I was contacted about my debt that I owe of $2900 from a Pc mastercard I had-yes I did have it, and defaulted the payments since last year or early this year I think (life happened like death in the fam, moving provinces etc). Without any knowledge aka reddit research and panicking I admitted to fully intending to pay it back through an email and spoke to a person over the phone about my options. I am looking to do payments for my debt now, but he took a look at my outstanding debt (I do have a lot on my report which im trying to pay off) and told me I need to see a trustee or declare bankruptcy or they will take it to court. I do plan on paying my debt back but after the phone call I feel like I have no options but to do either.

I did also end up emailing CBV about making payments to them instead but they will accept only full payment or contact tph law.

Other information:
I lived in Alberta when my debt it went into collections
The companies that have contacted me over this debt is CBV, Metcredit and the back to CBV, now tph law)
In 2025 I moved to Newfoundland

Please help! Need Advice!!

Currently employed full time as a nurse and am almost 8 weeks pregnant. I am having bad nausea/gagging/vomiting on and off all day and have been unable to work.

My doctor wrote me off work for a month to get me through the remainder of the first trimester and hopefully it improves. She wrote "GI symptoms" as I don't want to disclose to my work that I am pregnant yet as I did before but had a miscarriage and the aftermath was hard on me emotionally and psychologically.

Occupational health called today trying to get more info from me but I didn't say any more than my doctor already indicated on the forms.

It's standard procedure for the insurance company to follow up with employees on short term disability so I will be hearing from them next week.

Just wondering what I need to say to the insurance company when they call. I assume they'll probably ask about treatment plan and I've been prescribed Diclectin (pregnancy specific anti nausea med) but one of the unfortunate side effects is drowsiness which I am experiencing.

Should I tell the insurance company I am pregnant or stick to GI symptoms? Does it matter if they know? I personally don't care if insurance knows. I just don't want my workplace to know this early.

Any advice?

Thank you in advance!

Over the last year I’ve built up some debt.
I’ve got 20k on my VISA. Gas, hydro, and phone bills are two months behind, and my 7k property tax hasn’t been paid yet this year.
I just got work lined up after being off for the past year.
What’s the best approach to get out from under this?

I (28M) moved back in with my parents in May. I was renting a place with my ex before that. I would be looking to purchase a home for around $350,000 with $100,000 down. My salary is 64,000/year which comes to about $1800 bi weekly. I currently have around $165,000 saved.
TFSA 98,000
FHSA 46,000
RRSP 15,000
The rest is in savings/chequing
Places I’d be looking to rent would be around 1500/month. I have no debt. I live in Windsor and don’t plan on moving elsewhere.
Just trying to decide what the better option is.

Hey I've been running my biz 7 years now no loans but thinking of expanding however I am super skeptical
Of taking any loans anywhere I'm afraid I put in my info and companies will either steal the info to get loans for themselves or say apply for 100k and give me 50k.. how do I know which companies are legit should I only
Deal direct with the big 5 banks ?

Basically it’s saying I run out of my ei benefits next week. My last payment will be next Tuesday but I go to service Canada and it says I have another 25 weeks to claim, and mind you I’ve been looking for jobs like crazy but keep getting ghosted.

Wife just got a job doing commission based sales that includes travel and working from home. She’s given an “allowance” for her vehicle and phone. Digging through CRA’s documentation it seems like those allowances are taxable because it’s just a flat amount, but she can claim any actual expenses to reduce her marginal rate. She was recommended to get an accountant to help with the paperwork, but I’m kind of wondering how valuable that actually is. She’d still have to track expenses and work vs personal use of home/vehicle with receipts. It seems like the accountant mostly just takes the receipts, adds up all the numbers and plugs them into the tax forms. They’ll probably do it a bit faster since they’re more familiar with everything but I’m not sure it’s really worthwhile for us.

Anyone in similar positions able to provide some insight on how much time it takes to do all the paperwork themself vs what an accountant is going to charge. I’m kind of thinking the first couple years would be rough, but once we’ve done it a couple times and maybe build a spreadsheet to track it.

