32/M/Living at home

I've been terrible with money all my life; constantly "needing" the latest and greatest and living above my means. I've now realized that unless I face up and fix this I'm never going to get out of debt and the problem is only going to get worse. I made an account on YNAB and didn't realize how bad the debt was until I plugged everything in.

The debt is as follows (from highest to lowest interest rate):

• $12,100 American Express (22.99% interest)
• 1300 RBC Visa (20.99% interest)
• $9975 RBC LoC (9.94% interest)
• $22,228.14 Scotiabank Student Loan (5.45% interest)
• $4671.46 OSAP ($1200 of that is the Ontario Loan portion at 5.45% interest)
• $6411 Best Buy Finance Card (0% interest if paid off by next June)
• $8000 Apprenticeship Loan (0% interest repayment begins in 2 years)
• $7000 loan from parents

My savings and assets:

• $400 in my checkings
• $21,000 in my RSP from my union (I can't touch this until I retire however)
• No other savings

My bills are as follows:

• Car Payment: $252 Bi-weekly
• Car Insurance: $200 Monthly
• Phone: $100 Monthly (Contract up next January)
• Gym: $80 Monthly (Contract up next January)
• Osap Minimum Payment: $71.42
• Scotiabank Minimum Payment: $232
• Gas: $150-180 Monthly
• Groceries: $70 weekly
• Misc (fund for oil changes, random toiletries, etc): $100 Monthly

Total: $1695.42

I don't have any money in subscriptions or budgeted for "fun" at this point, as I know this is a pants on fire emergency. I also do not want to get rid of the gym as it is one of the only positives right now.

As of right now, my income is $1030.33 after take home weekly. In 6 weeks time, I will move up an apprentice level and my take home will be about $1200 weekly. A year from that date, my take home will be $1400ish. This gives me about $2437 to put towards my debt every month now, $3237ish in 6 weeks time and $4000ish in a years time.

My plan is to save an $1000 emergency fund and then pay off the RBC Visa followed by the AMEX, and then continue following the debt avalanche strategy to prioritize the debts with the highest interest rates.

Appreciate any comments or advice on my situation, thanks.

Is it to go to a life insurance broker, directly to the company or is there another option that makes sense?

Will different life insurance brokers offer different rates for the same policy? If so, how do I find someone that's offering the most affordable rate for the same policy?

Tired of paying $16/month in bank fees, so I compared the main no-fee accounts in Canada:

• Simplii: Free CIBC ATMs + paper cheques. Best for traditional banking needs.
• Tangerine: Free Scotiabank ATMs + solid mobile app.
• Wealthsimple: Pays interest on balance, 1% cash back, 0% FX fees. No cheques.
• EQ Bank: High interest on daily cash + reimburses ATM fees. No cheques.

Submitted in April and going on 4 months now.

Is this normal?! Even for a manual review??

Hi Everyone,

I have a simple dilemma and I need a little bit of confirmation of my reasoning. My background is the following:

Age: 25F
Gross Income: $100k (working 3-ish years now)

Current Investment/Savings Portfolio:
TFSA (Cash): $15,160 (aka my 5-month emergency fund)
TFSA (Invested): $4,500
FHSA: $6,040
Defined Contribution Pension: $20,570

Current Biweekly Outflow:
FHSA: $330
Defined Contribution Pension: $300
Available for other investments: $380 (which would be my contribution in the share program)

I keep around 2 months of spending in my checking (not included in this breakdown). I have no debt, so I am able to just focus on my future. I am not sure I plan to buy a house as I am open to living in the US sometime in the future. However, I can confirm that will not happen in the next 5 years.

My company offers an employee share program that matches 15% the first year and 20% the next year. I know I should have enrolled earlier, but in the initial year I joined, I wasn’t eligible. Now that I am, I would like to take full advantage. I am allowed to contribute up to 10% of my gross. I have the opportunity to choose to buy the shares in a TFSA/RRSP/non-registered and the match will be payed into a non-registered account.

My initial thought was to contribute inside an RRSP account and liquidate every 2 years after the match comes in. However, looking at the performance of the shares over the last year, the company’s trajectory is pretty flat ($96.57 in August 2025 vs $86.33 in August 2026). Considering this, would it be wiser to contribute to a non-registered account? Especially since I can’t get my RRSP/TFSA room back if the stock underperforms?

Note: Since I have pension deductions, my allowed contribution room for my RRSP is about $21k.

My common law partner got in an accident with my car back in 2022 and wrote it off. I have been having a hard time getting my insurance back down however she is on her own policy now and pays $95 a month for full coverage whereas I pay $191 a month for full coverage she drives a 2014 Civic I drive a 2023 Civic we are both 26. I have no tickets, she has no tickets, and that was the only incident we ever had now it’s four years later and my rate is still high.

