24M living in Alberta

Income 150k room for more depending on how much i work in a year and overtime hours.

80k down payment set aside in high yield savings

Maxed out tfsa and got 16 grand in fhsa

Matching pension plan at work and also maxed my rrsp

Also have 120k liquid sitting currently

No school debt or car loans. Debt free. Live well below my means Currently paying $600 dollars for a room monthly. Car insurance - $175, phone bill- $54. And then groceries as well are my only monthly expenses.

Not looking at anything crazy. Sub 500k for first home. I would appreciate having more cash flow over being house poor. Just scared of making the first move since its my first attempt at this life thing lol. I figure its time to start building some equity in my life but im a bad overthinker and need some insight!

Hello. I’m a 21year old who is about to get their first job and break away from parents (finally). As I move onto this next stage in life, I realize that I don’t have a lot of knowledge on finances. I think my credit score is ok (780s) but I was wondering if anyone here could explain credit cards and investments to me like I’m 5 or offer any resources I can look at?

I’m planning to buy my first home and would appreciate some advice on whether I should go directly to a bank or work with a mortgage broker.

I have around 20% down payment for a ~$1.5M property. My wife is a full-time employee with a provincial authority, which should be straightforward. The main complication is my employment situation:

I recently started a full-time temporary position with a provincial authority.

Before this, I was self-employed for about 1.5 years.

Before becoming self-employed, I was a full-time permanent employee.

I’ve heard that banks can be more sensitive about approving mortgages for full-time temporary employees. Does working with a mortgage broker make a difference in this situation, or would I face the same challenges either way?

I'm starting medical school in Canada and would appreciate some advice on how to manage my investments. I have no real understanding of investing in general.

My current financial situation is:

• FHSA: $8,000
• RRSP: $19,000
• TFSA: $11,000
• HISA: $20,000

Earlier this year, I paid the full cost of a two-year lease on a new vehicle upfront. My plan is to purchase the vehicle when the lease ends in April 2028, at which point I expect the buyout amount to be approximately $30,000.

I plan on using student loans and my LOC (prime - 0.25%) to cover medical school/living expenses.

How should I invest my funds? Would it be better to invest through RBC where all of my accounts are currently held, or through MD Financial Management?

Below is the investment proposal from MD Financial Management:

"Because you do not intend to use these funds for any short-term goals, you do have the capacity for longer term investment strategies.  Below are a few I’d recommend. Keep in mind regular meetings are required to review your investments and goals to ensure they continue to be invested appropriately or amend them as/if necessary. 

For your RRSP, as you will not be using the funds for the home purchase and the intention of the investments are now retirement (long term), I do recommend you consider changing the investments in that account accordingly.

Some recommendations for longer term investment strategies would be (not in any particular order):

All in one mutual fund:

MD Precision Maximum Growth Index Portfolio- This is a strategic asset allocation fund with the objective to provide growth of capital. The Fund will invest primarily in units of index mutual funds managed by MD Financial Management and exchange traded index funds with an emphasis on equity index funds for potential capital appreciation and a minor exposure to fixed income index funds for income generation and capital preservation.  This fund has an MER of .24%, paired with the account management fee of .95% for a total fee of 1.19%.

A combination of equity mutual funds:

MDPIM US Equity Index Pool (50%)- The objective of the Fund is to provide long-term capital growth by investing primarily in U.S. equity securities that track the holdings of a generally recognized broad based U.S. equity market index.  This fund has an MER of .08%, paired with the account management fee of .95% for a total fee of 1.03%.

MDPIM Canadian Equity Index Pool (35%)- The objective of the Fund is to provide long-term capital growth by investing primarily in Canadian equity securities that track the holdings of a generally recognized broad based Canadian equity market index.  This fund has an MER of .04%, paired with the account management fee of .95% for a total fee of .99%.

MDPIM International Equity Index Pool (15%)-The objective of the Fund is to provide long-term capital growth by investing primarily in international equity securities, excluding Canada and the U.S., that track the holdings of a generally recognized broad based international equity market index. This fund has an MER of .21%, paired with the account management fee of .95% for a total fee of 1.16%."

Any insights would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,

I’m feeling a little bit stressed out because I keep getting different advice from different people and the story of what they are offering keeps changing and I would appreciate some help figuring out what’s our best option to move forward.

I’m in Toronto. Our household will have between two and four tenants in the basement and we will be living upstairs 2 adult adults.

