Are you ready for online banking? Or a better question ¡V are banks ready for you?

Online banking is much, much more than simply punching in your codes at nearest ATM, and breadth of services available to you are growing fast. In fact, some banks do not have branches located in brick buildings at all, but are operating competitively in ¡§online¡¨ world offering all services ¡§traditional¡¨ banks have offered in past.

Getting Started So, what should you consider before making leap in to cyber-banking? Probably first thing to consider is whether you have ¡§connections¡¨. The simplest online connection you need is dial-up internet access from your computer. With this, you are now able to make a connection with your existing bank or surf other banks to open an account, request a loan, etc. If you have an existing bank account, many banks are making it easy for you to ¡§enable¡¨ online access to your accounts. Check with your bank, process of getting online access to your existing accounts is fairly easy ¡V and you should be able to do this online. (Note: When converting my existing account to online banking at RBC process wouldn¡¦t let me do it online. I had to call in to their office during business hours, but process was fairly simple and telephone support was very good.)

They will guide you through a simple process, setting you up with your account # and password. Guard these carefully! ¡V they are just as important as your ATM PIN #¡¦s.

What Can Online Banking Do For Me?

The services available to you are growing monthly. To be fair to banks, they are playing catch-up to some of services being offered by auction payment systems which in a way have ¡§blazed trail¡¨ for online payments. New e-money currency, ¡§wallets¡¨ and payment systems have filled a gap in market place that banks are looking to recover. The ones that really want your business won¡¦t make it difficult for you to do business with them. As we all know, nothing is more frustrating than spending your time and energy trying to use your bank¡¦s ¡§online¡¨ services only to find that an hour later you see a message saying ¡§please visit your nearest branch to¡K.¡¨.

So what should you expect? Here is a list of basic services that I believe you should be able to expect from your online bank (and of course, list keeps growing).

„h Open a new account „h Check credit card balances „h Check your mortgage balances „h Make bill payments „h Schedule automatic bill payments for regular bills „h Make credit card bill payments „h Apply for a loan „h Apply for a mortgage „h Transfer funds between accounts „h Ability to send and receive checks online „h Check your brokerage account and trade stocks or mutual funds (integrated) „h Wireless banking access

I should note that when comparing some of services offered by US banks vs. Canadian banks, it appears that Canadian banks are slower to offer important basic online services such as sending and receiving checks and payments. Hopefully they will catch up in coming months.

Tax Tip 1 Reduce taxes withheld by adjusting number of exemptions on your w-4 form. Avoid getting a large refund each year; you are simply making an interest-free loan of your money to government. If you need help saving, set up an automatic withdraw from your paycheck into a money market account and earn some interest.

Tax Tip 2 Writing off family medical expenses This strategy is a little more complicated but well worth extra effort. Our family saved by deducting over $5,000 in out-of-pocket medical expenses from our home business income last year. With two kids in braces and an unplanned surgery, medical expenses can add up quickly. ·To use this strategy, first, you must hire a spouse or other trusted family member to work for your home or small business, full or part time will work. ·Next you need to set up and sign a medical reimbursement plan. You may need advice of an accountant to help you with this. This plan allows any sole proprietor too convert all family out-of-pocket medical expenses into legitimate business deductions ·Finally, your spouse or family member pays all out-of-pocket medical expenses for family keeping receipts and documenting miles driven for medical purposes. At a specified time, your business reimburses your spouse or family member for these expenses and deducts them as a business expense.

Tax Tip 3 Writing off your Child's College Education Expenses If you put your child on payroll of your business for performing office chores etc., you can pay each child up to $4,400 a year (2001) and that amount will be canceled out by child's own standard deduction. Your child can pay for or save for their college education with deductible wages you pay them, and there will be no payroll taxes for your child under age 18.