The month of March is fast approaching, but there’s still time to contribute to your RRSPs. Hop to it now if you want to bulk up your retirement savings and offset the hit from the tax man. 1. Remember deadlines are deadlines. March 1, 2017, is the deadline for contributionsContinue Reading
It has been an interesting year for Canada’s REITs. The early part of the year was marked by weakness in Alberta, especially the office market. Demand dried up as many oil companies either went bankrupt or downsized. The rest of the year was dominated by interest rates. First rates crashed with negativeContinue Reading
Many investors I spoke to at a three-day investment conference last week extolled the virtues of the dividend stocks they owned. These investors loved how dividend-paying companies seem to just to keep going up, and the dividend money just keeps rolling in. “It almost seems like a scam,” one investorContinue Reading
Planning for retirement can be overwhelming. It requires thinking about long-term goals and it forces consideration of a more sensitive subject — one’s own mortality. An RBC study reports that only 52% of Canadian boomers actually put a plan on paper despite understanding its importance. However, they worry about it.Continue Reading
Do you know how much money you’re earning for the amount of time you work? Of course you know that your salary is “x” amount of dollars and your typical work week might be 35 to 40 hours. However, there’s a real trade-off in time, energy and money that’s directlyContinue Reading
Canadians continued to rack up debt in the second quarter of the year as they took advantage of low interest rates, Statistics Canada said Tuesday. The ratio of credit market debt to personal disposable income crept to 148.7 per cent in the July-September period, topping the old record of 147.3Continue Reading
The average family debt-to-income ratio in Canada has now hit a record 150 per cent, the Vanier Institute of the Family said Thursday. That means for every $1,000 in after-tax income, Canadian families owe $1,500, the institute said, while releasing its 12th annual assessment of Canadian family finances. It foundContinue Reading
A Press release by Fraser Institute showed the total tax bill of the average Canadian family has increased by 1,624 per cent since 1961, while expenditures on housing increased by 1,198 per cent, food by 559 per cent and clothing by 526 per cent from 1961 to 2009. The reportContinue Reading
There are a few books that are beloved and can be a bit dangerous to review. YMOYL is the bible to a number of people, so I’ll start with saying that I think there’s a lot of good stuff in there, it’s a solid book and just about everyone shouldContinue Reading
I’m a feminist (of the Cathy Young brand of equality feminism, not the cuckoo-for-coco-puffs Andrea Dworkin or difference feminism brands of feminism). Sometimes I’ve grappled with the best way to divide expenses within a romantic relationship. As an ideal, splitting the costs evenly seems to make sense, but I’m certainlyContinue Reading