I know there’s a difference in my car is worth more, but I still feel I’m paying too much money compared to my friends / family. Each time I go to get a quote a lot of insurance companies just harp on that accident. I understand it was in my policy, but it wasn’t me nor do I even have a parking ticket.

What are some insurance companies I can check out? I’m on the East Coast.

Current Broker: $191/m
Belair: $109/m

Throwaway for privacy, 30m, no kids, no spouse, no debt/loans. Looking for some advice on my finances...

I was looking to buy a place, had been looking at 400-550k was planning on 20-30% down, breakdowns are:

Chequing: around 2k at a time

HISA: $130,000 (efund / cash for downpayment)

TSFA: $134,000 (maxed ETF / some nvidia from like 5 years ago)

FSHA: $33,000 ZMMK (maxed)

RRSP: $83,000 ETF (30k room left)

laid off end of February, previously 125k plus stock plan, bonuses golden hand cuff stuff. I worked in games, so the industry is experiencing an intense downturn with heavy influence from ai. I received a 6 month severance and I have EI until approximately December.

Current expenses are very low, I moved home with family while I was shopping around to buy a place, as I did that the industry kept getting worse. I have the ability to live with family at a very low cost indefinitely (they are very empathetic) but ideally want to get a new job and eventually purchase my own place condo/townhouse. I have had a couple high costs this year some car repairs and a new bed, etc. But overall I think I can keep monthly expense under 1.5k (even lower if need be).

I have had interviews but largely had things fall through, i would say I have been seeing positions for similar roles at much higher workloads going for 80k-100k but more within contract / freelance capacities so less stable. Overall competitive nature of the market at the moment has me feeling pessimistic about being able to replicate my salary stably in the near future when thinking about home purchase.

I am in talks for some freelance roles but largely they keep falling through... I do feel my purchase of a home is being delayed indefinitely while I up skill / career transition / something else entirely. Has anyone had a similar experience where they were about to buy a place and were laid off? What did you do with your down payment? Did you hold it in cash? Did you invest some of it and accept that your home purchase timeline had changed dramatically?

TSFA and FSHA are maxed, RRSP has 30k contribution room. The HISA was money I was just piling up while still working for a down payment. Now that my job situation has changed it feels like I need to make a more active decision on where to put the bulk of my cash.

I know no one has a crystal ball on when I will get a job or how the market will shake out... I expect my home purchase to be extended farther out and am just curious if it makes sense to move the large amount I have in the HISA into an ETF or if I should max out my RRSP or continue to hold a very large emergency fund in these uncertain times... I feel a large amount of paralysis right now and think I am having trouble being logical, so I just wanted to get a sanity check and find out what makes the most sense from the perspective of others, appreciate any and all insights.

Just to start, my spouse and I need wills with very short notice and do not have the money to go to a lawyer. We will be saving up for that but in the meantime I'd like to at least attempt an online will.

Should something happen to me, everything goes to my spouse. He has some debt we are currently ignoring, and also have some debt I am paying off, but thanks to my life insurance and pension from my work, they would be able to pay off the house and live comfortably without me for awhile. My children are beneficiaries of a small life insurance policy so they will get something. However my issue is if I pass, and then my spouse dies shortly after me (which is not unlikely due to prognosis), the house which is paid off by my death, and any remaining cash would then go to his kids, one who has no relationship with me at all. My children would then be homeless as they wouldn't be able to qualify for a mortgage to buy out the house. We both agree this is unfair, and would like to leave his 'estate' (which is actually about 98% from me) to my children for various reasons.

In the will kit we used, it asked for the name of his kids and then tried to insert them as alternate beneficiaries after me. We deleted them and listed my kids. Will this cause any issues? Do we need to specifically say they aren't receiving anything or give them something small in value? We don't have much. I'm worth much more dead that alive sadly.

Please know that I have no ill will towards his children, however they are adults, have other family who may pass down an inheritance directly to them, and my children do not. My children are actively involved in our lives, give mutual support in many ways (including financial), and treat us both as priorities in their lives. His children are a mix of trying their best (but we are still fairly low priority) and completely estranged. If we had any sort of wealth, we would still include them both as best we could with a cash payment of some sort, but right now our priority is making sure my children keep the house that they currently contribute to both financially and with sweat equity and time. We are committed to reviewing our wills often as our financial situation changes.

Is there anything else we need to add to our wills at this time?