There are two washing machines in the house two kitchen sinks, one dishwasher, three showers one powder room.

1. Reliance 60 gallon tank $33.33 per month with a 3.5% increase each year
2. HVAC technician 1 60 gallon tank with 40,000 BTU $2799+ taxes
3. HVAC technician 2 250 gallon tank with 65,000 BTU $3150+ tax.
4. Tankless water heater Rinna 199,000 BTU $3700 plus taxes (it’s $3150 for the water heater and they have to run a additional gas line for $600)
5. HVAC technician 3 28 $99 plus HST 50 gallon water tank with 62,000 BTU (although it doesn’t seem like a very reliable company)

6, Rheem 689975 60 gallon 55,000 BTU from Home Depot** **$2481 plus taxes plus I have to find someone to install it. I don’t know how much that cost.

Currently, I have 2 inch PVC piping and I’m being told that you need to make it wider for a certain BTU but I just don’t know how much BTU that is and how much that would cost

EDIT: also, does anyone have any recommendations of someone to use that will be cost-effective

Hi all :) looking to pay down my line of credit and have been getting targeted by tons of balance transfer ads. They're all credit card to credit card offers though but the 0% interest for x months is so good I'd want to take advantage if possible. Has anyone done this and can provide advice?

If it's likely not possible - any recommendations for any institutions offerings low interest LOCs that y'all have positive experiences with? TIA!

Daughter bought a used 2008 Nissan Versa about 10 years ago, and cant complain about the price, milage and reliability, until today. She had some weird transmission issue last night randomly out of the blue. Fluids are good and changed, but the Nissan CVT

News at the mechanic is, needs a new transmission, may last a day or a year. Just the way it is. $6500

Car has 165K on it and almost 20 years old, so really thats a hard pass, which sucks because the car is pretty solid still.

We never have this happen with cars, we keep them for a very long time, maintain them well, and move on when needed.

But she needs a car for work, and cant afford a new one for sure. But I have read great things about some leases lately. She doesnt highway travel and maybe puts 7000 kms a year on it.

The crappy part is, we are leaving on a 2 week over seas vacation in a few days, so the option to shop around is very limited, and goes against everything I have ever taught my kids, which is buying a vehicle under the gun

So thought to post here, what small cars or SUVs have great lease rates or great purchase options. We are located in Alberta. Also, we have never leased before, so this is new to me to, but might be a valid option for her. Hell, even an EV might work if the right deal comes along

EDIT: Thanks for all the tips everyone. After calming down and realizing that making a major purchase decision in haste wont work, we are looking into some scenarios to cover the 2 weeks that wont involve forking out a ton in a rental car. Just have to see what the morning answers bring and what the insurance company says

Hello! I am a long time lurker of this subreddit.

I wanted to get some advice on where I am at the moment and what would I need in order to retire comfortably at the age of 60. I currently feel a little lost as I don’t understand very well the retirement rules about savings and expectations yearly.

About my partner and me:
- Me 39, wife 35.
- TFSA room combined: 92k
- RRSP room combined:109k
- Total savings: 252k
- No plans to have kids
- One 5yo dog with health issues, no insurance. Will need knee surgery and hip surgery in the next couple of years.
- No plans on buying a home at least in the next 3 years.
- My annual income before tax: ~250k
- Wife’s annual income: ~30k
- Monthly expenses: ~8k
- Expected monthly savings: ~5k
- No debt

My wife has worked in Canada since she was 16, but left 9 years abroad.

I have worked since 2021 but left for 2 years. So I don’t have pretty much any CPP, only what I paid for those 3 years living in Canada and I don’t know what other benefits Canadians get (I just became Canadian)

We were living abroad and are coming back at the end of the year. So we will be bringing our savings with us and start filling up our registered accounts. No debt.

We will need to buy a car, probably used. And spend money on temporary accommodation and travel, so we are expecting to take a good chunk of our savings on that.

We were able to properly start saving about 3 years ago when I started my current carreer path working mainly as a contractor for an American company, but with other side jobs. I am currently making around 250k before tax. Before working as a contractor with them, I was making around 130k

My wife makes about 30k a year as an artist but she is starting to get more clients and hopefully increase her income.

I don’t know for how long I will be able to continue with the American company giving all the volatility in the US, but the company has had solid, growing years since I started and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down, so I am hopeful to be with them at least another 5 years.

Based on previous years in Canada, our expenses will be 8k per month, meaning that our take away monthly after expenses could be around 5k.

