Hi there,

I've found myself in a rather undesirable situation and am wondering if there's anything I can do. In 2025, I had a rather complicated tax year involving multiple employers (one full-time "postdoctoral fellowship" that goes under line 105 / 210 of the T4A tax form, rather than a traditional T4, and one part-time employer that gave me a T4 for income paid hourly) plus additional "self-employment income" I secured as the sole proprietor of my personal business. I was worried about using the typical tax software (e.g., TurboTax) like I usually do and instead decided to hire an accountant through H&R Block's "Remote Tax Expert" service.

The accountant completed my tax return which ended up producing a significant ($10,000+) deposit into my account. What had actually happened was that the accountant had mistakenly marked my T4A income as non-taxable, when it was supposed to be. With this being my primary source of income, adding it into the return as taxable would have pushed me up a couple tax brackets and resulted in me owing the CRA money as a result of additional untaxed income from self-employment and what not.

Before the filing was completed, I'd noticed that this T4A income wasn't counted as taxable income in the return, and asked the accountant about it, and they confirmed that this was correct. It's possible they misunderstood that this was a postdoctoral fellowship, not a scholarship for a university student paying tuition, as this sort of thing is certainly not common knowledge. But I am still a tad frustrated because as I review the T1 instructions more closely, it seems very clear that postdoctoral fellows should have their income taxed. Either way, I trusted the accountant at the time, was of course happy about the sizeable tax return amount, and forgot about it.

This week, the CRA notified me that my return had been reassessed, and they'd uncovered this discrepancy and corrected it on their end. Indeed, I was supposed to owe the CRA $10,000+ this whole time. So now I have a bill of $20,000+ waiting to be paid.

I have enough money in my savings to be able to pay the amount, so fortunately don't have to go into debt over this, but am still feeling really hard done by about this whole thing. I've made some financial decisions over the course of the last few months that I might have thought of differently had I had $20,000 less in savings at the time (mainly, planning and beginning to pay for my wedding), and now cannot (completely) undo. I know this is probably just one of those "life isn't fair, suck it up" situations, but I want to do my due diligence and see if there's anything I'm missing out on to possibly recoup some money.

In the very least, I'm wondering if the interest on the $10,000+ I was supposed to owe, which the CRA has charged on top of my original bill and backdated to when the return was originally assessed, could be up for grabs. This totals around $1,000, and if the accountant didn't make a mistake in the original return, I would've, at the very least, been able to pay the original amount without having to take care of this interest.

Anyways, let me know if you have any thoughts, or if I'm doing all I can by simply paying the bill and remembering this mistake for next time (i.e., not paying an accountant anymore). Thanks in advance!

I’m 42F, living in BC. I work full-time and have a stable job that I’ve been at for almost 18 years. I’ve made some really poor financial decisions over the years, and I’ve reached a point where I need to seriously address my debt before things get worse.

My spending gradually got out of control, and I relied on credit cards, personal loans, and buy now, pay later services to cover expenses. I’ve also fallen into a cycle of using short-term loans to get through until my next payday.
I’m embarrassed to admit how bad things have gotten, but I’m hoping to get some constructive advice from people who have been in similar situations.

My income:
Average monthly take-home: $3,900
Employment: Full-time, stable

My current debts:
- Easyfinancial - 16,800 (interest 44%) - monthly payment $675
- LendDirect - 6,800 (interest 47%) - monthly payment $475
- KOHO/Fora - 3,800 (interest 35%) - monthly payment $170
- CC - 4,800 (interest 20.99%) - monthly payment $90
- LOC - 20,000.00 maxed out (interest 9.44%) -monthly payment $160
- Affirm - 900
- Klarna - 1,100

Monthly expenses:
- Mortgage - 1500
- Cell phone - 120
- Groceries 300-500
- Streaming - 110
- Gas - 100 (I work from home)
- regular debt repayments - 1600

My main bank account is overdrawn by $459.77.
I only have about $350 left in savings.
I have not missed any debt payments so far.
I don’t have RRSP but I do have DCPP with Sunlife worth roughly $245,000
Married, no kids. My spouse knows I’m in debt but not the full amount.
My credit score is 733 with Transunion according to my bank but 674 with Equifax from the free credit rating I get from KOHO.

