Hello Everyone!

As the title suggests, I had made a post few weeks/months ago asking for tips and I did implement a few of the suggestions and here is where I am at now:

1) I put in around $20k into RRSP in my Wealthsimple account, that I have to invest now.
2) Getting a tax refund of $12k, planning to invest in TSFA in Wealthsimple.

I had a whole plan prior this tariff dip and maybe now is even better time to buy so here is my plan, please advise what do you think or I am open to suggestions.

A little background, I have invested some money in stocks and crypto but nothing too significant <$15k. My risk tolerance is medium and I don't want to go too volatile with the investing. I am ideally looking to buy and forgot for most part and let it grow. I am looking to invest in Canadian stocks/ETFs only at the moment due to exchange rate etc etc, unless thats a huge mistake then please advise.

After doing a lot of reading it appears that I should be investing in - XGRO, VUN, XEQT, and VFV, all of which are quite down from last week that means more investment. I have about $20k to invest, any suggestions for how I should divide my investments? I am going to check which ones give dividend if any, then maybe invest bit more into dividend ETFs.

Any suggestions of other stocks or ETFs you would recommend to a novice investor like myself? I will also see if Canadian stocks are down maybe put some in those too. Any tips and help is appreciated. thank you!

Thank you for your help!

I am trying to file my personal income tax but notice a lot of slips are still missing from the CRA site. I am expecting around 100 slips and only 15 show up on the system. Is anyone else having the same problem? Are there any words on when this will be fixed? Manually collecting and entering the missing slips is prone to errors and going to take days.

*** Please be gentle. We are young, have made mistakes, and are very much still learning how to manage money. ***

My partner and I have been actively house hunting for our first home for a year, and we’ve finally found one we want to put an offer on. Stupidly, most of our savings for a down payment are in a TFSA and RRSPs that have historically done very well, but obviously that is not the case currently! The timing of everything is awful. All our savings for a down payment are investments that are currently super down…

We were planning to transfer from our TFSA to our FHSAs (we each have a couple years worth of contribution room) at the time we need to put the down payment, so we get the FHSA tax break. We were also planning to withdraw from our RRSPs at time of down payment so that we can reinvest those funds (to be more easily accessible in the future, like in a HISA). RRSP repayment minimums would be achieved without changing our current contribution habits.

Is there a way to minimize the damage here? Or is buying a house right now just a terrible idea? I know withdrawals from RRSPs and FHSA don’t HAVE TO go towards the down payment so long as you meet the withdrawal criteria (ie are buying a first home)… Maybe we could withdraw from RRSPs but to reinvest in TFSA and hope to recover some of our losses over the next few years? Any other suggestions on how to minimize losses when all investments are tanking?

Numbers: - TFSA savings: were around $40k last month, now at $35k this morning - RRSP savings: were around $113k last month, now at $103k this morning - FHSA savings: pretty much $0 - FHSA contribution room: $32k combined (idea was that we could transfer TFSA funds into this account the day before down payment needed to utilize tax break) - Down payment needed: around $45k

Edit to clarify my question: potentially withdrawing from TFSA and RRSPs during mega stock market plummet that’s happening right now. How bad of an idea is this? Is it worth unnecessarily withdrawing from RRSPs (utilizing Home Buyers Plan) to reinvest them somehow?

As the title suggests, I suspect Canadian debt collection company FDR sold my debt to another debt collection company after they cold called me for the first time in 6/7 years. This debt did not appear on my credit report. I informed them that the debt fell under a CP of which I have completed. I emailed a manager of FDR with the proof, and he mentioned he would forward to their lawyers to confirm.

For info: CP filed in 2021, certificate of full performance 2024

A few short days later I am looking at my credit report and the amount that they claimed I owed them appeared under a new collections by a completely different debt collectors name.

Did they sell my debt once they found out it fell under a CP and was not available to claim? Is this not illegal? I do not owe them anything and they are actively harming my credit by bouncing this invalid debt around to other collectors. What should I do?

https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2014/02/worlds-worst-market-timer/

Just stay the course.

I know how mortgages work in that they are front loaded with interest, in that more of your payment at the beginning goes to interest that principal. Near the end of the mortgage most of the payment is going towards principal.

So when you switch banks, how does it work? My concern is that you start fresh when you switch, that you are back to paying mostly interest. Is that true? I'm sure the bank is not going to point this out to you. Is there a way to avoid this? What questions do you have to ask? What if you increase your mortgage? Maybe it's better to keep the mortgage the same and just do a LOC if you want money from your house?

Hi all. My family in Germany is helping pay for some urgent things here in Canada and agreed to send $2000 CAD monthly for now.

Is there an easy, cheap and reliable way to do this? It does not have to be instant transfers but preferably as cheap and reliable as possible.

Thank you!!

I'm pretty sick and tired of TD, lots of reasons. Mostly sick of paying $16.99/monthly for my own bank account... I just find it crazy lol, it's getting pricey. Their customer service has been horrendous lately too.

