Watch your wallet and eat Healthy with these budget friendly tips in mind.

Wealth means nothing if you don’t have your health, here are some tips for keeping your eating clean. 

Here are some cost saving strategies for buying organic produce. Buying organic food can be an expensive endeavor.  Watch your wallet and eat healthy with these budget friendly tips in mind. 

1)      Know ‘The Dirty Dozen’ and ‘Clean 15’ (See Below).  It isn’t necessary to purchase every single item organic, prioritize your spending on foods you care most about and foods that come highly recommended for buying organic because they have the highest level of pesticide residue.  The least pesticide covered can be purchased non-organic.

2) Try to buy in season.

3) Planning out your meals ahead of time is a great way to save money and time.

Bonnie McPhail

Simplify preparing for Income Tax Time

We would like to help you simplify your time while preparing for taxes this year! Here we have a few things for you to keep in mind. 

During this time of year we always receive a lot of calls, for missing tax slips, also clients looking for some of their tax slips early hoping  they can file their taxes early.

Here's something to keep in mind. In our Feb 2, 2018 Blog we have a couple lists, as well as the deadline for some tax slips. Note: The deadline for some slips is not until the end of March. 

For those of you who would like to simplify life. We suggest registering for My Account an Online site with CRA. This will help to ensure that you have all your investment tax slips as well as any T4's and more, see below for a overview of the options available.

My Account is an easy option to help you! It will allow you to track your refund, view or change your return, check your benefit and credit payments, view your RRSP limit, as well as your TFSA Contribution limit. You can set up direct deposit, receive online mail, and so much more.

If you are registered with My Account, you can also use Auto-fill my return when you file online using certified software.

On your mobile device? Try the MyCRA mobile app - you can securely access key parts of your tax information and manage personal details, wherever you are.

Michelle Currie

2018 Federal Budget Summary

In order to keep you up to date on the proposed changes in the Federal Budget you may want to click on this document to see how they may affect you.

Click here

Jodi Dark

WHAT A CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER CAN DO FOR YOU!

2018 marks my 10th year as a Certified Financial Planner. Although I've been in this business for 21 years now, 10 Years ago I decided to go the added mile for my clients and myself and take the education to become a certified specialist in financial planning. It was one of the most challenging periods of my life, taking courses with a young family at home, while being in the office full time, but so worth it.

CFP's follow a strict code of ethics and must maintain many hours of continuing education each year. 

To learn more about what a CFP can do for you and what it means to me, please see the following links.

• Benefits of working with a financial professional

• Video- A Matter of Trust

• Video- What is a Financial Planner

Jodi Dark

A comment on the recent -Market Correction -

A comment on current market volatility from Fidelity’s Jurrien Timmer Director of Global Macro for Fidelity Management & Research Company

“Whether last week's correction ended on Friday or continues for days or weeks to come is of course unknowable. My guess is that the market chops around for a while, perhaps several months, as typically happens after the economy reaches a momentum peak. For the typical investor, it's worth remembering that part of the value of the stock market is that over the long run, equities generate better returns than less risky investments (like money market funds or bonds) but that the "cost" of those higher returns is higher volatility. In that respect, nobody should view the 52% return for the S&P 500 over the last 2 years—amid record low vol—as normal.

So I for one am not concerned that the stock market is starting to behave like its normal self again. And for investors with an appropriate investment plan based on their risk tolerance, goals, financial situation, and timeline, short-term volatility shouldn't require any action. More active investors may actually welcome this volatility. I myself am relieved actually. Better a correction now than a bear market later.

Corrections are like vegetables in that sense. They don't always taste good, but they can be good for you.”

Jodi Dark

As the old saying goes "The only two things in life that are certain are death and taxes"

This is the time of year when we have many calls from clients asking when they can expect their investment receipts.

Below is a timeline what investment slips to look out for and when they are typically mailed out.

Regulatory deadlines

T4 – February 28th/29th
T5 – February 28th/29th
T3 – March 30th
T5013 – March 31st
NR4 – March 31st

Contribution Receipts – Contributions made in the first 60 days of the year are mailed daily while contributions for the remainder of the year are mailed in January of the following year.

If you own open or non registered investments please keep your year end receipts as your accountant may need these to calculate any capital gains

Also click here for a one pager that lists some of the things you should think about collecting in order to get all of the tax breaks you may be eligible for.

Good Tax Return checklist

Helpful one page checklist

Happy Calculating!

Jodi Dark

New Year Resolutions

Regardless if your New Year’s Resolution was to exercise more, eat healthier or improve your savings plan… give yourself some time.  It takes 21 days to form a habit!  Stick with it to reap the rewards😊

Bonnie McPhail

Happy New Year!

Hello and Happy 2018 Everyone!

Over the Christmas Holidays we enjoyed yummy food, even if it was a little too much ! it was worth it.

We enjoyed great company, being surrounded by family and friends.

We were blessed with a white Christmas, my favorite kind!

Having all this snow gave us an Idea. Lets go tubing on a pizza! This is my son Dawson, sliding down the hill on a Pizza Tube. We are at my husbands Grandparents home in Corunna, Ontario.

