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.
Good morning Dinks. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for the weekend. Sleeping in and waffles is what’s on my agenda over the next two days. If the weather continues to cooperate maybe I’ll get outside and go for a walk…maybe.
I probably shouldn’t admit this but there are some weekends that I never leave my apartment. I’m OK with it, but it seems to shock other people. I like to get all my errands done during the week so I can truly have the weekends to myself. Is that weird?
Have a great weekend and enjoy these good reads from our friends:
Good morning Dinks. It’s officially spring, well it is on the calendar anyways, and that means it’s prime time for the real estate market. Home owners around the country are getting their homes ready to be put on the market and hopeful home buyers everywhere are looking for their dream home.
Are you looking to buy or sell a home this spring?
I have a friend who put her condo on the market back in January and she didn’t even have a visit until mid March. I’m not sure if she just listed it at a bad time, if it’s overpriced or exactly why it’s not selling but as of today it’s still on the market. Nevertheless she has already found her new home and wants to move ASAP.
After months of her home being on the market she finally enlisted the help of a real estate agent who advised her to make some eco friendly upgrades to her home. Of course my friend was completely against this. She doesn’t want to spend extra money on a home she’s hoping to leave, but if it helps get her condo off the market she might have no choice.
Homebuyers are always looking to save money, not only on the purchase price of their home, but also on the cost of their monthly bills. Eco-friendly upgrades may seem expensive up front but they will save you (or your new buyers) money over the long term.
Three eco-friendly renovations that are attractive to potential buyers:
Energy efficient appliances
The real estate agent said this is one of the first things homebuyers look for when deciding to make an offer on a new home. Families are constantly doing laundry and running the washing machine so energy efficient appliances will help them save money – and it’s good for the environment. That’s always a big selling point.
I didn’t know this but water consumption is a concern for many home owners. Until Nick and I moved into our own eco-friendly apartment last October I thought dual flush toilets only existed in hotels. I have to admit having the option to use a lot or a little bit of water is a great feature. The flush is quieter and if it helps conserve resources all the better. I’m not sure if it would be a deal breaker for us when buying a new home, but it’s a great feature.
Eco friendly light bulbs
The real estate agent advised my friend to go out and buy eco friendly light bulbs for all the fixtures in her home. Energy efficient light bulbs cost about $6 per bulb and last for 10 years or so. They are LED and low consumption but they aren’t any less bright. The function a.k.a. the brightness is not compromised, they last several years and they’re good for the environment. It’s all a win-win in the eyes of potential homebuyers.
This is the one suggestion that my friend actually took from the real estate agent. She went out and spent almost $100 on light bulbs at Home Depot, but now she can tell buyers the lights are energy efficient and low consumption.
Good morning Dinks. As always I’m being a little bit dramatic, I didn’t actually almost break up with my boyfriend of fifteen years, but we did have a discussion about his recent financial decision. Last week my boyfriend Nick bought the new Samsung Edge smart phone for $650. Actually he pre-ordered the phone and it should be delivered by mid April.
How do you handle financial decisions in your house?
When you and your spouse have different views on how to spend money how do you decide what to do? I have to say Nick’s purchase wasn’t without warning, he did talk with me about it before he made the decision. Although I think he was only asking out of politeness, he doesn’t actually take my opinion into consideration and that should count for something, right?
My opinion, of course, was that $650 is a lot of money to spend on a new cell phone and the truth is it could probably better spent. However that’s just me. I think it’s a lot of money to spend in one place and it could have probably been better spent, but techies around the world and Apple as a corporation probably disagree.
How often do you change your cell phone?
I know Apple has a lot of loyal fans who wait in line for hours every time a new iPhone or Apple product is released. I couldn’t imagine changing my cell phone every year or so just because a new model is released.
I don’t believe in upgrading technology, or anything for that matter, just because there’s a new one available. I believe in changing your items only when they’re broken. Everything from a cell phone to a TV should only be upgraded if it’s cracked, broken or malfunctioning and can’t be fixed. Is that just me?
If your cell phone is broken I would take the opportunity to get a better model, but I personally wouldn’t buy a new one just because there is a new option available. And what do you do with your old cell phone that is still in perfect, or close to perfect, condition? Well you could sell it.
Everyone can spend their money as they wish
That’s what I’ve learned from this whole situation. I’m not a fan of having the latest technology, but that doesn’t mean everyone else isn’t. If my boyfriend wants to spend his money on a new cell phone then he should do that.
Of course I think couples should discuss spending money when it comes to the household finances, but each person is free to spend their individual money however they wish. I have to realize it’s not how I would chose to spend my money, but it’s how Nick wants to spend his money and that’s his decision. That being said I love him but I don’t have to love how he spends his money.
