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…
I’ve read a lot of articles teaching people how to budget properly, but every article I read always assumes that the entire budget represents your monthly income. Why not change it for once? Let’s assume you make way less! It might seem logical to most people that if you get a raise it means you…
This might seem stereotypical, but through my own personal experiences of talking to individuals about personal finance, there are drastic differences between the two genders. Women tend to repeat the following: “What are mutual funds? I don’t know anything.” “Stocks are too risky” “I just want to buy a home” Men tend to be on…
It’s not unusual for us to to want to spend our money when we are flushed with extra cash. Everyday we are bombarded with advertisements on television, Facebook and our mobile phone games. We live in a consumerist society. There’s no wonder why Canadians are so much in debt and many homeowners fund their lifestyles…
