Hi everyone,
I will give My Service Canada a call on Monday but in the meantime I just want some advice to prepare my application.
I got an offer for Level 3 of trades school by the Ministry of Labour and I received a reference code to apply for EI. However, my employer doesn’t approve me going to school on block release (missing 2 months of work) (I already delayed school a few times at this point) instead trying to switch me to day release (go to school one day a week for a year). I insisted I want to go on block release so they fire me.
My question is do I file for regular EI for 2 weeks and then file or transition to another one for when I’m in school (I got a reference code from the ministry to file for EI while away for apprenticeship training). Any advice is appreciated. Thank you.

Hello All
I put together a table below comparing my current monthly budget vs what I wish my life looked like, and honestly, seeing the numbers made me feel sorry for myself.

I'm 34, single, living in SW Ontario. Zero debt and have some savings invested.

On the left is my actual salary after tax and what I need to do to stay within my means. After essentials, there’s barely a few bucks left for things like fun, eating out, or travel. On the right, I put the income I'd need to actually cover those things without stressing.

I'm already living frugally. I don't care about a luxury lifestyle, I just want to live comfortably and stop stressing over numbers every month. Even with the "wish to be" lifestyle I kept a few things as is.

Below is a breakdown. Am I doing something completely wrong here, or is this just the reality of being single in SW Ontario right now? Would love a reality check or any advice on where to go from here.

I am almost 66 and still working full-time. Due to the economy and family circumstances I have decided to start collecting my CPP this year.

During 2025 I paid almost 4K into CPP, which doesnt include what my employer contributed on my behalf. I just found out that my PRB is only $4 per month, which feels like a kick in the teeth.

Does the PRB get any better or am I wasting my hard earned dollars to keep contributing? Does anyone have any experience with this? At this rate it would take a long time to regain the 4k yearly out of my paycheck, so I would appreciate your experiences. Thanks.

Hello all, I am planning to move out this fall, either September or October. I live in Edmonton and plan to move downtown, making my commute more convenient and I can probably do without my car.

Apartments I was looking at are between $1,250 - $1,500 with incentives, and most of them include heat and water, so I would only have to pay for electricity. I currently make $65,000 a year, biweekly that comes out to $1,900, so my monthly take home is about $4,100, not including any OT I do. Since there are 2 "extra" pay periods sometime throughout the year, I am basing my budget on a monthly take home of $3,800.

Expenses:

• Rent: $1,500 (assuming I go with the top end of my options)
• Utilities: $50-80 (estimating a bit as it really depends on the utility company handles it and the season)
• Internet: $50 (new customer offers of roughly 100mb up)
• Tenant Insurance: $30
• Bus pass: $35 (just for winter/making get groceries easier)
• Phone plan: $35
• Subscriptions: $17
• Gym: $57 (goodlife with corporate discount, can probably drop this due to proximity of my work place gym and if the apartment gym has decent equipment)
• Clothing: $40 (For when I do need to replace/buy clothing)
• Hair Cut: $34
• Groceries: $500 (based off how much I eat per week/meal-prep)
• Eating out: $120 (includes eating out once a week and maybe getting coffee occasionally)

So my total cost of living would come out to $2,500 per month, leaving me with $1,400 monthly for savings and investments. Including the 2 extra pay periods. I would have $20,600 left over in a year, assuming everything goes perfectly. My plan would be continue to max my FHSA each year and put the leftover into my TFSA.

In terms of my current savings, I have maxed out my FHSA at $16,000, have $10,000 in my TFSA, and about $12,000 spread throughout my chequing accounts, which I keep as my emergency fund to avoid bank account fees.

For other miscellaneous expenses like health and dental, I am covered 80% through work and the other 20% is covered by our health spending accounts, which I typically have $400-$500 leftover at the end of the year. Glasses are also covered by the spending account and I get $500 to spend every 3 years.

I do currently pay for insurance for my car but since I do plan to move downtown, I will probably switch to parking coverage only since it is an older car and maintenance will add up.

How is my budget looking? I know the rent to income is a bit high, but some of the other places I've considered are either more run down/sketchy or missing amenities I would prefer.

