We had a fantastic trip and now that all the bills are in, I can tally up the cost. What I’m really interested in doing is comparing the actual cost to my estimated cost. I can’t help it – I like to know if I did a good job J I estimated a total cost […]

We’re well into the sunset of 2015 so it’s a good time to do a budget check. I did one before summer started but that was more than 4 months ago! In a nutshell: 1. Income As expected – no more, no less. 2. Expenses Spending too much on food, gifts, entertainment, vacation/travel and other Spending less than […]

It’s hard to know because there are so many variables and it’s been so long since I’ve visited the UK. I have budgeted $10,000 to include flights, rental car, accommodation, food and spending. Luckily, we’re staying with family and friends for about one third of our holiday which is huge! We’ve paid for our flights, […]

I imagine we’ve all spent a little time day-dreaming about ‘if we won the lottery’ – the reality is that ordinary people win.  You can’t win unless you buy a ticket and no one wants to be the lone worker-bee if the group pool hits it lucky so I imagine most of us buy a […]

I attended a conference last week and two of the keynote speakers stood out from the others: A Canadian astronaut A former Whitehouse Chief Information Officer Although each had very different experience and delivery style, their messages were based on common ground: Set goals and develop a plan to get achieve them Run the ‘worst […]

Many of us have never known ‘normal’ let along high mortgage interest rates although it wasn’t that long ago that 6 or 6.5% was the norm for a 5 year mortgage. When I started working at the bank (in the mid 90’s) the rates were closer to 10%!   How much difference would a 1% […]

I thought the days of the UCCB (Universal Child Care Benefit) were gone once our girls turned 6. Although the $100 per child per month wasn’t much and certainly didn’t cover even a tiny amount of their child care fees, it covered half of their annual RESP (Registered Education Savings Plan) – $1,200 of $2,500! […]

Even though it was years ago, I remember the collision of thoughts and feelings when I heard the words ‘we don’t have a position for you after maternity leave’. I was on the receiving end of restructuring. I found out a couple weeks before I was supposed to return to work. Wow. I don’t remember […]

If you owe money to CRA (Canada Revenue Agency), you’re not a happy camper but if you have a tax refund coming to you…you are likely smiling!  Essentially it’s money you’ve paid to the government in one form or another but after reconciling your 2014 income and deductions with what you truly owe, you didn’t […]

Quite a lot – I think. No one likes them and neither one is the ticket to success. That’s the first question – How are you defining success? The key is to define your goal using SMART elements (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely). You may begin by saying that you want to lose 10 […]