Around the Blogosphere

“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…

Fred Vettese is a leading expert in retirement planning and his books, which include The Essential Retirement Guide and Retirement Income for Life, are must reads for retired or soon-to-be retired Canadians. The newly updated second edition of Retirement Income for Life will be released on October 20, 2020. The Rational Reminder podcast had Mr.…

It’s no secret that mortgage rates have been incredibly low for an incredibly long time. Even when we think rates couldn’t possibly go lower, a lender tests the waters with another record-low promotion. This time it’s HSBC with an unprecedented 5-year fixed mortgage rate of 1.99%. But as mortgage broker Dave Larock points out, there’s…

It’s hard to believe that just three months ago we were preparing to travel to Italy. It was one of several trips we had planned for 2020, including a return to the U.K. in July and a trip to Victoria to close out the summer. Then COVID-19 hit and our plans quickly changed. Italy was…

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) made headlines last week when its housing market outlook predicted that national housing prices would fall 9-18% over the coming months due to the coronavirus crisis. This week, Canada’s largest default insurer took significant steps to change its underwriting policies for insured mortgages.  The following changes, which take effect…

Will we see a housing market crash in 2020 and beyond? The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) published its housing market outlook this week and, well, their forecast for home sales and prices look pretty bleak. Housing starts are expected to see a decline of between 51% to 75%, and not begin to recover…