interactive.  It will remind us of upcoming goals and alert us if we are going over our planned budget. Mint.com analyzes, categories, and tracks our entire financial life. It is a great free tool whether we want to save for retirement, pay off debt, or just keep track of where our money goes.

J. Money @ Budgets Are Sexy offers a colourful and fun budget spreadsheet. Would you expect anything less from our friend J. Money? We have to actively track our own spending and manually enter our own financial information on this budget spreadsheet. I think this is a great alternative to interactive spreadsheets because it requires us to actively manage our own budget. It gets us involved in our finances.

Most financial institutions offer budget tools and most personal finance blogs offer budget tracking spreadsheets.  How do you manage our budget?

Netflix: An inexpensive alternative to Blockbuster

Posted on by 4
netflix, alternative to Blockbuster, cheap entertainment

Staying in and renting movies to make it a Blockbuster night can be expensive; even renting movies at our local independent video store can be expensive if we rent multiple movies.  The expense of renting movies combined with the general laziness of human beings has people searching for alternative methods to watch our favourite movies and television shows.

Netflix is a great alternative to our local Blockbuster. Netflix is an online video store that allows us to access unlimited Television Episodes and Movies from the comfort of our own home, without ever having to go outside in the cold, deal with crowds, or encounter rude sales people.

Netflix is currently offering a free one month trial; after it expires Netflix costs only $7.99 per month to receive unlimited TV Episodes and Movies.  This is all available for the price of one movie rental from Blockbuster.  No contract is required with Netflix, and we can cancel anytime.

We do receive unlimited Movies and Television shows with Netflix for one low monthly fee. However, we have to keep in mind that it does use our monthly bandwidth from our Internet Provider.  Therefore the monthly Netflix membership can cost $7.99, but the additional internet fees can add up to much more.

I am personally not a Netflix subscriber but I am thinking about signing up.  I don’t currently rent movies from Blockbuster because it is so expensive. I also think it’s a hassle to go back to Blockbuster in 24 hours to return the movies.

I usually watch my favourite Television Shows online because I rarely get the chance to watch them during regularly scheduled programming. The problem with watching television shows online is the advertisements. I hate having my show interrupted by companies trying to sell me something. There are no advertisements on Netflix, which is another added bonus.

I absolutely love going to the movies, I know this is not the most cost efficient movie method but I don’t really care. I see anywhere from 1-3 movies a month at the Cineplex.  This can be costly and I know that it doesn’t make financial sense to pay $12.50 for a movie ticket plus the cost of food, when I am not even willing to pay $7.99 to rent a movie for 24 hours from Blockbuster.  But it’s just something that I like to do.

I am about getting the most bang for my buck. The experience of going to the movies is not at all the same as watching a movie in my apartment. If we are comparing apples and apples, it is a better financial idea to get a Netflix membership for $7.99 per month and watch unlimited movies, than it is to pay $7.99 to rent one movie for 24 hours from Blockbuster.

(Photo by ThrowHerInTheWater)

Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps

Posted on by
wall street, stock market, money talk

I was born in 1980 and I have not seen the original Wall Street Movie. However, I can say that I enjoyed the modern day sequel Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps.  This movie stars Michael Douglas (who I heard was also in the original Wall Street movie) as well as Shia Labeouf.

I have to admit that this is really not my type of movie; I am more into thrillers and police/organized crime dramas.  However, I did enjoy this move. Besides the fact that Shia Labeouf looks amazing in a suit, and Michael Douglas is an amazing actor, there were many money lessons to be learned from the movie Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps.

After seeing the movie Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps the connection between corporate finance and personal finance is clearer than ever.  I am not sure if this is due to a great Hollywood director, or a really good story line; but the fact is that we can learn many money lessons about personal finance from corporate finance.  Honestly, at the end of the day we all want the same thing…to make money.

Here are some Money Lessons Learned about Personal Finance from Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps:

Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Within the first 15 minutes of the movie the market crashes, someone looses a million dollars on one investment, and the owner of a corporation commits suicide because he doesn’t want to declare bankruptcy.  The lesson learned from this is to diversify our investment portfolio.

Do your own research on investments. We should have a financial planner who manages our investment portfolio and who makes suggestions/recommendations for our portfolio. However, we should never trust anyone 100%. We should always do our own research before signing on the dotted line.

Ask for Help when You Need it. I think that this rule applies for everything in life, not only personal finance.

Greed is never good. Get out before it’s too late.

Learn from Our Parents Mistakes. Many of our money habits may have been learned from watching our parents. Hopefully we learned from their mistakes and inherited their good habits.

You have to work hard. Nothing in life is free.  If we want to have a huge pay check, we have to put in the effort. Hard work is the key to success.  It can’t be more plain and simple than that.

