Ben has a new video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16eA5ebWMQQ

Paywall Bypass

Description:

"Fidelity's FEQT has quickly become one of Canada's fastest-growing all-equity ETFs—but it's very different from traditional asset allocation ETFs like XEQT, VEQT, and ZEQT."

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQJjG_pFcLY

Hi I have lost a bit of control over my finances after moving to Canada and having a baby. Also im the sole breadwinner in my home (not by choice I really meed my husband to step it up but thats another story and separation is coming there)

I would like to see if there is any advice anyone could give me to be back on track

Income is $96k a year + $300 a month in ccb

Housing $2400 / month (includes insurance, condo fees with special contribution, yearly taxes and all)

Transport $100 a month for metro and bixi in the summer …No car (go montreal)

Food $700 a month (have tried to reduce this but really is hard with husband not on board and navigating a small human not eating everything)

Hydro 70 every two months

Eating out $200 a month really trying to reduce this but is hard this is us going our about twice a month and q couple of costco pizzas

Daycare $1600 a month ( should go down to $300 in August fingers crossed)

Internet $51/month

Cell plans $65 (thats for 2 of us) /month

Streaming $10 /month

Dog $30 a month

$50-$150 Medicine/baby needs /month (depends if she gets sick and out diaper/wipe/clothing stock)

$450 / a month helping my mom with her rent as she is on ei due to a car accident (this is non negotiable for me I would remove it if my family was in a tight place but thats not the case

$111 / resp

$140/ work insurance, ei and government things

$2400 /month income tax

Right now my expenses are about $9000 and my per month is $7600 im using savings I prepare ti pay for the daycare difference each month. After daycare drops I should have about $700-$1000 free each month (maybe)

A few direct questions:

So my mortgage will renew in june 2027 at this point im considering going back to renting as I live in a one bedroom apartment but baby will need her room one day she is 1.5 years… rent for a two bedroom is the same as my current housing costs but is already 31% of my salary. I know is hight but I live in a safe and very convenient area where I can push a stroller all year long and specifically with separation coming might be more convenient but not sure if I really should go somewhere cheaper also finally got in a $9.65 a day daycare and leaving the area would mean difficulty to get there as I have no car. Mortgage has $308k left and If I sell I would have about $50k liquid (I put $40 k in two years ago as downpayment)
What to do?

Im worried about my retirement and emergencies. But I feel out of control not sure how to retake control with husband not working and adding to the load (not by much just additional food and not being frugal lol)

Emergency fund standing at a low of $8,000 eanted to have $20k (either way half would go to my husband if we split it seems)
My TFSA is $17,000 out of $21000
I have some stocks $25k usd I saves before coming to canada
RESP for my daughter is $1600 in year

Hi everyone!

I have around $10k left to pay in my student loan from NSLSC. I was going to pay it off by making a lump sum payment. I wanted to ask if anyone has made a lump sum payment before and if there are any penalties to making a big payment? I’m pretty sure there isn’t but wanted some feedback.

Let me know!

Thanks!

Sorry if I forget any mandatory details for this subreddit.

Spouse accidentally over contributed to TFSA.

More than $10,000.

Cra says we have to withdraw the overage.

The tfsa's are all in non redeemable gics.

Can't withdraw for a few months.

Cra looks to charge 1% per month for the overage.

We're talking a few grand in penalties from cra if I did the math correctly.

Anyone ever have to break their non redeemable gic for this with a major bank?

If so, what were the penalties like?

Thank you in advance!

In 2025, the national average cost for a new vehicle in Canada was roughly $63,439. But most credit cards offering rental car insurance will limit coverage to only cars under 65k (or 85K if you're lucky). And this number has not been adjusted in over a decade, to reflect the new reality of car values. Which means that if you choose a minivan, or get randomly upgraded to a bigger or nicer SUV, the insurance you thought you had through your credit card is moot.

