You may feel you have enough on your plate with the holiday season but here are a few points to think about: The RSP deadline is not for a few months but now is a good time to decide what you’ll do with a bonus, extra cheque or holiday extras The end of the year […]

It’s Financial Literacy Week so I began thinking about how I learned about money. I can think of a couple things I learned from my Mom: Keep track of the hours you work – especially if you are paid hourly (it is easy to have a conversation about a discrepancy with your pay check if […]

When I wrote Dear Piggy Bank’s business plan, I included two volunteer workshops each calendar year. The objective was to contribute to the financial literacy ‘tree of learning’. A couple weeks ago, I spent a couple hours at a YMCA Child Care Center that was designed, built and implemented to serve a community that faces […]

I am always looking for ways to increase Dear Piggy Bank’s profile and promote financial education. This summer Laura Thomas, a writer and advocate for financial literacy, was producing episodes of Money Moments and it was a fantastic opportunity to meet someone else who was passionate about making basic money management skills mainstream. Although it […]

Financial literacy is something I feel strongly about. Specifically the lack of it within our society. Ideally, young people would get a good start and receive the education to develop a solid foundation in basic money management skills. Not the fancy, high-faluting, high finance knowledge but the ‘get through the week’, the month, the year […]

Here are some tips to keep your financial world in order:

Budgets are pretty simple when you get right down to it. A budget is a plan to bring in enough money (income) to cover the money going out (expenses). If you can’t manage to pay your bills with the money you have or earn, you are short cash (deficit) and in the short term might […]

I know that I was well organized in terms of a budget and longer term planning but this was also born out of circumstances. My parents helped with my first year and then it was part way through my second year that I started to think about my resources… I had done a couple things […]

The last steps….the ultimate goal is to finish post secondary school without any debt. No small feat. A huge achievement if you can do it. The annual loan amounts have a way of creeping up in total amount owing and this can mean some fairly hefty monthly loan payments. A few thousand this year and […]

By now the school year is in full swing, classes have started, assignments are in progress and midterm test dates are on the calendar. A few of the big bills are paid and you have a good idea of what to expect for expenses for the upcoming months. You have a budget. What’s next? To […]