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Posted Case study

Use your mortgage to pull debt together and save for retirement.

saving-for-retirementPerhaps too much debt has made your monthly cash flow tight, putting you under some financial pressure and making it almost impossible to save for retirement. With the right plan in place, it may be possible to simplify your debt, reduce interest costs, and save for retirement, all without earning more or cutting your spending. 

If you have enough equity in your home (you can’t refinance a mortgage above an 80 per cent loan to value), we can show you how to use that equity to roll your high-interest debt into a low-rate mortgage and make a large RRSP contribution if you have contribution room.

Here’s an example – mortgage, car loan and credit cards total $225,000. If you have enough equity, you can roll that debt into a new $233,000 mortgage, including a fee to break the existing mortgage, and look at the payoff. Continue reading “Use your mortgage to pull debt together and save for retirement.”

Posted Consumer Debt

These Eggs do belong in one basket

Our parents taught us to pay our mortgage off quickly… Great advice, but they forgot to tell us to not incur other debt while we were paying that mortgage off….

A few years back, there was a study done about Debt Diversification by Moshe Milvesky, Associate Professor of Finance at Schulich School of Business Milevsky debt review.   The study showed that we were using the old rule of ‘Don’t put all your Eggs in One Basket’ and applying that to our debts.   And this is exactly what you should NOT be doing…

Investment diversification is GOOD, Debt diversification is BAD.   The study used $95,000 as a typical amount of diversified debt and $2,700 in idle cash…. the conclusion is that this combination results in a $1,000 loss per year by not managing debts properly.

If you have equity in your home and you carry a balance on your credit card, line of credit, or have a car loan or student loan, then you should consider utilizing the equity to borrow at the lowest rates possible… Residential Mortgages are always the cheapest form of financing…

Posted Consumer Debt

Are our Personal Debts too high?

2 reports came out recently that received  much air time on TV, Radio and Internet.   Let’s look at these reports from the CBC…

1-The Certified General Accountants Association stated that the average Canadian’s debt is $41,740 per person….Apparently, it’s among the worst of the 20 most advanced countries in the world…

Well, let’s think about that for a moment ask some questions….

  • I wonder how many people have borrowed to invest lately?
  • $44k per person… is this a high number?  I mean, what does a basket of goods cost in some of these other top 20 countries like, Greece, Hungary, Poland or the U.S.?  Aren’t things more expensive in Canada?
  • Canadians have a reputation of being conservative….are we borrowing wisely?  Could it be that Canadians are taking advantage of these record low rates to borrow for rrsps, resp, stocks, real estate or other good investments?

2- The Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals reported that 475,000 Canadians would be challenged if their mortgage rate went above 5.25% and 375,000 were already facing pressure to pay their bills.

  • I spoke with a contact at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and Genworth Financial, the mortgage insurance companies that insured hi-ratio mortgages.   There was no indication that Mortgage defaults were a problem.
  • I have not seen any reports that show our Mortgage defaults are in trouble.
  • Canada is near or  has the lowest mortgage defaults among the top 20 countries.
  • why would you take a 5 year fixed rate at 4.59% (today’s rate) when you could get 1.70% with a variable rate?  How long will it take before variable rate reaches 5.25%?   2, 3, 4 years or more or never?  Where will our debt load be at that time?

I think the confidence level in Canada is strong…  let’s keep it that way…    Spend and borrow wisely…

Posted Consumer Debt

58% of Canadians want to pay down their debts

The latest Canadian Consumer Outlook index showed that 58% of Canadians are worried about their debt.  This is a great time to get your debts reviewed…. a financial check-up…

With December credit cards bills coming in and your property tax bills coming up in the next few months, now is the time for a review… and guess what.. you might be pleasantly surprised to discover that there is some savings potential in your mortgage.  Debt Consolidation is not a bad word.

Call your mortgage broker for a review today.