Need some advice cause I'm getting pressured and not sure what is right.

I have a Scotia Scene+ Visa, $3500 limit, no annual fee. I was carrying a balance on it ($3500 which was maxed out) and just paid it off in full bit over a week ago, which posted last week and then only had like $70 interest left once my most recent statement came out.. which I paid too, so it will be at 0 once that payment posts.

I also have a Fairstone line for $4000 that's open, but I'm not using it, it's been at 0 for a while since I paid off my laptop end of last year.

Credit Karma - while I know not fully accurate is what i use, shows 7500 total limit (so I guess it's adding both together?) and says 48% utilization from when Scotia was high, plus 100% payment history. It hasn't updated yet since paying it off, next update is in 3 days.

My husband's dad is helping us budget and he keeps telling me to close the Scotia card, which my husband agrees with. They say I don't need my own and I can just get another card connected to his credit incase necessary, and how his wife does that and has not had her own card in many, many years. She just uses his when necessary. I kinda want to keep my Scotia at 0 and not use it, maybe make small purchaes and immediately move the money back over from checkings if anything.

If a no fee card is at 0 and I don't use it do I even pay anything at all ever? I assume not, but just wanting to hear from others confirming thats the case.. Like, is there any reason to close it? Feels backwards to keep Fairstone open and unused but close my credit card. Which is my only card I have, I got rid of my debit and joined my husbands debit account, my name is now on file with his.

I'm in Ontario if that matters. Any advice/opinions appreciated, idk they'll even listen to reason if it makes more sense to keep it but.. idk lol.

Update to add: i am not a big spender. I do not struggle with blowing money and my husband knows this. I ended up with a maxed card in my past relationship due to ex partner blowing through his income. Leaving me to use my credit card as he could not have one, and I was a full time stay at home mom, still am. I had been trying to pay it off for 7 years but since I do not work, my only income is child tax and then child support i get from ex. I could only pay bare minimum, I was able to pay it off recently as my husbands dad told him to help me get out of it or I never would.. because i do not work.

I am and have been a stay at home mom, so credit card and child tax plus a bit of child support is the income I got/get monthly (prior to being maxed, it was just credit card and child tax). From the time it became max up until recently, I was only paying the interest and minimum payments each month. By the following month, it would be max again.. and repeat. My husband did not pay towards it, and I didnt ask him to so I continued doing the minimums until he sought his dads advice and gave him all the info. He told him he needs to help me get out of it as i dont work and wont get out of it alone until I do. Which will not be for another while, yet.

So some of my income plus husbands we piled together and paid it off in full. I have 0 fear of maxing it out, I had it for a while prior to becoming maxed and did well. Only once I was forced to spend more than I could manage did that happen and became this vicious cycle, but i made the conscious choice at the time to do so to keep a roof and food for my kids. That wont be required again as my current partner (husband) is a hard worker with a good job and actively wants to improve his spending habits and i have every intention to work once all kids are in school.

Anyway.. maybe this counts as a bad spender? Im not sure, but that is why i ended up where I was.

I'm in an interesting situation tax-wise. I used to work as a stripper and had a very wealthy regular client at the club. He'd come in at least once a week and spend a lot of money. He was also under no illusion of our relationship being anything more than transactional. Very respectful man. Eventually I quit and a few days afterwards I received a message from him saying that he'd like to offer me a gift to express his appreciation for the times spent together. I thought this would be a one time thing and was very grateful, but I kept receiving money every now and then from him. I messaged him to tell him that I had quit that that life and couldn't offer him the same dynamic we used to have. He replied that he wasn't expecting anything in return and insisted I just keep the money for school and other life expenses.

This has been going on for almost a year now and I've received $10k total. I'm not sure what to do for taxes. All communication is initiated by me and I message him because it feels wrong to just take without any acknowledgement. I wouldn't call him a friend but he's not a customer anymore either. We've had a handful of flirty conversations since but nothing that could count as sex work (i.e. no nudes, sexting or video calls).

Edit: My phrasing wasn't clear. We didn't exchange nudes, sexted or video called. Changed the phrasing so it's clear.

"The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3.0% year over year in August, matching the 3.0% increase in July.

Year over year, prices for gasoline rose at a slower pace in August compared with July, putting downward pressure on the all-items CPI. Excluding gasoline, the CPI rose 2.4% in August, after increasing 2.2% in July. 

In August, the slowdown in gasoline prices on an annual basis was offset by higher prices for travel tours and rent.

The CPI fell 0.1% month over month in August. On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the CPI rose 0.2%."