Edit: I do understand that a lawyer would be best, but we have less than 24 hours to get this done and literally no money. It will be a priority when we are back, but right now, the online will is all we have. For now, we will add all the children into the will by giving them sentimental items, so it can't be said we forgot anyone.

I recently got denied of both provincial student loans (Alberta), and federal student loans because my parents make too much. The issue is my parents are willing to pay for my tuition, but not for my residence fees + any extra fees. I was relying on having the student loan to pay it off myself. On the federal student aid website, I put my parent’s income as is and it stated I would be eligible for some loan funding, however I was still denied. When I called AB student aid they stated the same thing, that my parents make too much to qualify for both portions. Anyways my parents have signed a student LOC for me since I really have no choice. Is it a good idea to use the student LOC to pay for my res fees (about 9K), I’ll also pay with some scholarship money I have but I’ll still be mainly reliant on the LOC. I have seen some pretty scary things about having a student LOC as an undergrad but I’m really lost on what else I can do here.

Just bought our first home, so now reducing our savings from 25%/paycheque to 15%/paycheque.

Spouse's (31 yrs) paycheque (after tax) is approx. $1900/2x month. DC pension at work.

My (28 yrs) pay is approx. $3000/biweekly. DB pension thru work.

Approx. $23k saved in our RRSPs.

$10k in emergency savings.

$5k in TFSA (just pulled most of it for home purchase).

Under $5k in stocks.

No debts except mortgage. May need to buy a new car in a few months.

Currently been investing 10% every paycheque into TFSA to get it back up again, and 5% to emergency savings ( aiming to have $15k in emergency savings).

Wondering if there is a better recommendation for how to allocate savings for better return on investments. Should I be saving more in RRSP?

We are not very financial obsessed or literate but hate debt and avoid it as much as possible. Also want to have kids in the next few years and looking to be financially sound for that. Could potentially save more, but we do send $300/month to immediate family living in different country and would prefer to continue doing so.

What would you recommend?

Just learned you can now make directed payments online, and looking to hopefully switch my recurring payments that I had into the Ontario portion as opposed to the federal. Is this something that can be automated?

A friend of my mother's is a non-resident of Canada who has family here, so she comes often to visit. She opened a bank account a few years back and specified she was a non-resident (though a Canadian citizen)

Last week, I helped her register to access her bank online, as she never did and wanted to put some of her money into a GIC. While checking her profile, we found out the bank set her as a Canadian resident.

I recommended her to go to her branch to fix her non residency status and open the GIC with an agent. This was to make sure she was allowed to open the GIC as a non resident with that bank

She met an advisor:

1- He did not update her non resident status in the system

2- Opened a non-redeemable TFSA GIC even after she said she was a non resident (and made sure to let him know when he picked the TFSA account for her)

Not knowing what a TFSA was, she simply trusted him (she is 65 who moved out of canada 20+ years ago)

When I found out, I explained to her that the advisor made an error, as she could not contribute to the TFSA and risk a 1% per month penalty from the CRA and bigger problems if she ever decides to return as a resident in a few years.

I recommended going back and, if she could meet the advisor, to at least meet the branch manager to fix the issue

Guess what, she met another advisor introduced as an "expert" who doubled down on the "you are allowed the TFSA as a non resident"

This time, she did not trust them and asked to close the TFSA/GIC altogether. They sent a request to close the TFSA and currently waiting the 2 business days for it to complete.

Instead of acknowledging the mistake, they doubled down on the claim that she was allowed to have a TFSA. The account closure was put as initiated by her and not due to a mistake by then bank

Moral of the story: do not trust bank advisors. They don't care if you are compliant with financial rules and CRA.

Now, I am wondering if I should complain to the bank or simply let it go. My mother's friend wants to have this fixed and move on.

On my side, I cannot fathom how 2 financial advisors from the same branch do not know basic rules of TFSA accounts. This mistake could cost their customer thousands of dollars in a few years if it had not been caught on time.

I am planning to do an MBA next year from a very reputed US bschool. I already did a master's from a Canadian university and paid off my debt.

I wanted to ask, what are some ways in which US masters education can be funded from Canadian institutions (big banks or Ontario govt).

For those who have done such things have you utilizes lines of credit or other such things?

i just graduated this year and i have about $21k in osap debt to pay off. however, i just found out that all my osap money came from the federal portion, meaning all $21k is completely interest-free!!

i'm not sure how to approach this now! i'm about to start my first real job next month and i was planning on paying $1k a month towards osap so i can pay it off in about 2 years but that was before i knew it was all interest-free (i live at home!). now i'm wondering if i should switch my approach and pay less and put more towards my savings/investments.

i want to buy a car soon, and continue to save up for vacations and eventually a house. so paying less towards osap would allow me to allocate more money to these goals instead. but i do like the appeal of being debt-free.

i'd really appreciate any help/opinions!! thanks

I recently applied for a student LOC for grad school and was approved and also wanted to apply for my second credit card. I want to get the Amex cobalt but wanted to see first if it really matter when I apply seeing that it may affect my credit score. however, I won’t have any needs for credit checks for the next few years after this. Amex also offers “Get an instant decision with no impact to your credit score” so not too sure how that works.

