Open up a Tax-Free Savings Account!

Hello readers! I have great news to tell you about!

Starting in January 2009, Canadian citizens over the age of 18 are eligible to open a tax free savings account available at all the major banks and most financial institutions! There are four different kinds of tax free accounts: Bank Accounts, GICs, short term deposits and Mutual Funds. Each account earns interest that is completely tax free, which is different than your regular bank account which is interest accumulates taxable income. For example: If you opened up an ING Direct account at 2.7% interest with $5000 deposited, in one year you will have earned $135 making your total balance: $5135. In a tax-free savings account, that $135 is not counted as taxable income, so, the profit is 100% yours!

Here are 10 things you need to know about tax free savings accounts taken from the ING Direct Canada website. If you don't already have a high-interest savings account (a bank account from ING Direct, Manulife or ICICI Bank for example) then I'd highly recommend you take some time to review their websites and start an account to earn you more money than your typical bank account. At the time of this writing, ING Direct Canada earns the highest interest rate available to Torontonians for a savings account.

1. The Tax-Free Savings Account lets you invest while not being taxed on interest or investment earnings.
2. You can contribute a maximum of $5000 a year. For example if you contribute $5,000 each year for 5 years you’d have more than $25,000 earning interest Tax-Free!
3. You can have more than one Tax-Free Savings Account and you can also have Tax-Free Savings Accounts with more than one financial institution. Like RSP’s you will need to keep track of how much you’ve contributed so you don’t exceed your limit (eg. $5,000 in 2009)
4. Unlike an RSP, you don’t have to pay any tax on money you take out of your Tax-Free Savings Account, and withdrawals from your Tax-Free Savings Account don’t affect your ability to qualify for Federal benefits like the Child Tax Benefit, Guaranteed Income Supplement, Old Age Security benefits, Age credit, or Goods and Services Tax credit – so you’re not penalized for saving.
5. You’ll be able to open savings accounts, GIC’s and mutual funds tax-free.
6. Unlike an RSP, money you put into your Tax-Free Savings Account will not be deducted from your income on your tax return.
7. Just like an RSP, when you file your tax return each year, the government will determine your remaining available Tax-Free Savings Account contribution limit for the coming year.
8. If you take money out of your Tax-Free Savings Account, you don’t lose the contribution room. You get it back in the following year. If you don’t make the maximum contribution you don’t lose the contribution room. The unused contribution room gets carried over to the following year. There is no limit to how much or how long contribution room can be carried forward.
9. You can open a Tax-Free Savings Account if you are 18 years of age and a Canadian resident.
10. The Tax-Free Savings Account comes to Canada January 1, 2009

For more details, I suggest you also check out the Canada Revenue Agency's website

Your very own Goals Template

Finally, the holidays are over and for some of us, there's a little time to relax and do some clean up and observation. It's at this time that I find the most success in deciding what my goals for the new year will be and appreciate what I've accomplished in the last 12 months. Dorothy just wrote an article about goal planning, so I thought I'd extend the conversation by giving you my own Goals Template.

My Goals Template consists of three parts: Career, Personal and Health; and is typically used for my annual goal setting and long range planning (up to 5 years).

Planning for the future
Below are subsections found within the three major areas that I feel are important to me.

• Describe your 2009 career, personal and health plan. Essentially a job description in your own words that is focused on where 2009 will take you based on the three main sections, Career, Personal and Health. For example, this can describe certain specializations in your industry or act as a reality check into what you're doing right/wrong at your stage of career. Your statement (about 4 sentences) should be written as if you've accomplished your goal at the end of 2009. Re-Reading what you've put here always gives me affirmation about what I've set out to do.


• Names of people who I should be networking more with. I list all of their strengths and weaknesses (if known) and describe what my own strengths are to be able to fit in nicely with this person. Developing excellent social skills in this area is important in order to build a stronger network and potentially get a better job or better friends.


• Training. Listing all the kinds of training and classes that I should be engaged in throughout the year. Taking the job description you wrote above, will this training help you achieve this goal?


• Projects, Assignments and Extra Curricular. Are there a list of projects, assignments or extra curricular activities that you can be more involved with? I use this section as a way to plan out all of the activities that I have on the go including my involvement with professional organizations.


• Time Management. This is a newer section for me as I've found that in the recent months, my time has started to become spread too thinly. This year, I will use this section as a way to decide how I will be delegating more work to others instead of doing everything myself.


• Habits. I typically list only a few good habits that I'd like to build on to make changes in my life. Items such as: Learning a new word every day, taking a 15 minute walk before work or committing to regular visits to the parents or grandparents.

Just like what Dorothy said: "make sure it is realistic for you". If this is your first time making your list, write down how you will START your goal in addition to your list. The hardest part about accomplishing a goal is keeping them. My next post (on the week of January 4th), I will write about how to keep those goals in the months ahead to ensure that you are on track.

Satisfied customers tell three friends

Here's a book I just read called: Satisfied Customers tell three friends, Angry Customers tell 3,000 by Pete Blackshaw. The dominant theme of the book surrounds Consumer-Generated Media (CGM), which is used to describe customer behaviors - specifically those of the online generation. What I like about this book is that it is a quick introduction into CGM that you can read over a rainy weekend. I'd suggest bloggers, website producers, call-center agents and professional writers who're just getting started with their online presence would be the best suited to read this book.



Three things I learned from the book:
1) Better measurement of my online blog. Lots of tips to help you track the success and importance of your blog in relation to other online media.
2) Finding the Love Spot. This is what Blackshaw describes as the moment a customer falls in love with the product/brand. It is never forced. AKA: word-of-mouth marketing.
3) The Credibility Quadrant. Helps map marketing strategies to measure credibility in the eyes of consumers. The quadrant is made up of Consumer Acceptance vs Brand Control with Branded websites, Contact Us and Feedback being the best within the quadrant and Stealth Marketing capturing the worst marketable visibility. Doesn't work for all companies.

Your best 15 minutes

How often do you make to-do lists for yourself? If you do them about once a month or week, I'd like you to get into the habit of doing them at least 3 times a week for about 15 minutes each time. I do a combination of things to keep my goals and responsibilities in check

1). I put everything down in outlook.

Even if I can't get to them, having them documented helps me stay more productive and prioritize my day. Outlook is used more as my day goes by and typically during business hours.

2). I still use paper.

I make 'grocery lists' every saturday morning as I'm eating breakfast. It includes everything that has to be done this weekend and sometimes a few things that I should not forget to do during the week. Sunday or Monday is when I discard this piece of paper and go back to outlook. I still like using paper because I can carry it around, crumple it up and add to it quickly. I also like the fact that it's still Cancer free.

3). My to-do lists are often in alignment with my goals for the month.

My monthly goals are always in agreeance with what my to-do lists dictate. Sometimes it's ok to add a few things to the monthly goals list as life changes with you.

The only day that I schedule permanently for a to-do list is on saturday. The other days I have my blackberry or laptop with me.