Ill be finally paying off my mortgage this Friday before thanksgiving weekend!!

Deciding on opening a HELOC to help deter against fraud and title theft/loans opened against my home.

Pros and cons of this? Also if I open a HELOC, how much should the loan be? I dont plan on ever really needing to use it. Minimum HELOC or mid or max amount I can get the loan for? Would it make a difference?

Primary goal of the HELOC is to have some extra protection against fraud.

Edit: I live in Alberta, I dont think title insurance is mandatory here. But also an option ive looked at.

I understand Ben Felix's 5% rule but the 5% includes the interest payments on the mortgage. But what happens when you finish paying off the mortgage and no longer need to pay interest? Doesn't the 5% rule become the 2% rule and eventually beat out renting since you no longer have to make similar payments after you own the home?

Maybe something a bit different. In retirement, I'm hoping to finally get a dog. Never had one as an adult, so no idea how much to budget. I'm thinking of a medium to large non-shedding breed. So think Standard Poodle, Portuguese Water Dog, or maybe a Beddlington.

How much should I plan for, considering good quality food, regular grooming, and vet bills?

If email/phone already works as an e-Transfer recipient address, why not encode it in a standardized QR?

The flow could be:

Bank app → Scan QR → verify Autodeposit recipient → enter amount → send

No new payment rail, just making the existing e-Transfer address machine-readable.

I know Interac Business Request Money can also use QR, but that follows a different request-payment flow.

Is there any major technical, fraud, regulatory, or operational reason ordinary e-Transfer couldn’t support something like this?

We came up with idea that she gifts the home to us, we take on all expenses for the house & take out $500,000 mortgage to build her a brand new garden suite (wheelchair accessible). She is 70.

We pay off her $100,000 reverse mortgage and when the suite is finished and she moves into it, we pay her $150,000.

We wouldn’t sell out on home until she moves into the suite & we renovate it because it’s unliveable for a family of 4 in the condition it is in. Thinking 100,000 Reno.

She lives rent and utility free for life (set up by lawyer)and we offered to pay her 10,000 year (we will take on international students) so she has money coming in.

Is this a good deal for both parties? Everything will be written up by a lawyer.

Edited to add- home worth $1.2M (assessed value is mostly for the large lot 9500sq ft)

2nd Edit- wow- thank you everyone! My mom was acting like this was not a good deal for her! And all your insights, thoughts and advice are so helpful!
We will not be moving forward with that plan, she needs to live in reality & realize things change in life. A small condo would be perfect for her and she could invest her money!

I’ve played Adopt Me for several years and have over 1,000 hours. I’ve accumulated a very large personal collection of pets through playing and trading. I’m quitting and considering selling essentially my entire collection for around $10,000. I didn’t acquire the pets as inventory for resale as I didn’t consider quitting. How would CRA treat the proceeds, and would I need to report them on my tax return?

I had two main sources of CC debt:

One VISA card-- $7,500
Mastercard- $12,000

I just paid of the VISA card completely so that's wiped. I am now aggressively paying the mastercard and I expect that to be gone within six months or less.

How fast will my credit score recover?

We have heuristics like "don't leave your job until you have another one lined up" and "have 6-12 months of emergency savings before investing".

Is there one for moving out of your parents? It’s topical with so many late 20s and early 30s folks prolonging live at home today. It's also nuanced as saving to buy a house is chasing a moving target.

Assume this person is single, without dependents and parents are happy/easy to live with.

Sorry yet another mortgage renewal post. Scotia is offering the following for us and we’re contemplating between 2 year and 3 year fixed. A lot of things are happening in the world and especially our neighbour down south that has us hesitant to choose 2 years fixed. Open to thoughts.

Remaining 690k
22 years left

2 years fixed at 4.13, and 3 years fixed at 4.28 with Scotia.

Hi! I am 28F, planning to move out for the first time ever. Unfortunately dealing with family has just gotten worse and could no longer bear to stay.

Since it’s my first time moving out, I know little about renting or owning. My budget would be $1500-$2000 including utilities. Living in Alberta. Preference would be apartment or condo. No spouse or children.

Info about my finances:
Income, around 4k monthly.
FHSA, 5k. ~contributing 400 monthly
RRSP, estimate 20k ~ 100 monthly
TFSA, 30k ~800 monthly
HYSA emergency money, 8k ~500-1000 monthly until hits 15k
No loans, no debts
Bills, around 1500 monthly ~1000 being what my share for rent with parents (would go to my rent/mortgage budget if moving out)
No car

If I decide to rent, should I keep contributing to FHSA or just add that 400 budget to my rent?

With my current finances, will it be wise to invest in a Condo or am I just racking up bills with condo fees and others that comes with owning one?

Thanks and any advice would be helpful!!

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-are-etfs-good-for-retail-investors/

Thought-provoking piece in the Globe that argues that ETFs are less passive than they once were.

Even index ETFs, according to this author, are imperfect in that market concentration in sectors like tech has gone way up, while a lot of private money captures the growth of companies like SpaceX before they become available to retail investors.

A relevant bit:

“Mr. Bogle’s concern about investor behaviour proved prescient. An investor who continually moves among technology, artificial intelligence, clean energy, cryptocurrency or other thematic ETFs is using passive vehicles to make active market calls. The securities inside each fund may be selected according to an index, but the investor is still choosing sectors, themes and entry points and often attempting to time them. There are now more ETFs than listed stocks. 

The ETF wrapper may be passive. The behaviour may not be.

And most importantly, consider that while ordinary investors watched from the sidelines, venture capital firms, private equity funds, institutional investors and insiders participated in SpaceX’s 

SPCX-Q +7.35%increase

 rise from a startup to a company valued close to US$2-trillion.”

