A few years ago, the government opened up a new investment vehicle for people looking to save for retirement, the tax free savings account (TFSA). An RRSP is effectively a tax-deferred investment account. When you contribute to it, you are doing so out of pre-tax dollars (or, if you get a tax refund due to your contribution, you are getting the tax you paid on that amount back). Eventually you have to pay the piper, so when you start pulling money out of your RRSP to fund retirement, you will pay tax on that amount. The upside is that you’re able to invest pre-tax money (hence you have more ...

Well, it’s been nearly two weeks since the HST kicked in, and I thought I’d summarize some of the benefits: camping fees went up from $24 to $30 at Cultus Lake Gas went up about 5 cents per litre in Chilliwack Carbon tax on fuel went up 1.12 cents/litre the local Pharmacy started charging for all bags on July 1st a can of soda went from $1.05 to $1.15 at my favourite coffee shop BC Hydro’s Rate Rider was silently raised from one to four percent Clearly this tax is on its way to causing prices to drop on consumer goods in BC. ...

At the current population growth rates, by the year 2500 people will be standing shoulder to shoulder on every piece of habitable land on this planet. So while our immediate problems have to do with global warming and obvious aggressions in various parts of the world, at some point population is going to become a focus as well. It seems somewhat obvious to me that at some point there needs to be a type of population control on this planet. I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out how to implement something like that that doesn’t have any massive moral implications, and truthfully, ...

I got a call from the accountant this morning, and she said my taxes were all done. I just had to swing by and sign some forms and they would be e-filed. Before I gave her my taxes, I did a quick trial run myself, just to see what the difference would be. If I were to have filed them, I would have gotten back around $600. Having her do it (and properly take into account all my camera gear), I get about $1800 back. Her fee for doing my taxes was about $160, so that means my net return is $1640, or about $1000 more than I would have gotten had I done them myself. Not bad. ...

For those that are interested, I finally found an account downtown that I think is willing to do my taxes. I’ve typically always done them myself, except for one year when I had a bunch of stock and moving expenses I wasn’t sure how to deal with. I have income from multiple sources this year (thanks to photography and the odd web job), which should mean (in theory) that I’m eligible to write off some of my photography and computer expenses. Unfortunately, I’m not the most organized person in the world, and I somehow have to track down all my tax stuff from last year, along with everything ...