Monday 22 February 2016

Cautiously Optimistic

I had a good weekend and a number of interesting things happened. First of all I did have a warm weekend and during the day I was able to splurge and have the heat up to a balmy 20C inside Wanda . . . Ooo, having a heat wave!

Late this past week I got my T4 from work. I had already received the tax receipt for my RRSP contribution.  I decided to file my tax return early in order to beat the rush and perhaps get my (modest) refund a bit earlier.

So I sat down and used online tax software to complete my return. It told me that I would get a fairly decent tax refund, nothing stellar, but a help towards my house purchasing plans. 

When I got to the end to click the “file your return” button, it was greyed out. There was a problem with their software, something to do with finalizing the information in the software with the tax man. 

I sat there and thought about waiting a week or two, but then remembered that last year I couldn’t file it electronically due to the fact that I had changed my address (or so they said). That meant mailing it in, and even then I didn’t get an answer till June. 

I then decided to go to a tax professional and have them prepare and file the return. I was unsure about this, as I know how to put numbers in a box, I mean they make it easy. The contents of Box 1 goes here, Box two goes here, and so on. 

I did go and sit down and the tax guy was rather eager and professional. He sat there staring at his screen clicking away as I sat there wondering what was taking so long. 

In the end he discovered some tuition tax credits that I hadn’t used (or knew about) from when I went back to school. Well, with the application of those combined with my RRSP contribution he tripled the tax refund that the online software said that I was going to get.

I decided to wait for the refund rather than do any “instant cash back” schemes. For one, they cost money, and for the other, if this refund turns out to be less, then I would owe the money back. 

Since all I am going to do is stuff this refund into the bank, instant cash back just seems silly. After all, he said that I should see the cash in my account in a couple of weeks. 

Again, I will wait and see, what I get and when. When it comes to the tax man and tax refunds I have learned to be very Missourian (as in “show me”). 

I know that I could use this to top up my main account and also my contingency fund, but I won’t. I could even buy a killer laptop, but again, I won’t. I will pretend that this money doesn’t exist and stuff it all into the Down payment Fund. 

If things keep going like I have planned, then it looks like I will have saved up what I estimate that I will actually need for a down payment.  Since my comfort zone ends at about $250,000.00, that means that I will need a down payment of at least $12,500.00 rather than the $10,000.00 that I had planned to save. 

The other interesting thing was that I got mistake for a Hutterite again. It seems that my: black hat, black coat, beard and my “Northern European Ancestry and appearance” seems to add up to this one conclusion (regularly). 

You see, I have been parking in a parking lot of a sporting goods store that is in the northern most parking lot of my Western Home. I don’t like to be parking in this parking lot as it is smaller parking lot. 

Due to the fact that all of the other spots to park my RV (and not be inconsiderate) are taken, I am forced over here. The main downfall of being in this parking lot is that I can’t run my Generator during the day, or at least while the hot dog guy there. 

You see, there is a guy who runs a hot dog stand in this parking lot. He is there every weekend at least; I am not sure if he is there during the week, but perhaps he is.

Why can’t I run Jenny with the hot dog guy there? Well he has his flags up and his umbrella, but he also shouts and calls people over to his stand. Well, since Jenny is not a fancy and expensive generator, she is not quiet, so she would drown him out and impact his sales. This is not something that I want to do, considering my live and let live (and be considerate) attitude.

Yesterday he came over and asked me, without actually saying it, if I was a Hutterite, as he was looking for trades people in order help him finish his food truck. As it turns out he is an expert chef and decided instead of opening a restaurant to build a food truck.

He has most of the materials but is half way done and needs trades people to finish it but is mired in debt. I bought a hot dog and we had a talk about how to pay down debts and his food truck. It was good to visit and finally talk to this guy that I had seen there on a regular basis. 

In the end, I am still cautiously optimistic, for the future, but optimistic nonetheless. 

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