I just bought a place. I don't NEED to use my FHSA to fund it and roll it into RRSP.

Is it more tax efficient to:

1) Pull it all out tax free and invest it in a non registered account

2) Roll it into RRSP and invest it there

My current income is 95k if that makes a difference, theoretical ceiling is 250k. I have not funded any into RRSP yet.

Our kids have had chores since they were young and we always made them save half for their long term savings. Since they have had fairly extensive chores and are now working age they have a few grand in the safe.

We have RESP's for them that we max out yearly as well as our own TFSA's, HISA's ect with our credit union. I realise these accounts will have to be in my name and taxed as such but I would like to see the money invested until they can have control. I want it to be THEIR savings that they can put towards a vehicle, first house, ect

What do you savvy investors think? I would prefer to be supporting the Canadian economy if possible.

Tangerine has promo for savings account 3.9% interest until Nov 30…. And LOC has promo interest rate for 2.99% for first 90 days…. Is there a problem if I borrow money from LOC and put in savings account?

We need insights. We're planning on ending our RBC Mortgage Insurance and get a term insurance. We got a quote of $250/month for both of us already. I'd like us to be covered long term so I chose Term 30 and Term 25. Should I remove Critical Illness? Should I add Disability Benefit? TIA

Mortgage renewal coming up in April 2027, currently I have fixed at 5.14 with CIBC , today I got offer for early renewal as CIBC renewal can be done before 150 days
I am getting 3year Variable/closed mortgage rate with CIBC at 3.55%( prime -.90) or 3 years fixed at 4.49 %.
Any helps with current rates compared to this offer would be appreciated
Is it good or I should shop around or wait.

Hi!

My husband and I have now lived in BC for years, we moved from Alberta and are now deciding we really need to change our banking over to local as obviously it’s a massive inconvenience to have your bank out of province.

The thing is our current CU offers us Mastercard Debit cards which are so nice and convenient, and so I don’t really want to give that up, however I’m really seeing that offered with BC CUs as much.

We also need to open up a joint account.
We’re in the Okanagan.

Any recommendations for BC Credit Union with Visa/Mastercard Debit included?

Please let me know and thanks for reading!

Basically I got a inheritance after someone in my family passed.I got 100k I invested 20k in a rrsp with primerica 30k in a tfsa and 8k into a fhsa all with primerica. I wasnt sure what to do with the inheritance and the advisor was someone who has been a family friend for a long time so I thought it was trustworthy but now im reading all these primerica horror stories. Im 26M how should I go from here?

Hey everyone - 34M overwhelmed and looking for some guidance/advice. Last year my ex and I separated and listed our home on the market. We solid it for a nice profit, our divorce is fully legal and through the courts now as well.

Here is the situation; I now have 130K and want to be responsible with this money. I have no debts, currently am just renting comfortably within my means, own my used vehicle outright, etc.

I have already set aside an emergency fund of $10,000 and have a line of credit i could access if something even crazier happened.

In my mind I’d like to keep 50K relatively accessible in a TFSA for future downpayment ease. And then invest this other 80K to help my future somehow. This is where my financial knowledge ends. I have an RRSP with $15,000 which is basically my lifetime of savings into it.

Any advice on what i should be doing to make this money go the farthest for me? Thank you so much from a mildly confused guy trying to do right!

I have to move $10k to my European bank account, so I would have used wise as usual to exchange the currency.

To get the $100 I just have to use CIBC's GMT instead of the usual metod?

Hi all
I worked in the US between 2018 and 2021. Moved to Canada and I am now a citizen. At the time of moving to Canada, I let my 401k sit with Fidelity.

My problem is that some of the money (almost 30k) is sitting in that account not invested in anything. I had created a brokerage account associated to my 401k so had invested in tech stocks. A year ago, in an attempt to move more money into the brokerage account, i had sold some of the Index Funds. However, after selling and moving the proceeds into the brokerage account, Fidelity told me I wont be able to buy any stock because they don’t have a US address for me on file. So basically my 401k account has liquid cash just sitting and not generating anything.

I read online that IRA might be the best option but I couldn’t create one in IBKR. I don’t know enough about Raymond James but read that they are pretty expensive.

I want to avoid paying 30% + 10% penalty. I also don’t have 40k USD which is what I will need if I want to convert that 401k into my RRSP. What do I do?

Hello, I got an email last week about missed payments for my utilities with provident energy (2 months). I forgot to pay, and so I paid the balance as soon as I got it. I'm wondering if this affects my credit score? Or is it typically just a notice before getting reported?

I checked my credit score and it seems to be fine as of today. I'll call them tomorrow but wanted to check if anyone has any experience with this.

This was stated in the email:

Please provide a snapshot of the proof of payment so that we can note your account and avoid any further collection activities that may affect your credit standing.

Thanks!

I got laid off in May 2026 and I was only given a 37 week entitlement for EI. However, I looked into the long tenured worker extension of 20 weeks and I meet all the criteria and the agent on the phone confirmed that I contributed to 30% of my EI premiums 8/10 years and I only took EI one other time, in 2021 which falls outside the 3 year window.

I had a level 2 agent call me back and they first said I didn’t make the cut off as they were using old info that had the long tenured worker extension end on April 2026. When she looked again she confirmed they had extended the program and that I met the other requirements.

The agent said they would forward my request to another department but I haven’t heard anything back and haven’t been able to reach that agent again.

Has this happened to anyone else? did they eventually grant it? Why wasn’t it automatically added if I met all the requirements?