My whole family is with RBC but I don't enjoy the fact they don't offer Visa Debit cards lol. The "issue at hand" is that I have my car loan, my credit card, my LOC, and my son's RESP all into TD.

I've been looking at Tangerine along with RBC.

Are there any options where I could move everything over from TD? Like good options? I also would like to open an account under mine for my son and soon-to-be daughter (due in May) and put the CCB I get into their accounts.

TIA!

Looking for advice here.

I would be paying around 45% of the property value as down and 4.14 is the interest rate.

I have been informed this is the best I can get with my income but I imagine most sales staff would understandably say that.

Should I accept or keep looking elsewhere for better rates?

Hello,

Before I reach out to a financial advisor to explore options I figured I'd run this past the subreddit. Im 28 yrs old and have $108k sitting in a crappy money master savings account that Ive had since I was a teen. This "savings" account has close to a 0% interest rate, so my money is definitely noooot making money haha.. I inherited this money from the untimely passing of my dad. I felt weird receiving this money, going through the grief of losing my last parent and such, and it has just sat there for a couple years. I didn’t want to spend any of it so I basically just acted like it wasn’t there. i now feel ready to take action and invest it wisely.

Im debt free and live within my everyday chequing account comfortabley enough. i make 65k a year gross.

Currently I have (book value) $43k in a TFSA (RBC Select balanced) and $13k in a personal RRSP (which I have not contributed yet to in 2025). Currently I save and put away $500 a month to my TFSA right from my paycheck. these investing accounts are high risk and with the market in the shitter currently, they are down significantly. i’m not too worried about this though as these accounts are long term investments to me and i’ve survived the covid market so far ahaha.

My mid-long term goals is to buy a house in the next 10 years. I also plan on buying a new used car in the next year.

What would you do with this extra sitting cash?

I did my taxes on March 21st and on my CRA account it says that my refund will be auto deposited on March 31st I checked my bank account and noticed nothing had been deposited into my account. I checked my CRA account and noticed someone else’s bank information for auto deposit was on my account… Has this ever happened to anyone else? Also who do I contact about this? I’m just very confused as I have never changed my banking information on my account and not sure how this could have happened.

I searched this sub for Mint alternatives 2 years ago and ended up trying Neontra.

It’s been great. I’m using the free version that allows one bank connection (to my big 5 bank for all accounts but one credit card). It syncs all those accounts automatically from that bank and I manually import transactions from my other credit card via csv.

Transaction rules are quick to set up and adjust and they work well. I like the reports and need to use more of the tools for budgeting.

Anyway, wanted to share as it’s free and works so far.

I’m 18 and I have been building credit on my student credit card for some time now.(on time with low utilization). What credit cards should can I apply for that I have a realistic chance at getting accepted for that are also worth the benefits?

Hello,

So I am going to buy my first car shortly and wanted to get an idea of what to expect from car insurance.

Cars I am looking at: CX50 and Honda CRV. Both new and financed.

I have 10 years of driving experience (foreign) that has been accepted by Ontario (4 dots on the G license). I got my G1 in 2023 and then G in 2025. My wife has a G1 right now with no driving experience. i also have tenant insurance with this provider - square one insurance.

The insurance quote I am getting is $460 per month. I live in downtown, entertainment district. Does this sound right?

Hey folks, looking for some mortgage advice.

My bank is offering me two options:

3-year fixed at 3.97%

5-year variable at 4.65%

My mortgage is up for renewal on May 29th. I owe $95,000 with 15 years left, it’s uninsured, and my credit score is over 840.

They’re really pushing the 3-year fixed, which kind of makes me lean toward the variable. I’m trying to read between the lines here.

Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Definitely a cautionary tale.

At 23, I switched departments with the company I had been working at for 2 years (and still am). This came with a good pay increase, and also moving in with my (now ex) common-law. My living expenses were minimal (had roommates and no car, etc), so even though I was overspending, by the time I was 30, I had 30K in shares from work and 6K in personal savings.

In 2016, my ex common-law and I split. I started seeing someone shortly after and within a year, moved in with him. He was on government benefits, which apparently were cut off as soon as we moved in together. For about 2 years, I was shouldering his mortgage, utilities, groceries, everything. Bye bye to my personal savings and over time, I ended up withdrawing all of my shares over about 5 years.

One month, I was going to be short and ended up taking a payday loan. DON'T DO THIS! This is how you get trapped in the never-ending cycle of debt. Why? 1 - you're likely already too tight financially to afford the repayments on the loan 2 - the interest rate are outrageous and it will take forever for any longer term loans to pay them off. So, I kept getting new loans to keep covering the shortfall and renewing short term loans once they were paid off or refinancing longer term loans when I was eligible.

Fast forward to now, at 38, I had over $50K in debt, spending $4K/month on repayments, always having to scramble for money. I managed to get a mortgage in 2023, but had to borrow my down-payment from my father and haven't even been able to start paying him back.

I've just filed a consumer proposal, and honestly wish I had much sooner. I'm not able to refinance my mortgage now and had to just do a renewal offer from my lender.