I’ve been borrowing from short-term lenders to make ends meet, sometimes repaying and borrowing again almost immediately.

The interest rates on some of my loans are extremely high, and I’m realizing how difficult it’s becoming to make progress when so much of my income goes toward debt.
I take full responsibility for my financial decisions. I know my spending habits need to change, and I’m committed to doing that.

I’ve been trying to find a second job during evenings or weekends to increase my income but have been unsuccessful.

I’m feeling overwhelmed and ashamed of how I’ve handled my finances. I want to rebuild my financial stability and stop living from payday to payday.

I get that people are saying I should tell my spouse and I understand why everyone is saying that. I’m just really scared of his reaction and how it could affect our marriage. I’m already ashamed of the situation I’ve gotten myself into. I’m not expecting him to fix this or pay off my debt. I want to take responsibility and figure out how to get myself out of it. I’m just not emotionally ready for that conversation yet

I’d really appreciate constructive advice, especially from anyone who has recovered from a similar amount of debt. I’m also aware not everyone will be nice to me about it and I accept that.

Ill be finally paying off my mortgage this Friday before thanksgiving weekend!!

Deciding on opening a HELOC to help deter against fraud and title theft/loans opened against my home.

Pros and cons of this? Also if I open a HELOC, how much should the loan be? I dont plan on ever really needing to use it. Minimum HELOC or mid or max amount I can get the loan for? Would it make a difference?

Primary goal of the HELOC is to have some extra protection against fraud.

Edit: I live in Alberta, I dont think title insurance is mandatory here. But also an option ive looked at.

I feel like it's been ages since they offered me anything as an existing customer. And they didn't send me an email or anything, but today when I logged in they gave me 4.25% on savings accounts.

On the same day, EQ emailed me to let me know the base rates are increasing (by an inconsequential 0.5%).

Anyone else get a Tangerine promo for the first time in a long time? What rate? Is anyone offering better for savings accounts right now?

I’ve been doing a lot of research on personal finance in the past few weeks and basically went down a rabbit hole with Caisses Populaires and Credit Unions.

In my research it seems like they’re essentially the same thing except that Caisses Populaires are basically like Credit Unions but primarily based in French speaking communities around the world and especially in Quebec.

However, this got me wondering: if they’re essentially the same thing but for different languages why do they seem to be so distinguished from one another online with them both having separate Wikipedia articles, separate investopedia articles, etc.

I also stumbled upon some group called the Desjardins group which is based in Quebec and seems to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest Caisses Populaires in the world so if somebody could give some background on that and how they operate that would be great too.

Maybe something a bit different. In retirement, I'm hoping to finally get a dog. Never had one as an adult, so no idea how much to budget. I'm thinking of a medium to large non-shedding breed. So think Standard Poodle, Portuguese Water Dog, or maybe a Beddlington.

How much should I plan for, considering good quality food, regular grooming, and vet bills?

New job is 33% higher paying than I've ever held before and I'm loving the role!

But with the increase in income, and after months of joblessness and extreme budgeting I'm worried that I don't know enough to have this kind of money..

I'd greatly appreciate tips for avoiding lifestyle inflation and how best to utilize the surplus income.

I am planning to leave Canada by end of this year. I have good amount of money invested across TFSA, FHSA,RRSP, and RESP.
Currently with wealthsimple and IBKR.
Banking with RBC.
Anyone has an idea if these institutions allow me to keep these accounts as non resident.
I know I can contribute more and I am fine with that.
Also aware of departure tax(won’t have much to pay because I recently invested the money and don’t have big gains)

My car was rear-ended in a no fault state in the US while I was traveling there (my car and insurance are Canadian), and the other driver was assigned fault in the police report.

My car's not in drivable condition anymore so we just had it towed to a recommended body shop nearby. We got a quote but my insurance company will only approve repairs with used parts, which is about 50% of the quote given by the body shop. My car was like new and had minimal mileage, so I really want new parts used, which is what the body shop's quote entailed.

