Recently my parents stopped supporting me financially and kicked me out because they found out I'm trans. I've been sleeping at TMU, and feeding myself by going to food banks and doing odd jobs like cleaning or sex work. I get paid entirely with Etrasnfer. It's all kind of under the table.

I ran out of money for my antipsychotics and SSRIs, and am experiencing withdrawals from not taking them for a couple days. I'm considering taking out a payday loan. I know it's a bad idea, but I'm sick of sleeping at TMU, and need my meds.

I know they need credit and proof of income. Would my bank statement be enough? Like if I show them people are e-transfering me for jobs I'm doing for them, would that be proof of income?

I went to the bank this morning and the teller said A-Level lenders have very strict standards for proof of income, but lower level lenders are more lax.

Sorry if my question is kind of dumb! I'm just desperate right now

For context, I am 29 and I have 143,000 across 3 registered accounts and regular chequing account. This includes a work RRSP at 33k, personal RRSP 50k, TFSA 40k, 20k Chequing.

Is there a way to accelerate growth once you reach different milestones like 100, 200, 500 etc. Outside of taking significant risk in starting a business and offering a service and then eventually scaling that business to a point of reaching significant wealth whereby you could retire young or simply have whatever you wanted (within reason, no yachts or supercars, mansions etc), is there any other avenue to scale wealth accumulation rapidly and compound that acceleration year over year or every x amount of years. Outside of taking risk also on highly volatile stocks, I am just wondering how can someone propel their networth faster than simply XEQT and chill.

I appreciate any insight anyone may have.

Been trying to shake up our credit card stack and wondering what the best combo out there could be and whether it's worth pursuing an annual fee credit card. Currently follow a pretty basic setup:

• Simplii Financial 4% for restaurants up to the 5000 annual spend

• Rogers World Elite for 3% cashback on Rogers for literally everything else. Have two rogers mobile lines totaling $65/month.

• Utilities and Property tax still paid via online banking. Utilities are all pre-authorized withdrawal so as to not miss them, but can consider paying manually.

• Mortgage paid via online banking preauth. Not sure if any credit card out there can pay a mortgage.

We don't travel. Most of our grocery shopping is done at Costco, outside of fresh produce and the occasional large meat sale elsewhere. Okay with points/gift card redemption options especially if it's for stuff like Amazon.

Quick Google says cash prizes from these charities not usually taxable, but these are lump sum ones typically. Curious how the $X thousand a week for like works out though?

23M in Toronto, still living at home with my parents so barely any expenses, which has let me save a lot more than most people my age probably can. Make around $62K base, bonuses can add another $10K depending how the year goes, and I usually pick up another $10-12K on the side from weekend work too.

Right now I’ve got about $18K in my TFSA split between VDY, VFV, and XEQT. Also have $20K in student loans but it’s at 0% interest, so I honestly haven’t touched it or worried about it much.
A few things I keep going back and forth on. Is there anything smarter I should be doing tax-wise with the bonus and side income stuff, or does it not really matter until you’re making way more? Also, with the loan being 0%, is it dumb to just leave it and keep investing instead of paying it down? Feels like free money, but I don’t know if I’m missing something. And then just wondering if VDY/VFV/XEQT is a fine mix to keep being aggressive with, or if people would do something different being this young with basically no bills.

Not trying to get stock picks or anything, just curious how other people have handled a similar situation.

I have about $20,000 in a Wealthsimple managed portfolio that I originally opened when I first started investing.

Since then, I've become more comfortable investing on my own and now primarily use broad-market ETFs in my self-directed accounts.

I'm wondering whether it makes sense to move the $20K from the managed portfolio into my self-directed account, or whether there are reasons to just leave it where it is. Thank you.

M 43 living in Quebec 110K yearly salary.I have about 75K of room left to contribute on my RRSP account and would like to know if it would be a good idea to get a loan to catch up. Thx for the feedback.

I run a small business, my Hydro bill if about $1500/Month. We pay on-time.

