Perhaps the question that everyone wants to know is how are Canadians affording homes that are so expensive when compared to the standard average salary in the city they live in? Regardless if the housing market is in decline like Calgary or Vancouver, or steaming hot like Toronto, Halifax and Montreal, house prices in Canada…
Over the last decade the S&P 500 has pretty much quadrupled. The Canadian TSX has doubled in that time, while the remaining rest of the world would have returned roughly 50%. A bond index would have returned 60% compounded with interest. Those are quite phenomenal numbers. In fact if you had held a portfolio mix…
When I started learning about personal finance and started to share my knowledge on this blog, I thought it was a good idea to teach people how to save and invest. But boy was I wrong. What I realized after learning about saving and investing is that the save and invest model only worked for…
Canadians love real estate. Let’s face it we’re all infatuated by it, but sometimes we have to question our desires to see if buying is actually better than renting at a financial level. I’m a true believer that you can’t put a price on emotions. That’s why if your heart and life goal is set…
Among the noise surrounding the controversies of President Trump and Prime Minister Trudeau, the Canadian and American stock markets have done incredibly well to start the year. So much so that the main Canadian stock market indicator, the TSX, closed at an all time high just before the Easter holiday weekend. This is surprising for…
With a little over two weeks to go before tax returns are due for Canadians I’m starting to hear a lot of grumbling over having to pay taxes. Paying taxes is inevitable for every Canadian. We’re probably the most taxed people on the face of the Earth with high income taxes and also extremely high…
It’s been over ten years since the stock market took a major tumble that took stocks down 50%. During the next decade since then North American stocks, specifically the United States, have enjoyed the longest bull run in maybe the history of the US economy. Despite the cries that the American empire was crumbling, the…
A recent article came my way that was titled “Self-made millionaire: Not buying a home is the single biggest millennial mistake“. This is supposed to make the Millennials rush out the door and buy a home. Make no mistake the author of the article makes very good points. If you’re renting you’re just throwing money…
RRSP season is out in full force for Canadians and there’s just about 1 more week to go before the deadline. If you’ve been reading this blog you’ll know by now that the RRSP account has many uses. You’ll also know that the benefit of the RRSP is to defer taxes to a later date,…
Everyone hates high prices. The unfortunate fact of a growing economy is that prices need to rise over time. This increase in price is called inflation. Inflation is a necessary evil to a successful economy because of how humans behave. Let’s face the facts. We all like a good deal and when we buy things…
Probably more misunderstood than Taylor Swift’s “Starbuck’s Lovers” lyrics, the TFSA account has had its reputation dragged through the mud the past couple of years. Ever since the Trudeau Liberals went on a crusade to bash the TFSA as a rich man’s tool to get rich quicker, the TFSA has been swept under the rug…
Remember Christmas time last year when stocks were getting pummeled and everyone was calling a crash that looked like 2008? Well guess what? If you sold everything you owned at that point you just ended up realizing missing out on over 10% in gains. That’s exactly how much the markets have rebounded since hitting their…