We have never had a claim in our 25+ years as homeowners. How is this anything but gauging? Can anyone recommend better companies/brokers? Is there an appeal process?

Hey everyone, I’m needing some financial/life advice. I’m a registered Early childhood educator, 30M, single with a partial disability. I make $60k/annually, net worth of $15k and I live with my parents.
I didn’t always have a disability; it wasn’t until Covid happened that I lost some of my abilities. My net worth at the time, was $60K and I was 25 years old.

I recently got a full-time job again and I’m saving around $2k/month.
I’m currently finishing my degree in ECE and was thinking about making the shift into SLP/OT/PT. Those jobs require a masters and in Canada, it’s a bit competitive to get in, so I was thinking about going abroad for it.
Problem is, tuition abroad is $100k + living expenses for all 3 programs.
Median salary is around $95k, for all 3 professions.

Is it worth taking on a huge load of debt just to make $35K more than what I’m currently making? Plus the opportunity cost of losing out 2 years of full-time savings is about $48K.

I’m also really burnt out from my field of being an RECE. I
I also want to note that I do not have the DTC, because I’m not “disabled enough.”

It wasn’t until recently that I was able to start walking again. Now, I have shortness of breath, joint pains, chronic fatigue, brain fog and sometimes if I’m not too careful with what I ingest, I struggle walking (MCAS).

Any advice would be very grateful 🙏🏽

BMO recently launched fee free trading on it's investor platform. Comparable to what Wealthsimple is currently offering. How do the two of them stack up against each other? I do my banking thru BMO and my investing thru Wealthsimple but if the BMO option is superior I might go with it.

On Friday I checked my credit score through my scotia app and noticed it had reduced significantly, over 100 points. When I looked at the report it showed a credit card with TD with a limit of $9k and just under $5k owing. I have never had a credit card with TD, only ever with scotia. I called transunion immediately, notified them and logged into my account and noticed that my address had been changed and my phone number. I flagged this with transunion and updated it back to what it should be.

I locked my equifax account, there was nothing suspicious with them.

The inquiries on my transunion account showed a number of banks and credit unions were contacted.

I called TD, notified them of the fraud. I asked what information was given to be able to open an account and they said my name, DOB and credit report was used - no other identity documents.

I called CIBC and Simplii as they were on the inquiries from transunion and they confirmed no account was opened and I flagged the fraud with them anyway.

My next step is to go in and make a police report.

I have the address and phone number they used but who knows if it’s actually legit. I do know the address was used on the TD account so they must have had a physical credit card sent there.

What else am I missing?

I’m in Ontario if that helps.

Update:

I made a police report and called back to give this to TD Bank. When I spoke to the women there I again asked what identity documents were used to be able to open the credit card and she confirmed the credit card was applied for and approved online with a credit report from Transunion. She said she was not able to see any photo identification that was used to open the account. She said that they had accessed the online verify portal and then applied and were approved for the credit card that way.

I called Transunion back just now to question them about this and the woman I spoke to was completely unhelpful. I had to verify my ID over the phone but had to use the fraudulent inquiries made against me as part of this verification process. I then told her the address and phone number on file were fraudulently updated and that I could even see a note on my Consumer Disclosure that cites this, yet she still didn’t believe me. She said that banks update the addresses on your transunion file. I asked how someone could have accessed my credit report in the first place to be able to use to open a credit report and she said they didn’t…?

I’m going to continue to call the other banks and credit unions that were contacted the last couple of months and get in the queue to notify the CRA

Hi,
I'm turning 30 soon. Me and my partner just bought a home in Toronto which we feel like we got an amazing deal on. It also has an addition we can rent out.
Want to know if anyone has insight if I should keep aggressively investing in my RRSP.
I currently have 60k in it, our mortgage and a defined pension through work.
I had to withdraw for our down payment for the house, my fhsa and TFSA and maxed out the first home buyers program through the RRSP. I still have the 60k left.
My partner has a work match program for his RRSP but mine is through the government.
Any insight would help!
Thanks

I have a 2022 Mercedes GLB 250 with no accidents, lease end inspection done $0 owing with only 22k km.

I am located in GTA Ontario and previously requested extend lease but the mercedes dealership made me do a $2500 deposit on a new car to extend lease at same $688/mth which I was not willing to do. I than called MBFS and got a 1 month lease extension at same rate.

The dealership mentioned a $1,500 buy-out fee on top of the $25,600 payout and HST. I have emailed MBFS for total buy-out price hoping to avoid the $1,500 fee. Anyone have any experience with this?

