A little advice goes a long way...

I love my job. It's difficult and stressful at times, but I love what I do. I have learned many valuable things from my job. Most importantly I've learned how to properly manage own finances. I am certain this is something I would not have learned otherwise. Every day, I am blown away by how badly people can mismanage their money. Not that I want to plug the competition, but Scotia Bank's current catch-phrase has it right- you ARE richer than you think. This is the case for almost anyone. I know, I am a financial advisor.

I think EVERYONE should take 30 minutes of thier time and go to thier bank and talk to someone who does what I do. I don't care where you bank- sitting down with a financial advisor can honestly change the way you do your banking and save you more money than you thought possible. I know you likely disagree with me and think you already know everything. You don't. You don't know your bank's products as well as I do. Don't waste more of your money because you think you know it all. Most people of our generation do the majority of thier banking electronically. I certainly did before I started working at the bank. Now, I RARELY do my banking this way and likely never will again. Here's the reason why= PEOPLE can advise you and machines cannot. Perfect example= when I was a student, I was paying upwards of $30 a month, every month in service fees to the bank. Why? I didn't really know. Did I ever do anything about it? Not so much. I see this ALL time.

On a daily basis I save people hundreds of dollars a year because they are not using banking products which are best suited to thier needs. It is defiinitely worth your time to take 30 minutes and talk to someone who can review you products and services with you and advise you on your financial needs today and for your future. No bank will charge you for this service, and the advice will go a long way. If you bank with PC, good luck doing this- you won't succeed. Anywhere else, congratulations you are going to get the best advice of your life.

It's best to sit down with an advisor and take a comprehensive look at your entire financial picture. Day to day banking needs, credit, non-registered investments and retirement planning. While this can seem daunting and unnecessary in your early 20's, it is. Wake up, you're an adult and you need to formulate a life plan.

My advice for the day:
- Make sure you having a chequing account that suits your needs. Don't pay $25 a month when you can pay $12...and don't pay $4 a month for the cheapest account when you make WAY more then the allowed number of transactions and end up paying $20 in transaction fees.
- Open a tax free savings account and set up a pre-authorized transfer between your chequing and savings for an amount you can afford on a bi-weekly basis (or whatever your pay frequency is).
- Open an RSP (mutual funds are best right now), and do another pre-auth transfer the day you get paid to go into the RSP. It's a fantastic time to get in to the market. This is a moment in time where people of our generation will be able to amass a great amount of wealth from taking advance of low stock and mutual fund prices which have no where to go but up. Don't wait until you are 30 to start your RSP, you will be WAY ahead the game if you start now.
- If your credit card has a limit of over $5000, lower it. Anything more is unneccessary, and can hurt your credit in the future when you want a mortgage....and that may be sooner than you think. $5000 is enough to suit anyone's short term credit needs, which is the purpose of a credit card. If you need more than $5000 worth of credit for debt or a major purchase, you should have a line of credit instead.

That's my two cents for the day. ;)