Weekend Reading: Household Inflation Edition
One of the benefits of tracking our expenses each year is that we can identify spending trends and highlight any areas of concern. One troubling area is our overall household spending, which is on the rise. Those of you with growing families know that there’s the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which has hovered around 2.3…
Read MoreMoney Bag: Best Way To Invest $1M, VGRO vs. Two ETF Portfolio, and High Cost Funds in Saskatchewan
Today I’m answering reader mail for a feature I call the Money Bag. I’ll answer questions and address comments from readers on a wide range of money topics, myths, and perceptions about money. No question is off limits, so hit me up in the comments section or send me an email about all the money things you’re…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: The Vanguard Effect Edition
The investment giant and indexing pioneer Vanguard has made a lot of noise in Canada this year. Already a big player in the ETF space since entering the Canadian market in 2011, Vanguard added four mutual funds to its line-up this year, plus introduced its new asset-allocation ETFs, a one-ticket solution for investors. They’ve also…
Read More10 Financial Lessons To Share With Friends
The personal finance community can be a bit of an echo chamber, reinforcing and repeating the same ideas on how to save, invest, and spend our money. This sort of tribalism can be intimidating for outsiders who are eager to learn but afraid to ask questions or know where to start, especially when it comes…
Read MoreMy Financial Goals For 2019
I’ve been thinking about next year for a long time and now that the 2018 calendar has turned to December I wanted to share my financial goals for 2019. Goal setting has been a major key to my financial success over the years. Publishing my goals here on this blog is a great way to…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: TFSA Limit Increase Edition
The federal government released its ‘Indexation adjustment for personal income tax and benefits amounts’ (IAFPITABA), which shows the increases to 2019 tax bracket thresholds, plus increases to income-tested benefits like the GST credit and Canada Child Benefit. These increases are tied to inflation using Consumer Price Index data from Statistics Canada, which pegged inflation at…
Read More15 Money Saving Tips To Live By
I’m often asked to share my best or favourite money saving tips. It’s hard to pin down just one when there are so many ways to save money and build lifelong financial habits and skills. That’s what financial literacy is all about, right? Here are 15 money saving tips that I try to live by: 1. Make…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Stock Market Volatility Edition
The month of October was not kind to investors. A volatile stock market erased all of 2018’s gains and then some. My own portfolio plunged 5.72 percent in October after being up 4.73 percent from January to September. Time to panic? Not a chance. In yet another example of why it’s best to ignore the…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Banks Behaving Badly (Again) Edition
CBC Go Public continues to do excellent investigative reporting and this week they caught banks behaving badly again, this time misleading and upselling customers on pricey credit card insurance. Known as balance protection insurance, this product charges a hefty premium (typically around 99 cents per $100 balance) to “protect” cardholders from missed payments as a…
Read MoreCanadian High Interest Savings Account Comparison
I researched the best high interest savings accounts in Canada and found a significant difference when comparing savings accounts between banks.
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