If you take anything away from my rambling, look at any and all alternatives before taking a loan. If you can't get one at a decent interest rate from the bank, then you can't afford to take one. Also, reach out for financial help as soon as possible - you're only hurting yourself worse struggling financially and digging yourself deeper into the hole.

What’s the worst that could happen? I have this fear of going to court or something

Hi everyone, I’m 23 and have been contributing to managed portfolios for a few years now, but have recently decided to take a more hands on approach to my investments. I have been trying to find the best place to put cash.

I have most of my cash in wealthsimple’s cash account, which currently pays out 1.75%. Last month I put $1000 into ZMMK in a non registered account, and I made $3.00 in interest. Compared to the ~$13,000 I have in my wealthsimple cash account, which paid me $18.34 in interest for last month, ZMMK seems like it has a considerably higher ROI. (obviously, because it’s currently listed on the BMO site as paying 3.6%)

So naturally I’m considering moving all my cash to a money market fund such as ZMMK. Before I do, I wanted to run it by this community. Is there anything I should consider before moving to money market funds? I know they’re meant for liquidity, but nothing is more liquid than cash, so would it be harder to sell it in a pinch if I needed the money urgently? (I don’t foresee myself in a situation where I can’t wait a day or two for the money to clear before I use it, but you never really know for sure). Are there other alternatives I should consider? I’m looking for something with relatively low volatility as this is money that I occasionally use for lump sum purchases into my investments, as well as for any larger than average purchases in my everyday life.

Thanks everyone :)

I filed my income tax today for 2024 and I'm a bit confused as to what payee I'm supposed to use? I owe a few hundred dollars, but I want to ensure I use the proper payee as the CRA has a couple different listed. My options are as follows:

1 - CRA personal income tax - amount owing

2 - CRA personal income tax - 2024 tax return

I have recieved an express notice of assessment already. My final notice of assessment is set for April 10th. Can some clarify between the two options? I'm having a hard time understanding the CRA website. I just want to make sure I send the money to the correct payee

I need some help with deciding whether or not to take my pension now or defer until I turn 60. Here are the details. I have a defined benefit pension plan. The plan is 115% funded and will not wind-up in my lifetime. I am now 55 and really want to stop working at my current employer. I have 2 options, 1) If I take my pension immediately, my reduced monthly pension will be $3000 and I will receive (gold plated) healthcare benefits (at no cost) for the rest of my life. 2) The other option is to terminate employment and defer my pension until I turn 60 for an unreduced monthly pension of $3800 with NO healthcare benefits. I am not considering taking the commuted value. The pension is NOT indexed. I also have about $150k (going lower everyday!) between RSP and TFSA, no mortgage and likely to work at another job between 55 - 60 at a HOOPP employer. On average I use about $8000k/year ($700 month) on healthcare - now all reimbursed.

Here is my question...which is the better financial option assuming I live to 75? 1)Take my lower pension and health benefits now or 2) higher pension with no health benefits in 5 years? Any advice or other possible options are appreciated!

For those currently nervous about market's volatility, see this video uploaded in 2020. It's still relevant today:

"Every market drop feels different. There is always a narrative, and the narrative is often scarier than the drop itself. If we can understand the power of a compelling narrative to make us behave irrationally, we might be better equipped to make better decisions, and feel less anxious, when the stock market declines."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PYsVkPtcXk

Too long, didn't watch/TLDW: The narrative of each market crash can be different, but the fact remains the same: investors have a long track record of being compensated by positive expected stock returns in exchange for taking risk, i.e. strong returns when market rebounds after crashes

Good day, i am 30 y/o and for a year now I have been putting money into my TFSA and RRSP 50/50.

I have been debating with colleagues about what is the best option for us.. I will retire at 55 (after 30 years of service) with a 70% pension. I estimate that my base salay then will be close to 200 000$.

Now I wonder if putting a lot in my RRSP to try to get a return that I can then snowball is better than going 50/50 or if I should be maxing my TFSA first then going 50/50. I calculated that maxing my TFSA would take around 5-6 years.

What do you guys think?

Probably a simple question with a simple answer. I have a small business with a corporate account at a major Canadian bank, and a significant cash savings I want to self direct invest. In the past I have used a branch financial advisor who has directed me to mutual funds. I want to buy individual or market equity funds by myself. Should I use the self trading interface of my current bank or use something like wealthsimple?

I have the T2202 forms from my university so was wondering if it would benefit me now or when I start earning taxable income? (currently have scholarships from the university)

It takes up maybe 10kb/year in a CSV.

Also why don't they make it easy to download entire years? I was able to very easily with my PC MC, but Tangerine, it makes me select month to month for CC statements...

Ideally I'd like to be able to say all transactions form 2015 to 2025 in a CSV.

like.. at most that's 100kb per customer... if that have 10 000 000 customers... that's 1 000 000 000 kb or ~ 1 TB for all customers aka... next to nothing in terms of storage.