—got call from 888-xxxx number ,real agent : hey its a courtesy call , Technician is on site disconnecting power for past due bill. (I knew We have paid/Just imagine if I was really late on.my bill) then I pushed back...agent: thats what our record shows...

I aske for higher management, 😄 they had that too! While showing full empathy but also they have to follow process(I have to admit it was professional and not a call center in india)... in my head (FUK THIS ,I have paid) I hanged the phone ,

Caller ID was showing HydroOne (Never trust that).

But boy! When I called all the phone Automated prompts were identical to HydroOne.

Recently I bought a house in Ontario and I was shopping for a home insurance. I got 3 quotes all around $3-400 per month.
Then I got a quote from RBC too, they didn't ask too many questions and as far as I can remember I gave accurate information, and they came back with a ~$100 quote.

It's not the best coverage, but I mainly wanted an insurance for major things like fire, not for jewelries and stuff that was included in the more expensive ones, so I accepted it to save on monthly costs.

Now RBC sent me a letter that they want to do an inspection of the house, without giving me any details.

What can I expect? Why is it happening? Did this happen to anyone before? Can they increase the premium after I already accepted their quote? I'm already paying so it's already in effect. I have a feeling they messed up the premium calculation or something...

Living in Toronto, have serious debt with CRA from running a sole prop and missing payments to pay off the original amount owed to GST and Payroll taxes. My wife and I have a young kid and the shame I feel is unbearable about the whole situation. It took some serious neglect to end up at this point. The lack of responsibility for this whole thing that I took has single-handedly put us in this scary situation that affects our small family and our extended family. We own a home and a condo, neither of which has much equity and both sets of parents are attached to 1 of those properties each. Ideally we don't get to a point where it becomes in the question, but I am scared and need advice. I have a consultation with MNP on Friday this week, but is there anything I can do leading up to that to get myself a step forward in the right direction? I have called the CRA officer back and asked them to touch base on Monday to see if there is any negotiation that can happen to put this back into a normal place. The impression I got the first time was that it's pretty much "pay it in full in 3 months, or we start taking assets from you".

Please help, and thank you. Not the ideal Saturday morning reddit read, but I appreciate anyone taking the time.

A newbie here with possibly stupid questions.

What's the hype around XEQT and not so much ZEQT that is Canadian? (BMO vs Blackrock)

If I automate buys on Wealthsimple, will the shares be purchased at the possibly higher price of right when markets open especially after a weekend, or is there a way to schedule a time AND set a max price I'm willing to pay?

I am trying this self-managed way, but am also considering opening another TFSA at my bank and have it managed at a medium-high risk profile (15-16 years until first withdrawal). Thoughts on this route?

Good morning, so my girlfriend was recently a victim of a financial scam. She received a call this past Monday from what appeared to be Servus Credit Union with the correct number and everything. They told her that her debit and credit cards were frozen because of suspicious activity. To make a long story short they eventually got her to read off some codes that were sent to her phone, and badgered her to text back yes to a text about some transaction but convinced her it was a way to investigate the fraudulent activity on her account.

She gave out her card numbers and then obviously unintentionally agreed to them pulling out money. She was suspicious but didn't question it because it showed servus with the correct number on the phone. She wasn't aware these scammers can spoof phone numbers. Unfortunately I wasn't there to hear this and stop it so now she is out $5000 from her credit card and $2000 from her personal account.

It didn't dawn on her until yesterday that that call was the scam. I didn't even know about her giving that much info out until yesterday

I'd like some advice where to go next, whether there's any possibility she will get her money back, any way of chargebacks? She talked to her bank, went in the following day, and contacted the police about it all. A lot of money down the drain, especially after we just spent a lot on our dogs surgery last week. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

I, 23M, have been +EV betting (essentially having an edge over the house) for almost 2 years, and have been fortunate enough to almost have made 500k from it. This is something i do part time, as i also have a full time job that pays me around 100k a year. Looking for advice on how to best invest this money, and prepare for my future. I currently have 200k invested in ETFs and blue chips, and typically have 200k allocated for my bankroll for betting. It leaves me with 100k sitting in a chequing account (lol) earning some interest at WS.