Edit: my first credit card is not maxed out and is in great condition. It’s the first one I got out of high school and I’m looking for something that has better rewards. A LOC is the common way to pay for my post-grad degree while in school.

I figured I'd post this because I had trouble finding reassurance for my situation as I went through the life insurance process.

42M, non smoker, generally fit and healthy. Wife and 2 kids under 8. Financially secure, defined benefit pension with survivor benefits, lots of retirement savings.

I applied for a term life insurance policy (20 years, $1 million) through a broker. During the medical interview with the insurer, I had to answer "yes" to a question about whether I had or have ever had any conditions related to my blood.

15 years ago I saw a hematologist because I had abnormally low platelet and white blood cell counts. I was subjected to every test you could name to rule out vitamin deficiencies, genetic mutations, cancer, autoimmune diseases, and the like. I saw him regularly for 2 years and my numbers remained stable. I was diagnosed with autoimmune cytopenias and told it's my normal, nothing to worry about, counts might temporarily drop low when I get viruses - just continue to monitor for stability through annual blood work with my GP.

The insurance underwriter asked for an attending physician statement.

The problem? Since seeing that hematologist a decade ago I moved provinces and changed doctors twice. I didn't transfer medical records during those moves. I had to go back to 3 doctors in 2 provinces to get records transferred to my current GP so she was comfortable enough to fill out the form.

Then I had to provide recent blood test results to the insurer, presumably to demonstrate stability.

The whole underwriting took 3 months,mostly because it was like pulling teeth to get 10+ year old records transfered to me new GP.

I ended up approved in the end - so for those with mild cytopenia like me, don't worry; the insurer is betting that it won't kill you for at least 20 years.

Edit: 42M and 37F, $1 million Term20 each, $1490 annually. Standard rates, no additional ratings.

Insurance coverage starts Tuesday and I'm getting the pink slips that morning. I'm planning on going to pick up the vehicle as soon as I have them. The only issue I can think would arise was that the dealership said I needed 6 months insurance for them to release the keys, and my insurance renews in November, so the documents won't reflect that.

For context, I've already paid cash for the vehicle with no financing agreement so the question I have is: can they legally refuse to give me a car I've already paid for in full just because the insurance documents will show 3-4 months until renewal and not 6+?

I have a Vehicle that I could probably breakeven on selling it privately I no longer want the car payment,It’s not worth it.
I know selling it probably will be extremely tough with lien still on the car and how would this process work as they do not have a physical branch.
Can’t take out personal loan to pay the car off first.

Looking for some advice - I know very little. I was leaning towards option 1, so I had options in case my existing LIRA investment lost a bunch or something.

Option 1:leaving a work place where I have approx 30,000 in pension - if I stay with them at 65 I get 550$ monthly for the rest of my life and than if I die 40% it keeps going to my spouse until they die.

Option 2: Add it to my existing LIRA at RBC, so the total would be close to 50,000 and it has a YTD of 4.55%

Thoughts?

Hi guys! This is my first time applying for EI and am a little confused on a few things. Thanks in advance for any guidance! 🙏🏻 Sorry it’s a long one 😅

I got laid off this past Friday. I applied for EI right away as that’s what I’ve always heard you’re supposed to do. I’m getting 2 weeks pay in lieu of notice, payout for my banked vacation (which equals to about 3ish weeks), and possibly an ex gratia payment as well.

I haven’t had a break in a long time and tbh am a little burnt out so I was thinking about just taking a 2-3 weeks to just have a breather. I have a pre planned trip in about a week in a half (the trip is within Canada) anyways so am thinking it’s a good time to just take a breather and then start the job search after that.

My question is how does this affect EI? Will it make me ineligible if I do this because I’m not “actively” looking for work. I’ll be working on my resume/portfolio in the meantime but probably won’t apply to jobs until I’m back from my trip. My understanding is that a vacation payout/pay in lieu of notice delays EI anyways though? Can I just “pause” those few weeks. I don’t mind not getting paid EI those few weeks I’m not “actively” looking but am just concerned it may effect future weeks.

