File Your Income Tax Return Yourself

You Know All About Your Own Situation

Unless your situation is very complex, you should file your income tax return yourself. You are the best person to analyze your own tax situation and take into account all nuances and possibilities.

You are also more motivated to reduce your own taxes than the H&R Block clerk can be.

Just A Little Research and Reading 

By completing your tax return yourself, you are, among other things, less likely to forget deductions. You just have to play with some numbers and read a bit; a little arithmetic and reading has never killed anyone!

Almost Always Waive Life and Disability Insurance Clauses on Loans

When you borrow from financial institutions, they systematically offer you life and disability insurance to «protect» your mortgage or loan.

It might be wiser to waive these insurance clauses and thereby avoid paying «small» supplements.

Indeed, most of the time, loan insurance clauses are simply not beneficial to you.

Less Expensive Possibilities

You need to check and compare it with other options available to you. But in most cases, it’s possible to obtain similar protections cheaply.

Thus, Group Insurance available through your job is often interesting and can fully cover your insurance needs at a low price. There’s absolutely no point to have double or triple coverage; you’ll probably only get paid once anyway.

In addition, it is always advisable to combine coverage on a single contract to avoid undue administrative costs.

Evaluate Training Needs during Annual Evaluation Meetings

Only 12 days till Christmas…hang in there!

Set Up A Training Plan Adapted For Each One

Specify your organization’s training needs during annual evaluation meetings.

Begin by evaluating staff training needs yourself.  But also take time to specify expectations and training needs with each employee. Each individual can have different needs but some group training is often possible.

That way, your staff members will feel valued and will develop new expertise which could be beneficial for the entire organization.

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You Must Have A Will If You Have Kids

To Protect Your Children

If you have children, and even if you are still relatively young and healthy, it’s essential to have a valid and up-to-date will.

While it’s not pleasant to think about that possibility, there are certain arrangements that you should take now to ensure that your family is in good hands if both you and your spouse die.

Tutors and Life Insurance

Thus, in addition to clearly outlining your last wishes in your will, you should also appoint one or more tutors to take care of your loved ones if necessary. Adequate life insurance coverage is also desirable.

Maintain a Minimum Balance to Avoid Banking Fees

Avoid Bank Service Charges

For some of us, it may be interesting to maintain the minimum balance required to eliminate our monthly banking fees. Although it is not usually advisable to let money sleep in a bank account, this time around it could be beneficial to you.

A Great Investment

Indeed, maintaining a minimum balance can even be considered as an excellent investment depending on your situation.

Example

If you’re required to maintain a $1000 minimum balance and that you can save $9.95 on monthly service charges,we can calculate that it represents a 12% annual performance, without taking any risk.

Furthermore, considering taxes, assuming a marginal rate of 40%, fees saved equate to a 16.8% interest yield [12% x (1+40%)].

Avoid Paying Annual Fees on Your Credit Cards

Never Pay Fees

You should never pay fees on your credit cards; whether it is interest charge, late fee or even annual fee.

Just use common sense and a little discipline. Credit Card Fees are Simply Useless.

Switch To a No Annual Fee Card

You rarely can take advantage of additional features provided by credit cards with annual fee. Just ask your financial institution to switch to a no annual fee credit card.

The only reason you should pay annual fee is if you can get an immediate monetary advantage than is greater like a cash reward program. But remember that many no annual fee cards can still offer you competitive cash rewards.