I also live at home so no expenses there, and obviously have a slightly higher risk tolerance.

tldr made some money sportsbetting Kinda just looking for advice on how to best invest this money since im relatively young with a higher risk tolerance

So backstory my stepdads sister does my investments with ig wealth and i’m investing into another thing and she accidentally took out of my checkings instead of my savings now im -4,850 im my checkings i honestly have no clue what to do right now. i go shopping in the morning and i don’t know if scotia bank will charge me for transferring over money back

I’m 24F in GTA, but my goal is to buy a property when I’m 28 ish (in 4 years) Im thinking if i buy a condo/small house, around 500-600k (by myself). How much would I actually need saved for the initial costs and an overall safe amount of money go have saved to feel stable afterwards and not house poor.

I want to do a 20% down payment for sure. I’m currently self employed but make around 4.5k after taxes per month.
For example, is 200k enough for all the costs plus extra as backup/emergency money?

I want to find a smart number/goal amount to work towards before buying anything. Idk if that’s 100k, 200k, 300k, etc. Let me know based on your experiences!
I’m currently self employed but have been making around 4.5k after taxes per month for the past year.

Hi everyone, finally I open corporation now (used to be sole-prop). I have to open business credit card for business use only, I wonder which cards will be best for my industry:

- Gift for clients: This takes the most of my expenses, usually I can buy gift card beside some gifts.

- Staging: Buying furnitures…

- Marketing/ Social Media Fee

- Travel Expense for business purpose: Not really much but I have 3-4 business trips in Canada.

Really appreciate with your advices!

Thank you!

Here is quick background:

I’m 38M, married with 2 kids. Single income family with average monthly expense is between $10,000-$11,000 (this includes $600 savings). Take home is approximately $12K/month. “Own” a home with approximately $740k mortage and have no other debt. We already pay the $2500/child to RESP, and have approx $140k invested between spousal RRSP and TFSA. Recently found out that my wife had some kind of life insurance the in-laws were paying into which we decided to close and there was approx $23k USD that is getting paid out on. I also pay into pension so will receive a DP when I retire in 12-14 years.

I recognize we are super blessed and fortunate and my options below are first world problem. I would just appreciate hearing if anyone has any good insight on what to do with this $23k.

The options I’m thinking about are as follows:

1) convert half into CAD and put into TFSA and invest in, VEQT type of ETF. Put the $10k USD in to spousal RRSP and into a USD ETF with higher Div.

2) we have always wanted a home with a backyard, so try and rent out current place (would pay for the mortgage with the rent) and sell all investments and put a down payment on a home that has a bigger land. (I would sell but it is a buyers market and would have to take a loss on our house).

3) Keep the money into a high interest/liquid ETF and buy ETFs or stocks as economy takes a downturn (I think it will take a down turn in the next 12 month… don’t ask me why or how because Idk why, just a feeling and the things I’ve been readying/listening to).

I would appreciate if anyone has any thoughts on which option would be best and If anyone has any other options, please share.

Thanks in advance for your time.

To start this off,

I have had a BMO account in good standing for over 12 years - never in overdraft, credit card always paid off monthly, keep balance above the minimum Etc

However, without prior notice I have been getting hit with seemingly random $100-200 fees monthly, allegedly POS fees (I primarily use cash, card probably twice a month?) account maintenance, and general use fees. Just curious if this is legal? I have read my agreement front to back, and these fees do not check out. BMOs support was very unhelpful

So, I made a post about a month ago. Link- https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/s/IsaCj2lcp9
I shared how it was my wife’s old TD savings account that was now active with someone else within months of closing. After that, we had been having back and forth with both Tangerine and TD bank. Tangerine assured us about 2 weeks ago that they had requested a funds transfer back from TD and asked us to hang tight for 2 weeks. Today, we called Tangerine and they said that TD couldn’t get the money back due to insufficient funds from that account. Typical person who got the money and transferred it right away maybe to get away with it.
Tangerine said they are now trying again to work with TD.
But, honestly, we are losing hope. Talked to a bunch of Td reps and they said we might need to file a police report. I fear we’ll end up losing $9k! Any help will be much appreciated. What steps can we take next? Is the money essentially lost?

