Cross border finances (for Americans living in Canada)

Cross border finances (for Americans living in Canada)

by | Nov 16, 2016 | Because Money, Cross Border Finances

After last week there’s been a lot of talk about moving to Canada, especially from our neighbours to the south.

Now I’m not saying you should (even though it’s pretty awesome up here), but I wanted to share this video that breaks down some really interesting financial issues for Americans who live in Canada.

I don’t know why exactly, but my close friend group is full of ‘mixed’ couples: one American and one Canadian, and there are a ton of money questions that come up when your life is spilt over the border.

Julia Chung joins Sandi Martin, John Robertson and I to talk about cross border finance, and let me tell you… she’s awesome.

We talk about:

The difference between residency and citizenship for Americans in Canada
(and who decides which applies) - 8:17

What should you do if this is the first you’ve heard of having to file taxes
(even if you don’t live in the US anymore) - 11:27

How do you know where you’re a resident? - 14:22

What happens if you’ve contributed to Social Security AND the Canada Pension Plan - 17:55

Can Americans in Canada own TFSAs (and whether they should) - 23:37

If you are a US citizen are your children automatically US citizens? - 26:50

I’ve included minute markers so you can skip around, or tune in for the whole show (which includes an insanely nerdy game of ‘False Equivalents’).

If you’re interested in contacting Julia (and I really can't say enough good things about her) concerning Cross Border or any other finance issues you can do so HERE.

If you want to watch more financial fun with the team at Because Money you can do so HERE.

YOU MIGHT ALSO BE INTERESTED IN:

If you exist on both sides of the border, you might enjoy this series I did on how to save some money when transferring cash over the Canada/US border.

Are you an American living in Canada? Or a member of a partnership that's half and half? 

What are some of the 'fun' financial issues that you've run across?

Want to start getting control of your money? How can I help?

Chris Enns

Chris Enns

Financial Planner/Opera Singer

Money never came naturally to me. In fact... I was a bit of a disaster. I remember (very clearly) what it feels like to be 'financially out of control'.

And honestly, I still get stressed about money... that doesn't stop... the difference is that now I have the tools to deal with that stress.

And those tools are what's made it possible for me to build a life full of the things I want: art, creativity, travel, family and more.

If you want to start getting control of your money I'd love to help. You can start with THIS QUIZ, visiting my GETTING STARTED PAGE or by checking out my SERVICES page.

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What crippling stage fright taught me about money

What crippling stage fright taught me about money

by | Nov 14, 2016 | Getting Started, Making Money, Money Meditations

Who it's for: Singers, Actors, Musicians (Performers)
What it's about: How building a solid technique solved my stage fright, and can do the same thing for your money.
What you get: Three places to start building a solid money technique.

For the last 5 years I’ve been battling some fairly serious stage fright. 

It started off mildly enough, but slowly grew into a completely debilitating force that took away any joy I used to have for being on stage.

One of the many thoughts that started taking over my head was …

“What if I open my mouth and my voice just… doesn’t work?”

Not a great mental dialogue for a professional singer.

And the truth was… sometimes I opened my mouth and my voice really didn’t work.

It came from a mix of mental and technical problems, and normally I got through the show. But eventually it got bad enough that I completely crashed. It was not a great time in my life, and it sent me running.

I ran to my family farm. I sat on a tractor for 2 months and thought about how much I wanted to quit.

But I just couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t leave this thing that used to bring me so much joy… at least not like this.

So. I found a new teacher and we got to work…

… by painstakingly building up my technique and my shattered confidence.

TECHNIQUE IS A FUNNY THING...

A director once told me: ‘technique is for the times when things go wrong.’ His theory was that when things are good… you don’t need it… but when shit hits the fan, you have something to fall back on.

That might be an oversimplification, but here’s what I know.

After 2 and a half years of technical work… I’m actually enjoying performing again.

Hours of work doing onsets, breathing, and encouraging my soft palette to lift just a little bit more, has given me a technical base that I actually trust.

And somehow knowing that I have that base has slowly (and I mean slowly) decreased that stress and given me the confidence to do my thing.

For the first time in years I’ve had a run of stress free performances.

I can’t tell you what that means to me.

WHAT CRIPPLING STAGE FRIGHT TAUGHT ME ABOUT MONEY

And so, as I was sitting backstage last week, about to put on my 2nd dance belt and pretend to be a greek demigod… I couldn’t help but see the parallels between my two worlds: art and money.

Money is a huge cause of stress for so many people (especially variable-income, no-safety-net opera singers).

The stress that surrounds money can completely take over your life. The only problem is you can’t run away from money (at least not as easily as I ran away from opera).

Luckily… the solution is the same.

Building up a money technique.

And I know that might not be what you want to hear. You might be like me… just hoping that every day you might wake up and things will be okay. That things will just get better.

You might think you don’t have the skills to build a money technique… that you’re not good at math, that you can’t budget…

But I promise you. If you can go through the painstakingly slow work of building up an artistic technique… you have everything you need to build a money technique, too.

A money technique is built in the same way, by investing hours of time into building solid fundamentals. Instead of breath, it's cashflow (the daily ins and outs of your money), instead of onsets it's deliberate decision making (learning to stop making default money decisions and make the ones you really want), and instead of working with someone to lift your soft palette, you work with someone to find one of a thousand little ways you can make your money life easier (by building a safety net, learning to save, and eliminating debt).

