Tax Return, GST and Banking Woes

I have become a bad case of what not have happen when dealing with Banks, Gail would be so disappointed in me. Today after work I went to the ATM to see if my $50 deposit had gone through OK, only to find my account was in the negatives again. If screaming in a work environment was considered OK, trust me my friends in Australia would have heard me!! Any ways I walked in to the bank branch before it closed to talk to a teller about this. I explained that I had already talked to ING about over drafting my account but that I had deposited $50 into the account to being it back up to a balance of $2. She told me that for every overdraft transaction the bank charged me $5 because my account was 'mistakenly' not treated as a staff account. I don't know why this is the case... I haven't been fired... and trust me when I leave the Company Bank this account with be Closed, CLOSED. The Teller told me she should reverse the charges tomorrow, since it was the end of the day. Now I will have to go down tomorrow at lunch to make sure the charges have been reversed, so that I don't have further issues with over draft charges. Honestly this is becoming one bad nightmare!!!

My GST cheque came in the mail last week ($62.50) it will go to my Line of Credit, when I get to the bank hopefully tomorrow.

My tax return finally came in on Monday. The total came to $2,178.23.

This is how I have decided to brake the money down.

$852.20 to wipe out my Consumer debt (Visa card debt)
$490 for Child Sponsorship renewal
$237.30 to my accountant for doing my taxes
$450.00 towards my Car Fund
$50.00 towards Retirement Fund
$98.73 towards What if ...Fund which will go towards my Anime North 2011 weekend

So tell me what do you think?? Any suggestions?? I am not going to get to the bank until after work tomorrow so any feedback is welcome!

bi-Weekly Finances/Funds and New Developments at Work

As I write this post I am watching the very first episodes of Till Deb Do Us Part. It my guilty pleasure and its now free on www.slice.ca :D

I have mentioned that my March budget had hit several different bumps and we are only about 1/3 through the month. The first one was the reality check of my income which is $1,027.08 not what I thought/budgeted. The second reality check came when I finally got my enrolment into my company stock started. The first thing was I didn't know the amount came off the gross income and not the net. This reduced by take home pay and also affected my budget. The other thing is that I didn't have a place in my budget for this added category -I can hear Gail saying 'HELLO'- and she would be right. So the next question is what category do I 'steal' from to cover this unbudgeted expense. I have decided to take it out of my car fund. However I will be adjusting my stock contribution from 10% to 6% as I still get the most out of the fund with my company's contribution but will not completely affect my budget. In an attempt to try and reduce the damage on my car fund goals last night I decided to snowflake the $18.37 left over into my car fund. This brings my fund to $2631.77.

As for work, my DPTM is going through restricting. What this means is that I will be refocusing my skill sets and required to get my insurance licence before June 6th other wise "we will be reevaluating your continued employment in your current role" or so the letter says.  So that means its back to bank school to get my licence. I will explain the rest in more detail in a later post.  Without any further delay here is my budget:
    
                                                                         Amount: $1,052.79
                                                      After stock taken off: $956.96

Line of credit: $300
OSAP: $200
Visa: $25
Retirement Fund: $25
Emergency Fund: $25
Christmas Fund: $40
Storage unit: $85
Vet bills fund: $50
Cat Food Fund: $20
Cell phone: $50
Car Fund: $61.96
Spending money: $75

Ownin' Up to the Debt

The first thing that Gail taught me was to Own Up to my student debt. To be honest I thought I knew what it was. I had it at a nice round number about 40,000.00. Ya I was way off almost 10,000.00 off. Gail has a great worksheet on her website that can help you as it did me own up to my debt. I know its scary to go it, but trust me you will start to feel you have a handle on your finances, when you actually know the true numbers. The second piece of advice that I have gained is: to write down any personal debt you have outstanding with friends. Then systematically get rid of the second list and plan out how you will work your way through the first list.

this is my First list:

PAY OFF IN Who you owe For What How Much Interest Rate 12 months 24 months 36 months TD Canada Trust student debt $34,380.81 5.00% $3,008.32 $1,539.97 $1,042.57 National Student Loans student debt $13,058.00 7.50% $1,169.78 $604.29 $412.60 TOTAL: $47,438.81 $4,178.10 $2,145.27 $1,455

TOTAL: 47,428.81

That is a VERY SCARRY NUMBER!!! I honestly can tell you my parents don't even know its that high. And of course I had no idea.

The second list included the sundry debts to friends:

Jessica (last phone bill for our aptm in Uni.)~ $117.56

John (Moving truck)~ $120.00

Miranda (concert ticket)~$130.00

Dan (containers)~ $27.05

Dave (trip)~ $332.80

TOTAL: 727.41

So GRAND TOTAL: 47,428.81 + 7.27.41 =48,156.22

Ya almost $50,000.00 in student debt and I want it paid off in 3.5 years. This is the first of my grand plans and this blog is going to help me keep on track.

About me

I got out of university just at the tail end of the most recent recession. Talk about a real downer. But we do as we must and I am chugging along.

Financial education was not high on family's list of things to teach us kids. My dad was a politician and my mom did mortgages. So ask me about mortgages and politics and I can tell you more then you would likely care to know. But when it comes to stocks and retirement funds, I am hopeless. I am not even sure my parents have it sorted out yet and they've had more time then me too.

So I have sought to educate myself.

I love watching the show: Till Debt Do Us Part and Gail Vaz-Oxlande has been very insightful with her tips. But I am not married and do not own anything but debt at this point in my life. As such most of her trips are good to have for the future, but have no baring on my current situation.

I have searched the internet and looked for financial books/ magazines for advice for people like me:

1) more (student) debt then income

2) minimal financial background

3) big dreams

And I have found snippets of advice but no real plan of attack.

So I am starting this blog to track my ability to get ride of the first item, build on the second item and realize the third.