Do What You Love (On The Side)
I’m a big believer in having multiple streams of income. A side-hustle can help you reach your financial goals faster and fuel your entrepreneurial spirit. Do what you love, on the side, and you can strike the perfect balance between entrepreneurship and a steady paycheque. When I left my job in the busy hospitality industry…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Air Miles Class Action Edition
It was only a matter of time. Air Miles has faced plenty of criticism in recent months, not just for instituting an expiry policy, but mishandling communication to its collectors about the new policy, automatically defaulting existing reward miles into their ‘Dream Miles’ category, not allowing members to transfer miles between their Dream and Cash Miles accounts, hiding…
Read More5 Ways To Stretch Your Retirement Dollars
The latest StatsCanada income trend shows that 6.2% of seniors living in a family, and 28.5% of those living alone are classified as low income. Okay, these 2012 figures are somewhat dated, but there is no denying that many retirees are living paycheque to paycheque. For those with little savings and no company pension and…
Read MoreRevisiting The Tax Free Savings Account
In 2008, then Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty introduced the Tax Free Savings Account. “We already have a retirement plan. This is a savings plan for everything else,” he explained. Perhaps that comment, as well as the name of the plan (not to mention the heavy advertising by banks), is the reason that most people…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Vancouver Real Estate Edition
Greed has a powerful effect on asset bubbles as speculators and insiders try to exploit every available loophole to profit from rising prices. First we had mortgage brokers behaving badly. Then we had shadow-flipping real estate agents. Now The Globe and Mail has exposed a new scheme where a Vancouver real estate speculator is buying homes financed with investor money from…
Read MoreA Twist On The RRSP vs. Mortgage Debate
It’s an age-old financial dilemma. Should you use your extra savings to pay down the mortgage or contribute to your RRSP? A simple answer is to compare the expected return from your investments to the interest rate on your mortgage. In today’s low rate environment, where mortgage rates sit well below 3 percent, many assume…
Read MoreThe 50-20-30 Approach To Budgeting
Someone who is just starting out in life, or a beginning budgeter, may wonder how they should be allocating their money. Here is a general rule of thumb to consider when budgeting. Where should my money be going? Begin by recording your net income and your expenses, and track your spending. Then divide your expenses…
Read MoreWhy My Thinking Changed Around Dividend Investing
It’s been almost two years since I made the switch from dividend investing to a passive, two-fund ETF solution. I sold a portfolio of 24 Canadian dividend-paying stocks and REITs and bought Vanguard ETFs VCN (Canadian stocks) and VXC (U.S. and International stocks). I started buying individual stocks in 2009, just after the stock market…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Back To School Edition
Back-to-school season is doubly busy for me as our kids enter grade two and pre-school respectively while at my University day job we’re getting ready to welcome back thousands of students to campus this weekend. We all know the cost of post-secondary education has risen dramatically in the last decade and so students (and their…
Read MoreFrom The Boomer & Echo Mailbag: Funding Your Grandchild’s Education
Question: I would like to contribute to my grandchildren’s education. Their parents already contribute the maximum amount to their RESPs each year in order to receive the government grant. What are my options? Answer: The costs of post-secondary school are rising exponentially, so kudos to you for wanting to help your grandchildren with the gift…
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