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…
There’s a growing trend with younger Canadians to stop following the “Canadian dream” of home ownership and deciding to take the road of FIRE instead. Just what is FIRE? It stands for Financial Independent and Retiring Early. Perhaps popularized by the writer of Mr. Money Mustache, the idea is to reach financial independence at an…
The RRSP deadline for Canadians that want to make a contribution is on March 1, 2018. That leaves just under 2 weeks away if you want to make a contribution this year. As RRSP goes, Canadians are making less and less contributions towards their retirement. In fact, as reported by the CBC, Canadians have been…
Everyone bashes corporations for generating record profits. Each year corporate profits are getting higher and higher, yet costs to live keep going up and up and wages are not going anywhere. So what gives? Why are corporations allowed to keep profiting on the backs of the little guy? What benefit does it provide the little…
The stock market has rocketed off to a ridiculous start in 2018. In fact if it continued at this pace we would be looking at gains past 100% for the S&P 500. Of course, that prediction is absurd and that’s why with the latest run up we should be wary that this won’t last. The…
First they taxed the foreigners. Then interest rates were jacked up. Finally the Canadian federal government dropped the B-20 bomb. Even with these big three events, housing has continued to be the most sought after commodity in Toronto and Vancouver. Yes, I did say commodity, because over the years it has been treated as such,…
This past week the Bank of Canada raised interest rates by another quarter point or 0.25%. That small change didn’t seem like much, but the Bank of Canada prime rate now sits at a measely 1.25%. Still low for historical reasons. The commercial banks followed suit with most major banks raising their prime lending rates…
When it comes to investing your money it can be a daunting task. There are so many options, there are so many opinions, and there’s so much media influence in the money world that it can often become so confusing that we do nothing. Doing nothing always seems like the most logical choice because it…
The new year is when I always like to start fresh and take a look at all my personal financial needs for the new year. This doesn’t just mean my investments, but a lot of other things too. Like are my insurance needs covered? Did I pay all my bills? Do I need a new…