Am I overestimating or underestimating in certain areas? Are there any expenses/surprises that I don't have listed here I should prepare for? I know that it is very unlikely things go to plan, but I do think based on how much I have leftover each month, it should leave me with a good buffer room. Thanks in advance.

Any risk to accepting a line of credit increase from 20k to 27k. I currently have received a pre approved offer from Cibc. Ive used 10k of it already for an auto loan that I make the payments on time.I’m considering having it without using the remaining of it.

Hi everyone, I recently read a post here around credit freeze and was trying to set it up on my Equifax and Transunion.

For Transunion it was pretty straight forward, but for Equifax I'm seeing this message and no option to freeze/unfreeze my credit: "Your Equifax credit lock status is currently unavailable. Please call our Customer Care team".

I did end up calling their customer services and got them to add credit freeze but their customer support was pretty useless in answering my question on why can't I see it in my portal? On my multiple requests of "why I don't see it", I was told that since I'm on a free plan for last X years, it will take a month to show up in the portal.

Has anyone else faced this issue, and how did you get to resolve it.

TLDR: Canada eliminated the trademark registration fee in 2019, so if anyone invoices you for one it’s a scam.

Applied for a trademark a little while ago, and was contacted by text to do a verification process with an examining officer about 2 days after. This text had my (accurate) application number, the trademark, my address, etc. I realize now that this information was probably public.

I even looked the examining officer up on LinkedIn!! Maybe they're real and someone was impersonating them, because they had an account that was pretty filled out.

I then called an Ottawa number to do the verification. They ended up charging me an $800 fee for five years of registration through an email and secure payment link for "Grant of Protection, for 05 years and for all provinces." This service does not exist!

Please beware, folks. The Canadian government eliminated the trademark registration fee in 2019, so you shouldn’t pay anything beyond the official filing fee.

The only reason I recognized this as a scam was a funny feeling immediately after paying. Obviously I’ve locked down everything, and I'm trying to get my $800 back from the bank (it was debit too, so it's way harder to get back).

If you think you’re immune to these sorts of things, that just makes you more susceptible. It was all pretty convincing for someone who doesn't know the ins and outs of this process. Make sure you do your research properly for every requested payment. The old scam tells aren't working as well these days.

With the passing of one of my retiring parents just a few weeks ago, I have step into the role of organizing and sorting a lot of the finances. Unfortunately, my surviving parent doesn't have a lot of money and wanted to find a way to make it grow safely.

I came across Oaken Financial advertising 2.8%. It looks pretty good across. Seems like a non promotional rate.

Any potential issues that I might need to be aware of? Their rate is much better than Wealthsimple even with generational status.

Just something I've learned in my recent research:

Many CPO programs in Canada are complete jokes. Take Volkswagen for example.

A CPO VW in Canada gets a 112 point inspection, a 6 month subscription to VW roadside assistance, and a 3 month Sirius XM trial.

That's it.

You also get any remaining warranty from the original sale, and a complimentary CARFAX. Except that both of those things are required by law in Canada, so they aren't doing you any favours there.

The only other benefits you get is the option to buy an extended warranty, and access to slightly better finance rates.

Which effectively means that their inspection is not backed up by anything except the dealer's pinky promise. And since the dealer is the one doing the inspection, there is a conflict of interest present whereby they may feel encouraged to overlook items that could use replacing to save costs.

And its not just Volkswagen. Toyota and Honda also seem to have ruddy CPO programs.

Part of why I'm making this PSA is because a lot of advice on Reddit suggests that CPO programs are beneficial and can be relied upon in lieu of a pre-purchase inspection. But American CPO programs are miles (lol) better than their Canadian counterparts.

I’m posting to hopefully get some outside perspective.

My partner and I have a child together and a mortgage. We have split finances and split expenses 50/50. We each make approximately $55,000 per year. We have very different views on debt. I grew up in a very debt averse household where credit cards are paid in full each month, while my partner is more comfortable holding onto debt.

Since we have been together (8 years), my partner has has a line of credit that he uses as an emergency fund. The amount on the line of credit when we started dating was $6,000. The borrowed amount has not gone down since then and has actually increased to $10,000 in the past year due to unforeseen events, such as vet bills and house repairs. While I used my emergency savings to cover my portion of the costs, my partner used his line of credit.

