Around the Blogosphere

I’ve been reading Morgan Housel’s work for years and sharing his thoughtful lessons about money and investing. He has the rare ability to tell stories that connect the past with the present, while unpacking all the useful tidbits that apply to our own lives and personal finances. That’s why I was excited to read Mr.…

How has Covid-19 impacted your personal finances? For the past six months the focus has been on making sure income supports were in place for employees who lost their jobs and for businesses who were forced to shutdown or reduce their operating capacity.  Outside of weekly trips to the grocery store, most of us sheltered…

Since 1991, the Bank of Canada has used an inflation-control target framework to guide Canada’s monetary policy. The goal is to keep inflation at 2%, the mid-point between its target range of 1-3%. The inflation target framework is reviewed every five years, with the most recent agreement in place until the end of 2021. The…

Despite its many flaws, Aeroplan has been my go-to program for flight rewards for the past few years as our family began to travel more often. I know the pain points well: high fuel surcharges on Air Canada flights, lack of available award seats on flights (especially for a family of four), less than ideal…

The Canadian media loves to talk about real estate – particularly Toronto real estate – and its seemingly unstoppable climb to new heights. The average home price in Canada reached $538,831 (June, 2020). That’s up 6.5% versus the same time last year. In a pandemic. The national average doesn’t tell the whole story, though, as…

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” The U.S. stock market continues to defy all logic as the S&P 500 is now up 1.12% on the year. If you slept through the first seven months of 2020 (congratulations?) you would’ve missed stocks surging 5.14% by February 20 to reach an all-time high, then plummeting to -30.83% on…

One of the best things about running my online business is that I can write and offer financial planning from anywhere in the world. No longer tethered to a day job, I planned to test the ‘location independent’ waters this year with some extended travel to see how I could balance work and play. A…

Usually one needs to read the tea leaves to interpret the Bank of Canada’s forward guidance for interest rates and the economy. Not anymore. New Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem was undeniably clear that record low interest rates are here to stay “for a long time.”  It was no surprise to anyone that the…

When the global pandemic became a reality for Canadians in mid-March, the federal government introduced a host of measures to respond to the crisis, including the Canada emergency response benefit (CERB) and Canada emergency wage subsidy (CEWS). The result was a massive spending increase as more than 8 million unique CERB applications were filed and…

Long time readers know that I’m passionate about earning and redeeming credit card rewards. It makes good sense to earn cash back or travel rewards on your everyday spending. Some of us may have even become slightly obsessive about maximizing the rewards on their spending – applying for multiple cards every year to take advantage…