Newly employed? Know your tax deductions  

Convocations and graduation ceremonies are over and new employment contracts are in place. Now, it’s time to understand the tax consequences—especially when take-home pay is a lot smaller than expected.Most new employees can benefit from an onboarding process that includes information about claiming reimbursements for out-of-pocket expenses, pension contributions, or how to deduct unreimbursed costs. Here’s a primer to share.A tax credit for every employeeA non-refundable tax c

Here’s a round-up of news for Canadian investors this week.
RogersTeckScotiabankSleep CountryFeatured RRSP Accountsfeatured EQ Bank Build your retirement savings with 1.50% interest, tax-deferred contributions and zero fees. go to site featured Registered GIC rate Earn a guaranteed 2.75% in your RRSP when you lock in for 1 year. go to siteBest RRSP rates See our ranking of the best RRSP accounts and rates available in Canada. read now
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Buying a home is one of life’s biggest financial decisions, but it’s also one of the easiest places to make an expensive cross-border tax mistake. For many families, purchasing a home represents stability, permanence, and the feeling of finally putting down roots. For U.S. citizens living in Canada, buying a Canadian home can create tax consequences that don’t become apparent until years or even decades later.A case study: When the principal residence exemption isn’t enou

When we moved to Canada and bought our first car, insurance was simply another item on a very long checklist. I knew nothing about the Canadian insurance market, so I did what many newcomers do: lean on someone trustworthy. My father-in-law recommended the brokerage firm he had been using for years, so I called them.The experience was exceptional. They patiently answered every question I had, explained a system I barely understood, and made me feel like more than just another customer. When we l

For most Canadians, a mortgage is simply a fact of life. You buy a home, make your monthly payments, and hope to have it paid off by the time you retire. It’s the advice many of us grew up with: work hard, eliminate debt, and then start enjoying financial freedom.But what if there was a way to make your mortgage work harder for you while you’re paying it down? That’s the idea behind the Smith Manoeuvre, a strategy that helps homeowners use their home equity to potentially build

Clinton Begin was growing tired of frequent visits to bank branches and calling into the trading desk to check on various transactions. “There (were) a lot of things that just took too much of my time. I was always phoning, always going to visit them. It was always a big deal,” he recalled.Even though he had been banking with several of the big lenders for decades, his frustrations grew until they came to a head during one instance involving one of his registered accounts. He fi

Canada’s exchange-traded fund (ETF) industry recently crossed a major milestone. By the end of June 2026, Canadian-listed ETFs collectively held more than $1 trillion in assets under management (AUM), spread across more than 2,000 available products. That growth is impressive, but the Canadian market remains much smaller than its U.S. counterpart. Canada technically launched the world’s first exchange-traded fund ahead of the United States, yet the U.S. industry has since grown to a

With some Canadians skipping the United States in favour of destinations further afield, countries like Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina are attracting more attention. Bolivia is the cheapest of the three, although travellers from Canada will find all of them relatively affordable.5 ways to stay on budget in South America
1. Compare tours after you arrive instead of booking months ahead
2. Carry cash, especially U.S. dollars for Bolivia
3. Use a no-FX fee credit card where cards are accepted
4. Take

In the minds of investors young and old, artificial intelligence (AI) is an investing theme or trend that seems to be right up there with the birth of the internet and the dot-com craze, or indeed the long-ago Industrial Revolution. But over the last 12 months, according to a recent webinar on the topic, market reaction to AI seems to have morphed from enthusiasm about an “unstoppable trend” to fear of the imminent bursting of an alleged “AI bubble.”Our old friends,

When Liza Akhvledziani moved to Canada as an international student, she quickly realized that money worked differently here. From building a credit history to understanding how debt could affect her financial future, she had to learn a new set of rules while rebuilding her financial life from scratch. Those experiences eventually led her to study economics, work on Bay Street and, later, co-found Chexy.Today, as the company’s CEO and co-founder, Akhvledziani is focused on helping Canadians

When the mercury begins to rise, Jeffrey Siegel sinks into a routine. Windows facing the east are covered in the morning before those in the west are shrouded in the afternoon, his fan gets switched on, more of his cooking moves to the barbecue, and a clothesline is brought out whenever there is laundry to dry. These summer habits help keep his house cool, delivering relief to the University of Toronto civil engineering professor—and his wallet.“On a day when I hear most of our

Growing up, I heard one saying repeatedly: the early bird gets the worm. Like so many childhood proverbs, I accepted it without much thought—one of those quiet truths adults repeat often enough that children stop questioning them. For most of my life I assumed it was a lesson about hard work. Wake up early, start before everyone else, stay disciplined, and success will eventually follow. Lately, though, I have begun to wonder whether I misunderstood it entirely. Maybe it was never abo

Here’s a round-up of news for Canadian investors this week.
CogecoElectrovayaBlue Ant MediaLoblaw-EQBFeatured RRSP Accountsfeatured EQ Bank Build your retirement savings with 1.50% interest, tax-deferred contributions and zero fees. go to site featured Registered GIC rate Earn a guaranteed 2.75% in your RRSP when you lock in for 1 year. go to siteBest RRSP rates See our ranking of the best RRSP accounts and rates available in Canada. read now
Why trust us
MoneySense is an award-winning ma

