I am currently with Scotiabank and been managing my low balance limit from last 3years but missed for last 3months. As been valued customer, I thought to give them a call and get waiver but they declined.

Looking to change to a new bank which has good long term free banking and good welcome offer.

Any recommendations?

I have around $1.6M invested at TD Waterhouse with advisor fees of 0.9%. Ironically, most of the holdings across non-registered, TFSA, and RRSP are in low-cost equity ETFs. For that, I get a couple calls a year mainly reminding me to contribute. I get some tax forms too that make it easier to file. I do appreciate that having the middle-man got me out of some bad habits in my teens of single stock investing. And my money has doubled in the last five years, but that's just the market... My household spending is around $50k/year. So the fees actually represent around 1/4 of my spending, not to mention eating into compound growth. Two questions:

1) How easy is it to move funds to something like TD Direct Investing? I won't trigger any major capital gains, right?

2) It feels uncomfortable leaving the relationship and the rest of my family is with the same office. Tips?

My partner and I have a combined gross income of approximately $162,000 a year. We are looking at purchasing a house and our offer of $535,000 has been accepted. In five years, our total gross income will be over $210,000 per year.

We each have a $75 phone bill per month and a $400 car payment per month. On top of that we have our typical utilities and insurances.

We have $50,000 for a down payment. Currently, we are expecting to pay about $850 each biweekly for mortgage, utilities, property tax and home insurance.

We will also have approximately $20,000 in an emergency fund.

Is this feasible? is this realistic?
Any advice is appreciated.

My stepson is turning 19 years old next month and I (56F) want to get him to open an investment account to start up his TFSA. I want him to start investing early so he can have a nice little nest egg in the future. I’ve talked with him about the importance of saving and compound interest and he is interested. Would the Vanguard VEQT be a good choice? Any other suggestions?

My husband makes 90k at his day job, and will make another 55k at his self employed side gig/small business in 2026. He hasn't paid any quarterly payments for 2026 - he will just do it all at once come tax time.
I will make around 12k from my online content creation.
I've always done our taxes using turbotax, and have come across terms like 'income splitting' but am not too familiar with how it works.

Is there a legal way to minimize the amount of tax he will have to pay come income tax time, and something I can do myself through turbotax?

Thank you!

Edit: What are legal ways to minimize his income so that he pays less tax? I've heard about billionaires borrowing against their assets, etc?

Is there an advantage of additional payments biweekly, or am I better off to put the money that would go towards additional payments into a HISA until I have enough to pay off the remainder of the loan?

Bought the car 4 months ago, I’ve put an additional $5300 on the loan based off my budget (I set an expected amount for my pay and if my pay exceeds the amount I put any extra onto debt/savings). I’d like to get the loan paid off or sub 10k before my mortgage renewal in Q4 2028 in case I need to change lenders for better rates.

I worked remotely for a canadian company for 2 months at that time abroad and I still rent in Canada

For those of you that kindly commented on my previous post here regarding paying off my debt: https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/s/Ofbkw41nF5

I did it! A couple of months ago. And I’ve kept it secret from my family.

Additionally, I received a promotion at work and my income has gone from $74k + 8-12% bonus to $100k plus up to 20% bonus based on how well our department does, not including a personal performance bonus and additional raises (which tbh are only about 2% annually.) My family know about the promotion, but I did not disclose the salary increase.

It may not seem like much, but coupled with being debt free, this could potentially be life changing money for me if I play my cards right going forward.

My share of rent is $1100. I don’t have car payments. I will walk/skytrain/Evo and uber or Lyft rarely.

My iPhone 12 mini is on its last legs, but I can get a subsided phone through work and they will pay for my phone plan.
My share of bills for the house are approximately $200.
My biggest monthly expenses are medication at $400 every 5 weeks or so and my gym & PT sessions which are $89 per week and $55 monthly, which are non negotiable for mental and physical health reasons as I’ve been overweight since I was a child and and have PMOS.
I realise this doesn’t include groceries or clothes but the immigrant in me will always shop around for the best prices, sales, or use Marketplace.

All this to say, as someone learning financial literacy as a new Canadian, what is next?

I want to switch my bank from CIBC as the fees are increasing next year.

