Category Archives: Money Tips

Money for Nothing: 3 Good and 3 Bad Reasons to Rent Storage Space

Posted on by

I haven’t had time to watch much TV, but I did see an episode of Storage Wars and it reminded me why I think Storage Lockers are a great way to make money—if you are in the business of renting them.

Written: 2014
Reviewed: 2023

Recently, it seems like rental storage units are being built faster than condos blocking the view of Lake Ontario in Toronto. Apparently, after a hundred years of managing to keep our possessions jammed in storage sheds and dangling from the rafters of our garages, we have given up and started outsourcing our storage needs.

Would You Contribute $50 a Month More to Your RRSP, RESP, TFSA or Investment Account?

Why don’t you sign up today to contribute $50 more a month to your future? What? You don’t think that would be easy? Then why do you think it’s ok to spend $50 (or more!) a month for storage?

You won’t ever get your storage costs back, either. At least if you’re putting them into a savings program, it’s your own money and you should see it again some day. So think long and hard about why you’re getting storage before you sign that lease.

Three Reasonable Uses for Storage Lockers

There are a few times when renting storage actually makes sense, provided it’s at the right cost and it’s secure.

Clearing out a House to Make It Sell Faster and for a Higher Price

Real Estate Agents will tell you that a crowded, cluttered home is harder to sell. It’s true. If someone can see at a glance that you don’t have enough cupboards and cubbies, they may well walk away. However, if your home looks like it must have tons of space, since there’s nothing on the counters and both cars fit comfortably in the garage, you may end up witnessing a beneficial bidding war.

Renting storage to temporarily store bikes, lawnmowers, empty suitcases, exercise equipment and other bulky eyesores may payout dividends.

Temporarily Storing Goods until They Can be Safely Moved to Their New Home

It’s not unusual to have to move large items of furniture and other possessions after a person dies. If a family member wants these belongings but can’t safely move them until better weather arrives, it may be worth storing them briefly in rental storage. This permits the executor to empty the home quickly.

However, emptying the home of everything straight into storage without a reason is not a good plan.

Storing Seasonal Equipment in a Secure Environment

Boats, snowmobiles and really cute vintage sports cars that would be absolutely suicidal to drive on snowy roads are three things that come to mind when I think of acceptable storage rentals. If there is no place to keep the boat or sports car in the winter or the snowmobile in the summer, then if you can find secure storage for them at a reasonable cost this seems practical.

Three Un-Reasonable Reasons to Use Storage Lockers

Storing Ugly Furniture
If it’s hideous now, it’s not going to start being gorgeous in ten years. Either reupholster it now, sell it, or give it away. Furniture left in storage is likely to get damaged, mildew, pick up odours, become a home for nesting mice, or get nibbled on by termites.

Storing Magazines, Textbooks, and Paperwork
Yah, we’ve all heard of how the first issue of SuperMan is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars now. But be reasonable, no one is going to pay you even $10 for the 187 th issue of Time or Canadian Living. National Geographics, no matter how gorgeous the photos (or how unclad the tribeswomen) are worthless. You can’t even give them to Goodwill or the Salvation Army.

Similarly, if you never cracked those textbooks till two weeks before your final, why on earth do you think you’ll read them again now, without any pressure? Yes they were expensive. But spending more money to store them is just making it worse.

Valuable papers shouldn’t be stored where you can’t guarantee they will be kept moisture, fire and vermin-free. And any other papers shouldn’t be kept at all. Digitize them or ditch them.

Storing Clothes
Unless you have one of those 250-square-foot apartments, there is no reason to need rented storage for your clothes. Help someone who can’t afford to over-shop. Donate them directly to people in need. For example, in Mississauga you can donate them to the Open Door at Square One, who let clients choose free clothes. Or donate clothes to a charity that re-sells them. Or try selling them through a consignment or vintage store. Just don’t keep paying money to store clothes you don’t wear.

Save Your Money Not Your Stuff

Hopefully you’ve thought through why you want storage and whether you need it. Remember at $50 a month, plus 13% HST, in 5 years you could spend $3390 on a locker. Or you could put the money in an RESP and with the Canada Education Savings Grant, you could have $3600 for your child’s education, and that’s not even including any interest or capital gains from investing that money. The choice is yours.

Join In
Have you used a storage locker? Was it a good use of your hard-earned cash? Please share your experiences with a comment.

How Health Spending Accounts (HSA) Benefit You and Save You Money

Posted on by

Health Spending Accounts allow you to pay for legitimate medical expenses with pre-tax dollars instead of post-tax dollars. For example, if you buy corrective lens prescription eyeglasses to see better, you could pay for them with money from your pay cheque. That is after tax money, as you have already paid income taxes on part of your salary before you receive your pay cheque. Or you could pay for the eyeglasses from a Health Spending Account with dollars on which you have not paid any income tax. HSAs can benefit you and help you save money.

Written: 2013
Reviewed: 2023
Updated: 2023

Health Spending Accounts Help You Save the Big Bucks on Medical Expenses

If you are in a typical Ontario tax bracket, you could be saving 20-31% on your eyeglasses by buying them using pre-tax dollars. If they are $300 eyeglasses, that’s a $60-$93 savings. If you have a family of four whom all need new eyeglasses, it can save you quite a bit.

Only “Real” Medical Expenses are Covered by HSAs

It is a “Health” spending account, so you can only pay for items and services that meet the Canada Revenue Agency criteria for medical expenses. If you can’t claim it as a medical expense on your regular income tax return, then you can’t claim it as a HSA expense either.

For 2022, there is a list of typical medical expenses on the Canada Revenue Agency website at

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/publications/rc4065/medical-expenses.html#toc5

How Do I Get a Health Spending Account?

Many employers offer HSAs as an employee benefit. Occasionally, your employer will deposit the money into your HSA. Often, you have to deposit your own money (before you ever get paid it, and therefore before you pay tax on it) into the account. Then, when you have an expense, you file the paperwork to prove it is an acceptable medical expense. The company managing the Health Spending Account then sends you a cheque or direct deposits your refund.

Can You Have a Health Spending Account If You are Self-Employed or Work for a Small Company?

You can have an HSA if you are self employed. A one-person incorporated business can set up an HSA and the “employee” and immediate family dependents can make claims up to an annual maximum.

The small business (and you can’t get much smaller than a one-person corporation!) then must hire a third party to administer the account.

Why Bother? Can’t You Just Use the Medical Expense Tax Credit Instead of a Health Spending Account?

The trick is that the medical expense tax credit only applies after you have spent a large amount of money. The first couple of thousand dollars that you spend is not eligible for any credit, unless your net income was less than a value set by the CRA rules. The Health Spending Account is used to get a tax break on even the first $10 you spend on medical expenses.

Is a Health Spending Account (HSA) the Same as a Health Care Spending Account (HCSA)?

Yes. A Health Spending Account (HSA) and a Health Care Spending Account (HCSA) are both just different names for the same thing. The primary difference is that spell check will not keep switching the letters HCSA into HAS like it does with HSA!

Join In

Do you participate in an HSA? Have you saved much money? Have you had to change your spell checking program to stop automatically converting the phrase HSA into HAS? Please share your experiences with a comment.