Here’s a round-up of news for Canadian investors this week.
CogecoElectrovayaBlue Ant MediaLoblaw-EQBFeatured RRSP Accountsfeatured EQ Bank Build your retirement savings with 1.50% interest, tax-deferred contributions and zero fees. go to site featured Registered GIC rate Earn a guaranteed 2.75% in your RRSP when you lock in for 1 year. go to siteBest RRSP rates See our ranking of the best RRSP accounts and rates available in Canada. read now
Why trust us
MoneySense is an award-winning ma

My wife and daughter say “tuh-MAY-to,” and I still say “tuh-MAH-to.” We have joked for years about whether my pronunciation would eventually win out, but living in North America, I suspect I never really stood a chance. Pronunciation, though, is not what fascinates me. Meaning does.What intrigues me is how we can all speak the same language, use exactly the same words, and still mean entirely different things by them. Words carry context, culture, and a whole set of quiet

Moving to Canada as an international student comes with a long financial to-do list, and building credit is one of the most important items on it. Your credit history from home typically doesn’t transfer, which means you may need to start from scratch when applying for a credit card, phone plan, apartment rental or loan.Fortunately, building credit in Canada can be relatively straightforward. Many banks, including RBC, offer credit cards specifically designed for students and newcomers, ma

Reverse mortgages were at one time considered the Wild West of financial products, associated with aggressive and even predatory sales tactics targeting seniors in the United States. Fairly or not, that reputation has instilled some wariness in Canada, where regulations have long been more stringent than they were during the industry’s early days south of the border. Nowadays, some experts say they’re an option worth considering for older Canadians who are house rich, cash poor,

I have come to believe that one of the clearest signs of progress is our willingness to ask questions. Not necessarily the big, life-changing ones, but the quieter questions that make us stop and wonder whether the way things were is really the way they should still be. Every question we ask becomes a pillar on which we construct a future version of ourselves.Sometimes those questions shape our own lives, and other times they shape how we show up for the people around us—how we parent, how

Vinyl records are spinning again. Film and digital point-and-shoot cameras are back in fashion. Paper planners, fountain pens, and watercolour kits are finding new homes with consumers who grew up with smartphones as an extension of their arm.The trend has become so widespread that it’s earned its own name: the “analog economy.” And it’s not just hype. In Canada, sales of vinyl and other physical music formats climbed 34.5% between 2021 and 2023, reaching nearly $85 milli

Some cell phone costs may be tax deductible, but what you can claim depends on your employment status and whether you or your employer paid the costs. Claiming your cell phone as an employeeEmployees who are required by their employers to use their cell phone for employment purposes and who have a Form T2200 Declaration of Conditions of Employment signed by their employer may be eligible to claim a portion of their cell phone costs. This presumes they were not reimbursed by the employer.Can

When it comes to building wealth, most people focus on investments, debt levels, or market performance. But what if the real threat to your financial future isn’t any of those? According to Co-authors of Money Together, Heather and Douglas Boneparth, the biggest risk is hiding in plain sight: the conversations couples aren’t having about money.Today, financial decisions are intertwined with daily life, relationships, and long-term goals. The ability to communicate openly about money

Should you consider adding bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), or other cryptocurrencies to your investment portfolio? For long-term investors who can tolerate significant volatility, a small allocation—sometimes around 5%—is increasingly part of the conversation.Crypto’s appeal lies in its growth potential and its ability to diversify a portfolio, but it comes with sharp price swings and uncertain long-term outcomes. The key question isn’t just whether it might boost returns,

The Canadian exchange-traded fund (ETF) industry’s growth has been substantial and is picking up steam. According to the Canadian ETF Association, Canadian-listed ETFs collectively managed approximately $790 billion in assets as of March 31, 2026. At that time, there were 1,526 ETFs offered by 49 different sponsors listed on Canadian exchanges.But not every ETF will survive. ETF providers are businesses, and ETFs themselves are products. The goal of launching an ETF is ultimately to gather

My house, as I told my insurance broker recently, is the Canadian housing equivalent of ancient. Built in the 1910s in Saskatoon, this house has many foibles. To hang pictures, I have to use wood screws lest regular nails bounce off of the layers and layers of paint. My basement is a little more than a horror movie-esque concrete box. Perhaps its most damning feature until last year was its lack of a wheelchair lift. One grant, and more than $20,000 later, that has been rectified. The administra

Nobody moves to Canada excited about price matching. When my family immigrated in 2019, I expected to spend countless hours learning about taxes, credit scores, saving plans and all the other financial building blocks that make this country unique. I knew there would be a learning curve, and I was ready for it. Those were the things I assumed would shape my financial life here. Price matching never once crossed my mind.Like many newcomers, I spent my first few months trying to make sense of a fi

One of the biggest fears consumers have is losing a credit card, but a lost card is usually detected quickly and the account frozen. A bigger danger may lie in using your credit card to make payments online—especially if you are unfamiliar with the vendor or using a public Wi-Fi network that can be hacked. In those situations, your credit card information could be intercepted or stolen without you realizing it.Fortunately, there are simple tools that can enhance the security around credit

If you’re someone near or at retirement, has a column like the one you’re now reading ever “finfluenced” any of your financial decisions? Increasingly, many Canadian investors are turning to a new generation of voices online, a trend that regulators are starting to watch more closely. A finfluencer is simply a financial influencer, a contraction similar to my own “findependence” for financial independence. And while I’m tooting my own horn here, let