Savings, market value and government guidelines are obvious obstacles but in my opinion, one topic that doesn’t get discussed in enough detail is consumer debt payments. First a quick definition: Disposable income, is described as total personal income minus current income taxes. Essentially, your take-home-pay. Here’s a “live” case study. This consumer has $62,601 in […]

We’ve all heard the terms Mortgage Broker and Mortgage Specialist flung around, but what on earth is the difference? Though they sound similar, there are major differences that all home buyers and owners should be aware of. Let’s start off with some simple definitions. A Mortgage Specialist is a person employed by a lending institution to sell […]

More and more Canadians are going into their retirement years without a lot of money saved in the bank. It is suggested that in order to live a financially comfortable retirement, couples should have saved 50-60% of their peak pre-retirement income, which equates to roughly $42,000 to $72,000 a year or $275,000 to $1,025,000. Singles should […]

When shopping for a mortgage, many home buyers enlist the services of a Mortgage Professional. There are several benefits to using a Mortgage Broker and I have compiled a list of the top 8: 1. Saves you time – Mortgage Brokers have access to multiple lenders (over 50!). They work with lenders you have heard of and lenders […]

The most important strategy that a home buyer could ever have is putting together a team of Real Estate professionals to help them make the wisest decisions in regard to the biggest purchase they will ever make; a property purchase. It is so very important to align yourself with a Realtor who has excellent property […]

1. How the penalties are calculated if I break my mortgage early? Specifically, ask what rate they use to calculate the “interest rate differential”. Typically, if the lender has “posted rates” they use these to calculate the penalty. If this is the case, the penalty can be 3, 4 or even 5 times higher than […]

When signing your mortgage commitment letter you will have to choose your payment frequency. If your goal is to re-pay your mortgage as quickly as possible, then you need to understand how different payment options will affect your repayment schedule. So what are your options? In general, most lenders will offer the borrower the option […]

Credit scores are like report cards for grown‐ups. The score you get ranges from 300 to 900. Your score indicates your creditworthiness to potential lenders, banks, landlords, insurance companies, and even to some employers. The higher your score the better. 1. GET A COPY OF YOUR CREDIT REPORT Make an inquiry once a year, twice […]

Welcome to your free financial check-up, discussing 5 key factors to assist you in ensuring you are on the right track to a solid financial future. Credit Ensuring you are using credit wisely will pave the way to making sure you have options available to you if or when you need them. One thing we […]

The great majority of us are in mortgage contracts that contain a prepayment privilege of some sort. “Privilege” being the key word here. Not all mortgage contracts contain such privileges, but that’s a story for another day. The mortgages that do allow prepayment privileges, usually allow at least 15% of your mortgage to be paid […]