Learning About Finances: Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSA)
March 7, 2010 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
I think it’s always important to constantly be challenging your mind to learning. I always find myself reading up on new topics or listening to audio tapes on my iPod while working on other projects. Recently I’ve been focusing my efforts on learning about finances.
You see, I grew up in the ghettos of Winnipeg, and there is a much different mentality surrounding finances in poorer areas. It wasn’t a topic that was discussed a lot, and it certainly wasn’t an area where a lot of focus was placed. After starting my adult life with a series of terrible financial decisions, I have decided to learn more about how to make sound financial decisions.
The first topic I decided to research was Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSA), a new tax shelter introduced by the Canadian government in 2009. It’s been said to be the most significant tax shelter for Canadians since the introduction of Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSP) decades ago. Unlike RRSPs (which are defer your taxes until your retirement), TFSAs are completely tax free (not tax deferred).
In other words, get a TFSA right now. There’s really no reason not to get one. Each year you are allowed to contribute up to $5000. If you haven’t contributed at all yet, that means you have $10,000 of space to use in 2010.
You are allowed to withdraw from your TFSA at any time without penalty. Whatever amount you have withdrawn can be recontributed to your TFSA the following year (e.g. if you withdraw $1000 from your TFSA now then you will have an extra $1000 of contribution space in 2011). This feature makes TFSAs perfect for those looking to start an emergency fund or those saving up for a car or a home.
If you are retired then you have extra incentive to open a TFSA as you no longer have access to RRSPs after you retire. Also, money withdrawn is not counted as income.
A really important point about TFSAs are that they don’t have to be used for savings accounts at all. You can have your TFSA as your investing account. Just think about that, tax-free investing for up to $5000 a year. That’s really quite amazing for first-time investors looking to get their feet wet.
Please note that I am no financial expert, I’m just sharing the information that I am learning along the way as someone who used to be terrible at finances and hopes to be amazing before all is said and done. Always check with your financial advisor if you have one.
Also important to note is that you have to be 18 years old and Canadian to open an account. Growth (or loss) earned through investments in the TFSA account have a permanent effect on the contribution amount.
Recommended Outbound Links
Financial Post’s TFSA Centre
Canadian government’s TFSA information page
Canadian Money Forum
Downtown living in Toronto reminds me a bit of Winnipeg life minus the crazy
January 18, 2010 by vongsundara · 2 Comments
I’m living in downtown Toronto now, my first time living downtown in any city ever. It’s quite the experience, I must admit.
The best part of living downtown is that I feel so close to everything. I can walk down to the Eaton Centre and go shopping, and there’s no shortage of great places to eat. I’m even starting to feel the health benefits, as it’s much easier to walk to where I need to go than to take transit or a cab.
There are definitely some interesting characters down here, though. It’s a bit different than the crazy people from Winnipeg. I think in Winnipeg you can only be so crazy, because there’s always the risk of getting shot or stabbed if you anger the wrong person. Here it’s like people are crazier because they don’t worry about the immediate consequences enough. People have just shouted absolute craziness at me which doesn’t happen a lot in Winnipeg (since in Winnipeg they wouldn’t know if I’m crazy enough to be carrying a weapon). Strangely, that extra layer of fear helps people to be nicer to each other.
The place I’m living in is quite nice; I definitely lucked out. The rent is insanely low for this area, and I’ve already painted the walls and am well on my way to fully decorating the place. Next up on the list is a new rug for the living room.
Travelling: Vong Sundara at Copenhagen 2009 2nd World Outgames
September 14, 2009 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
I’m still getting used to travelling. You see, I grew up in Winnipeg, which is eight hours from the next large city, which happens to be Regina, not exactly a tourist destination. People in Winnipeg just don’t travel a lot, especially not to Europe. This is probably why I jumped at the chance to go to the Copenhagen 2009 2nd World Outgames. I went the Montreal 2009 1st World Outgames and had a fabulous time, so I was really looking forward to duplicating the experience in Europe.
To have my trip subsidized, I agreed to be the official photographer for GLISA North America (Gay Lesbian International Sports Association). It was actually quite nice to dust off my old camera and remember pretend like I was back in my old freelancing days. I’ve included the best 30 photos below, hope you like them. Looking back at the photos now brings back all the wonderful memories of being in Denmark.
The only strange part of the trip was not participating in any sports. Luckily, I was able to go to many of the sporting events and cheer my friends on since I had to take photos anyways. I didn’t really get the itch to play until I was actually there. It didn’t help that everyone who knew me in Denmark met me through one sport or another, so I was constantly being asked how my sport was going.
