Resources
Starter Resources
Three Reasons to Consider The Smith Manoeuvre
Do you have the wrong kind of debt? The kind that is not tax-deductible? Most of us do, and even in the case of ‘good’ non-deductible debt, such as your house mortgage, you can pay so much in interest expense that your other financial goals and priorities suffer. But there is help.
Quiz-Are You Ready for The Smith Manoeuvre
The more questions to which you answer ‘Yes’, the more ready you are to implement The Smith Manoeuvre.
Cash-Finding Tips for The Smith Manoeuvre
There are many ways to track how much money you save on a regular basis and it is highly worth doing so. These tips aren’t just for saving money – they are for saving money and knowing how much you actually saved. This way you can determine an amount with which you are able to prepay the mortgage each month and then re-borrow to get invested to build your net worth even faster.
Goals List
What are your financial goals? What do you want to accomplish? Print this out, write them down, and stick it on the fridge. Sometimes we all need a little reminder about what we are working for and why...
Suggested Reading
The Wealthy Barber - David Chilton
An entertaining read about the importance of creating a personal investment plan...and sticking to it. It doesn’t have to be complicated, just developed and followed
The Wealthy Barber Returns - David Chilton
“Significantly older and marginally wiser, David Chilton offers his unique perspectives on the world of money.”
Rockstar Real Estate Investing - Jessi Johnson And Kyle Green
The authors show you how to use other people’s money with innovative strategies to invest in real estate and increase your net worth. Buy and flip or hold investment properties for the long-term.
Burn Your Mortgage - Sean Cooper
Sean Cooper made international headlines when he paid off his mortgage in just three years by age 30. No nonsense, simple and realistic.
Recommended Websites
burnyourmortgage.ca
Sean Cooper has a great ‘Blogs’ page where he interviews a whole host of experts on subjects such as personal finance and home ownership, mortgage and real estate strategies.
maplemoney.com
Tom Drake is one of Canada’s better-known personal finance bloggers. On his site you can learn about the various types of credit cards (cashback, student, no-fee, etc), various types of investment channels such as robo-advisors and discount brokerages and how to make, save, invest and spend money...wisely. Tons of podcast interviews with personal finance specialists.
moneysense.ca
A good number of Canada’s brightest personal finance freelancers provide content for the MoneySense site and you can find information on anything from RRSP’s and TFSA’s to dividend investing to retirement advice and case studies.
practicalmoneyskills.ca
Budgeting, saving, credit (debt and scores), identity theft...a wide range of resources for learning the basics of personal finance. Almost anything you would care to learn about money.
Calculators
What Does Your Mortgage Truly Cost You?
Your mortgage payment is comprised of both an interest and a principal component – in other words out of each mortgage payment you make, some goes to interest and some to reduce principal. Further, before you can make that mortgage payment, you have to pay tax. This is what makes a mortgage so terribly expensive. To see how much your current mortgage will cost you, please fill out the below fields. WARNING: You may not like the answer! Learn MoreReverse Mortgage Calculator
A reverse mortgage is a mortgage loan that enables the borrower to access the unencumbered value of the property. Reverse mortgages allow Canadians 55 years or older to access the home equity they have built up in their homes now, and defer payment of the loan until they die, sell, or move out of the home. Because there are no required mortgage payments on a reverse mortgage, the interest is added to the loan balance each month. While rare, the rising loan balance can, in some cases, eventually grow to exceed the value of the home, particularly in times of declining home values or if the borrower continues to live in the home for many years. The maximum amount you can borrow is 55% of the value of your home but the actual amount you may be eligible to borrow from your home depends on where you live, gender and the value of your house and may likely be lower than 55%. These results are only rough estimates based on simplified calculations – for more accurate results, visit one of the reverse mortgage providers. As of the end of 2019, current rates for a five-year fixed reverse mortgage are about 5.59%, but if you search for “reverse mortgage interest rates Canada” you may see more current five-year rates.
Compound Growth Calculator
When you are enjoying compound growth, you are enjoying a return on not only your original investment amount but also a return on the return of that investment. This is why compound growth is so powerful. The growth of your portfolio speeds up over time – it accelerates exponentially, so the more you invest and the sooner you invest, the more compound growth you will enjoy considering wealth creation takes time.