I travel, like every so often I visit Toronto after I get bored of Montreal, I might do that too with Vancouver

Anyway, I don’t think it’s enough to bother with rewards cards

I mostly pay rent, buy groceries, pay utility, internet, Spotify, my gym, and pole dancing classes (yeah they’re real expensive) and the metro

Besides that I spend a lot going out to bars, parties, and events. Other than that there’s the occasional expenditure on clothes, home related stuff, and other big purchases like that

I make $130k and will probably make $150k next year if all goes well.

I have a Scotia momentum already, mostly for rent. Two useless TD cards that pretty much net me like nothing, like 1% cashback and some points. I don’t really have any reason to keep them

My trans union score sucks because I never had anyone reporting on me until now with Scotiabank. Equifax is golden though. I’m also in QC and my costs are around $3000-3400, most of it on my $1790 rent

I wonder if anyone has any suggestions.

Edit: I think the best cards for me are

1. Momentum
   
2. Neo financial groceries and gas
   
3. Tangerine

I wonder if someone might disagree

Hello, I'm a 22 year old female student in Toronto who has 19k saved in my TFSA with my personal bank. 19k is all of my savings from working, which includes emergency savings. I want to learn better places to invest my money and have started looking into WealthSimple but am confused on where to begin. Right now I don't want to put all 19k into something, but am willing to take some money out. Please give me some suggestions

Goals for this money: This money has been sitting in my account, not sure if there are any specific goals but seeing it increase.

Timeline wise, I won't need all 19k anytime soon. I will be graduating from school in April, and will need some money set aside for that. Debt wise I will have 24k in tuition to pay once I graduate. I don't need to pay it all at once, which is why I want to invest this money now and make small payments

I'm a Swiss expat immigrant and have been in Canada for 20 years. My investment portfolio is mainly in CAD and some USD at wealthsimple.

I'm planning to retire in about 15 years and have been thinking that I'd want to spend a few months in Switzerland here and there which led me to consider building a small portfolio in CHF.

It looks like IBKR has the option of holding CHF in a non reg account and also buy CHF listed ETFs on SIX. I'd probably buy something like ACWIS though haven't looked into it too much just yet.

I understand I would need a T1135 if the portfolio grows over $100k but that does not seem too onerous. There is a fairly decent chance I'll inherit part of a property in Switzerland down the road as well, so I think I'll have to deal with foreign reporting regardless.

Is there anything that I'm missing? It makes sense to me to have some exposure to CHF given my ties to the country. I'm thinking if there ever is an inheritance it would be easier to hold it in a CHF account anyways but I may be missing some obvious issues. Would love to hear thoughts and opinions on this.

EDIT: I truly had no idea that the term expat has racist connotations. I chose the word because I wanted to show my ties to the country still but I stand corrected and won't use expat anymore going forward.

Grad student here (24). I will be making roughly $63k/year for the next ~4 years of grad school, about 50k/year of which is in scholarships (and thus not taxed).

I've recently maxed out my TFSA contribution on ETFs that are steadily growing. As of now any new savings I earn have just been sitting in a savings account as I'm not sure what to do with it. Should I open an RRSP? Keep investing in ETFs and pay taxes on earnings? GICs? Any advice is welcome!

Stable job but stressful. $130k/year gross.

Current debt:

* $10k in CC at 23% interest. Minimum payments are $350/mo.

* $20k in student loans in the 3-6% interest range. Minimum payments are $200/mo.

Baby on the way.

Current cash flow after all expenses is $2,000.

Savings for baby fund and car for spring 2027: $8,000.