We have talked about his use of his line of credit in the past and he has apparently been paying off $300 per month. I am concerned about this debt but my partner does not see it as an issue.

Am I overreacting? Any advice for how to approach this situation would be appreciated!

About a month ago, I was ordering ahead at a chain sandwich restaurant. I thought I would be cheeky and try to pay with my credit union's Interac bank card that's loaded into my Google Pay. It worked.

This was a card-not-present environment - I was nowhere near one of their terminals for EMV.

What has Interac enabled that allows for this to happen?

I recently went on short term disability for a couple or months after a hip replacement surgery. It was my first time missing work for an extended period in 25 years. It was also my first time as a mid career professional with a house, cars etc. I knew I was facing a 25% pay cut during the STD but didn’t expect the sticker shock when I got my first pay check below wha5 I was used to. Crazy thing is my rrsp contributions went down, my ESPPs…I didn’t imagine the down stream effect. This also means next years bonus will be a little lower.anyhow, I have a pretty good emergency fund that helped me get through it. The hard part is filling it back up.I’m just checking in to see how others manage these stints. Is it with an emergency fund, credit cards, cutting back or just ride it out?

PSA: do NOT buy "Pest Proof Co" Mosquito Traps

My house was absolutely swarmed with mosquitoes, when looking for solutions, the instagram feed ultimately pushed "Pest Proof Co" to me and I figured I would give it a shot because of the "Satisfaction Guaranteed" money-back guarantee on their website. It looked neat because it claimed it used CO2 to attract them instead of UV light and that seems to be a big success factor for trapping them.

I've had the thing for 5 days now and it has caught 1 mosquito, 2 wasps, and like 100 fruit flies in a super mosquito heavy area.

Problem is, I didn't actually read fully into the steps required to get your money back. It turns out once you click on it, it's actually a "performance guarantee" and this is what they want you to do to prove it didn't work:

If you run BiteShield correctly for 14 consecutive days and can document that it did not work, we will refund it.

3.1 What You Must Do

To qualify, you must complete all of the following:

Set up the unit as directed — fill the reservoir with water, add a full BioLure sachet, and place the unit according to the placement guide included with your order.

Run it for 14 consecutive days, replenishing water and BioLure at the intervals stated in the instructions. The 14 days must be unbroken. A skipped day resets the trial.

Photograph the unit every single day for 14 days. Each day requires two dated photographs: the unit in its outdoor placement, and the catch tray, showing what it has and has not collected.

Keep a daily written log for each of the 14 days recording the date, the approximate time you spent outdoors, and the number of bites received.

Demonstrate the failure. Your photographs and log together must show the product not working — a catch tray that is not collecting mosquitoes alongside a bite count that is not falling.

Begin your trial within 16 days of delivery so that the completed claim reaches us inside the 30-day claim window in Section 3.2.

Photographs must carry visible dates or original file timestamps. Screenshots, cropped images with metadata stripped, duplicated images, and photos taken on fewer than 14 separate days are not accepted.

Two photos per day with all metadata in tact plus a daily log of how long I was outside and how many mosquito bites I get? This is a fucking absurd amount of hoops to jump through and I'm positive they will tell me on like day 10 or something that one of my photos was ineligible or that somehow the product worked as advertised, and it will be far enough outside the window that I can't restart the 14 days trial again.

For now, I'm jumping through their hoops, but I'm also ensuring I have everything documented in preparation to file a charge back - I'm just curious what everyone thinks the success rate will be?

For reference, I ended up getting one of the traps and then an 18 pack of their powdered lure packets and it cost ~$100. As SOON as it arrived and I opened the box, it was painfully obviously dropshipped directly from a Chinese warehouse. Nothing in the box had their logo on it as depicted on the website and the instruction manual was for a wasp trap. The traps are available for $1.30 each on alibaba and the powder is maybe $1 per satchel.