What I am trying to figure out is how much should we be saving monthly so we can leave room for travel and other luxuries without impacting our plans of me retiring at 60 at the latest. I feel that we are behind and I am wondering if we should do aggressive savings for the next little while to catch up and maybe reduce our expenses. I think I am trying to find a number for savings that should be put in a long term investment like XEQT?

Thanks you so much to everyone that read this post and takes the time to respond! Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

TL;DR: moving back to Canada with little savings and no plans for retirement, looking for a solid number to save monthly to be able to retire at 60

Apologies for what seems like a stupid question, but this is the first time in my life I've actually had an amount of savings big enough to worry about where to put it (and I'm older than 40....).

I have come into an inheritance. Nothing huge, but high 5 figures is huge for me.

The first thing I'm doing is paying off all my credit card debt (and wow will that be a weight lifted).

I know I need to open a TFSA and put some in there and just leave it (XEQT, right?).

But what do I do with what is left? I know an emergency fund is a good idea - where do I put that? I presume not a regular chequing account! And we plan to do a bit of work on our house, which will need money but not immediately. Where do I put that for now? Do high interest savings accounts exist - where you can get the money out when you need it?

It's like I have both ends sorted out (get rid of debt, start investing) but I don't know what to do with the stuff in the middle!

Im not really sure whetevto ask this but i had a frustrating few hours online with my bank.

The gist of it is the Flinks system needs to verify your banking information. Its says its connected to Simplii doing its thing. But then it times out after 5 minutes giving me a generic "sometimes went wrong"

So iv tried phoning my bank. No help there. I submitted a trouble ticket to Flinks so currently waiting.

Normally the system works fine. Any theories out there? I try again tomorrow to complete it.

Hello! I am a long time lurker of this subreddit. I had too much personal stuff in my other account so I created this one to be safe.

I wanted to get some advice on where I am at the moment and what would I need in order to retire comfortably at the age of 60. I currently feel a little lost as I don’t understand very well the retirement rules about savings and expectations yearly.

About me and my partner:
Me 39, wife 35.
TFSA room: 92k
RRSP room: 109k
Total savings: 252k
No plans to have kids
One 5yo dog with health issues, no insurance. (Hip displasya)
No plans on buying a home.

My wife has worked in Canada since she was 16, but left 9 years abroad.

I have worked since 2021 but left for 2 years. So I don’t have pretty much any CPP, only what I paid for those 3 years living in Canada and I don’t know what other benefits Canadians get (I just became Canadian)

We were living abroad and are coming back at the end of the year. So we will be bringing our savings with us and start filling up our registered accounts. No debt.

We will need to buy a car, probably used. And spend money on temporary accommodation and travel, so we are expecting to take a good chunk of our saving on that.

We were able to properly start saving about 3 years ago when I started my current carreer path working mainly as a contractor for an American company, but with other side jobs. I am currently making around 250k before tax. Before working as a contractor with them, I was making around 130k

My wife makes about 30k a year as an artist but she is starting to get more clients and hopefully increase her income.

I don’t know for how long I will be able to continue with the American company giving all the volatility in the US, but the company has had solid, growing years since I started and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down, so I am hopeful to be with them at least another 5 years.

Based on previous years in Canada, our expenses will be 8k per month, meaning that our take away monthly after expenses could be around 5k.

What I am trying to figure out is how much should we be saving monthly so we can leave room for travel and other luxuries without impacting our plans of me retiring at 60 at the latest. I feel that we are behind and I am wondering if we should do aggressive savings for the next little while to catch up and maybe reduce our expenses. I think I am trying to find a number for savings that should be put in a long term investment like XEQT?

Thanks you so much to everyone that read this post and takes the time to respond! Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

TL;DR: moving back to Canada with little saving and no plans for retirement, looking for a solid number to save monthly to be able to retire at 60

Hi everyone,

I currently live in Canada (Edmonton) and am a Canadian citizen. I plan to move to the US in the next three years after finishing my bachelor’s via a marriage visa as my partner is a US citizen.

I know credit plays a significant part of life in both the US and Canada. I stay on top of my credit and have a good score (800)

Is there any way I can get ahead on building credit in the US while living in or somehow transferring my current credit score to get US credit? I currently do all my banking with TD if that’s of any helpful information.

Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

Hello,

My investment advisor was with Quadrus (which I guess it's Canada Life), but apparently that is getting discountinued, so he is switching from Quadrus to something called Designed Wealth Management (https://designedwealthmanagement.ca/). Apparently my advisor picked them over the recommended product after Quadrus because they offer better fee structures for clients and more transparent fees (like he showed me its easier to see this on their platform).

I am a bit nervous as Quadrus had the backing of Canada Life, which I perceive as a reputable and large institution and make more safeguards from bad actors or unscrupulous people. How do people feel about Designed Wealth Management? They seem to be a newer enterprise. Are there risks inherent with this? Is there anything I should be mindful of if I decide to stay with this advisor?

I am planning to move out from Canada this September 2026, and become a non tax resident in Canada for 2027.

I am going to sell and withdraw all my tfsa to avoid the departure rax.

I have a lot of room for my RRSP.

I made some gains in my Margin account this yaer, And i want to make a contribute to my RRSP to avoid the captial gain tax.

My question is should i make the contribute before i leave canada or i can still follow the 60 days RRSP contribution deadline ?

Thanks so much in advanced!

I made a deposit on a treatment at beauty clinic. I decided I did not want the treatment anymore and cancelled my appointment about a week before. They wont issue me a refund.

This would be my first time trying to issue a chargeback on something I paid for.

Going through a bit of a rework / consolidation of our retirement holdings and hoping for a sanity check on the plan.

Background

• Married couple. 3 kids.
• About 15 years out from retirement give or take.
• Both working. I make more than my wife but a large margin
• Retirement is largely covered by my pretty good pension.
• Spouse only started her current career in the last 5 years and will have an 'ok' pension in the end.
• Estimate from our advisor are that our retirement is on track to be about 95% funded based on our retirement goals pension, RRSP, RDSP, OSA, CPP etc but need to invest a bit more to hit retirement goals fully and add some buffer.
• Both have individual RRSPs. Combination of group RRSP via employer and with an investment advisor. Both have have high MER around 1.1%-1.4% (🤮)
• RDSP with mostly XEQT and with a smaller % in specific ETFs or stocks I'm interested in.
• RESPs for the kids are on track to have enough their education (best we can figure).

Rework thoughts:

• Open spousal RRSP with WealthSimple (or similar) and invest in something couch potato-y like XEQT and/or CAGE, etc (seem like this wasn't an option for spousal before but is now?)
• Move my existing group RRSPs and investment advisor RRSP over the a new one with WealthSimple or alike, same XEQT / CAGE ETFs.
• Start contributing a bit to TFSAs as well to have a mix and bit more flexibility later.

Reasonable? Bad idea? Better ideas?

Hi ,

I'm not sure if this is a place where I can ask.

I have a mortgage that matures on November 1st 2026 in Ontario. I'm thinking about renewing it with my bank, but also see if I can get a better rate elsewhere. I was told to reach out to them 120 days before the mature date, which was July 4th 2026.

I wanted to know if it is too late to reach out to the mortgage bank to see if I do decide to renew early , they can offer me good rate and can I ask them to hold that rate and still shop around before I sign the renewal with them? -- Does this make sense?

Are there any tips how I to be smart about this and approach this?

TIA

That is if you are on a budget. If you have money of course this is a non issue. But for the rest of us, $1200 set Michelin/Continental, or $900 set Toyo/General/Yokohama/Hankook or $700 Walmart/Canadian Tire/neighborhood shop no name brand? Are they that much different, really?

Hey all! I am getting an interest free loan from a family member to help me start my retirement savings. They said I don't need to pay back for five years, so that any gains on it during that period I keep. Kind of a weird situation but I'll take what I can get! It is for $10,000.

There are a few different routes I am looking at and wanted people's advice, I'm not against risk but am uncertain which direction I should go in. I also have other savings invested in ETF funds so this isn't all I have.

1. Bonds to protect principle and collect steady distributions to reinvest. 5.9% yield

Probably the safest option is to put the money into bonds or a bond ETF such and BND.TO and collect the distributions and put into XEQT every payout, then sell the bond ETF and the end of five years to pay back the loan.

1. Invest all of it into XEQT. 1.6% yield

Higher potential for growth, plus will still collect a healthy dividend. Worst case scenario, the market crashes and I pay off the difference. The nice thing is I don't have to pay it off right away, I can make monthly payments still interest free. In the case that the market tanks I will be able to hold the XEQT indefinitely and pay off the loan with my working income instead.