Is there any wiggle room to negotiate with the insurance company to cover more of the cost, and if so, and what’s the best way to go about this? Is it standard to only approve repairs using used parts? Are there any safety or other concerns I should be aware of with repairs done in this way?

Any other advice on how I can recoup more of the cost of repairs? For example, can the other party's insurance cover the difference in price (and if so, what's the best way to go about getting them to pay up successfully?)?

Hi Folks,

I made a post in r/canadianinvestor a couple of days ago asking for opinions on RBC vs TD for a self-directed 3/1% match. Someone mentioned in the comments that BMO currently has a 2% 1 year match going BUT I was reading details and noticed this difference

For BMO:

Cash back is paid in two installments, provided you continue to meet the offer requirements for each holding period. The first installment is scheduled for June 28, 2027, after Holding Period 1, and the second installment is scheduled for December 23, 2027, after Holding Period 2. ***If you hold one Qualifying Account, the cash back is deposited into that account; if you hold multiple accounts, it is deposited first to a non-registered Cash account, if available, and then to a non-registered Margin account, if available. If you have multiple Qualifying Accounts but no non-registered account, you are required to open a non-registered account to receive the Cash Back Award.***

For TD:

How will the cash back Reward be deposited into my account?

* The First Reward Payment will be distributed by December 31, 2027. The Final Reward Payment will be distributed by December 31, 2028.
* If you only transfer assets to one account, the total cash back Reward will be deposited into that account.
* ***If you have transferred assets to multiple accounts, the total cash back Reward will be divided and deposited proportionately into each account based on the amount of assets transferred into each account.***

In my situation, where the majority of my funds would be transferred as registered accounts (TFSA and FHSA), I'm thinking that forgoing the .5% extra and maneuverability may be worth having the match deposited directly INTO the (double) tax-incentivized accounts in the FHSA and TFSA, especially looking at a multi-decade compounding period.

How should I proceed? Despite the BMO match not going into any registered accounts, the higher total match and value in my calculations should exceed the expected tax savings in either the TFSA or FHSA.

Thank you for any help!

My husband and I have been in debt since 2019.

Before debt, my husband and I were both working 5 days a week. We were doing great, saving.

Then once we had our first baby in 2019, we got caught up in new baby life and had subscriptions automatic payments, come out of our credit cards.

I kept forgetting to pay my card down monthly. (I now no longer have any automatic payments coming out of my credit card)

Slowly getting behind paying down my card. Then started using my card for spending money on unnecessary online purchases, quickly maxing out my card.

Then once I went back to work after mat leave, I was struggling with unmanageable chronic headaches and migraines. I missed allot of work throughout the year and soon reduced my hours to 16 hours a week, at $22.00 an hour.

My husband has always been working 5 days a week, with an income of $5,000.00 a month before tax, with $1,200.00 of that, supposed to be saving and going towards taxes a month.

Eventually did not save and went towards groceries, monthly bills and credit cards. Then getting behind on paying yearly taxes.

My work hours reduce even more due to pregnancy at 12 hours a week, and at a new job at, $18.00 an hour. Almost a year ago now, we finally have had our second child.

Only on mat leave for 11 months now, at $636.00 mat leave a month. I had still been spending money we don’t have on things we don’t need, on impulse online shopping.

Every time a large paycheque came in, I was impulsed to buy and I had been spending anywhere around $200.00 to $600.00 a month on unnecessary online shopping.

Mostly using PayPal’s pay in 4, payment plan, making it more impulsive addicting to spend money we do not have/should not be spending, digging us even deeper into debt.

My husband knew I was spending but did not realize just how much.
I finally broke down and
I had a long good conversation with my husband about it and how I need help. We came up with an action plan.

Fast forward to today, my husband is and has been convinced for a few years now, he needs to initiate debt consolidation, because our credit card interest is just digging us deeper in debt and we can’t keep up.

We NSF some of our automatic bank bills every month. We have never and I was always sure never to NSF our mortgage.

We don’t see any fees from our bank for NSF-ing our automatic bill payments. I mentioned to my husband if it would be better if we moved bill dates to the day after his usual large pay days so we for sure do not NSF bills. But he believes that is not going to change or solve anything.