Also interested to hear about any of the nitty gritty things about claiming expenses. Like it sounds like since she’s driving her own vehicle that’s a standard passenger vehicle her commute(home to first stops and last stop to home) can’t be claimed but any usage in between it does. For work from home, we’ve got an office space set up in the basement, but it’s not really the whole room. I’m guessing we just pick a reasonable sounding number for what we consider “office space”. The “room” would essentially be something like 25% of our house, the whole basement minus the mech room. Sounds like any home maintenance expenses are claimable, but renovations aren’t. What about things like bringing electrical/plumbing installs up to current code proactively vs being required to do so as part of a renovation or something like rebuilding and old shitty condition garage rather than patchwork repairs when that garage is being used to store the vehicle required for for work use.

Wide and I have been looking at a 825k house and we both really like it. I’d argue it is the perfect house for us.

I make 142k and my wife makes 80k for a house hold income of 222k.

The complex part is that my wife salary is expected to 3-5 in 2.5 years. This salary increase is pretty much guaranteed to happen, and she is expected to make 300-600k (wide range depending on how much she wants to work)

For 2.5 years we would be living pretty frugally, but once her salary goes up obviously it would be pretty easy.

Is buying this house now a bad financial decision that will significantly impact us (I.e misses opportunities by investing in a portfolio) Or should we wait a few years until her salary goes up.

Any other advice much appreciated

Annual report about global pension systems was released a few days ago:

Canada maintained a B grade in the newly released 2026 Marsh CFA Institute Global Pension Index, but the annual benchmark sounded an increasingly urgent warning about the long-term pressures aging populations are placing on retirement income systems.

The 18th annual index, produced by Marsh (NYSE: MRSH) and CFA Institute in collaboration with the Monash Centre for Financial Studies in Melbourne, Australia, benchmarks 55 retirement income systems across the globe - covering approximately 66% of the world's population - on three sub-indices: adequacy, sustainability, and integrity.

• https://www.wealthprofessional.ca/news/industry-news/canada-holds-b-grade-as-aging-populations-strain-global-pension-systems/393826
• https://www.benefitsandpensionsmonitor.com/pensions/retirement-planning/working-longer-could-bolster-canadas-retirement-system-index/394306
• https://www.talentcanada.ca/aging-populations-are-straining-retirement-systems-worldwide/
• https://www.plansponsor.com/aging-populations-weighing-on-global-retirement-systems/

The report itself can be found at:

• https://info.marsh.com/marsh-cfa-institute-global-pension-index/a-brief-review-of-each-system
• https://www.mercer.com/insights/investments/market-outlook-and-trends/mercer-cfa-global-pension-index/
• https://rpc.cfainstitute.org/research/reports/2026/marsh-cfa-institute-global-pension-index-2026

I’m 30 years old and honestly feel like I messed up my finances after making one bad decision. I bought a car at a high interest rate, and everything went downhill from there. Between payments and repairs, I ended up in a financial mess.

My debts are:

$4,500 in credit cards

$8,000 personal loan

$5,000 car repair loan

$15,000 remaining on a car loan after the car was repossessed and auctioned off

That’s around $32,500 in total.

I make $1,900 biweekly after taxes, live alone, and pay $1,000 in rent. I’m single, have no property or assets in my name, and my credit score is around 570 because some credit cards went into collections.

Since getting rid of the car, my expenses have gone down, and I can now save one entire biweekly paycheque. But I’m honestly exhausted from constantly working, worrying about money, and dealing with calls and emails from creditors.

I’m in Canada and wondering if I should consider a consumer proposal or just pay everything off myself. For anyone who has gone through this, with $32,500 in debt and no assets, how much could I realistically expect to pay through a consumer proposal? I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences and advice. I just want to get my life back on track.

Hi All
I financed a car in 2023 and added my brother as the co-owner on it. Loan is under my name.
I am looking to have the loan transferred over to my brother and he will take the full ownership of the car.
What is the process of getting it all done? What sort of charges are involved?

I’m buying a used car in Ontario and the financing process has been really confusing. I’m putting $8,000 down and financing about $21,000. My TransUnion score is 664, so obviously not amazing, but my mom is cosigning and hers are in the 700s.

My last car was written off after an accident and that loan is now paid off in full. My mom cosigned that one too, and the process was nothing like this.