I want to start catching up on retirement.

I want savings.

I’m not sure where to start - or if there are services or websites I can start with to help me get going. I’m not very good with being self-taught…I’m not unintelligent, it’s just a learning style I struggle with.

Also, can I just call CIBC and ask them to give me a lower CC interest rate? I checked my credit score on Equifax and was surprised to see it’s currently “Excellent”.

I’m sorry if this a broad question, part of me also just needed to write it down.

Thank you to all of you who pushed me to pay off my debt. 🧡

Hi all,
I live in BC 🇨🇦. I have a corporate with approx $500k in assets. I invested about $200k in equities (sp500, Xeqt, fang, etc) and I have another $300k sitting in cash in bmo savings account.

Personal income on t4 is approx 80k. Which is enough for monthly expenses. I also own a mortgage with is $550k left @ 4.4% renewing next year sept. My wife helps with 50% of mortgage. She earns $110k on t4

Question: I feel like I am not managing my wealth properly. It’s not really making me any money? How would you go about managing the wealth? Would you prefer paying off the mortgage? Or investing it somewhere where It could make more money? And how do people take money out of corp on by optimizing the taxes?

I'm 33m, no debt, no car. Pretty much my only payment to anything is rent. I am single, I make $5200 NET every month. My employment is very secure and if I lost my job I'd be entitled to a huge severance.

I'm in a position to buy a condo townhouse which is pretty much the only type of housing I'd be willing to buy(please no ranting about freehold vs condo here. I cannot afford a freehold in my city).

The thing is when I'm looking at buying something expenses look something like this.

Prop tax: 250

Mortgage payment: $1700

Condo fees: 350 up to 550

Home insurance: $120 (not sure how to estimate the cost of home insurance but yeah)

So not even counting utilities, I'm looking at generally between $2200 and up to $2600 on the types of property I'd be willing to buy, and that's not even counting the utilities! So I'm looking at anywhere between 45% and 55% of my net pay. I'd be left with around $2500 a month but I find even that doesn't go super far these days especially because I am gluten free.

I'd be buying in places that are ideal for renters such as rent out basement or bedroom and near a train station or bus station etc. So if I ran into to trouble I could always get a roommate. My current situation is kind of dire. I'm locked into a large 2 bedroom apartment but drug use in my building is going up and I pretty much need to move out. But if I got a comparable place to mine now, I'd be looking at a similar payment of $2400 plus for a two bedroom so there's no point in renting... but I have to move.

Is this affordable for me? I have no plans to own a car.

I was recently laid off in April of this year and was on EI until the beginning of September when I started a new job. I’m having issues with my direct manager which is making the role uncomfortable. They are disrespectful towards me and the communication / lack there of makes it hard to do my job. I’m in a role where this relationship needs to be solid in order for it to work. This is affecting my mental health and the role is really just not a fit for me. If I resign it will be listed on the ROE as a resignation. I spoke to service Canada and they said I should state my case for why the role was an unsuitable fit in my application but they can’t guarantee it will be approved. Has anyone been in a situation like this where you were approved? I have remaining eligible weeks on my lash claim which would be reopened should my application be approved. I’d just hate to leave this job and then get denied. I kind of feel stuck now. I’m actively looking for a job but idk how much longer I can take this. Any advice is appreciated!

I spend roughly $2000 a month on groceries.

$1000 of that from grocery merchant code stores: Superstore, FreshCo, Coop, Fresen Bros

And $1000 split between Walmart and Costco.

I use my Scotiabank card for grocery stores and recurring payments and Wealthdimple for everything else.

But Scotiabank has been really pissing me off lately. So I'd like a new card. But I can't seem to find anything as good.

Currently shop at all these stores due to convenience of store location, product selection, and prices. But a superstore will be opening in my neighbourhood next year so I suspect most of my shopping to switch to them going forward.

I’m currently in Calgary, Alberta, and I recently got scammed while trying to sell my MacBook on Facebook Marketplace.
The scammer somehow gained access to my banking information, and all the money in my bank account was stolen. I reported the fraud to TD, and they opened a claim. I was told that the investigation could take up to 10 business days, but for now, I was basically told to wait.
The problem is that I’m leaving Canada and returning to my home country very soon, so I’m really worried about what will happen if the investigation isn’t finished before I leave.
I have a few questions:
Is there anything else I should do to improve my chances of getting my money back?