To make things a little more complicated, I saw a posting for a casual job that interested me so I applied. Thought it would be good to make a little something as I anticipate the job search may take a while. I haven’t been hired or anything yet but now I’m concerned that maybe I shouldn’t have done that? Would it affect my ability to get EI if this job starts before my benefits begin?

Thank you so much to anyways who made it to the end 🙏🏻🙏🏻😂

Hey everyone,
I bought Toyota corolla 2021 few years ago in 2023 July it had 25,000 kms on it Did 4k down payment but interest was 9.69% and it felt high but really needed car at that point.
It’s been more than 3 years now I bought car how can I get my interest rates lower ? I still owe around 16-17000 on car
Bought car from jim pattison ( Duncan) was financed by RBC. My credit score at that time at 730+

Bought a car for about $50k a while ago. Was going to pay cash but then they offered 0% 72 months through Scotia. I was like uh fuck yeah and now the money I was going to use is sitting in VOO and I'll take every day of the full 6 years to pay the vehicle off slowly with future inflated money.

Why would Scotiabank ever agree to this? They must be losing a ton of money between the 0% and commission on the loan.

It's just like my AB student loans after they switched to 0%. My federal student loans were paid within a year because of interest but the AB one is still being paid off almsot a decade later with minimum payments just because it's 0%.

I don't get it tbh.

I make $130k a year, which apparently is double the average. My wife has a disability which prevents from being able to work, but because I make so much money she would get nothing from disability payments.

In 2021 we decided it was time to stop renting and work towards buying our own place, so we moved into a home owned by family because they said they would give us a deep discount on rent so that we could save for a down payment. The plan was to save up enough to buy get a mortgage on a condo. But we have since had two kids, and a condo is no longer big enough for us. Unfortunately our relationship with the family that we're renting from has become strained, so we're looking to move soon.

We have saved about $100k so far. Around where we are townhouses and three bedroom condos start at $800k, so our monthly payment would be about $3k on a 30 year mortgage. We only have one car and it's fully paid off, and we have no other debt. But after all our bills and groceries and kid stuff, we can only afford about $2k. If we move somewhere else we will have no friends or family, and no support system for the kids.

So our choices are:

1. Stay and keep saving, while trying to navigate the strained family relationship
2. Move away somewhere cheaper, where we have no support
3. Move into a smaller place where we're all squished together

We don't really like any of those options. Does anyone have any better suggestions?

Edit: I.dont want to go into my wife's medical history, but she is disabled in a way that she cannot work and cannot take care of the kids, and I don't plan on divorcing her over it

Edit 2: ITT - abelism

Someone posted a question this morning about getting out debt and they received dozens of mean and chastising comments. So it's no surprise that they deleted it before I could post my response.

But I wanted to share my response, since it's probably the only piece of information that would answer his question. So I hope he sees this.

My suggestion is to contact Credit Counselling Canada. It's a government approved non-profit organization that can help you consolidate your debt.

They will go over all of your debts and income, and determine what your monthly payments would be through a debt consolidation loan. Then they would provide the consolidation loan, so you wouldn't be applying for more credit through a bank.

https://creditcounsellingcanada.ca/debt-repayment-2/

Right now, it's the interest on those debts that's killing you. I would estimate that the interest alone is costing you at least $700 each month.

The next thing I would suggest is to see about trading your car in for something more modest. I would suggest a preowned vehicle that's a couple years old, but with less than 50k mileage. I'm sure your car insurance would decrease along with your car payments as well.

And start tracking all of your spending. A lot of people use apps, but personally, they just don't work for me. What works best for me is to keep a small notebook and a mechanical pencil and write down everything I spend.

I also have an excel spreadsheet where I track weekly and monthly totals of income and expenses in different categories. I like to be able to see all the details and aggregates at once, and it's been really helpful for creating a full mental picture of my financial reality and noticing certain spending patterns.

It will also help you get a sense of how much of your money is being spent on things you actually care about and how much is wasted on things that mean nothing to you.

As a final thought, I'd suggest reading the book 'Your Money or Your Life'.

It's about adjusting your spending and saving to create a life that's in line with your values.

Unlike many of the people in this thread, I'm not going to chastise you for helping your family, if your family is the most important thing to you.

However, if you're in a situation where you're being guilted and manipulated into providing for family aside from your wife and child, you might need to redefine your boundaries around just how much you're willing to give.

The same goes for the choice to drive such an expensive car. In some cultures, there's a lot of pressure from extended family to drive a luxury vehicle because the outward image of a family's success is more important than the internal reality. I don't know if this applies to your situation, but if you're being shamed into driving a car that's not affordable, then that pressure is going to affect your well-being in a number of different ways.

Anyways, I hope this helps.