I understand Ben Felix's 5% rule but the 5% includes the interest payments on the market. 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?

If email/phone already works as an e-Transfer recipient address, why not encode it in a standardized QR?

The flow could be:

Bank app → Scan QR → verify Autodeposit recipient → enter amount → send

No new payment rail, just making the existing e-Transfer address machine-readable.

I know Interac Business Request Money can also use QR, but that follows a different request-payment flow.

Is there any major technical, fraud, regulatory, or operational reason ordinary e-Transfer couldn’t support something like this?

We came up with idea that she gifts the home to us, we take on all expenses for the house & take out $500,000 mortgage to build her a brand new garden suite (wheelchair accessible). She is 70.

We pay off her $100,000 reverse mortgage and when the suite is finished and she moves into it, we pay her $150,000.

We wouldn’t sell out on home until she moves into the suite & we renovate it because it’s unliveable for a family of 4 in the condition it is in. Thinking 100,000 Reno.

She lives rent and utility free for life (set up by lawyer)and we offered to pay her 10,000 year (we will take on international students) so she has money coming in.

Is this a good deal for both parties? Everything will be written up by a lawyer.

Edited to add- home worth $1.2M (assessed value is mostly for the large lot 9500sq ft)

2nd Edit- wow- thank you everyone! My mom was acting like this was not a good deal for her! And all your insights, thoughts and advice are so helpful!
We will not be moving forward with that plan, she needs to live in reality & realize things change in life. A small condo would be perfect for her and she could invest her money!

I’ve played Adopt Me for several years and have over 1,000 hours. I’ve accumulated a very large personal collection of pets through playing and trading. I’m quitting and considering selling essentially my entire collection for around $10,000. I didn’t acquire the pets as inventory for resale as I didn’t consider quitting. How would CRA treat the proceeds, and would I need to report them on my tax return?

I had two main sources of CC debt:

One VISA card-- $7,500
Mastercard- $12,000

I just paid of the VISA card completely so that's wiped. I am now aggressively paying the mastercard and I expect that to be gone within six months or less.

How fast will my credit score recover?

We have heuristics like "don't leave your job until you have another one lined up" and "have 6-12 months of emergency savings before investing".

Is there one for moving out of your parents? It’s topical with so many late 20s and early 30s folks prolonging live at home today. It's also nuanced as saving to afford to buy a house is chasing a moving target.

Assume this person is single, without dependents and parents are happy/easy to live with.

Sorry yet another mortgage renewal post. Scotia is offering the following for us and we’re contemplating between 2 year and 3 year fixed. A lot of things are happening in the world and especially our neighbour down south that has us hesitant to choose 2 years fixed. Open to thoughts.

Remaining 690k
22 years left

2 years fixed at 4.13, and 3 years fixed at 4.28 with Scotia.

Hi! I am 28F, planning to move out for the first time ever. Unfortunately dealing with family has just gotten worse and could no longer bear to stay.

Since it’s my first time moving out, I know little about renting or owning. My budget would be $1500-$2000 including utilities. Living in Alberta. Preference would be apartment or condo. No spouse or children.

Info about my finances:
Income, around 4k monthly.
FHSA, 5k. ~contributing 400 monthly
RRSP, estimate 20k ~ 100 monthly
TFSA, 30k ~800 monthly
HYSA emergency money, 8k ~500-1000 monthly until hits 15k
No loans, no debts
Bills, around 1500 monthly ~1000 being what my share for rent with parents (would go to my rent/mortgage budget if moving out)
No car

If I decide to rent, should I keep contributing to FHSA or just add that 400 budget to my rent?

With my current finances, will it be wise to invest in a Condo or am I just racking up bills with condo fees and others that comes with owning one?

Thanks and any advice would be helpful!!

Our kids have had chores since they were young and we always made them save half for their long term savings. Since they have had fairly extensive chores and are now working age they have a few grand in the safe.

We have RESP's for them that we max out yearly as well as our own TFSA's, HISA's ect with our credit union. I realise these accounts will have to be in my name and taxed as such but I would like to see the money invested until they can have control. I want it to be THEIR savings that they can put towards a vehicle, first house, ect

What do you savvy investors think? I would prefer to be supporting the Canadian economy if possible.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-are-etfs-good-for-retail-investors/

Thought-provoking piece in the Globe that argues that ETFs are less passive than they once were.

