Knowing, “how to adult,” is a difficult task when fresh out of post-secondary.
Loans and OSAP have to start being paid off, your chequing account is no longer free, and what’s a financial planner?
Randy Hull is the accounting co-ordinator at Fanshawe College. He says when you file your taxes after post-secondary you should get a good sum of money back, because of accumulated education credits.
Education credits are non-refundable tax credits, used to lower owed income-tax money to zero. However, the credits are not payable. What is left after zero gets rolled over to the next year.
When Hull did his children’s taxes after they graduated, they received a couple thousand dollars.
He says, “The best thing to do with that, probably, is to pay down your loan. But if you have any other debts, get rid of those first. It’s just a nice way to get started.”
Hull also suggests to seek a financial planner.
Financial Planner at Planmar Financial Corporation, Mark Potter says, “A good financial planner will go over your assets, your liability, look at your cash flow. [They will] take stock of the goals you’re trying to achieve, and create a plan for you.”
He says the most important thing for anyone is to take stock of you situation, and see where you are. If you’re spending more than you make, something has to change.
He suggests either reducing your budget or bring in a higher income.
Unfortunately, Potter says he is not seeing responsible financial trends. Saying, ” People don’t really want to live within their means anymore. We’ve become so accustomed to taking on debt and the low cost of debt, kids just don’t seem to worry about piling more on.
The usual outcomes, Potter outlines are either you get in too deep of debt and have to claim bankruptcy or you have dug yourself a deep financial hole to climb out of.
Tune in to 106.9 The X to listen on How to Adult with finances weekdays at 12:15 PM.
