Saying No to RRSPs and Yes to TFSA

I mentioned yesterday that I had tried to open up a TFSA for my company stock. The first place I had started was with my employer bank to open up a staff account. The gentlemen on the other end of the phone asked me why I had not opened up RRSP. I explained that I had no interest that it was a tax deferral system and not a tax saving system. And since I am currently in the lowest tax bracket it made no scene to me to defer paying taxes now to later when I might be in a higher tax bracket. The guy launched into a spiel about how I would be in a lower tax bracket when I retired, and blah, blah, blah. I stopped him in mid sentence; there was no point in him wasting his breath. I said let me be frank with you last year I made less then 15,000 RRSP will do nothing for me!! This is of course not taking into consideration the political, charitable and education credits that I have built up over the years because my income while at school has been on average less than $5,000. The last nail in the coffin for RRSP for me is that I have over 10,000 of TFSA room to play with and before I go tax deferring my money I would rather max out my opportunity to completely shelter my money form tax in at TAX FREE SAVINGS ACCOUNT!! I know that the bank agents are pressured by the management to sell sell sell RRSP but come on commonsense should kick in when the answer of No is backed up with lots of solid reasons.

I was having this conversation with the bank agent while on the bus home and when I got off the phone the bus driver throw her two cents in. She said she thought I had made the right decision and that guy on the phone needed to learn to take NO for an answer.

This morning I wrote the cheque and sent it off to ING. I have also just sent off my paper work for entering into company stock.

Lat night I made my mom do a leg exercise with me to strengthen our core mussels. I use to be able to do 3 sets of 5min of this exercise no problem. I mean it would hurt afterwards and for the next few days but I still could do them. I am more out of shape than I thought. I struggled to do the exercise for just one set of 5min and had to take several brakes within the 5min. I clearly need this exercise and will now endeavour to do it everyday as it only takes about 5min any ways. Mom however might not be as enthusiastic to do it again. I will likely have to put her feat to the fire. :P

OSAP, ING, Company Stocks

I got a letter from OSAP in the mail today. It was an official receipt from them stating that last year I paid $197.50 in interest. Not to bad considering I put $3,000 into it.  I still have to write the cheque to send into ING, but its going to be off tomorrow. I also got an email form work saying that I am now eligible to take part in the company stock. I called the HR department to set up a TFSA to place my stocks. Talk about getting the run around, any ways I know that I have to enrol in the program first before I can set the TFSA account up. Ya know for all the flash that comes with the 'enrolment booklet' its exceptionally light on 'How to enrol.' I was planning on enrolling in March because that's when I thought eligible. Now I know I can do it now. I am nevus as hell, though I think doing it now will be good because by March I will have a better understanding on what my base income will be. So I can reformat the budget. I want to make sure everything is in place so I can get back on track in March. I booked my trip and I am looking forward to it. However it has wrecked havoc on my budget.

No Salsa tonight. We have had lots of snow and my dance partner decided he didn't want to risk it. 

New Savings Account

A couple of months ago I called up Ally and sighed up for a TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account). Ally is very similar to ING in that it offers high interest Savings with no fees. The first cheque I sent them they sent back because something on it was wrong. Since then I haven't done much with the account. The other day I decided that it was stupid not to try and sent the cheque in a second time. So I called to make sure that I got it right this time and send it off today. Ally gives its client an interest rate of 2% which is calculated daily. Basically by not getting my act together I have lost out on some interest not much I'm sure but hey every little bit helps! The cheque I sent in was from my General fund which holds my 10% fund. The amount deposited was $425.05. I plan to keep my General Savings fund tracker the same as the amount is just split up into two different account at the moment. The plan is to eventually shift all of my 10% fund into my Ally account so it can collect the interest. Hopefully this time the cheque isn't returned because if it is I will start to get a complex.

On another note I am finalizing my 2011 goals and New Years resolutions still. So they won't be up until closer to the New Year.