40 - Wednesday, January 2, 1991 - North Shore News BUSINESS Find the answers to your investment questions AT SOME point in your life, you will ask one or more of the following questions: * How much income will my savings and investments produce after I retire? * How much should I be saving to have enough income to retire? © Now I[ have retired, how long will my money last? The challenge is to get this in- formation in terms of today’s dollars so you can relate the fig- ures to your current living ex- penses. And the calculations must also account for inflation, income tax and investment growth. Complex and often expensive computer programs have been de- veloped to help people with their retirement financial planning. But you can find the answers to all the above questions at the 1991 Mike Grenby Money Magic Show, co-sponsored by the North Shore News and The Certified General Accountants Association of B.C. The show wil! be held Saturday, Feb. 9 starting at 2 p.m. at Car- son Graham Secondary School. Tickets — $5.50 for one, $9 for two — will be available at the North Shore News sometime next week. Watch the paper for further details. At the Money Show, you will receive six simple graphs and in- structions on how to use them to work out the figures that relate to your own situation. These six graphs were designed specifically for those who will be attending the 1991 Mike Grenby Money Magic Show by Don Pooley, a Vancouver financial planner and newsletter publisher. The graphs enable you to find out how much income — in to- day’s dollars — you can expect both from what you have saved so far in RRSP and non-RRSP funds and from your future RRSP and non-RRSP annual savings. You can also use the graphs to find out how much you should be setting aside to produce a certain level of income when you retire. If you have already retired, two graphs show how much inflation- indexed income you can expect from both your RRSP/RRIF and non-RRSP/RRIF savings for the rest of your life. Barring any major economic or Michael Grenby DOLLARS AND SENSE tax changes, you should be able to use these graphs at any time in the future to help you plan your retirement income. Pooley has done an excellent job of simplifying what is usually an extremely complex set of cafcu- lations, so ordinary people can get the information they need. For this year’s show, I decided to focus on retirement planning because it covers so many aspects of two other popular topics: how to save income tax and how to in- vest successfully. Pll be reviewing the new RRSP tules: For example, does it make sense to over contribute $8,000? Is it really a good idea to skip con- tributing now and catch up later? The seminar includes my Top Ten Tax Tips and Ten Steps to Greater Wealth, as well as some GST pointers. I take an upbeat approach, explaining all topics in basic language and using slides to highlight the various strategies. More than 7,000 people attend- ed my 16 money shows last January and February. I hope to see you at this year’s show! Let me start the New Year right as I dip in to the big pile of reader mail on my desk to dig out an- swers to some reader questions. “How the heck does one ‘shop around’ for an accountant as you advised in a recent column? it's not like shopping around for a pair of slacks! By the time you realize the accountant is not right for you, you could wind up Aestitute."” — W.B. Try to get a personal reference. Meet with the accountant. Explain your needs and have a written list of questions about the accoun- tant’s skills, background, etc. Talk to the accountant’s other clients. Once you make your choice, communicate regularly, clearly and fully with the accountant. Review all work done for you —- and ask questions about anything you don’t understand. “When I was laid off work, I took flegal action which resulted in a larger serverance package. Can } claim my legal fees as a tax deduction?”’ — R.N. Yes, but only against the tax- able part of the severance pay. You mentioned in your letter that you were advised to roll over all your severance pay to your RRSP. That means while you will declare the severance pay on one part of your return, you will then claim an offsetting deduction for your RRSP rollover contribution, leav- ing no taxable severance pay. In this case, you would have no taxable severance pay against which to claim your legal ex- penses. So, for example, if you received $45,000 severance pay and had $5,000 legal expenses, you should roll over only $40,000 to your RRSP even if you were eligible to roll over all $45,000. Then you would claim the $5,000 legai ex- penses against the remaining $5,000 taxable severance pay. “My trust company insists on taking the administration fee for my RRSP right out of my plan. I feel they should bil! me so they don’t disturb the monies in the pian. What do you say?”’ — F.P. I agree, but not only for that reason. When you pay the fee separately, you may deduct it as a ‘carrying charge’? and so save tax. “I have a capital loss on one of my investments. How do I use it?” — D.G. TOP SIRLOIN STEAK Canada Grade A Beef Boneless Aged to perfection No limits Thru January §/ 91 48 Ib. 7.67/Kg. AEGULAR STORE HOURS MON., TUES., WED., SAT. 9a.m. to 7p.m. THUAS., FRI., $a.m. to $p.m. SUNDAY i0a.m. to 6p.m. LYNN VALLEY CENTRE ONLY MON.-SAT. 6a.m. to 5p.m. SUNDAY 8a.m. to 6p.m. You may claim a capital loss only against capital gains. You may no longer claim up to $2,000 of the loss against other income as you could before 1985. If you have no capital gains in the current tax year against which to claim the loss, you may go back up to three tax years to ap- ply the loss against capital gains you realized in those years. ff that still doesn’t use up the loss, then you may carry forward the loss indefinitely, to apply against capital gains in future years. “If you have the option of See Shop page 42 ROYAL It’s you who counts the most SHARE IN SUCCESS If you are licensed or soon to be licensed with a sincere desire for early success and would {ike an opportunity to be part of our North or West Vancouver Sales Team. We invite you to investigate the TRAINING, REWARDS and SUPPORT offerec by Royal LePage. CALL: Ron Bailey, Manager, West Van. 925-1441 Satnam Sidhu, Manager, North Van. 988-2022 -NOTICE‘OF. PUBLIC MEETING * In the matter of Neptune Bulk Terminals’ proposal t to consiruct an additional Potash Storage and Transfer facility at their North Vancouver terminal, the Vancouver Port Corporation announces the formation of a Panel to receive interested views on the project, and to consider such views in making Recommendations to the Port Corporation. PUBLIC MEETING SCHEDULE: TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1991, 7:00 P.M. NORTH SHORE WINTER CLUB JIM GRAHAM LOUNGE 1325 East Keith Road North Vancouver, B.C. THE PANEL: CHAIRMAN: John D. Wiebe, PhD, _ _Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada Edwin ‘Mac’ Clark, Former Regional. Director, Inland Waters Directorate Environment Canada (retired) ° David Marshall, Former Regional Director, Pacific Western and Northern Region Federal Environmental Assessment Review Office SUBMISSIONS/PRESENTATIONS: The Panel will receive written or verbal submissions regarding this project, as follows: Written Submissions - accepted up to 3:00 RM. January Mth, 1991. Verbal Submissions - will be scheduled for the Public Meeting on receipt of a written request to the Panel. accompanied by a presentation outline. Requests accepted until 3:00 RM., January 15th. Mailing Address: CHAIRMAN PORT OF VANCOUVER PUBLIC REVIEW PANEL; NEPTUNE c/o 666 - 999 Canada Place Vancouver, B.C. V6C 3E} Interested parties intending to participate in tie Public Meeting who wish further information on these proceedings are invited to contact the Panel Chairman by telephone: 684-5986 Vancouver Port Corporation 1900 - 200 Granville Street Vancouver, 6.0. V6C 2 Pu