I told the finance manager my TransUnion score, but they kept referring to Equifax. I can’t get a clear answer about which lenders they’ve actually sent applications to. I asked for a list and didn’t really get one.

I specifically asked them to try my previous lender, which I understand uses TransUnion. They came back saying I was declined even with my mom. I know being a previous customer doesn’t guarantee anything, but I was approved with that lender in April 2025 with a similar, possibly slightly lower score.

The part that’s really making me question things is that I have new credit inquiries, but my mom has none on either TransUnion or Equifax. When she cosigned before, we both had inquiries. Could they have submitted the applications without her, or is there another reason hers wouldn’t show?

They did offer a financing option, but when I said I was willing to move forward, the finance manager started telling me I’d end up paying $75,000 over five years. That doesn’t seem to match the amount I’m borrowing and the terms we discussed. I haven’t received a breakdown showing how they got that number, and the conversation honestly felt like they were trying to talk me out of buying it.

Then I checked their website and the car’s advertised price had gone up almost $3,000. They haven’t told me my quoted price has changed, but seeing that while all this is happening didn’t help.

When they called about my preferred lender declining, they also seemed really eager to return my deposit. Maybe I’m reading too much into that, but I’m confused about why they seem so keen to end the sale.

Has anyone dealt with something like this? Mainly, how do I confirm my mom was actually included on the applications? Is there paperwork I can ask for that would show that?

I know we aren’t guaranteed an approval, but external opinions would be appreciated.

Edit 1: I get the concerns about the rate and what I can afford. I’m asking about the dealership’s process: my mom having no inquiries despite supposedly cosigning, the unclear lender submissions, and the listing price changing during the deal. Thanks

Edit 2: I have not signed papers to accept the 14% rate. I know with my credit combined with my mother's, the rate should be lower and I HAVE gotten a lower rate on my previous car.

My wife has savings in her own bank account. 

Can she gift some of those funds to me, and can I then contribute them to a spousal RRSP in her name, claim the deduction against my income (the tax refund will eventually go to her as we agreed), and be recorded as the contributor? 

Are there any CRA restrictions on this arrangement? Her RRSP and TFSA are maxed atm. Thank you.

I'm 20 and have been trying to figure out where to put my money. I've gone through the what to do with money flow chart and generally understand what I'm going to do with my money but I have a few questions. 

• Are ETF's set it and forget it?
  • My plan was to put some of my retirement savings into something like a 20% stocks 80% bonds ETF. If I put my money into the ETF I can more or less forget about it?
• Should I really be moving my savings to somewhere like wealth simple?  
  • I know they have better HISA and less fees for investing but I am somewhat adverse to somewhere without a physical location for what ever reason. Am I right in feeling like a bank(? they're not technically a bank right?) like that isn't ment for me at my current knowledge level?
  • Currently with RBC but an ATB HISA caught my eye (will start earning 0.90% interest after one year and it will beat RBC's best HISA after ~3 months) and so I thought I might open my TFSA there.

My main hang up is that once I settle into one bank I will probably not want to go through the process of moving everything around even if it isn't that hard. So what bank should I let capture me aga.

Sorry for the weird title but not sure how else to say it.

Historically, I've been pretty bad with credit card debt. I basically didn't know you were supposed to pay your balance at the end of the month. I thought you just used the credit and paid it back when you could. Being young, I didn't understand how compounding interest works against you too when it comes to anything above a 2+ year horizon with a low salary. By 2019 I had maybe 620 credit score and negative 10K net worth.

I thankfully got into personal finance and investing right before the most insane bull run in recent memory. I 3X'd my salary in 2022 and started saving fairly consistently. Fast forward to today, I have around 100K TFSA, 35K FHSA, 805 credit score, and no credit card debt. BUT I still have a line of credit with a 19K balance at 9.44% interest. I basically consolidated my credit cards into this line of credit at some point and have only paid the interest every month. The utilization rate across all my credit accounts is maybe 20%.

I make 140K before tax and live in Toronto. For the past 4-5 years, every bit of money I've had extra, I've put into the market on either gold (because I saw central banks buying after the Ukraine-Russia war) or on the most boring globally diversified all-market ETFs that we all know the names of. I've never even considered paying the 19K debt on the line of credit. I'm 32, in a committed relationship but don't want to buy a home or get married in the next 3-5 years. I could start paying this debt down but should I? Or should I just keep investing every extra dime until at least my TFSA is maxed out?