Speculation is an Assumption. It makes an ass out of you (and me). We shouldn’t speculate, guess, or assume when it comes to our personal finances.  We need to be educated and aware of what we own in our investment portfolio and what changes we need to make.

The number one money lesson learned from the movie Wall Street 2 is that Money Never Sleeps. Even when the markets are closed and our banks are not open, our money is always moving. It is always awake and we always need to be watching it.

Photo By Epicharmus

My Friends Make Me Spend Money

Posted on by 4
spending money, friends making me spend money, expenses

This past week I was going over my weekly spending and I noticed a very specific spending pattern.  I always spend money with the same people.  Other than the regular spending for my daily living such as groceries, and other amenities that keep my household running, I noticed a very specific spending pattern. I always spend my personal disposable income with the same three individual people.

Who Makes You Spend Money?

My Movie Friend Bonnie. Bonnie and I have been friends for almost 4 years, and one thing that we share in common is our love for watching movies.  Bonnie and I see a movie together about twice a month. Each time we go to the movies we spend $12.75 each on a movie ticket.  We buy movie food which usually includes soft drinks, popcorn, and some type of chocolate.  The combo we usually buy is $22.50. This means that if we don’t go out for dinner or go shopping before or after the movie we each spend $24.

This could include up to another $15 to $20 if we do decide to go out and eat before or after the movie.  Of course it would be cheaper if we waited for the DVD to be released, but we both love going to the movies.

Sometimes going to the movies with Bonnie is an all day event that can also include shopping.  Bonnie and I also share a love for books. Sometimes before our movie or after dinner we spend hours browsing around book stores.  We share a love for books, but we don’t share a preference for our favourite bookstore.  Therefore in one day we can shop at two or three different bookstores.

My Food Colleague Anthony. Anthony and I became instant friends over our mutual love for food and everything edible.  Anthony is an Account Manager at the bank branch where I work.  Anthony and I eat out for lunch once or twice a week.  Each time we order food to our office it costs us at least $10 each, twice a week.  This is another $20 that I spend each week that I should save. However, I like to eat. I like it even more that I don’t have to carry my lunch to work two out of five days.

My Travel Friend Gabriella. Gabriella is my friend who makes me spend money on the finer things in life. She and I are also friends from work, but she works in a different bank branch than I do.  We are both financial planners but we work in different bank branches.  Gabriella is my friend with whom I share all things girly including shopping, music and travelling to beautiful places.

Gabriella and I share a love for music.  We especially love the ambiance of live music.  We have been to several concerts together, and we have two others already scheduled for this year. We are planning to travel to Portugal together in late August.  Gabriella travels about 4 times a year and we have made a New Year’s Resolution that one of those times will be together. We have the same taste for luxury travelling, and we share common interests; so it only makes sense that we travel together.

If you had a different group of friends or if you worked in a different office would you spend less money?

(Photo By Antwerpen)

Wylie Coyote is a Financial Genius

Posted on by 1
financial genius, financial lessons, lessons from cartoons

Last week I spent an entire day watching cartoons.  If you are in your 30’s and 40’s you may remember Saturday morning cartoons.  When I was young, I used to wake up on Saturday mornings and watch Saturday morning cartoons while eating chocolate chip pancakes.

Sometimes when I need a reality check, or I need to clear my head, I watch cartoons. My life was much simpler when I was a child.  I am sure that we all have our routines that allow us to escape our everyday lives and visit a much happier time in our life.  Watching cartoons allows me to clear my head.  It is just an added bonus I realized The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show actually has many valuable life and financial lessons.

While watching Wylie Coyote I learned that there are several financial lessons to be Learned from cartoons.

Here are some Financial Lessons that I learned from Wylie Coyote:

Focus on the Long Term. His lifetime goal is to catch the Road Runner. I am not sure why he is chasing the Road Runner, or what he would do if he ever caught the Road Runner. The point is, Wylie Coyote continues to chase the Runner because this is his long term goal.  Having short term goals gets us by from day to day, but our focus always has to be on the long term. Of course long term is relative to each person.  For a total commitment phobic such as myself, the long term is 5 years.  However for others long term could be 25 to 30 years.

Don’t Look Down.  Keep focused and keep your head up.  As soon as we look down or start to doubt ourselves everything will fall apart. Our brilliant plans may collapse if we lose focus, and we definitely don’t want our finances to hit rock bottom.

Don’t Be Afraid to Take Risks. Of course I am not suggesting that we run off of cliffs or rocket ourselves into the sky, but we need to take risks with our finances.  Without risk there is no reward.  Don’t be afraid to put up to 5% of your portfolio into an extremely high risk investment.  If it works out your 5% high risk investment return could gain more than the entire other 95% of your low risk portfolio.  And if it doesn’t work out, it was only 5% of your total investment portfolio.

