I found myself thinking about the northeast blackout of 2003 when a reader asked me recently how much cash people are keeping at home these days. The blackout hit Ontario and the northeastern United States and lasted a couple of days....
Just before the Bank of Canada increased its trend-setting overnight rate earlier this month, a reader got in touch to ask whether she should stick with her variable-rate mortgage or lock into a fixed-rate mortgage. I decided to put this question...
We’re a country swimming in home equity, yet there’s a stigma about actually tapping this wealth. Home equity lines of credit are widely and avidly used, but there’s often a judgmental tone to comments about this trend that suggests HELOC users...
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has rocked financial markets in a way we haven’t seen in a while. Checked your portfolio yet? You may see a lot of what you own losing ground in a way that makes you question yourself....
A bull market is a terrible teacher of smart investing habits. In the kind of fast-rising markets we’ve seen for most of the past two years, picking stocks and sectors has been an easy path to investing success. You don’t need...
PC Optimum is a strong contender for the customer loyalty plan with the most customer loyalty. I asked newsletter readers recently which customer loyalty plan does the best job of helping them offset effect of inflation on their household spending. As...
A lot of personal finance is about trying to exert some control over the uncertainties of life. But the uncertainty of death may be easier to address. What would happen to your family if you died suddenly? If you have an...
A lot of personal finance is warning people about risk, and no risk has been talked about more in the past dozen or so years than rising interest rates. Also, no risk has been more overblown. By me, by economists and...
Winter is coming this spring for first-time home buyers Affordability is under assault on two fronts as the busy spring buying season approaches – prices are soaring and interest rates are set to start rising from their pandemic lows. ‘Winter is...
The internet has helped us all raise our game in managing our finances, but home buyers and owners may have benefited the most. You can’t overstate the benefit of being able to compare mortgage rates online. Squeezing the cost of borrowing...