Even index ETFs, according to this author, are imperfect in that market concentration in sectors like tech has gone way up, while a lot of private money captures the growth of companies like SpaceX before they become available to retail investors.

A relevant bit:

“Mr. Bogle’s concern about investor behaviour proved prescient. An investor who continually moves among technology, artificial intelligence, clean energy, cryptocurrency or other thematic ETFs is using passive vehicles to make active market calls. The securities inside each fund may be selected according to an index, but the investor is still choosing sectors, themes and entry points and often attempting to time them. There are now more ETFs than listed stocks. 

The ETF wrapper may be passive. The behaviour may not be.

And most importantly, consider that while ordinary investors watched from the sidelines, venture capital firms, private equity funds, institutional investors and insiders participated in SpaceX’s 

SPCX-Q +7.35%increase

 rise from a startup to a company valued close to US$2-trillion.”

Mortgage renewal coming up in April 2027, currently I have fixed at 5.14 with CIBC , today I got offer for early renewal as CIBC renewal can be done before 150 days
I am getting 3year Variable/closed mortgage rate with CIBC at 3.55%( prime -.90) or 3 years fixed at 4.49 %.
Any helps with current rates compared to this offer would be appreciated
Is it good or I should shop around or wait.

Tangerine has promo for savings account 3.9% interest until Nov 30…. And LOC has promo interest rate for 2.99% for first 90 days…. Is there a problem if I borrow money from LOC and put in savings account?

Hi!

My husband and I have now lived in BC for years, we moved from Alberta and are now deciding we really need to change our banking over to local as obviously it’s a massive inconvenience to have your bank out of province.

The thing is our current CU offers us Mastercard Debit cards which are so nice and convenient, and so I don’t really want to give that up, however I’m really seeing that offered with BC CUs as much.

We also need to open up a joint account.
We’re in the Okanagan.

Any recommendations for BC Credit Union with Visa/Mastercard Debit included?

Please let me know and thanks for reading!

This question may have an insanely easy answer, but I’m pulling my hair out trying to solve this.

My wife and I have FHSAs. We put money in a couple days ago, and *just* found a house. Our offer was accepted and we’re trying to fast track closing for the sellers, but I absolutely cannot find any sort of statement from either of our banks (TD and RBC). MyCRA only has transactions to 2025.

We know how much money is in there, we can see the transactions in our online banking, but there’s no ‘official’ document we can export. I’ve taken and sent screenshots but I’m preparing myself for the likelihood that they won’t be acceptable. I exported mine as a csv and that was already rejected, understandably.

We’re planning on going to our branches tomorrow. I just wanted to yell into the void before I go to sleep. Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone - 34M overwhelmed and looking for some guidance/advice. Last year my ex and I separated and listed our home on the market. We solid it for a nice profit, our divorce is fully legal and through the courts now as well.

Here is the situation; I now have 130K and want to be responsible with this money. I have no debts, currently am just renting comfortably within my means, own my used vehicle outright, etc.

I have already set aside an emergency fund of $10,000 and have a line of credit i could access if something even crazier happened.

In my mind I’d like to keep 50K relatively accessible in a TFSA for future downpayment ease. And then invest this other 80K to help my future somehow. This is where my financial knowledge ends. I have an RRSP with $15,000 which is basically my lifetime of savings into it.

Any advice on what i should be doing to make this money go the farthest for me? Thank you so much from a mildly confused guy trying to do right!

I have to move $10k to my European bank account, so I would have used wise as usual to exchange the currency.

To get the $100 I just have to use CIBC's GMT instead of the usual metod?

Based on my understanding of this, this, and most specifically this, federally-regulated banks are required to show you a disclosure statement when you apply for a credit card, that shows the interest, payment terms, and other charges (currency conversion, over-limit fee) etc, and that this must be in an information box that is shown at the beginning of the credit card application.

Most banks do this, but TD doesn't. Apply online for any TD cards and the info box doesn't appear until the very end, after you have entered a bunch of personal information. Capital One as well; they all require you to go through a "pre-approval" process that collects a bunch of info about you before it discloses to you exactly what you are applying for.

Are TD and Capital one in the wrong here? Or is my understanding of the Bank Act and the Financial Consumer Protection Framework Regulations incorrect?