The first big highlight of the event for me was seeing Kemone Brown, keynote speaker on the second day of the human rights conference. In fact, that’s probably my favourite thing about the Outgames, that the organizers include a human rights conference and cultural component so that the event is more than just sports. You must Google Kemone Brown and read all about her. She is one of the freshest voices to come in the world of human rights in a while. It’s amazing that someone of her age has the insight that she has.
I must admit that I have a thing for Danish guys. There’s just something about their facial features combined with the best-in-the-world Danish accent. Danish accents remind me of Arnold Schwarzenegger, if Arnold Schwarzenegger was a giddy Japanese schoolgirl. It’s like a faster, happier version without the roughness. It’s quite sexy.
The best part is that Danish men are so incredibly helpful. I would often have my camera around my neck with a map in my hand and a “I’m lost and need help” look on my face. It wouldn’t be more than a couple of minutes before some cute Danish boy came and helped me along my way.
The cultural portion of the Outgames was incredible. Instead of a centralized stage, there was a trail called Outcities, where several cities from around the world set up their stages and lined up performances. The performances were free and out in the open, running all week long. They had everything from pop to hardcore opera.
I unfortunately missed the opening ceremonies by arriving a day light, but Copenhagen Pride was scheduled to close off the week, and I was fortunate enough to attend. The pictures below give a better idea of how magical the event was than anything I could write myself.
My trip actually ended with a little bit of drama. My flight had been misbooked one day past everyone else’s flight. I should have checked more closely, but everything turned on the way it was supposed to I guess. I ended up having an extra day in Denmark but without a hotel room to stay in. Amazingly, I was able to stay with overnight with a helpful Danish boy.
In fact, this Danish boy ended up being a history scholar who ended up taking me on a tour of Copenhagen on my last day. It was like having my own personal tour guide. He knew absolutely everything there was to know no matter where we were. The canal tour was wonderful, and I highly recommend it to anyone.
I’m still on a high thinking about my fabulous time in Denmark. Hopefully someday I can go back to Europe and build on my world experiences. If you’re planning on travelling, think about going to a gay sporting event. It’s a great excuse to visit new places, and you have more things to do than you normally would.
[flickr album=72157622372544736 num=30 size=Thumbnail]
Learning the comedy business is starting to get very expensive
June 19, 2009 by vongsundara · 1 Comment
I’m very fortunate to be living in Toronto right now. There are so many resources available here that were not available to me in either Calgary or Winnipeg. Because of this, I have concentrated on getting better at my craft rather than trying to propel my career forward before I am ready. The only trouble I’m running into right now are expenses.
There are many, many great classes and courses to take in Toronto, especially with Second City in town along with many great acting studios like Sears and Switzer. I definitely believe in taking classes, and I have gotten a lot out of each and every class I have taken, though I do have to watch out for how much money I have been spending lately. It’s definitely a difficult balance at times.
The Second City classes have definitely helped me improve my comedic range. Coming from a stand-up background, my character skills were definitely lacking. At least now I feel more comfortable going forward with different types of comedy outside of stand-up such as improv and sketch, making me much more well rounded and marketable.
My next seminar revolves around personal publicity. This is definitely the most important seminar for me in a while. If there’s one thing I need to learn before opening my one-man show early next year, it’s going to be how to promote the show and get people in the seats. Otherwise, I’ll just be performing in front of an empty audience.
I think I can manage my expenses for the time being, and hopefully the dollars coming in from performing will start to balance the expenses going out. Luckily for me, I’ve kept my day job, which is allowing me to overspend a little bit on the comedy side.
Dangers and rewards of taking a break from Toronto comedy shows
February 4, 2009 by vongsundara · 1 Comment
Today was the first full day I’ve spent writing comedy in the past six months, and boy was it rough going. For all my hard work, I ended up with half a page of mostly unusable material. There may be a few reasons for this, though.
The first being that I decided to write about my sister and my life back in Winnipeg. I may actually have to shelve all my Winnipeg material for a while until I spend some good hard time in Winnipeg and get reacquainted with how life used to be for me.
The second reason could be that I’ve forgotten how to write. Now, I definitely don’t want to over-analyse it, as that could lead down to an even bigger mental roadblock, but I think six months is definitely enough time to forget some very important fundamentals of writing, especially comedy writing, especially when I was using techniques unique to myself since I combined my knowledge of comedy with my previous knowledge of classical narrative structure. It’s difficult to find that combination again after so long. So basically all the dangers I was worried about have come true. There are, however, some positive effects that I’m hoping will kick in shortly.