And, let me be clear, that technique isn’t about becoming rich and it’s NOT not about finally becoming ‘an adult’.

Just like building my singing technique wasn’t about becoming the greatest tenor of my generation (because I’m really not).

You build a technique so that you can forget about it and just … live your life… knowing that if something goes wrong, you have a system to fall back on.

Where do I start?

Okay, that might sounds good? But where do you start building that kind of technique?

I'm not going to just serve up a bunch of nice ideas and a fun story about a tenor who likes to sing opera again... that's why I build a quiz to help find the perfect place for YOU to start. 

TAKE THE 'HOW THE HECK DO I GET STARTED' QUIZ

You're a few questions away from the perfect next step for you and your money. 

TAKE THE QUIZ

And if you just need someone to talk to… I have weekly office hours… where you can schedule a free 30 minute Skype session to talk to a real person about your money. It’s a great place to come to if you really don’t know what to do first.

come chat with me about your money (for free)

Low key (and free) money coachings over skype.

LEARN MORE

It's not impossible

Despite what that voice in your head is saying, it’s not impossible.

That’s how I felt as I drove my tractor up and down the fields wondering how I would ever step out on a stage again.

But I did.

And it wasn’t better right away, there were lots of bad days over those two plus years… but eventually everything changed.

I got my joy back.

Want to start getting control of your money? How can I help?

Chris Enns

Chris Enns

Financial Planner/Opera Singer

Money never came naturally to me. In fact... I was a bit of a disaster. I remember (very clearly) what it feels like to be 'financially out of control'.

And honestly, I still get stressed about money... that doesn't stop... the difference is that now I have the tools to deal with that stress.

And those tools are what's made it possible for me to build a life full of the things I want: art, creativity, travel, family and more.

If you want to start getting control of your money I'd love to help. You can start with THIS QUIZ, visiting my GETTING STARTED PAGE by checking out my SERVICES page.

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How to manage your variable income and expenses this opera season

How to manage your variable income and expenses this opera season

by | Sep 27, 2016 | Living with Variable Income, Variable Income

How to manage your variable income and expenses this opera season

I’ve never been able to shake the feeling that September is the start of a new year.

Sure, I’ve been out of school for *mumbles a number* years now, but when September stopped being the dawn of a new school year… it started being the dawn of a new opera season. 

This week I start back up with my first contract of the season, and in addition to being thrilled to be working with a great company on a really fun project… I’m also really happy to be making some money.

In fact, over the 5 weeks I will make more money than I made during the four first months of 2016.

Such is the crazy variable nature of this job. 

And while making money is mostly a good thing, there are also some huge traps that go along with getting it in one big shot like this. 

For one… it can make you feel like you’re rich. So it’s tempting to spend a little more on just about everything when those paycheques are coming in…. which would be fine, if I didn’t have a few very slow months ahead of me this winter. 

So what’s a tenor to do?  (more…)

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What I learned about money from eating a thousand peaches

What I learned about money from eating a thousand peaches

by | Sep 19, 2016 | Credit, Getting Started, Money Meditations, Retirement, Saving

Who it's for: Everyone (but especially peach lovers)
What it's about: Saving is about prolonging enjoyment of something you love, and sometimes things that look like money.... aren't money. 
What you get: TWO FREE WORKSHEETS - one to help you start saving, and one to get you saving better than you already are.

I love peach season.

And this year has been a pleasure pandemonium (#fancywords).

The last few weeks I've been gorging myself on fresh peaches at nearly every meal.

And because my mind has no ability to structure itself, my peach fanaticism and my constant money thoughts have melded into two peach-related money metaphors I thought I'd share with y'all.

I hope you enjoy both of them, and the end of peach season. (more…)

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Lindsay VS her debt: Part 4 – BUDGET AHOY!!!!

Lindsay VS her debt: Part 4 – BUDGET AHOY!!!!

by | Jun 16, 2016 | Artist 2 Artist, Budgets, Debt

Budget Island

*The following is part 4 of a year-long series. If you want to start from the beginning, learn about who Lindsay is, and check out how much debt she started with…  check out PART 1.*

Well, friends, remember that time I was going to try and pay off over $1000 this month?

That didn’t even happen a little bit.

May ended up being a crazy busy month – it flew by before I realized it had even started. Along with it being busy work wise, I’ve found myself a bit, well… distracted as of late. So I didn’t budget. And then the month ended. And then I found out I only had $490 to pay towards my debt… so that’s where I’m at. UGH!

The amazing thing about failures is that they have the ability to become amazing learning experiences. The biggest thing I learned from last month, is that I seriously… SERIOUSLY! need to use a budget.

I’ve been using YNAB (à la Chris) for about 8 months or so now, and I use it fairly consistently. To be honest, I thought it was a good thing to have, but I didn’t really understand why it was important. (I’m on top of my finances because I use budgeting software! Look at me! Gold star!)

I basically never stick to my budget. I constantly adjust and move amounts and overspend – it’s pretty much always in flux. So if I was adjusting it all the time, it really didn’t matter that much, right?

WRONG!!!! (more…)

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