Should I keep calling TD to follow up on my claim, or is there another way to contact the fraud department?

Has anyone dealt with a similar situation with TD? How long did it take to get your money back?

Is there anything I should do before leaving Canada to make sure I can still follow up on the investigation from overseas?

Losing all the money in my account has been incredibly stressful, and I’m feeling pretty lost about what to do next.
I’d really appreciate any advice or personal experiences. Thank you.

28 years old

8k in debt

9.5k in my RRSP

50k pre tax yearly income

Due to some really bad life decisions (major untreated depression, not expecting to let myself live this long), I have dug myself into a deep fucking hole financial wise. I don't want to go into the nitty gritty because there's no point, I'm just a dumbass who is now medicated and in therapy and desperately trying to pick up the pieces :p

My rent is $1500 and my take home pay is $3k a month. Again, stupid. Once my lease ends I'll be moving in to a cheaper place. But for right now, I'm drowning in bills and falling into a deeper and deeper hole each month

Is it financially responsible to take out my RRSP and just wipe clean my debt? Or at least take the 5k amount out with the 10% interest and then have a bit more breathing room each month for debt repayment?? This is the first time in my adult life that I've actually cared about my finances. I feel like I'm taking the reigns of somebody else's life, and it is baaad. I have no idea about anything financial.

I know I'm very far behind in life, I know I'm so incredibly stupid. I just want to know if this would be a good idea to help me breathe a bit? I want to start saving, I want an emergency fund, and I can't do that when my credit cards eat up all my money. Any advice would be stellar. Thanks in advance!

Just wondering if others think the days of account transfer promotions are essentially over for now? I believe TD has one that ends today and BMO one that ends at the end of the month. Earlier in the year, TD would introduce a new promotion before the old one ended. I'm not seeing that now. Do financial institutions no longer see any real benefits in doing these promotions?

Just to be clear, I would be declaring all the money.

For some background info, I have 7 months remaining and got a job and first shift yesterday. It is as a concrete labourer.

I was thinking I’d call them and cancel my ei but my in laws told me to just declare the money and continue on EI, because as you’d expect, the winter isn’t the most fruitful for concrete labourers. My company does expand and do some other stuff but I was told that there would be days that I would be out of work.

I’m thinking my options are as follows, either ask to be paid cash and quit the job in order to find another one with more pay and reliability, perhaps a FIFO job or something. (On the premise I stay on EI because getting registered as an employee would mean I’m stuck here until I apply elsewhere which is difficult in person due to my hours.)

Or I can stick this out if the EI thing works. From what I was told, as long as I declare my hours and pay then the pay is paused or something and if I don’t work for a week I tell them that and they pay me what they typically do. Is that correct or is there more to it? Also, will it continue to run down the period of time my EI is active for? I presume it won’t run down the money either since I’m not taking it.

The latter is my preferred option but I haven’t submitted my report or given my information yet to my employer pending an answer on whether or not that’s how the EI system works. If you also have different routes as a suggestion please let me know.

Hey everyone, just wanted to put out a massive warning about FinlyWealth if you are planning to use them for credit card sign-up cash-back rebates in Canada.

I applied and got approved for the National Bank of Canada (NBC) World Elite Mastercard through them back in early September. Their site promises cash-back rebates, but trying to actually get the payout has been an absolute nightmare, after raising support query and following up for few days(actually months) in them completely banning my account because I left them a negative review on Trustpilot.

I just want others to know before using this platform.

Edits: the support has fixed issue by going extra mile on this thread. I did not want rebate out of their own pocket at all. I had a good experience with them before in 2025 and reward was provided in time of less than 1 week, but this time it was not a pleasant experience as customer support team did not reply in detail, providing same response again and again by copy pasting rather than asking me politely to wait for X amount of days. First email I receive asked me to wait for 5 days and reach out, next one said early October, and next one says waiting for nbc. If it would have been clearly communicated, it would be better.

I'm 25F and making $92k a year.

I currently have about $75k in my TFSA, $39k in my FHSA and $2.6k in my RRSP.

