CategoryPersonal growth

Posted April 10, 20251 Comment Bank News

A Financial Crisis Or Is It?

2025 will go down in history as one of those years filled with volatility and turmoil. There’s a quote from a book I read that seems appropriate today. “People want certainty versus accuracy.” I hope to give you certainty by sharing my 36 year experience in financial services and having lived through 5 financial crises and living through a 6th crisis today.

I’m going to take a risk and speak very bluntly. This may anger or upset some of you. I apologize, I have to say some things. I have to point out the obvious.

FIRST THE BAD NEWS…

I’m a math guy. Work with numbers every day. The stats don’t lie. Our economy, GDP, cost of living, housing costs, have all gone into the toilet. You don’t need to look very far to believe this. Many of you have contacted me about job losses, or potential job losses. Those secure in their jobs call me because they have increased their debt levels and this can be for many reasons. The point is, many are having a hard time paying their debts.

Posted September 26, 2024 Bank News

The Great Mortgage Reset

A FOUR PART SPECIAL EDITION… PART 2 of 4

Canada’s mortgage lending rules and policies are broken. They just don’t work. And the more our Federal government tries to help, the worse it gets. This is a 4 part series of what our government can do to make home ownership affordable.

IDENTIFY THE PROBLEMS.

1. QUALIFYING IS TOUGHER THAN EVER BEFORE

Canadians can’t afford to buy or rent a home due to the high monthly cost. Home prices and rental rates have exploded! No surprise there.

Simple math.. Even a below average home, let’s use a $500,000 mortgage @ 4.69% will cost you $2,820/mth. Add in property taxes, home insurance and

Posted April 22, 2024 Finance

Housing crisis.. Made in Canada

It’s really not that complicated. If you really want to resolve the housing crisis you just need to do these FIVE things

1. Bring back 35 year amortization periods and increase qualifying home prices to $1,250,000 or higher.
2.Remove rent control rules.
3.Halt new immigration until we can build up enough support services to handle what we have already. *(exception below)
4.Cut back on the municipal, provincial gov’t Red Tape to build any type of residential housing and that includes purpose built rental apartment buildings.
5.Create a hiring program to entice and incentivize people to get into skilled trades …and bring over people from outside Canada if you have to (this would be my exception to point 2 above)
Do this and you’ll soon have more housing units available than you could even dream of. It could be done in 3 to 5 years. It’s just not that complicated.

Rental properties as a secure long-term investment

Posted February 1, 2024 Finance

Population Crisis Part 2: The Good News

Hopefully you read Part One of this article where I discuss the Canadian government’s delusional (and incredibly damaging) immigration strategy. With no meaningful plan to absorb 500,000 newcomers per year, we’re looking down the barrel of a number of crises to come: a jobs crisis, a healthcare crisis, an infrastructure crisis, and of course, a housing crisis.

Posted July 14, 20221 Comment Bank News

The Right Time To Buy Is Right Now

Yesterday, the Bank of Canada raised their rate by a whopping 1%. It’s the biggest rate hike in a long time, and it’s got a lot of people talking. Mostly negatively (surprise surprise) but I for one have no interest in talking about what you can’t control. Instead, I want to talk about what you can control. There’s a way you can capitalize on a rare opportunity to grow your net worth over time, and it runs contrary to everything you’re hearing on the news:

Buy real estate.