Do you and your spouse have individual “fun money” in your relationship?
Good morning Dinks. I just finished my taxes. Yes that’s right I spent Friday night doing our taxes and it gave me a huge headache. I finished our taxes, took two Tylenol, watched Shark Tank and went to bed at 10 pm. Yes I know you’re jealous of my extremely exciting life.
You probably want to know if Nick and I are getting a refund or if I owe money; the truth is I don’t know yet. When I say I did my taxes I should actually say that I prepared my taxes. On Monday I’m going to take all my receipts and total income and expenses to my accountant for filing.
I don’t actually do my own taxes because as you can see it gives me a headache. I just add up the totals, collect all my bills, and put together my invoices and expenses then my accountant works his magic.
Stay tuned (in dire anticipation) to know if Nick and I are getting a refund or if we owe the Tax Man. Fingers crossed that we’re getting a big fat refund. Every year I learn a lot about our living habits and money management when it comes to tax time. Sometimes it brings back good memories of the year past and sometimes it’s big eye opener.
Here are four things I learned about myself from my taxes:
I wasn’t so smart with the spending
I spent $2500 more than I made from my freelance income last year. Most financial gurus would chalk that up to a huge loss, but considering we moved into a fabulous new apartment and gave our lifestyle a much needed upgrade I consider it money well spent. Hopefully that bodes well for me with my taxes. That being said I will definitely be more careful this year.
I travelled way too much last year
Travel expenses came in as my second biggest expense of 2014 with over $3000 spent on my various trips throughout the year. Combining road trips, conferences and weekend getaways I took a total of five trips last year.
I know that may seem excessive but I love travelling. I didn’t get to do it in my 20s so now that I’m 34 I am taking full advantage of every opportunity.
Eating out is a major expense
Nick and I spend more on eating out every week than we do on our groceries. Ok not always, but on average we spend either the same amount of money or more on snacks and eating out than we do on groceries. This is an expensive habit but since neither one of us cook very well it’s a lot easier to grab something to go than it is to try and cook a good meal.
We’re also both very busy – and I know this is no excuse – and we don’t have an hour every night to spend cooking and cleaning. Any ideas how we can break this bad habit?
My recordkeeping system sucks
Remember last month when I was audited? Well spending half a day collecting my paper receipts and invoices to add up all my income and expenses only supports the realization that my recordkeeping system sucks.
Not only should I be keeping track of all my income and expenses on a monthly basis to avoid hours of work at the end of the year but I have to find a better way than paper receipts to track everything.
Good morning Dinks. Can I ask you a question, do you spend more or less money on the weekends?
I’ve noticed that I spend way less money on the weekends because Nick and I usually just stay in. I don’t have the costs of travelling to and from work or the costs of eating out at lunch and coffee breaks with co-workers. That being said I spend a whole lot more on personal items such as toilet paper and paper towels because instead of being at the office 8 hours a day now I’m at home.
Good morning Dinks. Have you ever been up late and night watching infomercials and saw a ridiculous product and thought to yourself, I can’t believe people spend money on that? Well I had that realization last week about insurance.
Remember I went to New York City at the beginning of March? While I was there I saw the Broadway musical On The Town. If you’re in NYC any time soon and want to see a musical, I definitely recommend it. The story is about three sailors who are docked in New York for 24 hours and they want to see all the sights while looking for their dream girls at the same time. The music is upbeat, the sets are colorful and the dialogue is really funny. It’s definitely money well spent.
I always like to find the best deal whenever trying to see a Broadway show and of the three I’ve seen I only paid over $100 once – and that was only because I really wanted to see Motown and didn’t want to take a chance on it being sold out. This brings me to the first type of insurance I recently discovered, show ticket insurance.
Show ticket insurance
Did you know that you can actually buy insurance to cover the cost of your Broadway show tickets if something happens and you can’t make the performance? I had no idea.
I was searching the web to find the cheapest prices available and during my checkout at Broadway.com they asked me if I wanted to buy ticket insurance. I didn’t end up buying the ticket or the insurance through this website (I bought it directly at the box office), but I thought the option was interesting.
Engagement ring insurance
I learned about this beauty while in New Orleans at FinCon last year. In the exhibition hall I met two lovely women from a company called Jeweler’s Mutual. They are an insurance company that only protects your jewelry. Did you know that your valuables don’t have to be included on your home insurance? I didn’t.
