Is tax season taxing your health?

One study estimates that US taxpayers spend over 6 billion hours per year working on their taxes (in Canada, it may be as high as 600 million hours). And with all those hours comes a tremendous amount of stress and fear:
• You’re under a tight deadline.
• There’s a lot of money on the line.
• You have to track down countless receipts and slips.
• The forms are confusing.
• Getting it wrong—even by accident—can result in stiff penalties.
Putting yourself under such stress can have serious health consequences. Your regular eating habits may be disrupted so you’re more likely to reach for high-fat, high-sugar comfort foods. Worrying may lead to sleep deprivation, which can weaken your immune system and make you more prone to sickness and disease.

In fact, stress itself is known to suppress the immune system. Stress causes the body to release endorphins (opiates related to morphine), which relieve pain and produce feelings of euphoria. While morphine makes us feel better, research indicates that it also profoundly suppresses immune cell activity.

Isn’t it ironic that doing our taxes can actually increase our health care needs, which in turn increases the amount of tax we pay! If tax season stresses you out, next year consider paying someone else to do it.

10 spring cleaning tips

1. Work from the top down, inside to outside, to avoid getting what you just cleaned dirty again.
2. Do one room, even one area of one room, at a time to avoid unfinished jobs. The satisfaction of seeing one room sparkle will make the hard work feel like it's worth the effort.
3. When tidying, reduce trips around the house by temporarily depositing items in one spot en route to but not at their final destination.
4. Do two things at once. While laundry is going, scrub the shower stall.
5. Make small repairs. If you're not handy, hire someone.
6. Invest in good rubber or vinyl gloves to protect your skin and nails.
Dust before vacuuming or cleaning the floor. Try feather or lamb swool dusters, especially extendable ones for reaching above window and door casings and into corners. Household rags are invaluable for jobs requiring a damp cloth – natural fibres work best.
7. Buy mops with a squeeze mechanism (great for vinyl, linoleum or ceramic tile floors) and a decent-size heavy-duty pail – one with a measuring scale helps get soap-to-water ratios correct.
8. Don't stand your brooms on their bristles. It will destroy their shape and diminish their effectiveness. Instead, get a broom holder, like the Magic Holder 5-position broom organizer.
9. Use a Swiffer for light dusting, or your favourite broom or vacuum attachment to clean hardwood floors. Then damp-mop with a mild cleaner such as Murphy Oil Soap. I recently discovered BonaKemi's MicroPlus Hardwood Floor Care System, which includes a mop with a removable washable microfibre pad and a nontoxic water-based spray cleaner. It makes the floors glow, and smell good, too. (Source:hgtv.ca)

Strategic ways to use your tax refund.

There are two ways you can look at your tax refund. As “mad money” to blow on indulgences like the latest summer fashions, a must-have gadget or a splashy night on the town. But remember, it’s called “mad money” because you’d have to be mad to spend your hard-earned dollars on stuff that immediately loses value. Instead, look at your tax refund as a way to help generate wealth, so you can eventually achieve financial security:

• Renovate for resale value. By upgrading your kitchen or bathroom, you can add value to your home.
• Consider a revenue property. Start putting money away for a down payment while you research the market. By choosing the right property, the revenue will cover your mortgage payments and you’ll end up with substantial equity—which you can use to invest in a second property!
• Invest in commodities. As the world economy recovers, demand for commodities like oil and metals is going to grow. Buy stocks, mutual funds or the metals themselves and participate in that growth.
• Invest in yourself. Take a course or attend a conference that will help advance your career and increase your earning power.
• Make a charitable donation. Not only will you be helping a worthy cause, you’ll generate an even bigger tax refund next year.

New mortgage rules impact real estate investors and self-employed buyers.

For months now we’ve known that the federal government was planning to tighten mortgage rules in April. Buyers now have to qualify for a five-year posted fixed rate when they choose a 1 – 4 year term or variable rate. And people who are refinancing can only withdraw up to 90% of the value of their home instead of 95%. But now CMHC (Canada Mortgage and housing Corporation) has also announced tighter rules for real estate investors and self-employed borrowers. In raising the down payment for 1-4 unit rental properties (non-owner occupied) from 5% to 20%, the rules for rental offsets have also been changed. Now the rental offsets have made it much more difficult to qualify for a mortgage on a rental property.

New rules also affect self-employed borrowers with more than three years in the same business and commissioned-income borrowers. They now have to provide financial statements, T1 Generals, Notice of Assessments, T4s, etc. to qualify for CMHC’s Self-Employed Product. Also they can only qualify to 80% of the value of the home. However, there are other Default Insurers who will consider 90% of the value of the home.

As your local mortgage specialist, I recommend that you start shopping for your next mortgage well in advance. By analyzing your situation, I can show you a wide range of still-affordable options, including alternate mortgage insurers who offer less stringent rules in some cases. Please call me today for a free mortgage analysis.