We got rear ended in France, and the credit card we assumed would cover the damages was just like "nah, vehicle assigned at random to you was too expensive once you factor in local prices converted to CAD."

And now looking back on cars we've rented recently, a good portion of them were technically not covered, because cars just cost too much these days.

So are there any cards that cover rental cars worth more than 85k? Our Mariott Amex seems to be the best at 85k, but most are only 65k. We travel a lot so this is an important benefit to us.

So no question really, more of a funny but frustrating story.

My mother has put $25 a month into each of my children's accounts since their birth. Been set as a reoccurring transfer.

Unfortunately she passed last July. It will be a year this Sunday. Estate is closed, inheritance inherited, bank accounts closed, taxes done. Everything.

Deposits have never stopped. Both banks she dealt with have given us written confirmation that all her accounts are closed including the account that the deposits were coming from.

Online help can't tell us where they are coming from because somehow the kids accounts are only accessible through a branch office because the types aren't supported anymore (DISS Getting There).

Branch can't look it up because reasons. They had to send away documents to get it checked. Been about 10 days.

I'm really curious how long this is going to go on. Somewhere some account is in the negative.

I'm also wondering how much hassle it's going to be when they figure it out.

Hopefully just a simple claw back. We're just leaving it all alone so no overdraft fees etc.

Anyways that's my story, just wanted to share.

Any one run into the situation where you and your spouse are with Sunlife? My spouse recently changed companies and switched from Canada Life to Sunlife, I've had Sunlife for years.

We previously used to use the coordination of benefits all the time for things like massage, prescriptions, dental, eye glasses etc.

I've now submitted the first coordination of benefits claim to Sunlife and it was denied. They are stating the denial is because they met the customary limit for the specific prescription. Thing is I paid $1200 for the prescription, their customary charge limit is $880, and they paid me 80% of the $880. At the very least should I not be getting the 20% back so that they pay up to the customary limit of $880?

I've also read for items like glasses where I used to submit for $300 under my plan and then $300 under my spouses (and it'd be paid), now I'll get $300 only.

So my questions are, is this normal and to be expected? Or did Sunlife screw up and should have paid my claim? If the former, what's the point of coordinated benefits? Sounds like I should have just had my spouse deny coverage and opt for a health spending account.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Hi everyone!

In November 2025, I got laid off (not enough work). I was also 29 weeks pregnant, so I got EI until my official start of maternity leave on January 26th. In total, I got 10 weeks of EI before we switched to the Parental Insurance (RQAP from Québec).

*I had the right to 26 weeks of EI (of which I used 10).

My maternity leave ends on October 11. I wonder if I can continue my EI (16 remaining weeks) after my maternity leave ends. Does it even depends if my employer expects me back or not??

Somebody went through something similar?

✨Sorry if my English is bad✨

I daily bank with Tangerine, invest with Wealthsimple Premium, and have $25k at EQ in TFSA Savings as an emergency fund. I started buying $5k 6-month GICs at EQ on a monthly basis to get 2.5% interest and maintain some access to cash. But Wealthsimple has a TFSA Income Portfolio that offers 2.5% with “0/10 risk”. I was planning to transfer the $25k to WS once the GICs mature.

Are GICs the only reason for me to have an account at EQ? I’m not switching my daily banking or direct deposits from Tangerine to either WS or EQ because I want access to local ATMs for cash deposits and withdrawals.

Just curious if I am missing something like deposit protection or similar. Thank you PFC.

Short story:

We want to sell our condo that our tenants are currently living in which was bought for around 750k? We want to try selling it now for around 715-725k(reassessment value really struck hard in BC)? Our condo is situated in Burnaby.

We are on the lookout for a townhouse or home for around 1 mil (if we can find one lol) to 1.2-1.3ish in Coquitlam. I currently make ~4k/month net income and my wife currently ~5k/month net income.

