by Karen Wotherspoon | Nov 8, 2016 | Blog, Economy, Finance, Mortgage
Although the recent changes to mortgage qualification introduced by the government were intended to create stability in the Canadian housing market, the unintended consequences might have been to make the waters a little muddier. For the first time, it looks like...
by Karen Wotherspoon | Nov 1, 2016 | Blog, Finance, Guest Post
By Sandi Martin of Spring Personal Finance. The point: it doesn’t matter what method you use to pay off debt, or if you use any method at all. What matters is that you stop creating new debt. It’s out there: the mathematically precise, strictly rational formula for...
by Karen Wotherspoon | Oct 25, 2016 | Blog, Homeownership
You’re on “the grid” Every few weeks, we open our mailboxes (or our email inboxes) with bated breath. Inevitably, we find another heap of utility bills, waiting to separate us from our hard earned dollars. This is not unusual; this is simply part of...
by Karen Wotherspoon | Oct 19, 2016 | Announcements, Blog, Mortgage
With all the recent government activity meant to bring stability to the Canadian housing market (read cool down Vancouver and Toronto), its no surprise that the bank of Canada has decided against making any drastic changes to the overnight rate in their announcement...
by Karen Wotherspoon | Oct 11, 2016 | Blog, Productivity, Video
Chris Bailey from A Life of Productivity was recently asked to give a presentation at TEDxLiverpool, here it is in all it’s YouTube glory! Chris has been obsessed with the subject of productivity for more than a decade. In this talk, he argues that productivity...
by Karen Wotherspoon | Oct 3, 2016 | Announcements, Blog, Economy, Homeownership
This morning, Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced new housing measures, changes meant to alleviate risk in Canada’s current housing market. The measures include: Standardizing lending criteria for high- and low-ratio mortgages, including a mortgage stress...
by Karen Wotherspoon | Sep 20, 2016 | Blog, Economy, Mortgage
Before reading this you should be warned that the following content is pretty dry… like eating 8 saltine crackers without drinking water dry. If you need to go and get something to drink before proceeding, no worries, we will wait here. Take your time. The...
by Karen Wotherspoon | Sep 13, 2016 | Blog, Homeownership
In an article I recently published called “Is Now a Good Time to Buy?” we identified that interest rates are at all time Canadian lows and as it’s never been cheaper to borrow money, now is a good time to buy property. In no way was it being said...
by Karen Wotherspoon | Sep 7, 2016 | Announcements, Blog, Mortgage
The Bank of Canada today announced that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 1/2 per cent. The Bank Rate is correspondingly 3/4 per cent and the deposit rate is 1/4 per cent. Global growth in the first half of 2016 was slower than the Bank had...
by Karen Wotherspoon | Aug 30, 2016 | Blog, Economy, Homeownership
If you’re getting tired of all the media headlines claiming impending housing market and economic doom and gloom, you’re not alone. It seems every time you browse the news another US economist is predicting terrible things for Canada. Articles like this...
