In a couple of weeks, parents send their kids back to school which is the happiest or saddest day of the year depending on which side of the care-giver/dependent side of the fence you sit on and how long or short the summer was. For parents sending away their kids to college/university, the advice is the usual series of don’ts: don’t spend all your money, don’t party too much, don’t fall behind in class etc. etc. But how many parents actually tell their kids: “Don’t forget to apply for every bursary possible. Its free money. Apply early, apply often.“

When I went to law school, there was a general bursary fund awarded to students on their second degree if they could prove need by the second semester of school. “Need” was a bit of a loose term. I remember a class-mate who was quite well-off by student-terms (lived by themselves in a nice apartment in the good part of town, owned a car outright, not on student loans) who applied as a lark and got $1500. FREE MONEY. Now, if your sense of justice cries out that this classmate was abusing the system, I would actually suggest not. No one applied to this bursary so every year the school had excess money sitting around. They had to give the money away. They employed people to administer this program and, as urban myth had it, the employee was bored to tears. No one applied. Thus, it wasn’t like this class-mate was taking money away from more needy applicants. There was more than enough to go around.

One more story- I once won a $500 scholarship in undergrad. How? I was the only one that applied. In the entire country. Time to complete the application? About an hour. Other Costs? Try a $1.00 to photocopy my transcripts. $500.00 for one hours work is not bad. Hell, most lawyers don’t bill that much per hour. How did I find out about it? They desperately wanted someone to win and I happened to bump into someone who knew about the scholarship and lack of applicants.

It stupefies me how much free money we leave on the table. I was once asked by a client to research some grants opportunities for them. Starting a tech company in west of Manitoba? The feds have a grant for you. An entrepreneur in Prince Edward County? The province has a grant for you. Employing employees under 35? The feds will subsidize their wage. Hiring someone on EI? The feds and the province will pay for their first 6 months of salary. Yet, after speaking to some of these grant officers, NO ONE APPLIES. Entrepreneurs always need more money but they never bother researching grants, subsidies and low-interest loans and approach banks who are anything but small-business friendly.

There’s a ton of other examples: people not applying for child-care tax credits, not applying to your local city for rebates when you purchase energy saving products (City of Toronto gives you $60 if you buy a front-loading washer), not completely maxing out every single tax deduction you are eligible for, not applying for credit cards that give you cash back etc.

Since I don’t have a post tomorrow, I will leave you with this thought for the weekend- what parts of your life are you leaving money on the table? I do not mean being frugal. I mean instances were you could be eligible to receive money but do not do it because you don’t want to apply, you don’t look into it, you don’t think you will win etc.

For those with student loans, MoneyGrubbingLawyer gives some tips on tackling student debt (incidentally, isn’t the term Money Grubbing Lawyer redundant? Haha, sorry had to go there).

Have a great weekend.