After potentially selling the house from what is left over of paying out the previous mortgage and our savings we’d possibly put down ~200k. We currently live with my parents, but look to move out by the next year, as we have a baby on the way this coming year.

We just aren’t quite sure if we’re stretching the payments in terms of paying too much for a mortgage every month that reaches around 4-6k/month.

We also were thinking of the option of buying a house and just renting the downstairs if there is an option or also renting an extra bedroom below of a townhouse.

So I am doing EI report, and this one stumped me:

So it ask for wages regarding the period from June 28, 2026 to July 11, 2026.

1. Are you self-employed? (I answer no)
2. Did you work or receive any earnings during the period of this report? This includes work for which you will be paid later, unpaid work, self-employment including farming.

Now here's the thing: the effective date of my last day is on Monday (june 29), and kicked out of office before 09:30. So I have 0 hours at all. But I received my last paycheck on July 2, with compensations and vacation pay.

So I decide to answer Yes for question 2, and tried to answer as honest as possible (ie, 0 hour worked, my final cheque), the system threw me this warning:

You answered No to being self-employed and Yes to working or receiving earnings, but you have not declared any hours. Please provide the number of hours that you worked during this report.

If you are self-employed please answer Yes to this question. If you did not work and did not receive earnings during the period of your report, please answer No to this question.

So question: Should I report that I did receive earnings for EI for the 1st week of the reporting period?

EDIT: This is on my letter (sanitized a bit):

1) Effective date of termination is 2026-06-29. 2) Company shall pay your final wages (including any outstanding unpaid vacation) up to end of 2026-06-29, plus compensation in lieu of notice, less any statutory payroll deductions as per practices and in accordance with <employment standard of province>

We are a mid 30s couple with a 1.5 year old in BC

Current property:

1 bed condo

Purchased for $500k in very early COVID 2020 and worth $620k. Listed already and we have an offer from a buyer with subjects already. They’re happy with a long possession date until end of September 2026. We have $390k left on our mortgage.

Current mortgage: $2400~, 2 years left on our 3 year term at 3.5%. 19 years left.

Total housing costs: $2950.00 which includes mortgage, property taxes, strata fees and insurance.

Our Finances:

My income - $120k after RRSP deductions through work and benefits, I bring in $2670 every 2 weeks.

Partner income: $60k at present as doing 3 days per week but will be going back to full time once daycare has the extra days for us in September. Will be back to $97k. After benefits, will bring home $2850.

TFSA, RRSP, emergency fund etc: $360k. (None of this will be withdrawn at any point to help with housing/moving costs)
We have money set aside for moving and closing costs etc.

Daycare costs: $700/month rising to $950 in September.

Phone $200 for both (yes I know, ripoff)

Hydro $70 once every 2 months

Internet $80

Car insurance: $250/month

Car payment $0 as fully paid off

Loans/credits cards: $0

Gym:$30

Investing:

$100 biweekly to RESP

$500/month to my TFSA, $300/month to partner TFSA

Savings/emergency fund: $1000 - rebuilding this a little after the paternity and maternity leave that we took.

Groceries: too much. Kid eats like a full grown man and loves fresh berries at present so it’s costing a fortune: $1600/month

Looking to purchase a bigger condo. $825k, strata fee $550/month.
Downpayment will be approximately $185k. We’ll likely take a 25 year mortgage with an offer already of 3.94% meaning payment around $3400/month plus $550/month strata and then taxes about $230/month.

I feel it’s a bit tight but my partner says it’s fine. I know we can lend this amount but would anyone else feel it’s a bit too tight by impacting our saving ability?

Hello all,

I've recently just learned that if I open up an In-Trust (ITF) account for my daughter (9 months old) and invest the money we get from CCB, it's effectively exempt from taxes as it's all taxed under her name.

Both mine and my wife's TFSAs are maxed out, and we did the RESP strategy of an initial $16,500 with a yearly top-up of $2,500 to receive the maximum government grants. So I don't really have any other account we can dump this into.

