The Financial Guide for Post-Secondary Students

Table of Contents

• Collaborators
  
  
• About the OSB
  
  
• About Debtor Education
  
  

• Post-Secondary Studies: Starting off on the Right Foot
  
  
• Managing Your Money
  • Step 1: Evaluate your personal financial situation
  • Step 2: Set financial and personal goals for yourself
  • Step 3: Establish a budget
  • Step 4: List your expenses
  • Step 5: Compare your budget with your real expenditures
  • Step 6: Do a follow-up on your financial situation and review your budget
    • Work Sheet 1: Identify your objectives
    • Work Sheet 2: Prioritize your objectives
    • Work Sheet 3: Find a way to reach your objectives
    • Student budget
  
  
• Saving and Investments
  • Step 1: What is your investment profile?
  • Step 2: Save
  • Step 3: Where to invest
  • Tips
  
  
• Income Tax
  • What is income tax?
  • What are tax deductions and income tax returns?
  • What does being a student mean for your taxes?
  • No income tax deducted
  • Having income tax deducted
  
  
• What Type of Credit is Best for You?
  • Some economic terms before starting
  • Student loans
  • Credit cards
  • Personal line of credit
  • Personal loans
  • Instalment plans
  • Mortgage
  
  
• Bank Accounts and Services
  • Bank accounts
  • Bank services
  • Service fees
  
  
• Tips on How to Save
  
  
• Employment
  • Employment during the school year
  • Summer employment
  
  
• Putting a Roof Over Your Head
  • Where can I live?
  • The choices
  • The lease
  • Searching for an apartment
  • Moving
  • Service connection
  
  
• Transportation
  • How to get around
  • Buying a vehicle
  • Three ways to get wheels
    • New vehicle
    • Leasing
    • Used vehicles
  • The alternatives
  
  
• Complain!
  • Step 1: Contact the salesperson
  • Step 2: Contact the company headquarters
  • Step 3: Contact government offices and consumer organizations
  • Step 4: Take legal action
  • Sample Complaint letter
  
  
• Fraud
  • Types of fraud
  • Consumer tips
  • Security tips
    • 10 good ways to protect your credit cards
    • 10 security tips for direct payment and automatic teller machines
  
  
• Test Your Knowledge
  • True or false
  • Multiple choice
  
  
• Answers
  
  

Collaborators

Vivian Cousineau
Catherine Dupont
Philippe Lacasse
Geneviève Lavigne
Patrick Veilleux

Graphic Design

Roger Langlois

Editing/Translation

Matthew Bonsall
Manon Brunet
Line Nadeau
Anny Robert

© Industry Canada, 2005
Cat. Iu76-2/2005E
ISBN 0-662-39800-9
54273B

About the OSB

The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy (OSB) is the Government of Canada agency responsible for overseeing the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA), and ensuring that the act is responsive to market needs. The OSB keeps a public record of all bankruptcies, proposals and receiverships. It sets standards and guidelines for bankruptcy trustees and ensures compliance.

Bankruptcy trustees work with individuals and companies who are faced with insurmountable debt. There are two basic options for debtors. A proposal may be filed with creditors to set up a repayment schedule. Or if this isn't possible, an application is made for bankruptcy protection under the BIA. In the case of a bankruptcy, the trustee sells a debtor's assets to pay creditors.

About Debtor Education

Debtor education is not part of the OSB's regulatory mandate. But it is one of our core values. We continue to seek innovative ways to educate people about the pitfalls of debt. For more information about dealing with debt, visit www.osb-bsf.ic.gc.ca

We cannot however, put together such a publication without the help of others. We would like to thank all of those who provided input and comments. We truly appreciate their help. You will find many links to their Web sites in this document and we strongly encourage you to visit them. They all contain more indepth information on the subjects that we briefly covered in this booklet.

We would especially like to thank the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) for providing comments on our publication and for allowing us to use some of their material.

The FCAC is an independent body working to protect and educate consumers of financial services. The Agency was established in 2001 by the federal government to strengthen oversight of consumer issues and expand consumer education in the financial sector. The FCAC is responsible for overseeing the compliance of federally regulated financial institutions (banks, federally registered trust and loan companies and federally registered insurance companies) with the federal laws and regulations that govern them. The FCAC also informs and educates Canadians about financial products and services and about their rights and responsibilities as consumers of these products and services. It publishes a variety of informative brochures for Canadian financial consumers. To obtain a listing of these publications, or to receive any of the publications free of charge, you are invited to call the FCAC Consumer Contact Centre at 1-866-461-3222. To view these publications online, you may also visit the Agency Web site at the following web address: www.fcac-acfc.gc.ca

We would also like to thanks the Office de la protection du consommateur du Québec for their help. Created in 1971, the Office de la protection du consommateur du Québec has been an independent agency since 1980. It is their mission to ensure that consumer rights are recognized and respected. Socially speaking, the Office also targets more balanced consumer-merchant relations. Transactions on the consumer market are characterized by an imbalance in the information available to parties, the financial resources at their disposal and their technical and legal know-how. You can visit their Web site at www.opc.gouv.qc.ca

If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact the OSB Corporate Secretary.

Vivian Cousineau
OSB Corporate Secretary
365 Laurier Ave West, 8^th Floor
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0C8
(613) 941-2694
Fax (613) 946-9205
e-mail: cousineau.vivian@ic.gc.ca