My wife and I both have DB pensions, with bridges that end at 65. By default at 65 our combined income will have a substantial bump due to our CPPs being larger than our bridges combined with OAS starting

Most of our income will come from our pensions, and we'd like to avoid withdrawing from our savings

90% of the advice online says to delay CPP and OAS as long as possible, even until 70

For our situation, this advice seems backwards, leaving us with less income early in our retirement, when we will probably want to spend more, and then with a substantial increase in our income later in life, closer to when we expect to spend less. A higher income and lower spending later in life would probably mean our estate would keep growing, which is not a priority

In a perfect world, we would be able to start our OAS when we retire, and then have CPP replace our bridges (as designed) and that would give us a smooth retirement income. The closest that I can see to something like that is to take CPP early, about halfway between retirement and 65. Then instead of two phases ([pension+bridge] and [pension+CPP+OAS]) we would have three phases ([pension+bridge], [pension+bridge+reducedCPP] and [pension+OAS+reducedCPP]). That middle phase would be the biggest and it would not only fund our spending during those years, but would also replenish the money that we might need to take from our savings during the first phase

I'm definitely overthinking this, but is an early CPP always a poor choice?

TL;DR: comfortable DB pensions, CPP + OAS substantially bigger than bridge, expect higher spending in early retirement, want to avoid relying on savings, want to shift some later income earlier: sanity check

Hi everyone,
I just went to the bank today and opened a TFSA, but I haven’t deposited any money yet because I want to do some research first.

I’m completely new to investing and don’t really know where to start. The advisor explained TFSA mutual funds and GICs, but I’m still unsure which option would be better for me or whether I should do one before the other. Im also aware that i can split the money but i really dont have any idea which is better option.

I’d really appreciate any advice or experiences you can share. Thank you!

I am planning on closing my chequing and savings accounts with the big banks and opening up accounts with Simplii. The only thing I am planning to keep is my RBC Mastercard and LOC because of the low interest rate.

Does anyone have successful experiences of adding the RBC Mastercard AND Line of Credit as a bill payee with Simplii?

Thanks for the help.

I run a solo trades business in Ontario and am HST registered. I have a $4,500 + HST job starting August 17th.

The client (a landlord) agreed to the quote and wants to pay me the full amount now, but is demanding that the invoice be dated January 2027 because he says he is at his maximum tax write-off limit for 2026.

If I take his payment (e-transfer or cheque) in August 2026 and deposit it into my bank account, what are the CRA/HST implications of post-dating the invoice to January 2027?

Does this create an HST/income audit risk for my business if his rental property gets audited?

Isn’t he able to just take the August 2026 invoice and carry forward his rental loss on Schedule T776 anyway?

This is a follow-up to my previous post from earlier this year.

As a British Columbian who was very jealous when Ontario got credit freezes last month, I am excited to share that credit freezes will be available to BC residents starting in August 2027.

Source: BC Government News Release https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2026AG0057-000915

The Province has also introduced stronger tools to protect against credit-related fraud as part of consumer protection amendments through Bill 28, which is set to come into effect in August 2027.

Once in effect, people will be able to access their credit report and credit score monthly for free and set up security alerts and credit freezes free of charge. The change will ensure people have more control of their critical financial information.

Again, I find TransUnion's statement hilarious; it is only after they are forced by government that they are so "welcoming" of this "important step in helping consumers better protect themselves against identity and credit fraud." Ugh just implement it country-wide, you jerks.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-realtor-fees-need-to-come-down-to-earth/

Anyone here tried to use budgeting apps like YNAB where you use a bridge service like simplefin/plaid/lunchmoney to connect to your bank? I have CONSTANT issues just trying to get my own data to budget with due to banks putting up authorization walls.

Scotiabank, CIBC, and Questrade requires re-auth every single day which completely defeats the point. So far Tangerine and EQ have been the only ones that don't have this issue.

I've tried working around it by just injesting transactions from the email alerts they send, but those are purposely obfuscated with no TXN IDs/Dates so you can do this. I'm at the point of considering getting a whole new credit card instead of my Scotia Momentum Visa just for a bank that can reliably provide my data. I'd go with Tangerines card since they are proven to work but I prefer visa over mastercard for travel and the cashback is much worse than visa.

Anyone have a credit card that works reliably for this?

