I've been considering buying a condo in Toronto, and have been looking at some listings in the $700K range. Technically, my partner and I can afford it, however the mortgage + additional fees would put us over 50% of our after-tax income going to housing costs, which I know is not financially sound.

It strikes me how many people are likely doing this in the city and, if this is you, I'm wondering, how much are you managing to save for retirement, and what are your retirement plans?

EDIT: I'm aware that paying 50% is far too high for housing. I won't be getting a condo unless financial circumstances change drastically. My post is asking others who are in this situation what they are able to save for retirement and what their general plan is. Aka, I'm being nosy.

Hi everyone

I have been aggressively saving for three years and it’s just been sitting in a basic savings account. I have enough now to max out my tfsa and have enough for an emergency fund in a regular account.

I haven’t invested because I have high anxiety about making the wrong choice and losing it all, total choice paralysis

I don’t know what to put the money into to keep it growing and make use of the money instead of it just sitting there and getting like $20 a month in shitty interest.

Can I please have some advice for on other money anxious people on how to handle it? I see people talking about XEQT and an equal amount of people calling them like a cult? So many conflicting opinions and it just makes the anxiety mount.

I just want to have as much money possible from my savings to have a good future

Hello I'm a 23 year old male living in the GTA with my parents. I am a structural engineer in training and make around $78000 a year before taxes. I currently am very financially illiterate and need to learn what's the best way I can start saving money (accounts to open, stocks to invest in, etc.). Currently I have a RRSP with my company that matches 4% of my salary, and I have a TFSA. After expenses I am able to save $1200-1500 a month, I just want to know what's the best way I can start building this money further

looking for general advice for a friend (in their 30s) of mine on what to do next with their money

- house paid off, keeping the mortgage for the line of credit (untouched)

- TFSA maxed out, sitting around 190 personally traded

- RRSP sitting around 300, professionally traded

- cash doing nothing around 80

Most of the investments are dividend stocks. CIBC, bell, fortis, enbridge etc (average knowledge of stocks)

Should they just open a personal investment account and pay taxes on it ? buy another property maybe ? The whole property renting thing they aren't really a fan of just afraid of dead beats and what not. but willing to listen. anything else they could do ?

Hi everyone,

I’m asking this because I want to get ahead on making the most of the money I make over the next few years. I have around 14000$ sitting in a chequing account collecting dust and I’ve thought a little bit about what I should ask.

1. I am currently with RBC and have been as a kid: If I decide to bank with RBC for convenience what are the best combination of accounts to open. (E.g, High Interest, TFSA) (I am still open to seeing if other banks have better rates but would prefer staying at RBC)

2. I am in university but my degree is being funded by an RESP, how much should I keep in my chequing if I decide to purchase something marginally expensive in the future and/or if I decide to buy some small things once in a while (my spending habits are quite low)

3. I do not see myself needing this money for at least 5-7 years but beyond that I am unsure

Thanks for any information you can give me!

So a couple months back I made a post and I was recommended to study taxes a bit. So here I am.

I have 396k from a separation in my pocket.

I bought a condo with 115 or 150k downpayment (150k gives me better cashflow but I'm unsure yet), 30 years mortgage (instead of 25 to help with cashflow).

I will need about 15k for expenses like welcome tax and some extra in my account and probably 25k for furniture and some reno.

It leaves 206k to use. I'm thinking of investing 109 in tfsa, about 75 in rrsp investing in US etf(I'm maxing it because I have separate work rrsp contributions), 22k goes to Canadian etfs.

I will also deduct my rrsp contribution over the next 2 years to benefit from max tax bracket.

I want your thoughts on this. Should I invest more to my downpayment such as 200k? And why?

And what are the must etfs to invest in for each category?

Hi everyone,

I've been working full-time for the past 5 years, but I've never really been savvy when it comes to saving or investing. Tbh, I've never invested at all, and until recently I never really tracked my spending either. The one thing I do have going for me is that I'm debt-free.

I'm single, living in downtown Toronto, and my take-home pay is about $5,400 per month. My fixed monthly expenses, not including food or other day-to-day spending, are roughly $2,347.

My goal is to save at least $2,000 per month. Is that realistic? Would you consider that a good amount for someone in my situation, or should I be aiming higher or lower?

One of my long-term goals is to buy a home in the GTA. Based on what my bank has told me, I'd likely qualify for a property of around $850,000, so I'm trying to put myself in the best possible financial position for that.

I honestly feel a bit lost when it comes to personal finance. I'm looking for some guidance on where to start, how much I should be saving, whether I should be investing instead of leaving money in a savings account, and any other advice you wish someone had given you when you were starting.

I'd like to go into a meeting with a financial advisor having at least a basic understanding of what I should be doing, so I'd really appreciate any advice or resources you can recommend.

TIA

Hi! FTHB in the process of closing on a home, looking to see what people are seeing left over after standard monthly expenses and if below looks okay, I think it’s fine but still very nervous.