Don’t Spend Money on Gimmicks.  In every single episode of this cartoon Wylie Coyote buys some gimmick from the Acme Corporation to help him catch the Road Runner.  Sometimes it is a rocket, sometimes it is a large trap, sometimes it is roller skates.  Whatever the Gimmick is, it is always a waste of money because it never works, and he never catches the Road Runner.  Gimmicks are always a waste of money. Whether it is a free toaster when we open a bank account, or guaranteed cash back on our investment, we should never give in to gimmicks.

Photo by Crawfish Head

Friday Roundup: Getting into Debt, Paying off Debt and Getting Out of Debt

Posted on by

Happy Friday DINKS! Today we have rounded up the best posts from around the web about getting out of debt. Some of us may or may not have debt.  The odds are that we all have some form of debt whether it is in the form of a mortgage for our home, a credit card for our extra spending, or a student loan for our education.

Currently I don’t like to have debt because I didn’t like paying it off in the past.  I spent several years, and several thousands of dollars paying off credit card debt that I accumulated as a very young adult.  I am not even sure if we can call a 21 year old an adult, but that is neither here nor there.

Some of my favourite posts from around the web about Getting out of Debt:

Frugal Dad tells his personal experience about getting out of debt.  His post The Secret to Getting Out of Debt says that the only way to get out of debt is to increase our income. No matter how much we budget our income, sometimes it is just not enough to pay off our debts.  Our extra income should be earned for the sole purpose of repaying our debt.

Man vs. Debt is based on his personal story of attacking his personal finances.  His entire blog chronicles his personal life and his battle with his personal finances.  His post The First and Most Important Step When Attacking Your Finances tells us that we must have goals.  No one should get out of debt because it’s good for them, or because it’s the right thing to do.  If we have debt, we should get out of debt because we have a goal.  We should have a plan to do something else with our money, other than pay off debt.

Fabulously Broke in the City is a blog about a young professionals 18 month journey where she paid off $60,000 of debt with an income of only $65,000. She used a Budgeting Tool to help track her daily and monthly spending.  She made changes in her life.  She traded in stability for chaos in her career which led to personal financial freedom.  Fabulously Broke works as an independent freelance consultant. She chose to travel for 18 months and live out of a suitcase in hotel rooms for her career. This allowed her to keep her daily living costs down and put 50%-90% of her income towards paying down her debt.

All three of these blogs speak from personal experience. They tell us what works well, and what didn’t work for them.  That’s why they are so great!

What is your personal finance experience with debt?

February Love Drop: Let’s Help Alex & Ethan

Posted on by

January’s Love Drop helped Jill in Chicago and it was a huge success. Last month the Love Drop Team raised over $2,500 for Jill and her family.  Love Drop received boxes and boxes full of goods and items to help Jill and her family get through hard financial times in their lives.

Love Drop is now a community of over 400 people who all came together to impact one family’s life. If you participated in January’s Love Drop we would like to sincerely say THANK YOU. If you would like to watch the official January Love Drop video of Jill in Chicago please Click Here.

If you did not have a chance to participate in January’s Love Drop, we hope that you will be inspired to join the Love Drop community by the story of Alex and Ethan.

This month we are helping 2 beautiful kids named Alex and Ethan who have severe autism. The Love Drop goal is to raise $13,000 so that we can place a highly trained service dog with their family through 4 Paws For Ability.

Here are 3 ways you can help Alex and Ethan:

Join the team – This is the best way to help out, because money is always appreciated.  All it takes is a minimum contribution of $1.00 per month.

Join our blogger network – Blogging about Love Drop each month is easy, rewarding, and it REALLY helps spread the word about the families in need.  Love Drop will give you all the content that you need for each monthly post.  If you are a blogger please join the Love Drop blogger network.

Give a gift or provide a service – Gift cards and anything else that you can think could help out are greatly appreciated. iTunes gift cards will be especially appreciated for this particular Love Drop.  Next time you are out shopping please pick up an iTunes gift card and send it to Love Drop for Alex and Ethan.  Your small contribution will be a big help!

5 Ways To Save Money on Everyday Purchases

Posted on by 3
saving money, saving money on purchases, saving money on expenses

Every day we are all looking for ways to save money on our everyday purchases.  I, for one, could always use some extra money in my wallet, or in my bank account.  A little saving never hurt anybody.

Here are 5 easy ways to save money on our everyday purchases:

1. Buy items in bulk. Whether we have a household of only two people, or our household is filled with twenty people, it is always cheaper to buy everyday items in bulk. I know that buying in bulk may seem to be more expensive in the short term, but over the long term it is definitely worth it. Paying $10 for 2 items is definitely cheaper than only buying one item right now for $7.