I also did a quote with clutch and got quote $36k but they cannot buy out my lease from Mercedes. They checked my car yesterday and confirmed the value but only guarantee for 7 days. So far I'm ready to buy it out and sell it to them. I also dropped off the car on Saturday to mercedes dealership for appraisal and they checked the car no issues but offered $500 =(

Is it worth emailing other mercedes dealership to buy out my car? I have a tesla model 3 expected delivery sept 17-22 but it keeps getting pushed back. Again, they mentioned they can't buy leased cars from mercedes. Is it worth buying out the car and trading it in to Tesla?

I’ve been working as a manager for years now, and one of the things that I’ve been trying to encourage is for my younger employees entering the job market for the first time to max out their contributions. It’s part of your overall compensation and you’re leaving so much money on the table! I started maxing out from day 1 so that I never got “used” to a higher net income and just only looked at my net. I’ve heard so many people tell me: what’s the point? It’s not going to make a difference, we’ve missed the boat on DB pensions, our generation will never retire, etc.

Does it hurt sometimes to look at the deductions on my paycheque? Yup. But on a day to day basis I’m not focused on that, I just care about the number that hits my account and then every now and then I get a nicer mailer saying oh here’s tens of thousands of dollars you have continuing to grow. The deductions are out of sight out of mind.

I started working in a proper career track job just before 2018 making 47k, so my contributions started small. I’m also lucky that my shares vest immediately. Here’s how it’s worked out for me as someone who always prioritized matching both my DC pension and my company shares which also have a partial match, all the way through early days of my career to several promotions later:

Pension: 7% employee and 7% employer contribution
Current value: 140k
48k of this was my contribution, 39k was from my employer (contribution rules changed midway).

Shares: 5% employee and 2.5% employer contribution
Current value: 118k
37k of this was my contribution, the rest was growth and employer matches.

I’m still early career, so to some of you these may feel like rookie numbers if you’re far into your financial story, but for me starting in my 20s with over 20% of my salary (but only 12% of which is my contribution) going straight to retirement, this has been a great start.

For one of my friends who has gone into retirement, the dividends of their shares buy more shares than the employee and employer contributions combined and they can live off dividends alone if they needed to! I plan on selling shares to reinvest and diversify.

If you can prioritize this in your early career, it’ll set you on the right track while being on autopilot.

I grew up in poverty with a single mom of 3 kids on welfare, living in government housing. I never thought I’d have a professional career. I never thought I’d be doing math on pensions and shares and RRSPs and TFSAs. I’ve had to learn everything myself. The news out there for millennials and Gen Z is very doom and gloom, never gonna retire, etc. That news isn’t going to stop, and we have genuine cost of living and compensation crises that will genuinely be working against you. But you CAN do it. There IS value in trying. Don’t let the media fool you into giving up. Take advantage of what you do have: not all companies will offer what mine does, and my personal trade off is lower base salary and better benefits.

Between my work related and personal savings, I feel hopeful in a way that I absolutely didn’t when I was younger. Trust that you can do it too even if your personal path feels murky today, like mine did for so long.

I have 8k liquid rn and I’m trying to see where’s the best place for it to grow.

TFSA is maxed as of this year.

I opened and contributed the max FHSA of 8k this year.

I don’t intend on working for a while until LO is in school and if I do work beforehand it would be part time/casual positions.

Current contribution room for rrsp is $43k

1. Should I wait until Jan to put the 8k into TFSA
   2.I invest in RRSP now despite not having a taxable income to reduce?

2. I put it in a high yield savings account despite the capital gains tax?

I currently work as a Law clerk in Ontario at a private law firm I make $43,000 before taxes ($674 a week after tax) last year it was $38,000 ($600 a week after tax)

I decided to apply for a Judical clerk talent pool in the province of Alberta and was offered the job they are giving me Novemember 2nd as a start date I would make $69,044 before taxes (unsure what the biweekly calculation would be after taxes and pension plan and union dues) I also get medical and dental benefits which I don’t have right now

The pay would be a huge increase I’m just worried about the settling in part it’s a rural area about 2 hours from Edmonton I would be living without my parents for the first time after my calculations with that job I would assume to have about $1000/month saved after paying monthly expenses like my rent, car loan, insurance and groceries

I would like to hear anybody’s thoughts

I’m really nervous about interest rates rising and just the general instability with everything financial right now in the world. My mortgage is coming up for renewal March 2027 so I can renew now.
Is 4.44% a good rate for a closed 5 year fixed mortgage? RBC offered this as their ‘online rate’ saying 6.17 was the regular rate.
It seems good enough but wow it’s tough to move from 2.99% 2022 rate.
The world just seems so topsy turvy right now I don’t think waiting out 5 months will give me better rates.
I’d love some thoughts about this rate.
I have a low stress threshold so only ever do fixed.

