Answering some Questions and Comments

There have been a couple of comments left after posts that I want to address in this post.

First up, a question/comment on the Dollar-A-Week savings plan.

So wouldn't you get concerned that as you approach the later weeks that it will start to reach a critical mass of money that suddenly is very hard to save?


The way I have structured my schedule for this takes that into consideration. Over the course of the year my income fluctuates wildy, and in the months that I would have to deposit more money, coincide with weeks that I have more income. Also, instead of depositing actual weekly amounts, I'm lumping them together to monthly amounts. Perhaps I should be concerned that it will become difficult for me to achieve, but if I never try, how will I know if I can do it or not?



Hello :) Just wanted to comment on your priority list - nice idea btw - one thing that I noticed was you have not spread out your major expenses over the year. Most insurance companies will charge you monthly, and although the government suggests certain tax payments to be made for businesses, simply making a monthly deposit into the CRA account for the year based on your actual monthly income (e.g.30% of gross) spreads out everything. HST should be submitted monthly as well - simply calculate it each month and submit it. If you never had it in the first place, then you won't spend it. Build your budget on what you actually have, not on your cash flow which will be inflated because of tax money not submitted. Hope this helps ...

We choose not to spread out insurance premiums over the course of the year for a couple of reasons: 1 - their is a monthly charge for paying that way (yearly amounts reduce the costs), and 2 - I have a tendency to 'forget' and spend or transfer money that should stay to pay automatic deductions, resulting in NSF fees. I'm not yet at the point where I can leave monies in the account for monthly withdrawals, so to insure myself from making these mistakes, I prefer to do it yearly.

Making a monthly deposit to CRA based on actual monthly income is a fantastic idea! I never thought of it before. That should certainly help to keep the amount owing down when I do my income tax. Most of what I owe is for Self-Employed Canada Pension contributions. Do you think that would make a difference in how much to contribute monthly?

HST monthly contributions are more difficult to do, I've found. I'm required to submit quarterly HST reports, and for 3 of the 4 quarters, I owe very little, or am entitled to a refund. It's the third quarter every year that gets me in trouble. One large payment with a large HST amount attached. My financial institution doesn't have an agreement with CRA for HST/GST Electronic transfers, so I actually have to write a cheque and mail it to the government. I plan to deal with it differently this year to save the trouble, but I still have to pay off what I owe from last year.

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Went for ultrasound today for my hernia. I'm guessing I'll here from my doctor sometime late next week, so that we can begin the follow up process.
 
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I'm running out of ideas for the blog again, so if you have anything you want to ask, mention, query, or otherwise inspire a future post, please leave a comment or drop me an e-mail.
 
Happy Bunny Weekend folks!