Fixing finances and filing taxes: easy edition

Post date: 2019-07-18 05:44:08

I was sick and destitute for a long time and now my finances are a mess and I need help. I have to file three years of income tax with the CRA, I have over 10 grand in pension funds from an old employer still sitting with them, and I don't understand my new employer's pension plan at all. Who can help me with this? Snowflakes: Canada. I don't want the "right" or "best" way, I want the easiest way.

I need something easy and stress-free to set up and keep track of. Anything requiring oversight or tracking or education is not going to work. I know it will bother some of you that I don't want to carefully engineer my finances to get me the best return. If you can't let go of that, you should probably move on to another question. Maybe in a few years I'll be in a place in which I can think more strategically and cleverly about money, but now is definitely not that time.

I get frantic and confused when I have to deal with anything money related. I can't seem to get financial concepts straight in my mind. Also I have always been financially unstable due to chronic illness and other factors. Last year I was so poor I was literally stealing food from my neighbor's garbage. I was competing with raccoons for half rotten potatoes. This year my health has been much better and I found a job that pays me enough to feed myself, pay rent, and start slowly working on my debt. I have saved up a little bit of money and I want to use it to get my finances organized, because worrying about it is giving me a lot of stress.

I have to file my income taxes for the past three years. I called the CRA and they're sending me my last notice of assessment and all of my T4s since 2015. Now I need to find someone to file my taxes for me. Who does this? What do I google search for? I don't want to go to HR Block and watch them fill out Turbo Tax for me. I have some things that I want to be handled correctly (self-employment fund claims, student credits etc.)

I also have some money in an ex-employer's pension fund that I need to take out and put into an RRSP or something. Dealing with them is difficult and they won't transfer the cash unless I have the correct amounts (which change frequently) entered on their giant forms. I've tried to do this twice in the past and failed because of life, the forms, etc. I don't want to deal with it, I want to pay for someone to do it for me. Is this the same kind of person who will file my taxes for me?

Thirdly, my new employer has a confusing tiered opt-in pension plan. I don't understand it at all. I've tried to read the literature. HR is out-sourced and when I ask (send in a ticket) for help they send me the same brochure I got when I was onboarding. Is this something I could pay someone to coach me through and tell me what to choose and how to fill in the forms?

Please click Here to read the full story.