The biggest question that many Canadians will be facing over the next couple of years is whether to go with a fixed rate mortgage or a variable rate mortgage. Unlike our distant North American cousins in America, Canadians have the ritual to renew mortgages every 5 years. It’s too bad that Canadians don’t get the…
The sad part of learning about personal finance is realizing that the past generations before you did it all wrong. When I get a chance to sit back and think about all the learnings and values that were taught throughout my life, it becomes quite apparent why we never “got ahead”. Perhaps it’s the failing…
Many people believe that real estate is the best investment. That includes those that buy Apple stocks, weed stocks or even Bitcoin. From a historical perspective, real estate has always had a steady upward trajectory in price, very much similar to stocks and equities. However, real estate has suffered less significant and frequent crashes that…
The million dollar question that every Millennial wants to know is “how much house can I afford?” That’s because despite the high prices in two of Canada’s major cities, the majority of Millennials still want to buy a home. With house prices rising much faster than income in their respective cities, just how much can…
The TFSA has been around since 2009 and its introduction has created a great way for many investors to make money completely tax free. The fact that money made in a TFSA is tax free could mean that people will try to take advantage of it. So what exactly happens when the TFSA is over…
In a recent article I wrote how buying a house could end up throwing away just as much money as renting. That’s because buying a house with a mortgage is exactly like renting, only rather than renting a place to live, you end up renting the money to buy the place. Quite interestingly, someone rebutted…
Unless you own a house in Toronto or Vancouver, Canada hasn’t been a good place to invest over the past ten years. If we look at the performance of Canada’s main stock index, the TSX, over the past decade, the returns have been abysmal. With only a 17% cumulative gain over 10 years, anyone who…
It’s time for another comparison of rent vs buy. It’s not that I condone buying a house, but in ultra expensive cities in Canada like Vancouver and Toronto, all the arguments of buying over renting have become myths. The popular saying that you are throwing your money away renting is getting harder and harder to…
It’s been a couple of weeks since the April 30th tax return deadline has passed. If you’ve setup auto deposit to your bank account, on the CRA website, you would have received your tax refund by now. For many this comes as a bit of a windfall when the money situation is tight. So what…
Just before the start of a warm, sunny Spring weekend the big banks snuck in a mortgage rate increase of 45 basis points and 20 basis. The two big banks that acted? TD bank and RBC. Two of largest banks in Canada. Now some might think that it’s conspiracy because with warmer Spring temperatures come…
Tax returns are due in about a week’s time. For those who aren’t aware, April 30th, 2018 is the deadline to file your tax returns for 2017. For those that think they might be owing the government money, it’s a good idea to get your taxes done to avoid a penalty. Now that the deadline…
Recently there have been a lot of news articles talking about real estate deals gone bad. First there were the Mattamy homes in Whitby that dropped almost $100,000 in price this year. Buyers from last year had remorse and begged to get their home prices readjusted but to no avail. Then came another Mattamy story…