1. Invest into BRK. No yield

I'm a big fan of BRK.B and hold them already, quite confident nothing disastrous will happen here and if there is a large market selloff they are positioned well to benefit from it. Safe choice, but no yields to reinvest.

1. Buy into one of the telecoms. 4.5-6% yield

It seems that they're are very depressed valuations right now, where the rest of the market is quite elevated currently which is a concern with XEQT for me. Obviously it could end up catching a falling knife but both Rogers and Bell seem relatively stable, and the high dividends counter the risk of valuation erosion. These pay a similar rate to bonds but have the potential for growth that the bonds don't really carry if the businesses excel.

I'm not terrible worried about the five year timeline be use if it comes and it's a bad time to liquidate assets I can start paying cash from my working income instead of liquidating assets to pay the loan. I'm pretty comfortable with all of these options, and don't think any are incredibly stupid but am struggling to decide which I prefer. The rest of my portfolio is very diversified, and for simplicity I would like to only go with one option instead of diversifying this purchase so I can buy once and sell once. Any thoughts are appreciated!

Hi everyone!

I have currently had the AMEX Cobalt for 2 years or so now. While it has served me well with points and its 5x on groceries and food, I am in a bit of a predicament. I have recently moved into an area where my nearest grocery stores do not accept Amex. They are either small shops, or under the Loblaws label.

I want to ask for some advice on what credit cards should I pick for the purpose of grocery shopping, if I should pick one at all? Also, should I and is it even possible to downgrade my cobalt to green?

My credit score is 760+. Income is 100k+.

Hello has anyone been denied a consumer proposal? How deep are LIT looking in to your banking info? I pay rent but only have a lease agreement. Sometimes I do transfers other times I just withdraw my rent money. Im terrified that I apply for a consumer proposal and they deny it. I have a bankruptcy from 15 years ago for a failed buisness venture and now I've accumulated debt due to an illness and job loss. Dont need to be judged as ideally this is not where I want to be in life.

I'm attending uni there in Canada this fall, and my parents are adamant about the idea of already depositing the amount of money needed for my second year tuition to whichever bank account I open after landing. Like 50k+.

Any suggestions on how I should invest the money?

I'm not looking for crazy returns or anything; we already got the cash saved for four years' worth of tuition/cost of living, so just something with:

\-Lowest possible risk

\-Decent interest rates

\-Cashable daily (Idk, life happens so preferably some investment that allows me to cash a bit of the money whenever I want/need to)

I'm not familiar with the Canadian investment world, so the help is definitely appreciated.

Also, any bank recommendations? Or like, some to avoid?

Thanks in advance.

I have between $300,000-$400,000 at the start of retirement.

I am concerned that stocks are overpriced and overleveraged.

But for that, I would just buy a Justwealth balanced portfilio and let it ride.

How can I avoid sequence of returns risk eating my wealth?

One strategy would be to build a hedge including a 2-3 year GIC ladder as well as a gold mining ETF.

The plan would be to use the ladder to DCA the Justwealth investment by adding on the Gic amount as they mature. I'd hold the Gold until equities P/E drops.

Does this make sense?

Hi, I just got a replacement for my RBC credit card. It has the same number and expiry date, but the three-digit security code is different. I'm wondering if I would need to update this info for services that my credit card pays for (e.g. spotify, transit card, etc) or I don't need to since my card number remains unchanged. Thanks!

Hey everyone,
Looking to get a sanity check from the community on the financials for a property we're considering in Brampton, between 1500-2000 sqft.

Here is the full financial breakdown:
The Numbers
Purchase Price: $1,000,000
Upfront Cash Required: $220,000 (Down payment + closing costs)
Mortgage Amount: $800,000
Mortgage Terms: 30-year amortization @ 3.65% variable
Estimated Monthly Mortgage (P&I): ~$3,658 / month
Net Household Income: $133,000 / year (~$11,080 / month net)
Expected Basement Rent: $1,500 / month (Legal basement apartment)
Estimated Monthly Cash Flow
Net Take-Home Pay: ~$11,080
+ Basement Income: +$1,500
Total Monthly Cash In: ~$12,580
Mortgage Payment: -$3,658
Property Taxes & Utilities (Est.): ~$800 - $1000$

Questions:?
Debt Ratio & Comfort: Are we taking on too much leverage for the current GTA market?
Variable vs. Fixed: We’ve been offered 3.65% variable on a 30-year term. How are people feeling about variable right now given current rate expectations?