Canadian Personal Finance News | Week 39 2013

Could see a big decline in the loonie in the fall and winter that would cost snowbirds more in Forex costs? Rob Carrick finds out

I didn't create my first budget until I was 22 years old and halfway through college. I always knew I had to make one, but the process seemed overwhelming and I didn't know how to even start. I knew I was spending more than I was making, but I didn't have the discipline to stop, ...

I am talking about the person who uses their RRSPs to go on holidays, buy a quad or pay off a debt.

For many of us, retirement is the mental picture we have when we are finally able to do whatever it is that we want to do without having to worry about working for me.

There’s one issue with that mental picture. We’re using the wrong word to define the goal that we’re looking to accomplish.

Record amounts of investment money have been flowing into exchange-traded funds, known as ETFs, with investors allocating to hundreds of different strategies covering everything from traditional stocks and bonds to physical diamonds and the Winklevoss twin's Bitcoin currency. But what, exactly, is an ETF, and how does it work?

The federal government now permits people who turn 65 to delay the start of their Old Age Security pension (OAS) until 70. Why would anyone do this? Because you'll receive 36% more OAS pension if you do. Consider someone who has just turned 65 and is receiving the current maximum OAS pension of $549.89 a month.

In his first official act as the new governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Raghuram Rajan raised the benchmark interest rate from 7.5 to 7.75%, causing a ripple of surprise in financial circles and eliciting protests from various business representatives. But for people who know the current condition of emerging markets and Rajan's...

The risk of rising interest rates has become an obsession in the financial media. Those risks are undeniably real: it's quite possible that broad-based bond funds will see multiple years with negative returns. (As I illustrated in a previous post, that would likely occur if rates across the yield curve rose 1% annually for three years.

In the fall of 2011, shortly after finishing university, Jordann Brown realized she owed a staggering $53,349. "My story isn't one about spending with abandon or being irresponsible," says the 23-year-old marketing director. "I did what every millennial is told to do after high school, and that put me up to my eyeballs in debt."

Last weeks collection of Canadian Personal Finance News List - all relevant news articles and blog posts from week 38 in one place! Enjoy.

Welcome to our public community dedicated to smart conversation around finances in Canada. Please read our community guidelines before posting on the wall. Our community objective is to share information around smart household finance in Canada with specific content including budgeting, money management, investments and fee-only financial planning.