A part of my writing that I did purposely want to purge from my comedic style was my bitter viewpoint from my Calgary days. When I tried to write after moving to Toronto, I found my jokes were still too bitter, and it wasn’t the direction I wanted my comedy to take. This is a huge part of the reason why I wanted to absorb myself in Toronto life before writing any further. Considering that I couldn’t put anything on to paper at all, I would say that I have successfully purged my old viewpoints.
So here I am, starting with basically a blank slate. It’s both scary and exciting to think where my comedy will go from here. Don’t get me wrong, I am extremely proud of the writing I have accomplished in my year in Calgary, but now I’m in a totally different space emotionally. I’m going to workshop my material some more, but I should be ready to debut my new material in the next couple of weeks or so.
Ghetto-Winnipeg Vong is the best comedian Vong that Vong can be
February 3, 2009 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
I took this week off of work to get some comedy writing done. I’ve been working on my one-hour one-man show for a few months now, and I’m hoping to have it completed before the summer festival season, though I won’t debut the actual show until end of the year at the earliest. I haven’t been making a lot of progress lately, so I was hoping the focus off of my dayjob for a week would help me get a jump start.
This being my debut long-form show, I’ve been thinking long and hard about what I want to present and who I want to be on stage. After some careful consideration, I’ve decided to go back to my roots, the ghettos of Winnipeg. I already have a bit of material written about my life in Winnipeg, but now I want to really dig in deep.
I’m a bit of a chameleon when it comes to my personality. I’m very much different depending on whether I’m with my parents or my family or my friends or at work. Part of this comes from my upbringing, as there were definitely rules applied to how I should act depending on who was in the room (more respect, for instance, is paid to elders and people of authority and so on). The other side of this, though, is perhaps a bit of my comedic playfulness.
Different people bring out different parts of me. I’m more gay with my gay friends; I’m more ghetto with my ghetto friends. This is all common in most people of course, but I think with me it’s a little more pronounced. With individual friends, I tend to almost absorb a bit of their personality and reflect it back in an enhanced way. I didn’t realize this until recently moving in with a co-worker, and I found myself acting differently.
This got me thinking about which version of me I want to bring on stage. The answer is simple: I’m the best me when I’m with my older sister in Winnipeg. She brings out the me that I like best. We have a chemistry and connection that is pretty damn special. I think I’ve also suffered a bit from being away from Winnipeg too long.
Back in Winnipeg, I was able to maintain an incredibly balanced life as far as my friends go. One-third of my friends were straight guys, one-third were female, and one-third were gay. My personality back then had the versatility to appeal to all three demographics. Since leaving Winnipeg, my life has been dominated by my gay friends as well as some women from school, work and comedy. The part of me that appeals to the straight male demographic is slowly fading away.
This brings up the question of whether I am able to go back to that personality on stage while being so far removed from that place emotionally. I’m writing about a period of my life while being in a completely new life in a new city. I’m not sure how possible it will be.
I’m going to continue writing this week and see where it takes me, but I am seriously considering using my summer vacation days to go back to Winnipeg and complete my writing there. I’ll let you all know how it goes.
Straight guys are difficult to replace after you leave the Winnipeg ghetto
January 27, 2009 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
Five days are left before this year’s Super Bowl matchup between Arizona and Pittsburgh. It’s usually at this time of year that I miss my straight guy friends the most. Now, I love my gay friends lots, but there are just times in my life where it’s not the same without the straight boys. I used to host an annual Super Bowl party at my parents’ house in Winnipeg that I haven’t been able to host since moving.
Since leaving Winnipeg, I’ve been able to fill in the gaps as far as school friends and gay friends and girl friends, but it’s been extremely difficult to find a new group of straight guy friends who love to watch sports. You see, in Winnipeg I was surrounded by straight guys and am quite comfortable around the sporty jock testosterone-heavy scene. I’m not really sure how I will be able to really find a new group of friends now.
Don’t get me wrong, I do have some straight guy friends, though most of those friendships are superficial and come by way of my dayjob as well as fellow stand-up comedians. I could also get back into the competitive videogame scene, though that group of straight guys aren’t exactly sports-friendly.
I’m kind of lost as to how I’ll find a new “crew,” but I am open to suggestions.
