TGIF! Quick refund poll: if you’re expecting a tax refund, which are you?
Many Canadians treat refunds as a chance to manage finances, everyone’s money situation is unique.
What will you do with your refund this year? Drop a vote! 
3/4 to investments and 1/4 emergency funds.
Saving, but generally with a lil’ treat. It’s 2026 - got to find a little joy where we can!
a little treat and save the rest - after all, it’s my money that I am getting back…
Straight into the RRSP for me.
@rmacky That’s absolutely necessary! 
@amooker Self-care meets wealth-care! 
Putting into my FHSA, eaching that house goal this year. Every cent counts! 
I feel like the odd one out here, lol. Putting all towards a trip! 
Love this! It’s called an investment in memories.
That focus is exactly what’s going to get you across the finish line.Rooting for you!
Going into my home reno account! 
Money is fungible. Doesn’t matter where it came from, once it comes into my account the priority is to pay my bills. Once all my current and expected bills are covered, I look at my total savings balance, if that’s on target then any leftovers can go to towards paying off my investment loan which creates additional margin room I can dip into the next time an opportunity comes up.
Using my refund to help fund my TFSA!
@PhilJ1 love this approach, a lot of people struggle with ‘mental accounting’ (treating a tax refund differently than a paycheck, for example), but you’re looking at the big picture. When you say you ‘dip into’ the margin for the next opportunity, do you have a specific ‘buy’ signal you look for, or is it just whenever the numbers align?
I have all my account values in a spreadsheet that also includes the breakdown by region for my investments accounts. It sums up all my financial assets and and calculates dollar amount targets for cash, fixed income and equities by region. Then it just does the difference to show me how close or far off target everything is.
If I see that I’m over target in one category and under target in another then I simply sell one fund and use the cash to buy the other, preferably in a registered account so I don’t generate unnecessary taxable events. But when most categories are close to target and there’s just one outlier, I can buy whatever is low or sell whatever is high in my margin account.
I’m probably putting too much effort in keeping things near balance all the time. All-in-one ETFs didn’t exist when I started investing so I built my own portfolio but at some point, I should probably just convert everything to an All-in-one ETF, pay the big tax bill and stop worrying about it.