What you can see in this picture is Happiness! This activity gives children from all ages so much enjoyment. Good for ages 0 to 39 yrs old .....no one is too old!

You can participate, you can watch, you can cheer...it brings you so much Joy and Happiness to see.

What you can't see is the freezing cold temperature as the wind whips down the hill. You can't see the line up of cousins to try this out next. You can't hear the kids screaming in joy and laughing with excitement. You can't see most parents inside cheering on the kids with warmth of family from inside the house ( me included). You can't see that at the bottom of the hill was the St. Clair River flowing with Ice!!! My husband David piled snow to slow the kids down near the bottom. We had a few parent supervisors as an extra wall to make sure that no one went swimming while snow tubing. It was a success, everyone had a fantastic time, and no one went for a swim.

I hope that you all enjoy this Fresh start to the New Year. Keep safe and stay warm, I do encourage you to venture out on occasion to enjoy some fun in the snow!

-Happiness is the New Rich-

Michelle

Credit for this photo goes to my Aunt Jennifer Matthews-Jameson 

Tis The Christmas Season!

Our Annual Office Christmas Pot Luck and Games.    

Oh what fun we had!! We wore our Ugly Christmas attire and enjoyed great company with good food. Afterwards we played some fun games including Michelle's annual Amazing race/ Scavenger hunt which kept us moving and helped work off all the yummy food.

We would like to wish you a Happy Holiday Season. We hope you enjoy some good food with family and get some time to relax. 

Merry Christmas from Jodi, Bonnie and Michelle

Client Appreciation Shred Day

This year we offered a shredding service as a Client Appreciaton.  THANK YOU to all our clients who brought in their shredding, we may have to do this again next year!

Michelle Currie

Look What's New!

Welcome to our brand new website! We're excited to bring you our new look - it's a time for new beginnings.

Stay for a while, have a peek around and let us know what you think. There's all the stuff that you would expect, and a few new things (like this blog!), so come spend some time on our pages.

We had a great time working with Bemoved Media who came all the way from Vancouver, BC, to make us look good! We think they captured our investment beliefs and style perfectly and combined with their photography, confirmed that we do indeed live in a beautiful community.

Special thanks as well to some of our clients who came out to share in the fun (as well as a few mimosas). We appreciate you!

Jodi Dark

Summer is Here

That means kids are out of school, the weather is beautiful, and life just feels a little lighter and warmer.

It also means that we have summer hours so we can all enjoy some time with our families in the sun.

Our Summer hours for the months of July and August are:

• Monday - Thursday: 9:00 am to 4:00 pm
• Friday: 9:00 am to 1:00 pm

Remember:

1) Hope, our receptionist, is here daily from 9-5pm. Feel free to drop by if you simply need to drop off or pick up something.

2) If you call on a Friday afternoon after 1:00 pm, we will return your call on Monday.

Enjoy the summer and be safe!

Jodi, Bonnie and Michelle

Our Top Team

My team - well, what can I say about Michelle and Bonnie?  They make my work life easier and our office a much more fun place to work in each day.  These girls are the best - they have big hearts, are really fun, and truly care about you as much as I do. I know that because of the way I see them do their jobs each day.

I’ve seen Michelle perform miracles for our clients and go to endless lengths, to the point where most people would simply give up.  Bonnie supports us both in ways I can't even explain - she just makes it easier - and that's a huge plus.

We’re a great team - we get things done and have fun at the same time - always remembering that it’s peoples' lives we're dealing with - and that’s what brings us joy.

Jodi

Happy Canada Day!

Hello and Happy Canada Day Weekend!

I wanted to let you know that Michelle, Bonnie and I have just completed two days of training with our new company, Industrial Alliance Group (iAG), which is taking over from Scotiabank. We were so excited to have the opportunity to view our new systems, client statements, and technology improvements in the works.  Although the official date of the merger is not until August 4, 2017, there have been a lot of things going on behind the scenes to make this transfer seamless for you. We are all very excited about this change as well as the array of improvements in store.

Soon you will have the option of transferring funds directly from your bank account into your investments,  selecting paperless statements, access to your accounts online through a secure client portal, with financial tools and calculators to assist you. There will be lots of new features and an opportunity to sign documents through this secure encrypted site, as well making address changes and account transactions much simpler. We are very happy to report that IA is focused on making your investment experience easier and less cumbersome – with less paperwork!  We also found that the attitude from the top down was very positive and client-focused.

We all truly believe that this change is going to be the best one yet! In mid-July, you will be receiving a notice from iAG which will contain a username and a temporary password so that you will be armed to set up your new online account once the merger is complete.

If you have any concerns or would like Michelle to walk you through this process, please do not hesitate to call us - we are here to make things less frustrating for you.

We appreciate you, and hope that you will find this change as exciting as we do!

Thanks,
Jodi

Welcome !

New Client Information

 

Permission for this link is reserved for Clients upon their booked appointment.

If you would like to review the content of this link, please contact our office and we will be happy to book an appointment for you.

Jodi, Bonnie and Michelle

Understanding Mutual Fund MER's

Sometimes Clients have Questions regarding MER's and how they work.

If you find yourself wondering, or would like a refresher on the details, please know we are here to help. Please Click here to see a breakdown of this information.

Jodi