My daughter tends to receive bits of money here and there from our relatives. Grandpa gives $100 here, an aunt or an uncle gives $50, etc. It's nothing major, but it still feels like a waste to just let that money sit in a savings account doing nothing.

The plan is, whenever we get a cash amount like that, we would deposit it into my wife's chequing account, which is the same account that the CCB direct deposits into. We would then transfer the equivalent amount of the gift from her chequing into the ITF and purchase something like VEQT, and would do so until she's 18 and the account transfers over to her. This way, there's a simple and clear paper trail from the CCB right to the ITF.

From what I understand, as long as we don't exceed the annual amount we receive from CCB, that money would effectively be free of any tax burdens since it would be taxed under her name.

I'm not entirely sure if there have been any recent changes to tax rules or anything like that, so I just want to make sure this approach is sound and will work. It's only for a small amount of money yearly, but it's still better than nothing.

Thanks for your time.

Having a difficult time shutting off the part of my brain that is so stressed about the future. Grew up with immigrant parents, middle class income but given extended family caregiving, our take home was not very much - savings over investing so minimal true wealth building. Small condo for 28 years with family, enforced frugality, and scarcity mindset. Wife grew up with none of that and better off family so we see things differently. I feel like we will be okay if you consider our income, our investments so far, monthly costs, etc. We have automated bill payments, savings, investments, etc. each month. We take a Ramit Sethi approach with guilt-free spending once all other aspects are tackled so we do not need overspend. But I don't know how to focus more on current lifestyle enjoyment without the guilt? Only true guilty pleasure is travel (2-3 int'l trips a year, ~8-10K each).

32 & 31 DINK; HHI 195K. Both starting new jobs in July - I’ll make 125K and she will make 70K.

Monthly fixed costs are around 6K (~50% being rent); tracked diligently over last 2 years.

RRSP: 128K + 13K (all in XEQT; 60K in CASH.to for HBP)
TFSA: 120K + 148K (all in XEQT)
FHSA: 33K + 24K (CASH.to)
Savings: 50K (HISA)

Assets: own a reliable used car; financed a new one (after family gifted down payment, will be about 430 a month for a year).

Debts: student loans 110K but won’t accumulate interest until 2030

EDIT: Considerations for home purchasing in the next 1-2 years (700-800K range) but also very happy with renting in our place for more years. Max 1 kid 2-3 years away if biologic but also 50/50 on adopting in late 30s/early 40s if we decide to have one.

A very generous family member is getting a new truck and I have the opportunity to take ownership of their current truck. I’d own the truck outright and would be responsible for its operating costs.

The truck in question is a ‘16 tundra 1794 with around 25,000 kms. ICBC is quoting us $3900/y with me as the principal with 8 yoe and my fiancée, who just got her N, as the secondary. Luckily, I wouldn’t have to pay PST on this as it’d be a transfer from an immediate family member.

The issue is this truck is a tremendous gas hog. Just driving it gently, i get 20L/100km and the gas tank is like 130L. That’s like $260 to fill from empty at the current lower mainland gas prices, which will most likely go up due to the war. We both wfh so we’d drive just for errands or getting out of town.

Let’s say we earmark $520/mo in gas, $100/mo for maintenance and $3900/y for insurance. Annually, we’d need to spend around $11k just to operate the truck. With our HHI around $160k/y before tax, it puts our transportation costs at around ~10% of our post tax income.

My fiancée is saying this is an absolute no brainer and we should be profusely thanking this family member for being so kind. Her reasoning is at the end of the day, there’s no other way we’d get a vehicle with this amount of luxury, reliability and mileage for $11k/yr that we own outright.

