First time home ownership, changing homes and buying new property is exciting. I would even say that we’re the most vulnerable we can be in the home buying process. Buyer beware for you might falling into a financial trap. We’ll be talking about mortgage brokers and some potential pitfalls that can leave us all with a big loan and more to ponder over. We’ll be shedding light on some ways mortgage brokers can rip us off. Table of Contents But why would a mortgage broker rip me off ? Some ways a mortgage broker may rip you off Mortgage Fraud is Real Final Thoughts But why would a mortgage ..read more

Table of Contents Understanding How Our Mind works with Money The Power of Habits in Money Matters Making Choices in Your Finances Learning About Money, Making Positive Changes Conclusion One’s behavior and emotions are big indicators of how their Finances are going to turn around. Think of instant gratification and consumerism. How many times we go to a grocery store and end up impulse buy. Think of how easy it sometimes is to go get that new car despite knowing that the monthly payments are something that we can only just afford. The whole concept of lifestyle inflation is based around ..read more

Table of Contents Annual and Lifetime Contribution Limits Strategies for Maximizing RESP Contributions Want to Learn more ? Securing your child’s education is a big goal, and the Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) is a helpful tool for Canadian parents. In this blog post, we’ll break down RESP contributions in an easy-to-understand way, focusing on both the basics and some clever strategies to make your educational savings go further. This is a simple guide on the basics of RESP accounts and on maximizing RESP contributions to meet and exceed the ever increasing price of tuition i ..read more

Table of Contents Home Equity 101 A Simple Formula ! Things that affect your Home Equity So, what do I do with my Home Equity ? Concluding Owning a home isn’t just about having a place to live; it’s about building memories and potentially saving money over time on increasing rents. One key thing to grasp is your home equity, which essentially represents how much of your property you truly own. This guide will walk you through the process of how to figure equity in your home. Home Equity 101 Home equity is like the money you’ve earned from your home investment. It’s the difference between ..read more

Requirements to become a Canadian Dividend Aristocrat In order to qualify as a Canadian Dividend Aristocrat, a Canadian company must satisfy the following conditions: maintain a market capitalization of at least $300 million, have a record of raising dividends for five consecutive years, and be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange as well as be a member of the S&P Canada BMI index. List of Canadian Dividend Aristocrats for March 2023 I have revived this list of Canadian Dividend Aristocrats from the Blackrock iShares S&P/TSX Canadian Dividend Aristocrats Index ETF. This ETF replicates ..read more

A Million dollar question. Maybe a multi-million dollar question ? As an immigrant and a new father, I want to get to this ‘wealthy’ stage of life faster. The North American dream is what I envisioned when I decided move to Canada. What’s your “Why” ? An important question that we want to ask ourselves is why we want to do this. I think what drives me is the ability to become work-optional a few years from now. Good old Financial Independence. For you, this could building generational wealth or it could be achieving a sense of status. Mrs. Frugal New Canadian has a different take on this. She ..read more

I am sitting here wondering whether I have the traits required to be successful. Investing and growing money gives me a kick but do I enough in my personal life ? What are some other things that rich people do that I and you can learn from ? Here’s a summary of what I found: Millionaire Breakdown Stats I really appreciate how Ramsey Solutions has provided the National Study of Millionaires for public consumption. I think the study is quite motivational for all of us in understanding that irrespective of where we are, we are capable of building serious wealth. Here are the snippets – Majority ..read more

This is a write-up of some of the ways Mr. and Mrs. Frugal New Canadian save some dollars on their monthly spending ! 1. We make a Grocery list and we stick to it I read recently that impulse buying accounts for over 40% of purchases. 50% of all grocery sold in the United States is attributed to impulsive buying. You can imagine how many dollars this translates to for Grocers. Don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy grabbing a 99 cent Snicker on the way out occasionally but we try and stick to our well planned list more times than not. 2. If we something we like at the Grocers or the Mall, we practice ..read more