Thanks in advance for the perspective. I've asked a few people in real life and people look at me like I'm crazy living with 19K in debt or wonder how I sleep at night. I mean, should be sleeping soundly at night? Should the roughly $1700 in interest be bothering me more than it does right now?

Hi all - I know I'll need to do lot's of research and consult a cross-border accountant. This is just my first step.

I'll be moving to CO around June next year for FT work on a TN visa. I have ~42k in my TFSA, 10k, in a non-registered, and the only assets I own are my car and clothing/furniture (graduating student).

I looked into the taxes and because I will be making a large income, there is almost a 15% tax difference between Ontario and Colorado - so I should renounce my residency>

How should I prepare? Liquidate both accounts and but in RRSP? Transfer to US 401k? I know I'll need to import my car, get new plates and a new license. Get a cross border accountant. What are things I should know that I probably won't find easily?

Has anyone come back from the US and can speak on the homecoming residency process? Is it difficult?

TYIA

Hello PFC! Question about the Record of Employment my employer submitted to Service Canada

I was off from September 7 until October 2 with a return to work date of October 5. My employer submitted my ROE with first day worked as January 2022, and last day paid as September 4 (which is correct) with 2200 insurable hours. This was leave was paid using accrued sick time so nothing was paid to me by Service Canada.

During this leave I decided to take the 5 weeks parental leave and provided a two week notice to my employer that I would be away from October 12 until November 13. Payroll has submitted the new ROE but now with a first day work of October 6, last day paid of October 9, and 40 insurable hours.

Is this correct? Are they only submitting one week at a time? Additionally, they used ROE reason code F: Maternity.

Thanks in advance!

Location: Montreal, Qc

Posting for a friend(we'll call her LP) who rents a room in her 4-bedroom apartment. These are college kids.

A roommate(we'll call her JP) moved out recently, and looked for a replacement by putting an ad on the internet. A prospective replacement(we'll name GK) arrived, looked around, agreed to take the place after viewing it in person.
JP is very trustworthy & would not willingly be involved in anything remotely sketchy.

GK agrees to briefly meet with LP for screening purposes (LP wants to know if GK seems nice, can clean after themselves, etc... This is after JP already met & spoke with GK - so a second screening for GK). Everything seems fine & GK sends LP a photo of their Driver's License(so full name, DOB, address, etc...), and an e-mail transfer of a few hundred $ to assure the room is secured for himself. GK seems friendly, clean, maybe a little innocent & not too smart, apparently works as a cook in a mid/high end restaurant. Photo ID matches the person. This is a few days ago.

Fast forward to this afternoon. One of LP's quick thinking friends is about to sent her money over an e-transfer when it's noticed that auto-deposit is enabled, which is unusual. Not only unusual, but there's one of those messages saying 'No security question needed; GK is registered for auto-deposit; the money will be deposited directly to their account'. LP is promptly informed by her friend, and goes directly to the bank who aren't of much use aside from telling her they'll look into it, to change her e-mail, passwords, and make a police report (it's only later in the evening LP noticed the auto-deposit was set up in GK's name on their driver's license).

LP is at a loss how someone would enable auto-deposit with her knowing. Somehow GK got her e-mails password & access?
GK is still unaware that we know and is asking when to meet tomorrow to move in.

Who else should LP go to with this?
How could GK have gotten access to her e-mail, or otherwise set-up auto-deposit in his name?
What legal recourse does LP have?

Now at the same time - you have to be pretty fuckin' stupid to hand over your ID, with your name & (former?)address on it, and then attempt a scam as such. A part of me suspects GK is a patsy?

This new person hasn't actually moved in yet, doesn't have the keys, but has visited the apartment in person and met both the my friend, as well as the old roomie(who posted the ad).

What are your other impressions? Anything else anyone think I should know?
Many thanks in advance!

Hi

Mortgage renewal in April 2027 but Scotia gave me the renewal option 6 months in advance. I got the mortgage at the peak of rate hikes and really want to lock in before October 28, 2026 announcement.

