News, Views and Trends!
I saw this article from earlier this year about Good debt and Bad debt. Canadian Personal debt levels have now surpassed $2.21 trillion. That’s a big number, should we be concerned? I started to wonder how much of this is Bad debt? Let’s take a closer look at these stats. Continue reading “Good debt and Bad debt…. do we Canadians recognize the difference?”
Debt. It’s a popular topic. Personal debt. Govt debt. Corporate debt. Back in 2013, I published an article comparing Canada’s debt with the rest of the world. Back then, like today, there was so much negative news being written about our so-called high personal debt level. I thought I’d turn the tables on the govt and see how they were doing.
Here we are, 2018 and five years later. We’re supposedly experiencing fantastic economic times. Lowest unemployment in 40 years according to the Dec 2017 job report. Things are so good that we can increase minimum wage by over 30% in Ontario and other Provinces. We must really be doing great, right? Scorecard time…
The logical conclusion, or the simple math equation is with GOOD TIMES OR A STRONG PROSPEROUS ECONOMY = LOWER NATIONAL DEBT…. Consumers are expected to lower their personal debt levels. Isn’t the govt supposed to lower or work on eliminating our national debt? One would think so. Let’s find out… Continue reading “World Debt clock comparison… How’s Canada doing compared with the world?”
From April 2016 to March 2017 Canadians spent $19billion buying U.S. properties, according to the U.S. National Association of Realtors.
Put another way, Canada was only behind China for all foreign purchases of U.S. real estate in 2016. That’s an incredible stat that deserves more attention.
And what’s not been talked about is where Canadians are getting the money to buy these U.S. properties. It isn’t so easy for a Canadian to borrow money from US Bank. So, instead, Canadians are borrowing in Canada by refinancing the mortgage on their house, or getting a secured line of credit. This is called leveraging. Borrowing to invest isn’t a bad thing. Most Financial Planners and advisor promote this.
THE STATS SHOW WE CANADIANS ARE SAVVY INVESTORS
Yet, all we keep hearing about is how Canadians are borrowing and spending like foolish children. And that’s just not true. Here’s some numbers from 2016 …
Continue reading “Canadians bought more U.S. real estate than almost anyone else!”
Wait a minute.. Record savings? Yup, that’s right.. Canadians are sitting on more cash than ever before. A record $75billion, according to a study published today by CIBC economists Ben Tal and Royce Mendes. Click here to read more
Yet, earlier this month, we saw a flood of articles warning of ‘Record personal debt levels’. Which strongly implied we were borrowing and spending like fools. So which is it? Record debt or record savings? Continue reading “Record Savings Levels! Canadians? I thought we had Record personal debt?”
Fixed mortgage rates went up this week on the wholesale market. Only about a 0.10% increase… We are still way below 3.00% for 5 yr fixed rates. Hey, that’s pretty good! (watch for the media to blow it out of proportion soon.. they seem to love feeding on negativity).
Thought I’d share some quick numbers.. Did you know that a $300k mortgage will still carry for $1380/mth? And that’s with a 25 yr amortization. If we go to a 30 year amort, the payment drops to $1221/mth.
Let’s increase the mortgage to $400k.. payments are $1840/mth and $1628/mth for a 25 and 30 year amortization, respectively. Hey, these are still incredibly low mortgage rates. Anything under 4.00% should be considered a gift. (I’ll get into what Canada’s wealthy are doing in a few moments) Continue reading “Mortgage cost today is $1380/mth for every $300k… and sharing high net worth secrets.”
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