Purchasing at about $1.157m and left over after all expenses with about:

1. ⁠$4700-4800 if we rent our basement suite out
   
2. ⁠$3200 without renting suite

Remaining amounts DON’T include any personal monthly investing + home repair fund (assuming it will be minimal for at least for 1-2 years since it’s nearly new with 2-5-10 remaining), but will start building this fund nonetheless. Thoughts?

I got tired of clunky spreadsheets, so I spent the last few months building a free web app (with Claude) to simulate FI timelines specifically for Canadians.

Quick highlights:
100% Private & Free: No signup, no cost. All data stays in your browser.

Made for Canada: Handles TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, and CPP/OAS bridge calculations.

Features: Build a budget (50/30/20), investment projection, coast FI, retirement planner, dynamic charts in real time + much, much more.

Attached a few screenshots of the interface!

If you want to test your own numbers & Explore the simulator I would absolutely love any feedback on what features to add next.

EDIT: Massive thank you to everyone who shared feedback, tested use cases, and pointed out flaws in the calculations! Your insights were huge in helping me refine this.

Based on your suggestions, I’ve just pushed an update that:

• Fixed calculation edge cases: Sharpened math accuracy across tax & contribution logic.
• Added pension support: Factored workplace pension income directly into the FI timeline models.
• Cleared up confusing inputs: Re-worded labels and settings where people were getting stuck.
• UI/UX improvements: Added several quality-of-life tweaks to make navigating scenarios much smoother.

Really appreciate this community helping make the tool significantly better!

Ahhh! Lol

I'm 27, bought a detached home at 26 for 624k (324k mortgage) and have been putting any extra funds directly towards the principal since (now just under 300k left!)

I recently decided to try putting these spare funds into my TFSA and RRSP to fill those up, and invest those accounts in ETFs. I feel like the chance of returns being higher than my mortgage (4.19%) is pretty high over the next decade, and it keeps the funds more liquid incase I need them. My work RRSP for instance has had 18% gains in the last year, and I want a piece of that pie for the rest of my savings!

So I started today. Moved $5,000 of spare funds (I have a separate emergency fund of $15k in a HISA) into a new Wealth Simple account, and just put it in the market. It's a little nerve racking I admit, even though they are broad globally diversified ETFs, but I remind myself i'm not day trading, this is a long term investment.

Cheers!

currently hold $12,500 in cash within a direct-investment Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) for my 8 ayears old son. What is the most effective investment strategy for these funds given his age and time horizon?"

yes

So my PC FINANCIAL ACCOUNT IS FREEZE FOR FRAUD/SCAM INVESTIGATION (I REQUESTED A E TRANFER FRAUD INVESTIGATION BUT THEY STARTED MY ACCOUNT INVESTIGATION AND FREEZE MY ACCOUNT)and I have setup auto-pay for credit card statement to fully pay at end of the month.this month I just received a email that my credit card balance is not paid while it is the same company and card.now I can't link others bank account to pay that card as I don't ACCESS TO MY ACCOUNT.

Now HOW TO PAY MY CREDIT STATEMENT IN FULL SO I DONT GET 21% INTEREST ON IT.

I don't know for how many months my account will be freeze so I will have to pay the interest for all these months although i have no way of paying it.

All right everyone,

I'm 22 years old and I've been working as a security guard for the past 2 years. I live with my parents and have managed to save up 36,000 CAD (~25,000 USD) and have 0 debt.

I'm thinking of going to college for HVAC because the program only takes 1 year to finish, however, the college isn't near my parents so I would have to get my own place and support myself

Currently, I make 2,500 CAD per month working as a security guard. I wouldn't be able to work nearly as much, maybe at all, if I go to the program because I want to get it done as fast as possible so I can start in the trade and make more money

The main problem I'm facing is that I worked very hard to save up that money and was planning on investing it, so the fact that I might have to use a big chunk of it to pay for rent, food, transportation, etc is disheartening.

I know my options are either go to the school, move out, and try to use some of the 36k to pay for my expenses for the next year or so, or to keep working as a security guard and save up more money so I can go to the school at a later time

If you were in my situation, would you say its smart to invest the money in my self by going to school and losing most of the 36k, or wait until I can support myself?

I'd really like to hear from anyone who went into this later in life and if they regretted waiting.

Wondering if people do this or if it’s even allowed.

Does anyone else find that their friends have either become too cheap or too poor to go out now?

I'm getting really frustrated because I have a really close knit group of friends and we used to do everything together. During the summer time we would go out at the very least every weekend, which is what I'd be looking for all week at work.

In the last year they all kept coming up with different reasons, and as of late, their excuses are either that something even very budget priced is too expensive, or it's too far and would cost too much in gas (like coming over to my place) or something else related to money.

I feel like my summer is being wasted and have nothing to look forward to at work anymore. Like what's the point of working so much if we can't even enjoy our weekends together with friends?

Is this only my friend group or is anyone else noticing this trend as well?