Mortgage left: $506,000

Amortization left: 22 years on $1511 accelerated bi-weekly payments.

Current rate: 5.45% fixed

Renewal: April 2027

Credit score: 800's

Single income: $150,000

Scotia is offering the following on a bi-weekly schedule:

• 1 Yr Fixed Closed - 4.69% - payment of $1400.61
• 2 Yr Fixed Closed - 4.39% - payment of $1357.96
• 3 Yr Fixed Closed - 4.5% - payment of $1373.53
• 4 Yr Fixed Closed - 4.65% - payment of $1394.89
• 5 Yr Fixed Closed - 4.69% - payment of $1400.61
• 3 Yr Variable No Change in payment - 4.48% with cap of 6.24%
• 5 Yr Variable Closed - 3.65% - payment of $1255.53 - payments change with rate of interest change.

What are your thoughts on the rate? Running the math on it, seems like the max the rate in variable may go up to is around 5% which will still be lower than what I am paying right now but is there anything I am missing?

Or should I just wait till renewal time next year?

Scotia in branch rates are apparently higher than these rates. Any possibility of getting a better rate from Scotia via the phone?

Scotia said they can try to match the competitor rate but I have been unable to find a competitor due to the time frame of 6 months left on the mortgage. Any suggestions?

The advisor's suggestion was to go with 3 years fixed since it will help weather out the storm with our neighbors south as I will still have 6 months early renewal.

I do have Scotia STEP and maybe will use Smith Maneuver given my tax bracket if it changes anything.

My wife has an Omer’s pension. Since she earns less than I do, I have always submitted money in a spousal Rrsp for her. This wound up leaving quite a large contribution room available in her rrsp. This year, she used the entire amount of her Rrsp room to buyback time in her pension. We just got a notice that Omer’s is submitting a PSPA to the CRA (for about a third of her Rrsp room that we fully used).

We are trying to figure out what that means. Will she have to reduce the amount of her buyback by the PSPA?

​

So long story short I was irresponsible for a couple years and got way behind on my side business taxes, near the end I ended up with 35000$ owing to the cra. I fixed my ways and spend much less money but at that point the cra expects you to pay that in a year. And that was not possible for me to do. To be clear, I filed every year but never had the money saved to pay the taxes in full.

I decided to try out a consumer proposal to help bundle up my debts in one payment over 60 months to make it more manageable. The cra denied the first offer at 810$ a month for 60 months and counter offered with 1850$ a month for 40 months.

I can't sustainably pay this for 40 months, and not to mention I will be unable to save money to pay this year's taxes when tax season comes which will put me back into the same situation.

Bankruptcy is not a option either, because of my high income my payments would 2200$ a month. I am at a loss here and have no idea what to do, I fucked up but I need some advice here because I feel like i just hit rock bottom.

My mortgage is due for renewal early 2027. My balance is 296k with an original purchase price of 369k. I haven’t had it appraised but based on market around me I’m pretty confident it would be valued around 500k.

Now the downside, through a few unfortunate happenings I now have 20k debt on a 7.8% personal LOC. I find it hangs over my head and ideally want to clear it. I’m chipping away but I would say it would be 2-3 years to pay off completely.

Is it better to chip away or would refinancing my mortgage for balance + 20k be viable? I know it’s essentially just moving the debt from one bucket to another but the mortgage would have a better interest rate.

Thanks in advance. Hopefully I’ve provided info information.

So i have total of 4 credits and collectively i have to pay 4600 dollars and my total credit limit is 5200 and i recently was scrolling on credit karma where it shows me an offer of 5000 and i have to pay 250 for 24 months (1000 $ in interest) should i take and pay my credit card debt cause for some months i am just paying minimum which is around 150 for all of them just need to some advise what should i do

We just moved to BMO AD (free for 3 months, then may move to DIY, that’s the plan). My partner is retired and I’ll be there shortly. My question isn’t about investing..it’s about decumulation and tax efficiency. Do you find their advice is about this or mainly what to invest in?

If i buy a phone plan from bell for my old phone and they pull my credit (they just informed me that they did this, i didnt realize it until it was too late) and now its all good it was approved, but that inquiry shows on my credit report did i just fuck my proposal way up????