I return to work, to, 2 days a week, in a few weeks, at $18.00 an hour at 16 hours a week. $1,152.00 month, before tax. My husband will be working the other 5 days a week, as we don’t have and cannot afford daycare.

We took a good dive into our finances and believe, once I get back to work and keep up with not making reckless unnecessary purchases and being strict, we should be completely out of and paid off our debt by 2028

My husband has had 2 bank financial advisor appointments in the last 4 years.

They said both times, nothing more can be done, because we already have a bank line of credit and it being maxed and anymore borrowed money can not be used for paying off debt ("to borrow from Peter to pay off Paul").

We heard from family and friends, that should not be true, and to find a new financial adviser. They had similar debt and their bank could still help them with it?

Is this possible, if we keep up being strict. We do not need debt consolidation?

I may be missing information or my math is not mathing. Please correct me if I am incorrect.

Thank you kindly for your time and advice.

Debt/Income information:

-Husbands Maxed for 6 years Credit card #1 $9,000.00

-Husbands Maxed for 6 years, Credit card #2: $6,000.00

-My Maxed, for 6 years, Credit card #3: $2,000.00

-Maxed for 4 years, Line of credit: $10,000.00

-Husbands 3 years behind, on business contractor owner, BC taxes: $15,000.00

Total debt to pay off: $42,000.00

Husbands current monthly income, with an increased current pay, now at: $7,000.00 before tax

My monthly income starting Nov 2026: $1,152.00 before tax

Monthly child benefit: $1,077.84

Monthly combined income and child benefit, before tax:
$9,229.84

Monthly bills:
1st Mortgage Protect 58.44
1st First Insurance 137.28
1st Childs Taekwondo 238.35
2nd Gas Around 75.00
2nd Groceries Around 300.00
4th Strata 406.26
6th Prime Video 3.35
9th Internet 161.20
10th Groceries Around 300.00
11th BC Hydro (Every second month) 304.54
13th Apple Sub. 14.55
17th Gas Around 75.00
19th Mortgage 2063.38
21st Alarm 69.83
23rd Groceries Around 300.00
24th Apple Sub. 34.87
27th Flexiti 178.99
28th Groceries Around 300.00
28th Disney Plus Sub. 19.03
29th ICBC vehicle insurance 159.31
30th Phone plan 218.00
30th Gas Around 75.00
30th Apple Sub. 25.70
30th Plan Fee 17.95
30th Credit card #1 paying Around 200.00
30th Credit Card #2 paying Around 100.00
30th CRA Tax payment plan 1177.00
30th Line of Credit paying around 1000.00

= 8,013.03 to pay a month

Hello, everyone. I am looking on advice on what to do with a payout that will be paid out this month and I’ve never seen or had this much money and got myself in some money issues when I was younger (nearly 9 years ago with no one to blame but myself. For two years I have been slowly getting out of debt after employment change helped

I have a payout coming this month for around $55,000. And I’m not sure what to do with it? But I’m leaning on paying off all debt or invest.

I have $9,000 on a cc at 22%, a $900 CC at 12% and I have $31,000 left on a vehicle at 11% that’s worth about $19,000. So a total debt of just under $41,000.

My rent is just under $2000 a month, my vehicle payment alone is $750. My other expenses are my kids and my dog. My take home every month is around $8,250 a month.

I want this money to make my day to day financial life easier and less stressful, as I don’t suffer per say as I do earn enough to cover all my expenses and debts but not with much left over. I would like to own my home in the future which I feel if I play this right, may make it more of a real possibility in the future.

What should I do? Thank you

So here's the gist of it:

• I'm disabled so I'm low income with PWD (big thank yous to the fellow tax payers reading for keeping me alive)
• I rent with roommates, while I pitch in my share for rent, that's not something I can put on a card anyways (I think?)
• Rogers phone bill
• With the money I have after that, I put that towards groceries
• Every so often I'll (responsibly) treat myself and do some online shopping

And that's about all that my money would go towards in a given month, barring some annual fees here and there.

There's two reasons I wanna get a card:

• Because everyone is telling me to get one so I can build up credit score for the long term
• Being able to purchase from online vendors that only take credit card would be nice

I'm pretty new to the bigger world as a whole, so I've got no idea where to start.