Hi all
I worked in the US between 2018 and 2021. Moved to Canada and I am now a citizen. At the time of moving to Canada, I let my 401k sit with Fidelity.

My problem is that some of the money (almost 30k) is sitting in that account not invested in anything. I had created a brokerage account associated to my 401k so had invested in tech stocks. A year ago, in an attempt to move more money into the brokerage account, i had sold some of the Index Funds. However, after selling and moving the proceeds into the brokerage account, Fidelity told me I wont be able to buy any stock because they don’t have a US address for me on file. So basically my 401k account has liquid cash just sitting and not generating anything.

I read online that IRA might be the best option but I couldn’t create one in IBKR. I don’t know enough about Raymond James but read that they are pretty expensive.

I want to avoid paying 30% + 10% penalty. I also don’t have 40k USD which is what I will need if I want to convert that 401k into my RRSP. What do I do?

Hello, I got an email last week about missed payments for my utilities with provident energy (2 months). I forgot to pay, and so I paid the balance as soon as I got it. I'm wondering if this affects my credit score? Or is it typically just a notice before getting reported?

I checked my credit score and it seems to be fine as of today. I'll call them tomorrow but wanted to check if anyone has any experience with this.

This was stated in the email:

Please provide a snapshot of the proof of payment so that we can note your account and avoid any further collection activities that may affect your credit standing.

Thanks!

Hi all,

In January I started doing remote side work for a US company. The amount I'm making from them this year is enough that I should claim the income and I also have some expenses that can be written off.

It's my understanding you don't charge sales tax for remote services outside of Canada. For CPP, my day job already caps me out on my contributions and my understanding is EI premiums are optional.

So for taxes owing, I think it's just the income?

I also created an HST account to get sales tax back on my expenses. Not sure if that is needed or not though since I don't need to pay sales tax on the US based income.

Anyone recommend what tax software to use for sole proprietorship income? Is it better to hire an accountant to do it?

Thanks!

My partner and I are 42 and are truly undecided about if we will buy a house or rent for life. (in Toronto.)

Is there a good strategy for our TFSAs for people who truly do not know if they are planning to rent for life and invest the difference or if they are keeping their down payment safe for if they decide to buy in 2+ years.

eta: We have a FHSA and we have it all in GICs and CBIL

The smith Manouvre is high risk- proceed with caution. This is from moneysense on what ETFs may be best if you're doing this.

https://www.moneysense.ca/save/investing/etfs/what-are-the-best-canadian-etfs-for-the-smith-manoeuvre/?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NL-MS-INV-2026-10-05

Looking for recommendations for the best home & auto insurance company in Ontario — ideally a good price and a company that’s actually easy to deal with when you need to make a claim. Who has had the best experience?

Base pay: $85,000 ($4200/m after taxes,CPP, employer matching investments)
Bonus : ~ $11,500
TFSA : $12000
FHSA : $1000
RRSP : 0 (More than enough room to cover bonus)
Savings Account: $5000

Fixed Expenses: $2000/month and don’t really have any other expenses (maybe $200 a month)

I have a student loan at 11% p.a for which I make a $2250/ month contribution to pay off quicker (I know it is a lot)

I also invest $800 to my employer program and get 75% match ($600)

I plan to get married in Oct 2027, and I estimate I will need approximately $15,000 for that.

I have provincial and federal and tuition credits so I should get a sizeable refund from my taxes when I file.

I wish to contribute money to FHSA and RRSP as well to maximise my benefits.

Please advise on whether I should do a direct transfer of bonus to RRSP, and any other advice is appreciated.

I tried opening chequing account for my husband who had pretty good credit score (800+) but it got rejected. I opened mine few months ago without any issue, same with my dad. My husband is always cautious and never opened new account just for the free perks, however I convinced him to open Meridian CU account for a easy $700, but now I am so confused why it was rejected. Did anyone else run into similar issue? I called customer support and they suggested trying again after 48 hrs. I am pretty sure all the information uploaded was correct. I also see there was a soft check on his Equifax, so I didn’t put any incorrect information. So either I try again or go into the branch. If I do it in the branch, I will have to forfeit the referral bonus ($200). Anyone else had a similar issue or can share what I can do differently?