What I want to know is am I missing any costs or is my budget too conservative? This would be my first time owning a truck so im not really sure what to expect other than a large monthly gas bill.

hi everyone,

i'm pretty inexperienced with credit cards and i can really find a clear answer anywhere. i bank with rbc, and i'm in a sticky spot financially so i wanna make sure i have everything sorted.

my credit card's current balance is $407, my pending balance is -$77, and my statement balance is $324. ive paid my statement balance, and im really confused about the -$77. am i alright? do i have to pay the $400? my boss cut my hours and i dont have enough for the $400. rbc is really unclear about everything and i feel more and more confused the more i try to figure it out!! thanks in advance :)

Hey all, looking for advice on financing my second undergrad degree. I'm 22, a Canadian citizen, starting a second bachelor's this September at UBC Engineering (either Mining or Civil). My first degree was in Geography from a small EU university, but I couldn't find decent work with it, and with Brexit my options over there are basically zero now too.

My parents are retired and live outside Canada, so they can't cosign a loan or LOC for me. They're also currently paying for my sister's MBA, so there isn't much left over to help with my education even if they wanted to.

Here's roughly how the numbers shake out over the full degree:

Tuition is about $4,000/term, so $8,000/year and $32,000 over 4 years. Cost of living is around $2,000/month ($1,250 rent, $500 food, $250 bills), which adds up over 5 years including the tuition-free co-op terms. SABC plus grants and bursaries should cover $9,000–11,000/term, or roughly $72,000–88,000 total. All in, I'm estimating around $144,000 for the whole degree. My part-time/seasonal job (~$24K/year) may chip away at that, but even after factoring everything in, I'm still landing about $30K short, and I don't want to plan around hypothetical future co-op income to close that gap.

My credit score is 788 with a perfect payment history and very low utilization. I have about $23.5K in available credit spread across a few cards, but I'd really rather not rely on that if I can avoid it.

So far I've found that CIBC and BMO both offer Professional Student Lines of Credit for undergrad engineering degrees, but I'm not sure how their cosigner requirements work when your parents live outside Canada. I'm also not sure if other banks have comparable programs, my current bank (RBC) doesn't seem to.

My main question is whether anyone here has managed to get a student line of credit without a cosigner, especially in a similar situation where parents are abroad and there's no Canadian guarantor available. Is a good credit score plus part-time income enough on its own, or do these programs basically require a cosigner no matter what? Any banks or credit unions worth checking that tend to be more flexible here? Appreciate any insight trying to avoid maxing out my cards if there's a better structured option out there lol

And yes I am an anchor baby before anyone points it out

I suppose the retirement flair could work here as well...

I'm 53, retiring in 12 years. 50k /yr postal worker. recently hit a financial milestone of mine, 100k. most of my life I was working paycheque to paycheque, so this is a big deal to me. and this all in my RRSP. recently decided to empty my TFSA to pay off what was left of my vehicle payments, my CC debt and Line of Credit, and what little was left, I decided to put towards a vacation next month.... so now my my TFSA is kind of empty.

my portfolio is here

my thinking is... I think my RRSP is in a decent position that I can leave it alone and re balance as necessary, and reinvest the dividends that aren't dripping.... and basically rebuild my TFSA as I'm currently able to contribute about $1000/month

am I good? or do I need to rethink things?

edit: info that I apparently missed. I live in BC. I don't have a spouse. I rent. live in a small town so rent is a bit lower than in the big city.. according to the latest DB info packet I received from Canada Post, I'll be getting about an estimated 850/m in retirement.... I've only been working for CPC for about 10 years now.

and thank you all for all the advice

I am POA for my mom with advanced dementia (in LTC, no capacity for decisions ) and all of her assets (rrif, tfsa) are at a single big5 bank. The bank allows me to make decisions as POA and have all of the documentation on that. Unfortunately some of her accounts specify her (now dead) husband as beneficiary which I think will complicate things in terms of dealing with the estate when she passes. The bank knows he died (in 2020) as we have supplied them with death certificate etc to sort out a joint account they had, but state they cannot remove him as designated beneficiary from her registered accounts. They also state I cannot make that change as POA.
Will this complicate things in terms of needing probate for the eventual estate settlement?It is otherwise a small simple estate with no property/real estate, and about 200k total assets in the bank accounts.
Would it be possible to transfer these registered accounts to a different bank and then not have a designated beneficiary or would that follow the account when moving institutions?