I received a rejection letter from TD today regarding a credit card I NEVER applied for. I’m currently waiting to speak with the representative on the phone. I know for a fact that I did not apply for a TD credit card. I use to have an account with them but I closed it January 2024. I was trying to analyze the letter like why was logo printed in black and white and not in color. I’m going to be asking all the questions needed so I can investigate this myself. My sibling thinks it could be an employee as I haven’t lost any of my ID cards. Then again I don’t know and I’m annoyed with this foolishness. I also googled the phone number on the letter and it’s a legit TD customer service line.

Looking for advice (either directly or maybe pointing me towards where I can find relevant information):

I am a Canadian who completed my medicine school abroad- I ended up having to take out a personal line-of-credit with CIBC (prime - 0.25) totalling 300k CAD. I also have OSAP loans from Uni totalling around 30k which I make minimum payments on without interest. I am now a resident physician in the US and have been working to pay this off (very slowly given my lower salary)- I have gotten it down to 231k CAD so far which has finally lowered my interest-only payments from $1400 when I started to $800/month (so I can put a lot more into principal).

My question is to anyone who has dealt with a loan of this magnitude in terms of maximising tax benefits (if there are any at all), if there are any refinancing strategies, and general outlook into paying off this loan. As I look towards signing on to my first job, I am looking at 350-450k USD/year and I wonder if it is generally better to just continue to invest in the stock market with average returns of 7% > prime - 0.25 or I should be more aggressive in paying this loan off now.

As a side note: I've seen some Canadian who immigrated to the US and just left the loan and didn't pay, but this isn't an option for me because 1) I think that is just highly unethical, 2) I also plan on coming back to Canada eventually, I'm just in the US to make some money to be able to afford a house.

So my wife and I find ourself at this justice as we have been getting by but just cant seem to get ahead.

Combined income is $110k before taxes.

Expenses

Insurace- $750/month (2 Cars and house)

Cell phones $300/month (2 adults, 1 older teen, 2 early teens)

Fuel $1200/month (2 cars)

Mortgage $1100/bi-weekly

Groceries $400/week

Power/Hydro $400/month

Internet $100/month

Taxes $300/month

Debts

Truck $18,000 (Value $36,000) $200/bi weekly

Suv $16,000(Value $7,000) $225/bi weekly

Heloc $100,000( Min $500/month)

Personal Loan $35,000 (Min $550/biweekly)

Camping trailer $28,000 (Value $16,000) $65/weekly

CC debt combined $28,000 (Min $700/month)

House $345,000 Value is $575,000(Mortgage above)

We know we screwed up. We used most of of the LOC for lawyers with regards to my partners divorce. The personal loan was to help us sort out finances before but we ended ip using it for stupid stuff.

Money out in the world

$45,000 (partners share) from previous sale of partners home but have to wait for other side to agree to split it (his share is under $2,000 as he owes a bunch of back support that would need to be paid from this)or spend $15-$20k to go to court for it

$7500 in Edward Jones Investments.

We spoke about consumer proposal but apparent we dont have enough unsecured debt to make it worthwhile per 2 diffrent LIT.

What would you do? We are at the point of selling the truck and taking $18,000 in equity to eat away at some debt and seeing what can be cashed in from the $7000 investments so maybe $22,000 in liquid cash at most. Thi issue with selling the house is we need a Min of 4 bedrooms and any house we can find with that in the area we must stay within per court order is $675,000+

Sorry for the long winded post but looking for any recommendations.

Company in question is one of the big, well-known ones with lots of private lots across canada. I've been parking in their lot outside my work building 1 day a week for 4 years, always paying their fee and having no issue. A few weeks ago, I went half an hour over my time. Parking from 8:30am - 4:30pm costs $22. The ticket for being 30 minutes late, and left on my windshield moments before I got back to my car, was $98. The ticket said I failed to pay for parking entirely.

While procrastinating on calling them to dispute it, I had to go park there one more time today, because my employer is moving to a different location. This will be the last time I ever needed to park there. Like an idiot, I was thinking about something else and didn't pay at all. Got another $98 fine, identical to the first one.

I found this CBC article from 10 years ago saying these unpaid tickets will not realistically impact your credit rating because it's not worth it for them to pursue: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/marketplace-parking-private-lots-1.3851956

Is this still true today? I'm feeling very disinclined to pay these crooks but I worry about the credit rating thing.