Hanging out with my friend Linda from the Winnipeg ghetto was fun
January 19, 2009 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
Tonight I had the chance to hang out with one of my oldest and dearest friends from the ghetto. We talked about our lives now and then, and we had a great time. I’m fortunate enough to have a lot of long-lasting friendships that still feel current. Though we talk about our history, our current friendship isn’t dependent on our past lives and is strong on its own merits.
Some of our conversation reminded me of how I was when I was younger: absolutely fearless and in my own world. I didn’t even remember that I used to carry around a butt pillow (yes, a butt pillow) around the university and would take it out of my bag and sit on it. I was so in my own reality, that I truly didn’t care what others thought. I wish I had that type of total abandon now.
The visit came at a great time, as I am delving into my past Winnipeg life as the centrepiece of my hour-long set that I hope to have completed before the end of this year. I was contemplating whether I should go back to Winnipeg for a few weeks in the spring or summer to help bring back the emotions to jump-start my writing process. I think after tonight, though, I’ve decided to hold off.
I think the best method would be to complete the writing process while I’m alone in Toronto. I would then go to Winnipeg and do a private performance to only friends and family, where I would ask for input.
I used this strategy back when I was preparing for my first ever comedy show in Calgary, Alberta. Since my family and friends know my stories by heart, seeing as how they lived through them with me, I was greatly helped by the comments last time. In fact, the whole part of my first set regarding “magical powers” came from a simple comment from my engineering friend, Erin.
Learning through videogames can be effective if done right
December 25, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
I’ve been playing Rock Band 2 a lot recently, and it’s really helped my rhythm and has basically taught me how to play drums much more quickly than any other method I can of. This experience got me thinking about learning through videogames in general.
I’ve spent most of my life playing videogames. I think videogames are a great way to learn and can help children use parts of their mind that they normally wouldn’t use. It’s unfortunate that there’s a group out there who feel videogames can only rot minds. Quite the opposite is true; it all depends on the games you play.
My first big game was Tetris. I was absolutely addicted and played multiple versions on my NES and then my Gameboy (and eventually every other system known to man including my DS and Wii). Tetris is a great way to teach kids about spacial relations.
I was a huge role-playing game fan ever since playing Final Fantasy II on the SNES. RPGs are a great way to get kids to read. I’ve never read so much in my life than I’ve read while playing RPGs. On my way to becoming the Winnipeg Typing Champion, I learned to type mainly through typing videogames that my friend coded for MS-DOS and later perfected my style playing Typing of the Dead for Dreamcast.
I could bring out many more great examples of how videogames are a great way to learn, but the latest and greatest examples are music games. Sure, some of the instruments such as in Guitar Hero don’t really teach you much other than finger dexterity and rhythm, though those are important, but some games are so close to reality that they can really help you learn before taking professional lessons.
Playing drums is so close to reality that it’s a good jump start. Nothing takes the place of professional lessons, but now at least when you are at a point to take lessons, you are already fairly up to speed with the basics. I’ve also recently purchased Keyboardmania II for PlayStation 2. I’ve always wanted to learn piano, and now I can learn a few things before moving on to real lessons.
Maybe videogames aren’t the best way for everyone to learn, but it meshes quite well with my learning style. You see, I always avoid getting lessons or being trained when I start something new. I like to have the chance to figure things out for myself and develop my own style before later taking lessons and polishing up my act.
Two clear examples of this philosophy are my typing and my comedy. When becoming Winnipeg Typing Champion, I developed my own style of typing that would not have happened if I followed the standard conventions. I use different fingers for keys than are recommended, and I think it’s because my hands are different than anyone else’s hands, which is true of everyone. There is no one correct way to type, depending on the size of your fingers and the strength of your hands, it can vary from person to person.
The same is true of my comedy act. I took great care in carving out my own style before seeking out feedback from other comedians. I think it’s really helped me shape my own style.
Welcome to winter in Winnipeg as well as in Toronto
November 20, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
Snow has officially arrived in Toronto. It feels kind of strange to be welcoming in winter, as I already welcomed winter a couple of weeks ago in Winnipeg. I quite enjoy a bit of a chill, but that’s probably because I grew up in Winnipeg. A bit of frost makes me feel good after playing sports.
I’ve got to shop for some new winter clothes. My sweater collection is starting to run a little low, and I need to find warm clothes that are business appropriate. I usually shop a season behind when clothes go on sale, but I suppose I’ll have to make an exception this year.
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