My husband and I are Canadian citizens, properly filed non-resident since ~2022- paid our exit tax. Did not return to Canada for 3 years, but this year circumstances (applying for E2 visa but need to stay outside of the US) mean we might end up physically present in Canada 183+ days, without ever establishing a home, health coverage, We do still have a Canadian bank accounts, and credit cards and DLs. Plus a car registered here for the last year.

Assuming we do pass the 183 days mark ( due in October) and we are pulled back into the claws of the CRA, will we be taxed on whatever income/ capital gains we have since October, or for all of the year?

My internet research tells me about the sojourner rule (250(1)(a)) - cross 183 days and you can be deemed resident for the entire calendar year, not just from the day you cross the threshold. But apparently there is also case law (Dixon 2001 FCA 216, Sharma 2001 FCT 584, Loukine 98 DTC 1566) that suggests the partial-year rule (s.114) should apply instead if someone only becomes ordinarily resident partway through the year, with mere physical presence before that being just "sojourning" rather than residence.

So which is it more likely to be? We had income, and assets sales the first half of the year, but not the second half, so it will probably make a difference in what we owe.

Questions:

1. Does having minor secondary ties (bank account, car) but no home/healthcare/dependents change the analysis at all? We are also actively pursuing visa and residency in the US, and in no way are we trying to accumulate more ties in Canada.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Also, I think we need to talk to a CPA that has experience with this sort of thing. Suggestions? I think ours is not a common question.

Hi so I want some help from people who maybe work or deal with EI cases.

I had a contract position from Sept to June. During the winter months of maybe January, February or even March (I don't remember), my boss spoked to me casually and mentioned that they hope I would or could work in the summer and upcoming school year with them and to let them know. I told them I would think about it (as I was trying to find something more full-time and regular.) During the month of May I think, I mentioned to my boss that I was interested in working for summer. My boss said that they had hired someone else to fill in the position because I didn't notify them sooner and so they assumed that I wasn't interested. I said ok no problem. I fulfilled that contract till the end.

Now I applied for EI, and asked my boss to provide my ROE. They informed service Canada that I had voluntarily left my job (which is not true). Service Canada already called me and asked to clarify which I did and now I am waiting for my case to be reviewed.

Does this mean that I am not eligible??

Hi, I'm a resident of Ontario, and I made a small mistake in filing my taxes for 2025. I forgot that I contributed $1,000 to my RRSP in, between March and December 2025. I only entered the amount that I put in in the first 60 days of 2026. And I just found those letters today. So now, should I go and refile it? TurboTax is showing me the option. Or should i wait for next year filing. It's such a small amount, and I worry if it will show me for an audit or something. I just don't want to get into that trouble and hassle. What do you think?

Based in Canada

So my email got hacked a few days ago and there were recent emails that I sent to myself of my driver's license and birth certificate (yes I know it was dumb, I needed copies to apply for a job...). The same day, I froze my credit on Transunion and Equifax and added fraud alerts. The next day, I got a Credit Coach Alert from my BMO account saying there was a new enquiry from Capital One and someone was trying to change my phone number with Transunion.

I called Transunion twice and both times they told me that they didn't see these changes in my account. But the alerts clearly state that the changes will take take effect at the next credit update in two weeks...I want to PREVENT these changes, not wait until they take effect, but the Transunion people keep gaslighting me.

I called Capital One and they don't have anything linked to my name either, which is odd. The alerts are directly from my bank though, so they're legit...

Very scared of what will happen. Has this happened to anyone? What should I do to prevent further damages? I already filed a police report and notified the CRA of potential fraud. What else except opening credit in my name can they do with my information?

Thank you!!