Well, with the week over and me being back and comfortable in beautiful BC, it’s time for a summary of some of the best posts from around the personal finance blogosphere.

Frugal Trader posted a great article about getting organized for tax season… something we all need to do!

Money Ning used personal experience to convey why sometimes it’s best to not be frugal.

Money Smart Life lists the best credit cards to save money on gas.

JD at Get Rich Slowly has a great guide to stopping junk mail.

Also, thanks to The Happy Rock for hosting this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance and to On Financial Success for a very creative Festival of Frugality.

Have a great (rest of the) weekend everybody!

Popularity: 10% [?]

It is recommended that you check your credit report every year to ensure your information is up to date, that your information is correct, and most importantly to ensure you haven’t been the victim of identity fraud. However, most Canadians still haven’t checked their credit report, even once. Part of this problem stems from the fact that many simply don’t know how to do it. Americans have it easy: the information is everywhere. However, for those of us North of the border the information isn’t as widely known. Well, here’s what you have to do to get your credit report if you live in Canada. If you haven’t looked at yours in a year or longer, please use this post as your inspiration to get it done! It can save you an enormous hassle in the future.

The two parts of your credit report are the report itself, and the score. There are a number of ways to get your report, but the most common are by mail and online. If you live in Nova Scotia, due to provincial law the only way you can get your credit report is by mail. To get your report online, all you have to do is visit the website of one of the three credit reporting agencies and order your score online. In Canada, these are Equifax Canada, Transunion Canada and Northern Credit Bureaus Inc. In order to get your credit report online, the agencies will charge you a fee, but it is instant as opposed to sending it by mail. If you want your credit score, you must order this online as it is not available via post. The credit bureaus charge an extra fee as well for your credit score: Equifax charges $23.95 Canadian for your report and score online, TransUnion charges $22.90 Canadian and Northern Credit Bureaus, well, I couldn’t actually find their price. Some of the links on their website weren’t working either, and it looks like it was designed in 1997, so I would recommend that you stick with one of the other two bureaus.

If you live in Nova Scotia, unfortunately it’s impossible for you to get your credit score since you can’t order it online, which is the only avenue. You’ll just have to move to New Brunswick or PEI.

If all you’re looking for is your free credit report, keep in mind that you will have to provide copies of two pieces of government-issued ID, and remember that in a number of provinces, such as Ontario, a Health Card is not acceptable ID.

The best place to get the free credit report is from Equifax or Transunion. The link for the forms for equifax can be found here.

Here is the contact information for the three credit bureaus:

Equifax Canada

National Consumer Relations
P.O. box 190, Station Jean-Talon,
Montreal, Quebec  H1S 2Z2
Tel. (toll-free): 1-800-465-7166
Fax: (514) 355-8502
E-mail: consumer.relations@equifax.com

TransUnion Canada

All provinces except Quebec:
Consumer Relations Centre
P.O. Box 338 LCD 1
Hamilton, Ontario  L8L 7W2
Tel: 1-866-525-0262
Fax: (905) 527-0401

For Quebec Residents:
TransUnion (Echo Group)
1 Place Laval
Suite 370
Laval, Quebec  H7N 1A1
Tel: 1-877-713-3393
Fax: (905) 527-0401

Northern Credit Bureaus Inc.

336 Rideau boulevard
Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec  J9X 1P2
Fax (toll-free): 1-800-646-5876

Popularity: 13% [?]

With mother’s day coming up I thought this would be an extremely useful coupon for everybody.

Click here for the chocolates, and enter “CHAWCLAT” as the coupon code to get 50% off.

I would personally recommend Cote D’Or for those who don’t know what to buy… it’s great quality chocolate, I absolutely love it!

Popularity: 10% [?]

Self-confidence is an amazing thing. Having it can make you, lacking it can break you. This applies to virtually all aspects of your life, especially your finances.

If your self-confidence is low, you’re not going to have the inspiration or the motivation to get your finances in order. Unfortunately, if your finances aren’t in order, chances are you’re not going to have high self-confidence. It’s a catch 22 with an easy fix: invest in other parts of your life to give yourself that extra motivation to get your finances taken care of.

When I say “invest in yourself”, I don’t mean spend some cash at the mall. I mean start eating healthier, go to the gym, do something relaxing, do something new, do all those things psychologists recommend to improve your personal well-being. If you start going to the gym every couple of days, it won’t take long for you to start feeling better about yourself. When you feel better about yourself, you’ll be more motivated to take care of your finances as well.

This advice doesn’t only apply to those looking to newly renovate their finances, gurus can take advantage as well: we all have our off days when we’ve let our finances slide a little bit. Think back to the last time this happened. Did you let other aspects of your life slide as well? Did you maybe go eat out a few days in a row instead of eating at home? Did you sit down in front of the TV with a container of ice cream instead of going to the gym after work? Chances are, if you’ve let your finances slip you’ve let something else slip too. Take care of the extenuating circumstances in other parts of your life, and you’ll have a much easier time getting your finances back into shape.

Take care of yourself first. That’s the most important thing. You’ll be amazed to see how much easier it is to take care of everything else once you’re taken good care of.

Popularity: 8% [?]

We’ve all got financial goals, I’m sure. We want something to aspire to, we want a physical number to reach and we want to see ourselves hit these goals we have set. For the majority of us, our goals are long-term: we want to have a certain amount of money saved up for retirement; we want to have our home paid off in 15 years; when our kids grow up we want to be able to pay for their college or university education. But do we have intermediate goals?

Most people plan for the long term, and only the long term, with no thoughts about the in-between. Everybody should have short, medium and long-term goals. Rationally and mentally, this will help you achieve those end goals which you’ve  set for yourself. Consider myself: I’m currently 19 years old. My long-term goals are as such: when I retire, I want to have $3 million in cash to live off of before I die and own at least $4 million worth of real estate which I can sell should I outlive those savings. I won’t be needing those $3 million until I turn 65, which is 46 years away. When I see $500 being put aside every month for my retirement, those $3 million look a very long ways away. Mentally, it’s depressing, and there’s a good chance I would quit after a few years, thinking it was impossible.

This is where intermediate goals come in: I don’t need to worry about the final number, as long as my short term goals are on track.  Starting at $0, after one year I want to have around $6300 (I’m assuming only 5% interest due to the recession). After 2 years, increasing the interest rate 1%, I want to have $13100. After 5 years, I’m looking to have $36919. These numbers are far more real to me when I see the money I’m putting away every month. Mentally, it’s the stimulation to keep me going.

It makes sense from a rational perspective, as well. It’s easy to say you want to have a certain amount of money in x number of years. Short and medium-term goals give you the numbers you need to make sure you reach those goals. The amount you need to put aside every month will give you an idea of whether you’ve bitten off a little bit more than you can chew in the long run, or if you might have underestimated and can afford to put some more money towards your goal.

This applies to all parts of personal finance planning: I’m not going to arbitrarily buy property, I have a plan for it. If you don’t have short and medium-term plans for your financial goals, you need to sit down with a piece of paper and a calculator (or excel, if that’s your thing) and plan it out. Give yourself measurable goals which will show you how you’re doing on the way to reaching your long term goals. You’ll feel better by seeing that you’re at the right pace, and we all feel good when we reach our goals, even the little ones.

Popularity: 13% [?]

I found this handy tool which unfortunately doesn’t work for Canadians, but which should give all those of you south of the border a good idea about whether or not you’re earning less, more or about the same as people in your line of work and location:

http://swz.salary.com/ 

Popularity: 9% [?]