Planning through salary swings + MORE Oct 19th

RBC and Petro-Canada came out with more partnership news yesterday. Thanks to RBC, Bruce and Kevin for sending along the details to us! As many of you may be aware we brought you details some time ago about automatically getting 2 cents off per litre of gas at Petro-Canada when you use a RBC credit card to pay for it. They offer ends on the 31st of this month and will be replaced by an even better partnership!Starting on October 31, RBC clients will be able to link their Petro-Points card to any personal or business RBC debit or credit card to instantly receive 3¢ per litre fuel savings and earn 20 per cent more Petro-Points on qualifying purchases made at Petro-Canada. RBC Rewards credit card holders will also earn 20 per cent more RBC Rewards points on their Petro-Canada purchases. Unlike other loyalty programs where the benefits are limited to a specific card, Canadians will be able to use every RBC card in their wallet to save instantly on fuel and earn more rewards points. Clients simply need to link their Petro-Points card to their RBC profile online once by visiting the secure RBC website, rbc…

Oct. 18, 2017: Interest rates on new card offers remained fixed in place Wednesday, according to the CreditCards.com Weekly Credit Card Rate Report

Q: My income fluctuates quite widely from year to year. How do I plan for this and how do I handle the tax implications of such income swings?
—David
A: Yours is the challenge of many a commissioned salesperson or business owner, David. The thought of a stable salary and defined benefit pension plan may be appealing to some, but others, like you – and me – prefer a little more control over destiny. That control doesn’t always mean stability, however.
For starters, I think everyone should have a reserve or emergency fund, particularly those whose jobs are riskier or whose income is variable. An emergency fund doesn’t necessarily mean having six months of expenses sitting in a savings account earning pennies in interest. It could mean a healthy TFSA balance that includes an allocation of conservative, liquid investments. It could mean a secured line of credit available with a low interest rate.
Ask a Planner: Leave your question for Jason Heath »
Having tens of thousands of dollars sitting idle for your whole life may be comforting, but it could usually be put to better use invested in an RRSP or TFSA or used to pay down debt…

Recently my wife and I grabbed ourselves the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard and there really were three reasons behind this. Now this wasn’t an apply for primary and secondary cards for one account. These were two separate applications for both of us to each have our own cards. I’ve mentioned the reason why before in our Ultimate Credit Card Portfolio for Families and now we’ve jumped on it ourselves.Here are the main reasons why we grabbed the cards right now:The cards will have an increased annual fee come November 1 of $119 so by grabbing them now we saved $40 in the first year of having the card since we will pay the $99 annual fee each. As of today, it all depends on your first statement date after applying as to whether you’ll have a $99 or $119 annual feeWe are a family of four that flies WestJet 3-6 times per year and having access to two companion passes will bring us huge savings every yearWe each got the 250 WestJet dollar sign up bonus on the cards this first year, so that’s $500 more towards our next flights – for only $198 – which is almost enough for flights to Europe with WestJet’s partner Delta (see here for details on that!)First Checked Bag Free for up to 8 people – right now with Gold status that isn’t a huge selling point but my status expires at the end of the year so without re-qualification it will come in handy!Now let’s get back to point 2 as that was the main reason we grabbed 2 separate WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard accounts…

RBC has launched a new acquisition offer the RBC British Airways Visa Infinite Card. This time the offer differs slightly from past 50K offers in that there is a lower spend requirement ($5,000 instead of $9,000) however in lieu of having to spend as much you have to hold onto the card longer as the final part of the 50K bonus is awarded on your card anniversary.The sign up bonus remains the same at 15,000 Avios however 35,000 additional Avios will be awarded to any new cardholder who applies by Oct 31, 16 and spends $9,000 within the first 3 months of card membership. That’s right $9,000! Remember back in 2012 when it used to be $5,000 for that extra 35,000?What can you get for 50,000 Avios? Just one example is 6 one way or 3 round trip short haul trips between Canada & North America in Economy Class(+taxes/fees).  See how to do so here.Or nearly 2 Economy Class tickets between Toronto and Dublin. See how you can achieve that hereOffer details:Earn up to 50,000 Bonus Avios when you apply for and receive the RBC British Airways Visa Infinite Card…