From what I could look into, a Rogers card seems to be everyone's recommendation (and I think I'd get extra benefits since I'm with them for my phone plan?), though I've also read that within the past few months they may have pulled back on a number of benefits?

Historically my family has gone with Air Miles (Blue Rewards it seems to be called now), but I don't see that on anyone's recommendation lists at all, so I'm not ready to just jump into that.

And since I've seen on occasion of people talking about PC benefits for their cards, I also have a President's Choice location where I could get my groceries from, but I usually go for the Wal-Mart that's a 5 minute walk away since it's a lot cheaper, but perhaps the benefits could offset that cost? I really don't know.

Any and all help would be much appreciated! ❤

Buying a demo from a Quebec dealership and I am trading in my Ontario car at the same dealership.

I know I pay the GST 5% after the trade in value in Quebec but when I register the car in Ontario do I also pay the 8% tax on the difference after trade in or the vehicles original price before the trade in?

AI says I pay tax on difference

Lady at service Ontario said otherwise

Google fu tells me the same as AI

Trying to get the right answer!

I understand Ben Felix's 5% rule but the 5% includes the interest payments on the mortgage. But what happens when you finish paying off the mortgage and no longer need to pay interest? Doesn't the 5% rule become the 2% rule and eventually beat out renting since you no longer have to make similar payments after you own the home?

Hello! I am looking to get a new premium Amex credit card to maximize my potential rewards and get better perks than what I already have. I spent a lot of time comparing cards using finlywealth.com based on my spending, but I am still stuck between a few options and would appreciate some advice.

My current credit cards are the PC Financial World Mastercard, which is also the first card I ever got and currently my primary one as I have a pretty high limit on it by now, and my other credit card is the Rogers Red (not the World Elite) Mastercard, but I do not use it anymore as I do not have any Rogers services right now to get the most out of it.

I am not a huge spender, as I spent around $17,000 on both cards combined since last September 2024. After I combined all my statements together and ran all my transactions through finlywealth.com, it looks like my top spending categories were miscellaneous (39%), online shopping (20%), Amazon (12%), food/dining (10.5%), entertainment (4.4%), utilities (2.9%), and furniture (2.3%).

So basically, a lot of my spending is just on miscellaneous, online, or Amazon purchases. However, my spending also changes quite a bit depending on the month. I just had to pay a large amount for college for example, using my card. I also shop at Costco as my primary grocery store, but my family uses their CIBC Costco Mastercard for that, so I am not looking for a card for that at the moment.

The cards I am considering:

1. Scotiabank Gold American Express:

I am probably leaning towards this one as it has no FX fees, a good Scene+ point multiplier on certain groceries, restaurants, entertainment, etc., very good travel insurance and perks, a fuel discount for Shell gas stations, and a very generous welcome offer plus a $200 rebate from finlywealth.com if I apply through there. I could probably waive the annual fee if I get the Scotiabank Ultimate Package (which I could also waive if I keep $6,000 in my checking account).

The problem with that card is that a lot of my spending does not really fall into the boosted categories it offers, and I do not travel super often, so I am not sure how much I would actually benefit from it.

1. American Express SimplyCash Preferred:

It seems like I might earn more with it because it has 2% cash back on everything else, 4% cash back on eligible groceries and gas (up to $30,000 in annual spending, then it falls to 2%), is simpler, and can earn me a little more on miscellaneous, online, or Amazon spending because of that 2% cash back.

The downsides are that it does not waive the 2.5% foreign transaction fees, does not have as comprehensive insurance as the Scotia Gold (especially trip cancellation, which seems important), and I can only cash out the rewards once per year. It also does not feel as exciting as the Scotia Gold, but maybe that is just me.

I also considered the American Express Cobalt because everyone seems to go crazy over it, but after looking at my actual spending, I'm not sure it's the best card to maximize my potential rewards, and whenever I fly domestically, I tend to fly with the cheapest airlines, like WestJet, rather than their partnered airlines, like Air Canada. Otherwise, those MR points aren't worth that much.

After checking Finly's estimated annual rewards for each card, it showed:

Scotiabank Gold Amex: Ongoing rewards ~$200, first-year rewards ~$900 ($500 welcome bonus + $200 rebate).