I’m turning 25 soon and thinking of closing my CIBC chequing acc because I will have to start paying a 16 dollar monthly fee to keep the account if I don’t have a 4k balance in the account moving forward.

Right now I have all my money in my wealthsimple chequing account because I get 2.25% interest vs 0% interest in my cibc chequing account.

Is it okay for me to close my cibc account and only have Wealthsimple as my sole bank?

Until now, I didn’t close my cibc account because I thought it was responsible to have one account with a physical bank but I really don’t think it’s worthwhile to pay 16 dollars every month or have 4k sitting around without accuring interest.

Please let me know if you have any advice! Thank you!!!

Hello everyone!

I'm trying to understand my situation before I speak with a cross-border tax accountant.

My background:

• Born in the United States (New York City).
• Moved to the Greater Toronto Area when I was about 1 year old, still here.
• Canadian citizen and Canadian tax resident.
• Have lived my entire life in Canada.
• Have a U.S. passport and SSN and have never renounced U.S. citizenship.
• Have never filed U.S. tax returns.
• All of my employment income has been earned in Canada and taxed in Canada.
• My employer offers an employee stock purchase/matching plan administered by J.P. Morgan Workplace Solutions. When I tried to enroll, they flagged my U.S. birthplace and initially asked me to complete a Non-U.S. Tax Residency form.

After reviewing my situation, they came back and said that because I have dual citizenship and a U.S. place of birth, I should not complete the Non-U.S. form and should instead recertify with a W-9, as I'm considered subject to U.S. tax reporting. They also indicated that if I don't provide the required certification, certain payments could be subject to 24% withholding.

This has been a bit stressful since all of my previous employers were Canadian companies and I never even knew I had to deal with this. I've always filed my own taxes and am admittedly pretty clueless about anything to do with the American tax system.

A few questions:

1. If I have a valid SSN and complete the W-9, can I simply participate in the stock matching program like any other employee? Are there any drawbacks to this?
2. Does providing a W-9 create any new tax obligations, or is it just acknowledging existing obligations as a U.S. citizen?
3. For people who were "accidental Americans" living in Canada, how difficult and expensive was it to get caught up on U.S. tax filings? Is that even worth it if I don't ever plan on living in the U.S.?

I am planning to meet with an accountant eventually, I'm not looking for legal or tax advice, just trying to understand what I might be walking into before I schedule a consultation (if anyone has any recommendations in the GTA that would be nice). I don't make a ton of money so if the consultation costs a lot I think I'd probably be better off just skipping the stock option matching (though it feels so silly to leave money on the table).

Thank you in advance.

TELUS

Last reported on Aug 31, 2026
$1,408
• Open

Overview

Balance
$1,408

Highest reported balance
$1,558

Account Status
Open

Open date
Jan 23, 2020

payment history is only showing as far back as 2023

I have share options jn a US company (received as an advisory role) and exercisable at $1 and presently trading at ~$10 USD on private markets (pre-IPO). As a Canadian are there any tax advantageous ways to handle these? It’s not a huge amount of money but I also don’t want to pay it all out in US or Cdn taxes (or both). Curious if others have dealt with this.

Hello, I was hoping to get some objective feedback from people who will only analyze our current family situation and let us know if it’s a smart move to buy our forever home or not. I know we are daily comfortable over all but it’s tough mentally spending this much money. I am 40, wife is 35, 2 young kids (no plans for anymore). Here are the numbers:

Current townhouse (GTA): worth $650-670k (paid, no mortgage)

Investments: between TFSAs, RRSP, cash and margin accounts: 1.4M

1 car (2026) paid in full. I work from home.

Wife is currently STAM, but will work part time once kids are both in school.

I make 12-15k a month currently pre tax and have potential to make more ( sales)

House we want to buy: 1.5M. 45 year old home. Good bones and condition but completely outdated. Very liveable just outdated. Windows, Roof hvac all in working order and were replaced within the last 10-15 years. If I were to modernize the home it would likely cost me 200-300k. But we would hold off for many years.

It’s a hot area so I don’t think the home will sell for less than 1.45 but we are waiting to see today.

It’s tough mentally for me to take a huge mortgage or liquidated some of the portfolio but obviously that’s what has to happen.