Jeweler’s Mutual protects all jewelry under a separate insurance policy, their biggest assets are engagement rings. Now since I’m not married – or even engaged – to my long time boyfriend Nick I won’t be needing this type of insurance any time soon, but it’s worth comparing prices for anyone who is about to tie the knot.
Rental car insurance
If you’ve ever rented a car you’ve probably been asked if you want to purchase additional theft or damage insurance for an extra $25 a day in addition to your car rental price. I always politely decline because my American Express offers car rental protection.
However my good friend Cliff at LowestRates.ca recently told me that your regular car insurance often includes car rentals too. I’m not sure if this is a standard offering or if it’s an addition on your policy, but it’s definitely worth looking in to before renting your next car. Why pay extra for rental car insurance if you don’t have to?!
Good morning Dinks.. I just got back from another great trip in New York City. As you know I had a very hectic February and my extra long getaway to Toronto turned out to be more business than pleasure. To say that I was relaxed when I came home would be an understatement because I was just as restless as I was before I left. I just needed a change of scenery, time to disconnect, sleep and basically just a chance to get away from everything. So I booked a four day vacation to NYC.
Now I’m back in Montreal and in a little state of depression. Don’t get me wrong my time away did exactly what it was supposed to – allow me to decompress and catch up on my sleep. But every time I come home from NYC I wish I had just stayed. When I get back to Montreal I’m reminded of all the reasons life in the U.S. is better than it is up here in the north and it all starts with service.
Or actually I should say banking. I have business income north and south of the border therefore I also have banking on both sides. I’m always shocked/impressed by how advanced American banking services are compared to Canadian. I’m going to talk about the bank I use but before I do I want to say that the following is 100% my genuine opinion. The bank has in no way paid for or influenced what I’m about to say – except with their excellent service.
I have been a TD Bank client in Canada a lot longer than I have been in the U.S. When I needed banking south of the border it was probably the logical choice, but in true Kristina fashion I had to look at all my options. I made a list of the major U.S. banks and compared both services and pricing. I looked at Chase Bank, TD Bank, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. I love JP Morgan Chase as a company and I even own their stock, as an existing client I was already familiar with TD Bank, Bank of America was in the news a lot at the time and I met Wells Fargo a few years ago at a conference.
All of the banks seemed like a good option but Chase wouldn’t open accounts for a non-U.S. resident, Bank of America had extremely high services fees and Wells Fargo didn’t seem as present in NYC as I would have liked. So I went to TD Bank on Wall Street and opened my accounts. I never regret my decision, in fact I’m upset I wasted so much time researching other options when TD seemed like such a clear choice.
for the convenience and service
The customer service at TD Bank on both sides of the border is beyond anything I’ve experienced anywhere – and I used to work in retail. Where the U.S. is far superior than Canada is in the banking services and technology.
Check clearing (or cheque up north) in Canada takes 5 business days for domestic currencies and up to 15 business days for foreign checks. 15 business days is almost a month and that’s a long time to wait for money. In the U.S. check clearing is 24 hours. Amazing!
Account fees in Canada are astronomical compared to the U.S. The fee for unlimited checking in Canada is $14.95 a month, it’s waived if you have $3000 in the account. In the U.S. I have the exact same service and I’m only required to keep a $100 balance.
Banking technology is also far superior in the U.S. We just started getting the take a photo, deposit your check from anywhere technology up here. I believe the U.S. has had that for at least two years.
Maybe you said I’m afraid of it. Maybe you said I need more context before answering. Or maybe you said I love it. So which one are you? Think about your day yesterday, did you take a risk on anything? I personally don’t like to take risks, or at least I don’t think I do.
I don’t like to take risks when it comes to my money, as you know I’m a balanced investor an equal portion of both income and equity in my portfolio. I also don’t like to take risks with my life, I am definitely not one of those “grab life by the horns” types of people, I actually don’t even like to go on the Ferris wheel because I’m afraid of heights. At the same time I like to travel by myself, some people think this is a huge risk. So what do you think, am I a risk taker?
Or better yet, are you? If you take chances everyday and live your life on the edge do you also do the same with your money? People will probably tell you that being risk adverse or adventurous with risk is a personality trait. It’s very rare you’ll find someone who lives life conservatively but invests aggressively. Don’t you think?
People who steer clear of risk
In my experience when clients come into my office to invest and don’t want to hear anything about investing in anything that relates to the stock market they are re usually live very low key lives. Their investments are very low risk and they aren’t looking for advice. They’re just looking for someone to purchase their money market fund or term deposit.
The non risk takers of the world are usually law abiding citizens who plan their lives from the time they wake up to the time they go to sleep and well beyond that. Are you one of those people? If you look both ways before crossing the road and wait for the light to turn green before stepping off the curb maybe you don’t like taking risks with your money, just like you don’t like taking risks in life.