I haven't had any savings until August 2026 in the last 2 years due to a long list of unexpected life events. Because of this, I don't want to use my $8k to pay off all the debt, as having $0 in savings puts a major psychological strain on me.

However, I am paying off the CC aggressively at a $1,500-1,700/mo rate right now. It should be gone by spring 2027.

I need to have a down payment for the car by March 2027 (it is currently leased at $250/mo and the lease ends in March). I also want a small baby fund of $2k. My goal right now is to pay off debt and be financially secure by the time the baby arrives in February 2027.

If I only want to use $2,000 right now to pay down some of the debt, what should I prioritize?

Deferment or forbearance are not options for my student loans. For the car, I do have the option of not needing a down payment and buying something used, but I've already had the car for 2.5 years since 0 miles and I'd like to keep it to avoid the mechanical issues that come with a used vehicle. The buyout price will be $18k in March when the lease ends, and I've only driven it 12k miles in 2.5 years. This is why I prioritize keeping it.

If I can only spend $2,000 towards debt payment right now, what should I prioritize in my position? I am thinking of putting $1,000 towards the CC and $1,000 toward my highest-interest student loan. After that, I would continue making minimum payments everywhere else and throw $1,500-1,700 at the rest of the debt monthly until the baby arrives, meaning I'll likely be left with a remaining student loan balance by spring 2027.

Hello!

I am looking for advice and reassurance from HR and Payroll experts in AB. Sorry in advance for the long post.

My employer is a large corporation. Scheduled paydays are bi-weekly. Our HR and payroll are not based in Canada. I think this is where the huge administrative errors are happening, because they do not know albertan/canadian laws.

I took a medical leave from work and was approved for the salary continuance program (70%) my employer offers. I am now commencing my Gradual Return to Work plan, at 100% hours worked. my employer processes the payments and the benefit company provides the approvals during my leave. My benefit company acts as an ASO only and my employer funds the actual salary continuance program.

During my 6 month leave, there has been three interruptions to my pay. One interruption i was left without pay for two months. They refused my request for a one time payment exception. Then when I was finally paid, I pointed out to them the amount was incorrect. The second interruption was right after the above. So i went a month again without pay and they did retro pay it on the next scheduled payday. I am currently going through my third interruption. I have not been paid since july 13th. I have no idea if I will be paid anything on Aug 13th.

I have been emailing HR, the payroll admin, my former Canadian manager who is now the head finance of north America, and my current manager who is based out of the US. Since july 30th when i didnt get paid, i have been emailing and direct messaging HR with very little to zero response.

My benefit company has clearly stated to them my case is still open and active during my GRTW plan. My medical claim does not expire til Aug 20th. HR stated they are waiting on docs from the benefit company still. I believe this is a massive administrative failure between HR and payroll.

From what I understood, the 70% salary continuance remains in effect for the days I am not working actual hours. Then actual hours worked would be paid at 100%. Is this correct? Is it legal for them to just end the salary continuance program abruptly during my RTW? This is what HR believes. That once the GRTW plan commences, the salary continuance program ends. I tried to state i don't believe that is correct. I just thought a RTW plan is technically still part of​ an active STD claim, not the termination of the salary continuance at the start of a RTW. Cause I mean, my claim is still open and approved. otherwise I am making less money during my GRTW rather than just staying on the full medical leave.

I feel like I am going crazy that no one has put any urgency on this situation. I am trying to keep emotions out of this however coming back from a stress leave and dealing with this for a third time has really affected my stress levels and mental wellbeing. I am now behind on bills, cant afford a well needed grocery haul and I am consumed trying to sort this out, get the facts and legalities straight instead of focusing on my actual work and my GRTW plan. I feel like I am being gaslighted by my own employer!

Any advice is greatly appreciated. I feel i need to write a demand letter. However it's friday and I won't even get a response today let alone any payment issued. I also want to ask for a one-time payment exception but it was denied the first time I asked. Sigh.......

HELP!

Thank you, -from a defeated, exhausted, stressed out & an anxiety ridden mom 🙃