2. Make sure to get free shipping when you shop online. Very often online shopping can be costly if we pay additional shipping charges.  Our items may be cheaper individually, but our total transaction may end up costing us more in the end because of additional shipping charges. If you don’t meet the minimum requirements for free online shipping, it is best to wait until you have more items to place your order. I often ask my friends if they need anything from the website and then we can order together to make sure we get free shipping.

3. Use coupons and discounts. Check if your local grocery store has a coupon board. It is also a good idea to wait for the weekly flyer to be published, waiting an extra day to do our grocery shopping can save us a lot of money at the cash register. A little saving never hurt anybody.

Don’t be afraid to ask for discounts.  Ask the store to take off the taxes, ask for a free gift with purchase. Ask for anything!  It doesn’t make us look cheap; it makes us look financially savvy. You never know what you can get until you ask. If they say no, it was at least worth the try, and we didn`t lose anything.

4. Shop around and try not to make impulse purchases. If you are considering a major purchase, it is always best to stick to the rule of 3. Shop around and compare prices of at least 2 other competitors.  It is also important to make sure that the item can be returned.  This way if we regret our impulse purchase in 2 days, we can always return it and get our money back. The shop around rule of three applies to everything from a new pair of jeans to car insurance.

5. E-Cards are the way to go. Sending E-Cards instead of paper greeting cards and invitations is good for the environment and a great way to save money throughout the year. By sending E-Cards, we save money on the cost of the cards, as well as on the price of the postage. Our E-Card recipient is guaranteed receive the card right away, there is no chance of our Card getting lost in the mail.

Blue Mountain offers a yearlong membership with unlimited E-Cards for only $19,99.  Think about all of the money you spent last year on Greeting Cards and Postage, it was probably more than $19.99.

How do you save money on your everyday purchases?

Photo By Tony Crider

Your Mortgage: Financial Institution vs. Mortgage Broker

Posted on by
mortgage, mortgage advice, mortgage tips

Shopping for a mortgage can be both time consuming and frustrating.  Some of us may choose to shop around for the best mortgage rates ourselves, while others may choose to take our mortgage from our primary financial institution out of loyalty.  There are several different factors such as closing fees, the home inspection, and commissions that must be considered before we choose where to take our mortgage.

The first step to getting a mortgage is the mortgage pre approval. I always suggest that clients get a mortgage pre approval before starting to visit homes.  A mortgage pre approval gives us an idea of the mortgage amount that we will be approved for with our financial institution.  Therefore, we will know the price range of homes that we should start to visit.

A mortgage pre approval does not bind us into a contract with the financial institution; it is simply an approximate amount of a potential mortgage approval.  It is not advised that we get more than 1 or 2 mortgage pre approvals from potential financial institutions.  Although no credit is actually offered, a mortgage pre approval does require a credit check.   Therefore it adds an inquiry hit onto our credit bureau.

The second step to getting a mortgage is to decide where we would like take our mortgage loan. As a renter I have shopped for a mortgage twice in the last few years.  As a total commitment freak, I backed out of both contracts within the allotted time frame and without penalty.

The first time I was shopping for a mortgage was in November 2007. I went straight to my financial institution for a mortgage pre approval.  I have all of my other financial dealings with my financial institution (which is also my employer) and therefore they were my only option for my mortgage.

My financial institution was willing to pay up to $1000 in notary fees, as well as pay for the inspection of the property which is valued at approximately $400.  The interest rate at that time was guaranteed for 90 days.  It was reasonable and it was a fixed rate guaranteed for 5 years.  I liked the idea of dealing with my financial institution because I was comfortable with my bank branch.

The second time I shopped for a mortgage was August 2009. This time I went to see a friend of mine who is an independent mortgage broker.  Maggie and I have been friends for several years, and more recently we have become colleagues.  When I am unable to approve clients for a mortgage with the financial institution where I work, I send them to see Maggie.

The benefit of dealing with an independent mortgage broker is that an independent mortgage broker deals with several different financial institutions. Therefore, they shop for the best interest rates on our behalf.  Independent mortgage brokers are paid a commission by the financial institution for bringing them business.  The downfall of dealing with an independent mortgage broker is that nothing in negotiable.  They offer pre-packaged deals by financial institutions or finance companies; therefore various extra costs such as notary fees and inspection fees are often not included.

Sometimes these extra costs will be paid by the independent mortgage broker.  These fees (if paid) are at the expense of the independent mortgage broker and they deduct it from their commission.  The commission paid by the financial institution to an independent mortgage broker can be anywhere from 0.0075 to 0.0125 of the total mortgage value.

(Photo By Sarah Ackerman)

Older posts
Newer posts

Boost Your Brand – Advertise with Us!

Advertise With Us

You cannot copy content of this page