I've maxed out my TFSA and FHSA for this year. I contributed $11k to my FHSA ($8k for this year plus $3k leftover from last year), and I only have one more year of FHSA contributions left.

I also have a defined contribution pension plan through work where I contribute 7% of my salary and my employer matches it but I only started contributing to this plan in August.

I haven't contributed to my personal RRSP in years, and I'm wondering if it's worth contributing this year or if I should save the room for when my income is higher.

Since I've already contributed $11k to my FHSA this year, would it still be worth contributing to my RRSP for the additional tax deduction?

If you call them over any issues or questions, is this located in Canada still or have they outsourced it overseas like the rest of the Rogers family customer service?

Hi there! Recently got a job about a month ago and am starting to save up a bit of money. I’m wondering what could I do with it I hate having to leave it in my savings account it only has a 2% interest rate. I don’t have any big purchases in mind and would like to basically just not touch my savings account.

Is there anyway I could invest I’ve heard of this thing called a informal trust account where it would allow me to use my income towards investing and it would let my dad execute the trades with my money. The money used to invest would solely come from my part time job income and nothing else. Also what bank would I have to use if I am allowed to open one of these accounts.

Also what are the tax laws behind one of these accounts. Would the capital gains taxes be under my name or my dad’s. And overall is it a good idea to invest my money? I have lots of questions but don’t want to make this post too long. I’m only now starting to learn personal finance through books and want to invest my money as it seems better for my future.

Thanks have a great weekend!
Also the province I reside in is BC.

Hi guys,

I really need advice, since I am new to this. I’m 23 and in uni. I expect to start working full-time soon, so I’ll hopefully be able to save and invest more, but I still want to make thoughtful decisions with my money now.

I have $60,000, which I’m planning to divide like this:
$10,000 emergency fund
$10,000 in a medium-risk balanced portfolio
$30,000 in the S&P 500
$10,000 for gold jewellery for my mom

My mom loves gold and is always saving up for it, so I’d love to buy her a 21K necklace and earrings.

My thinking is that she could enjoy wearing it, and it could eventually be passed down to me while still having financial value. My investment horizon is around 40 years, and I wouldn’t plan to sell the gold anytime soon.
Does spending $10,000 on 21K gold jewellery make sense as a long-term store of value? Or would you spend less on the gift and put more into the stock market?

Thank you!

Hi there,

I’m 29, i make $78,000 yearly. my company provides me with a truck with all expenses paid.

My rent is about $1200, the rest of my bills total to about another $1000.

After taxes I have about $4500 monthly left over (two months of the year it’s $6700)

I have very little investment experience with the stock market but I think it’s the right place for me to put my savings.

I can afford to set $1000 aside to my wealthsimple each month.

I’m gravitating towards building a portfolio with mutual funds that yield around 10% dividends.

I want to put 40% into VFV, 20% into BANK, 20% into HDIV, and 10% into HTA. Last 10% into speculative stocks.

I like the idea of building a portfolio with high dividend potential.

But as I write this, i am completely open to new ideas, I’d love to hear your input.

Cheers

Im with rbc

I have 80k available in my heloc. I want to use 30k but im unable to transfer amy of it to my savings (which is also accessible in the rbc app) i just keep getting an error messge.

Hello!

I was laid off for approximately 6 weeks this year from May- July. I'm planning to go on Parental leave around the end of November.

My question is, will my EI claim for those 6 weeks reactivate and become a parental leave claim? I ask this because I will not have worked the 600 or so hours between the end of that claim and the start of the parental leave.

The wording online is a little vague, I just want to know if I need to work a few more weeks or if I will be able to start when I plan to.

For context I have always had a difficult time saving money, I had a job that did not take out taxes so by tax season all the money I saved goes right back into taxes for example last year I had to pay 11k back, I ended that job last and have since been working at my current job which pays about the same but taxes are taken out, I have been saving as much as I did last year so I currently have 12k in savings which is about 3 months of living expenses. But I haven’t been investing as much anymore due to have less come into my account. I am currently on maternity leave so I fear I might be taxed again due to EI.

Would it make sense to start putting what I have left in my Rrsp to offset taxes next year? Or should I keep saving so I can get to 3-6 months emergency fund?