People who think twice about everything
These are my favorite types of clients when it comes to financial planning because they don’t make rash decisions, they don’t follow stock market trends and they don’t change their minds after making an investment decision.
When you first started reading this post, how did you answer the question? Did you need more information before you could answer? Then you’re a rational thinker, you’ll take risk if that’s the option that makes sense after you’ve weighed all your other options. I know this because I’m the exact same way and it takes one to know one.
The risk lovers of the world
Did you immediately answer you love risk without even thinking about it? The risk takers of the world are always difficult financial planning clients because they make quick decisions, don’t think about the consequences and come back to complain about their investment options when the value drops. That’s the thing about high risk investments, they can just as quickly go down as they can go up but no one thinks about that. People always assume big risk equals a big reward and that’s just not true.
Good morning Dinks and happy Friday. I’m back from my long weekend in New York City and I’m getting back into my routine. Has spring fever hit you yet? We had a lovely warm spell over the last few days and it’s been great, but today it’s cold again. Oh well it’s the weekend and I can stay in doors.
Enjoy your weekend Dinks.
Here are some good reads to start your Friday off on the right foot:
Good morning Dinks. The following is a contribution from our friend Anne at MoneyPropeller.com. Go over and check out her site, she’s awesome!
An internet minute doesn’t last very long. With all of the latest headlines, click bait titles (CAN I believe what happened next? I need to know!), cat pictures and hustling strategies, there are a million and one things vying for my attention and my time.
Beyond the normal distractions that we can all find online, helllooooo Facebook, I manage to find even more. Online work is one of my income sources, and one that I am constantly trying to grow. My end-goal is to be able to save more money and to pay for more travel. To grow my income, I bet I could literally list out 1000 different things that I wish I had done right this instant, in order to achieve that.
One thousand.
All Over the Map
With that many different tasks begging to be done, and new ideas popping into my head constantly, I need to be efficient with my time. Unfortunately, that is easier said than done. I am sure that you experience the exact same thing in your own life.
Buy groceries
Groom the cat
Pay that bill
Vacuum the floor
Buy concert tickets
Get around to phoning Mom or Grandpa
See if you can get a warranty fix on those broken sunglasses
Return the empties for money
Drop your old router off to be recycled
Shred the old health care claim stubs
Aside from the one about the cat, those are all things that are on my regular-life to-do list, which I may or may not get to in the next two weeks. (Hint: The sunglasses one is looong past due.)
Frustration
With so many things to do, and new ones surfacing every day, I get frustrated when I do things inefficiently, or when I wish there was a more efficient way to do things but can’t find one. This past summer, I launched another website in the personal finance sphere named MoneyPropeller.com. Like a lot of people who dabble in the online hustling world, I have a number of domain names.
Money Propeller was waiting to be developed for a while, and when I started working on it, I was all over the map. I would go to do one thing and then find out that in order to complete that to-do, there were three others I needed to do first.
It’s a recipe for frustration, and a recipe for having twenty different browser tabs open!
I felt like I was spinning my wheels and that there had to be a better way.
One Solution
My solution in this particular case, was to create a solution! What I wanted was a straight forward, in order, logical approach to getting an online brand set up, and to get all of the settings set, and layouts laid out. A checklist, or a road map guide, really. I couldn’t find anything with that level of detail, most books and blog posts only cover buying a domain and installing wordpress and a few plugins.
That’s how On Your Mark, Get Set, Blog! was born. It’s the checklist that I wanted, to increase my productivity, cut down the inefficiencies and, most important, kill the frustration I was feeling. It turns out, I had to write it. I did, to solve my own frustration, and to save you from frustration.
If you have a website (or several), or have been thinking about getting into blogging, On Your Mark, Get Set, Blog! is waiting for you, to save you from my headaches!
More Free Time
Finding, or creating, systems in order to do things in an efficient way frees up time to do other things. In other words, to achieve more balance in life.
Less Stress
Knowing that there are a million and one things to do that all take time is a stressful state of being, especially when you feel like you can’t get anywhere on the list. Setting a structure and a plan around how you do things is a good way to cut the stress.
When you have a plan and a process, it helps approach the “how do you eat an elephant?” problem, where the problem is so overwhelming you don’t know where to start. For example, committing to put all of your incoming, opened mail in a to-do file instead of wherever you set it down in your house is one small step toward making things more manageable. Small step, less stress!
Do you face any challenges where you can see the payoffs of an organized approach, but haven’t found one yet?
About Kristina Tahnyak
