Whoo Hoo! I finally did it! Yours truly has finally completed eight seasons of Stargate SG-1 and the first season of Stargate Atlantis. Apart from driving Imaginary Diva off the wall with my DVD box sets, she did get a chance to watch quite a bit of epsodes with me.

My patience will now have to test me because the latest DVD release date won’t happen till the fourth quarter of this year. Oh well…back to reality. Bit Torrent anyone?

I know…I know. You probably think my taste in TV shows is a little too Trekkie. But it sure beats watching a bunch of 50 year old women living their fantasies as Desperate Housewives. Botox anyone?

I finally filed my taxes today. After much fanfare and anticipation (blah, blah, blah), I ended up with a $1,500 refund. I know most people would be jumping up for joy, especially since Canadian Citizens bemoan the fact that Canada’s tax rates are so high. No other G8 country (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, USA & Russian Federation.) takes as big a personal income bite out of its economy as Canada does. Canada’s tax rate is 47 percent higher than the average G8 rate.

Should I really be happy about receiving such a sizeable amount? Did I spend my money wisely during 2005? (Mind you, those weekly romps at the Peeler bar really add up!).

In reality, I overpaid my taxes. I gave our beloved government $1,500 for a year – INTEREST FREE! This is a mistake I will never make again. Boy, I feel like a sheep that’s been lubed up with Vaseline.

“2005 Taxes Done”

Best case scenario is you don’t have to even make tax installment payments and just pay your tax bill when you fill you tax return. Then you have the use of the government’s money for one full year interest free. Put what you would pay for tax into a short term cash account and make some money off it. Then when the tax time comes, take it out, pay your tax and keep the interest earn. However, employees can’t do that because their company withholds taxes from their paycheck. Here’s a little financial trick you can do to get more money out of each paycheck.

Most people buy their RRSP (401K or IRA in the US) at the end of the year in order to reduce their taxable income and get a tax refund. When your place of work deducts income from your paycheck, they do it based on the assumption that you will not be purchasing a RRSP - that is why you get a tax refund. If your employer deducts from you paycheck based on you buying a RRSP, they wouldn’t withhold as much – that gives you more money in your pocket for each paycheck. How can you do this? By buying your 2006 RRSP now instead of in 2007.

Say you buy $10,000 of 2006 RRSP now and you’re in the 40% tax bracket. That will trigger a $4,000 tax refund when you file your 2006 tax return in 2007. However, you can take this tax receipt to the CRA and get a letter from them that tells your employer to make source deductions based on your gross income less the amount of your RRSP contribution. This will give you about $334 extra per month ($4,000 divide by 12). When tax time comes in 2007, you will have no refund and you will get an extra year of tax free RRSP growth because you brought the RRSP in the beginning of 2006 instead of 2007.

Now what if you don’t have the money to buy your 2006 RRSP because you just brought your 2005 RRSP? In that case, borrow the money from your bank to buy it. Take the RRSP receipt to get the CRA letter and use the extra money you get from each paycheck to help pay back the loan.