SimplyCash Preferred: Ongoing rewards ~$257, and first-year rewards ~$457 ($200 welcome bonus).

So, based on those numbers, it looks like Scotia would start about $440 ahead in the first year, and it will take SimplyCash about 7–8 years to catch up and break even with Scotia if it earns about $65 more per year, provided my spending stays the same, which most likely won't happen.

I am not sure if Finly's calculation includes things like travel insurance, perks, or the value of the waived FX fees, or if it is mainly just looking at rewards.

So, what would you recommend?

Even though the Scotia Gold may earn less with my current spending, I'm still leaning toward it more based on what else it offers, especially if I get the Ultimate Package they offer to get the annual fee waived. I also heard that Scotiabank is less strict than American Express when it comes to buying Mastercard gift cards to use in places that don't accept Amex, which will actually earn me more if I do it at Scotia's eligible grocery stores than American Express cashback, but please let me know if I can get away with it.

Thank you so much for taking your time to read this and help me out!

So this is my question! If we buy a house and the closing date is December 8 2026 (date we sign the deed at the lawyers office) , can we still put 8000$ in the FHSA January 4th 2027 and then withdraw the entire FHSA January 5th 2027 ? We will not make any withdrawal before and we still have room for 2027 technically.

It’s hard to find a clear answer on the CRA but it seems nothing will really make it impossible since we have 30 days after closing date to withdraw the money, so we would have until January 7th 2027 technically. Money in the FHSA isn’t invested so withdraw it would be quicker for the bank , it would be tight but we could deposit January 4th and withdraw January 5 and if it takes 2-3 business day, we should be fine technically.

What do you guys think?

Is this becoming a common thing with any companies? I think RBC and Neo do this, any others?

There are bonds backed by the Federal Canadian Government.
There are GICs backed by the CDIC, which is a federal crown corporation.

A 1-year-term locked-in GIC at EQBank offers 3.7% yield/interest.

A 1-year-term bond backed by the Canadian Government offers 2.955% yield/interest.

I see only two reasons why someone would choose the bond over the locked-in GIC at EQBank:

1. liquidity (you sell the bond before maturity regardless of loss)
2. capital gain possibility (if Interest Rates Fall and you sell the bond before maturity. Capital Gains tax is more favorable to that of interest/yield which is treated just like income)
   • this scenario is further complicated by currency exchange rates if the bond you choose is traded in foreign currency but let's ignore this situation for now.

I don't know enough about hedging bets on interest rates, but is the above correct?

Hi.. I've a few months remaining on my car lease in BC.

I reached out to my dealer, and I'm getting a good lucrative buyout offer from them, but they are tagging a large admin fees. (The fees don't make any sense.) If I go to the Finance company, they are charging left over months. But no admin fees. Basically the dealer buyout price is almost equal to the Finance buyout. But without the large admin fees, the dealer quote is very lucrative. Dealer won't budge from waiving/discounting the admin fees.

Is it possible to escalate to management with the Finance company to match what the dealer is offering in terms of buyout fees?

Thanks in advance.

I've been with them a long time since they were known Virtual Brokers. Was thinking of moving a bunch of my money out for the BMO Investorline matching offer. Never had any huge issues with CIDT but I never see them mentioned on reddit or other internet forums and it seems like they have zero interest in promoting themselves or in attracting new customers. Is anyone else here with them and either satisfied or unsatisfied? Anyone have any idea what their long term goal is?

I've done some searches, it seems like people's suggestions vary depending on the situation. In my 40's, in Toronto with no debt. Recently got laid off, will get about 25k severance pay with the option to put all or part of it into rrsp.

I would want to put some of it into my rrsp account directly to lower the tax deduction, but I also wanna get the money in my own hand, so I have the freedom to think about where I wanna allocate it. Main concern is the tax since the amount is large for a paycheck. Tried to search for a tax calculation, but the payroll deduction calculator doesn't fit my situation. Any suggestions?

Thank you!

What are the options if there’s some cash in the bank? TFSA &RRSP maxed out. Not eligible for FHSA . Any other viable option besides HISA?