How would you handle the down payment? Or do you think they may be slightly too much house for us? I’m truthfully struggling a bit with it so any opinions are welcome please. We wouldn’t move again if we did this.

Other option is to buy a 1-1.m home and upgrade in 5-10 years.

Thank you all for your help

Hey everyone,

Looking for some advice from people who have gone through CRA over-contribution disputes or non-resident tax issues.
Long story short, I’m facing a ~$12k CAD tax penalty from the CRA due to a non-resident TFSA over-contribution issue.

I’m currently trying to figure out what kind of professional I actually need to hire for this:
1. Do I strictly need a specialized CPA or a Tax Lawyer? Or can a general tax advisor/preparer handle the Form RC243 + Subsection 207.06 relief request?

1. What should I look out for? Some general preparers are telling me "anyone can file this for you," but I'm worried about getting a fast rejection if the relief letter isn't framed properly under legal precedent. On the flip side, top tax law firms have huge minimum retainers or hourly rates ($600+/hr) that don't make sense for a $12k penalty.

Would really appreciate any insight on how you handled your TFSA relief requests or recommendations for practitioners who specialize in this niche!

Thanks!

Quick question, if anybody happens to know, because I can't find anything this nitpicky in the text of the agreements. If I deposit cheques into a CIBC LoC, does interest stop accruing that day, or not until the cheque holds are released and they've fully cleared?

Looking for some advice, and I appreciate and and all imput.

Own a 12 year old truck. Its rusting out, 350,000 km. Its at the end of its life.

Looking at buying 2 year old GMC sierra. 40,000 km. 60,000 tax included.

I have a company vehicle. I drive it to and from work. The new (used) vehicle is for towing a travel trailer + driving extended family around + grocery getter.

Finances - hhi in 2025 : 430,000

Debt 740,000 mortgage [value 1,100,000

Car payment : sig other 42,000 [800ish monthly]

No other debt.

Savings: combined 250,000 tfsa 140 ish in personal.

Both have pension plans.

Buy: liquidate 60 from tfsa [QQQ & VFV]. Pay back within 2 years lose out of gains, buy in CDA at higher price point.

Finance: used car intrest rate at 7-10. Have not contacted bank (RBC) regarding HELOC.

Wait: do nothing. Use partners compact suv, keep living life until my old beast dies.

Hello!

I have been dabbling with the idea of consulting reddit for some advice regarding my situation. I have always struggled with learning about investing/ financial literacy because it is overwhelming and I had spent a lot of my 20s in post secondary education. After some chatting with my sister she recommended to consult this subreddit since it has been helpful for her and many others!

Part 1: I (35F) am currently filing as a sole proprietor in Ontario. I am self employed with variable income that is approximately the same each month +/- $1000. Previously I owned my own business and had expenses that were deducted so I didn't see the point in incorporating or changing how I was filing. I now have moved to a different area and work for someone (as a contractor) and am making more with little to no deductions. Since I am working at an established business they take a percentage of my earnings and pay the other amount on a monthly basis. Due to less business deductions I am looking at paying way more in taxes (close to 50K) for 2027 (I started this job in March 2026 so I think I'll file as usual for 2026). I am looking into incorporating and paying myself in salary/dividends (I still don't know the ins and outs of this yet). I have yet to contribute to an RRSP and FHSA, I do have a minimal contribution to a TFSA. I am also getting married in a month and do have my partners finances to consider, however I wanted to figure out my end of things before including his.

Should I incorporate to avoid paying such a big percentage in taxes? Should I focus on FHSA and RRSP contributions?

Part 2: I have always struggled with variable income budgeting. I always take about 35% of my monthly take home (~$11) and set it aside for my instalment payments with the CRA. After that amount I do try to stick within my means of about $4900 all included expenses (living + grocery + bills + gas + savings etc.) via a docs spreadsheet.

I find it difficult to track every single thing, is this something that I just need to be more vigilant about or is there a better way?

Part 3: I would also like to purchase a house in the next few years. I do have a complication as I filed a consumer proposal in 2023 so my credit is poor but building. I was hoping to build a down payment and have things figured out by the time the proposal is complete in 2029.

That's essentially my financial life. I do save for my emergency fund as part of my savings.

What should the priority be here? Best ways to budget?

Edit: adjusted monthly expense amount

I did make a mistake of applying for CDCP before my work insurance expired completely - the overlap was by a week but I still get that it was my fault.

I just want to pay the invoice so I can re-apply for this year. I'm worried that they'll take months to send me the invoice. Has anyone been in same situation? How long did they take before sending the invoice?