How do I beat inflation? Everyone wants to know these days, with the quickly increasing costs of food, energy, rent, used cars, and consumer goods front and centre in our minds. Add on weather-related disasters, supply chain disruptions, and record money printing and deficit spending by governments, and inflationary pressures look downright scary. Since the middle of 2020, living costs…
Tag: debt
Welcome to tags! Here you will find all the relevant blog posts and content tagged with or discussing the term “debt”.
Free Macro Economic Resources
Free Macro Economic Resources Welcome to My Money Moves third video. Here I discuss free macro economic resources and what websites I use personally. The content was produced for my employer but it is likely applicable to many readers here too. Enjoy! For more on investing basics check out Investing for Beginners and Make the Most of Your Investments, or…
Money News – May 2021
Personal Finance in the News – May 2021: Welcome to Money News – May 2021! Noteworthy news this month includes reflections on past inflation cycles, changes to the housing market with stricter stress tests starting June 1, and banks misplacing their clients’ money. Read: A lot of people are talking about inflation after both US and Canadian inflation accelerated at…
Money News – April 2021
Personal Finance in the News – April 2021: Welcome to Money News – April 2021! I have three noteworthy news topics for you this month. We’ll cover Canada’s new taxes, inflation, and the upcoming April 2021 tax deadline. Read: The Federal Government has released its first budget in two years. This budget proposes a host of new taxes. Jamie…
Housing Market Solutions
Sky high real estate prices, bidding wars, and bully offers have many Canadians asking about housing market solutions in this country. Recently, Rob Carrick and Erin Anderssen from the Globe & Mail sent out a Tweet asking Canadians to weigh in on potential solutions. I decided to add my two cents. Below is a copy of what I wrote. Central…
Money News – January 2021
Personal Finance in the News – January 2021: Welcome to Money News – January 2021! I have four noteworthy news topics for you this month. Read: For those of you interested in stocks, this month has been bonkers, with the market ripping higher. Most noteworthily, an online community of individual investors (often called retail investors) has taken aim at institutional…
Money News – October 2020
Personal Finance in the News – October 2020: Read: The Bank of Canada has ended a pandemic program that helped real estate prices surge. This largely unknown but wide-reaching policy saw the Bank of Canada buy nearly $10 billions in mortgage bonds. This artificially lowered borrowing costs and helped send home prices through the roof. What happens now is anyone’s…
Investing for Beginners
Intro Investing is a broad and far-reaching topic, and one that can be completely overwhelming for beginners. Over the years, I’ve had so many friends and family members ask me how to get started. In this piece, I’ll try to break it down for you, and share the steps that I went through myself. What follows is a summary of…
Money News – June 2020
Personal Finance in the News – June 2020: Here’s a summary of June 2020’s Money News: Read & Watch: CMCH is tightening mortgage rules for homebuyers. Credit scores are becoming more important and debt service ratios are becoming more conservative – therefore more mortgage conservatism may be a good idea given the debt loads out there. For more on that…
Liquid Net Worth
Liquid net worth is an unfamiliar term for most people. Many know about net worth, but few understand liquid net worth, what it means, and why it is important. This article will explore the term and unpack its usefulness. What is liquid net worth and how is it calculated? While net worth measures the value of all the assets you…
Money News – May 2020
Personal Finance in the News – May 2020: Here is a summary of May 2020’s Money News. This time around, topics that grabbed my attention included mortgage deferrals, COVID-19 scams, and changes in consumer behaviour. Read & Watch: Canadians are falling victim to a variety of new COVID-19 scams. These articles by BNN-Bloomberg, CBC, and Richmond News detail the common…
Preparing your finances for a second wave and a new normal
Have you been preparing your finances for a second wave and a new normal? A lot of people are returning to work or are starting to receive government aid, and this has more than few people wondering “What should I do with my money now?” Even if you’ve been lucky enough to keep your job, answering this question is important.…
Money News – April 2020
Personal Finance in the News – April 2020: Here is a summary of April 2020’s Money News. As you can guess, COVID-19 and the global health crisis continue to dominate everything, including personal finance. Read: Many families have been deferring their mortgage payments as layoffs mount and the recession bites. As of early April, almost 500,000 Canadians had requested mortgage…
How to Live on Less
Are you wondering how to live on less? A lot of people are these days. COVID-19 has resulted in record unemployment claims, and the economy is facing an ugly recession. Whether you’ve lost your job, had your hours reduced, or are just uncertain regarding your future finances, it never hurts to think about how to live on less. Below are…
Money News – March 2020
Personal Finance in the News – March 2020: March 2020’s Money News is here! As the global health crisis goes from bad to worse, the economic costs are piling up and spilling over into significant financial hardship. Read: The US and Canada have reported their largest weekly initial unemployment claims ever at 3,280,000 and 929,000 respectively. For perspective, the previous…
Personal Finance and the COVID-19 Coronavirus
Introduction: COVID-19 is a real wake up call for how we should be managing our finances. Aside from the health impacts, COVID-19 may result in real financial hardship for many. Quarantines, school closures, and lockdowns could result in lost time at work and reduced incomes. In the bigger picture, employers may be forced to lay off workers and reduce staff.…
Money News – February 2020
Personal Finance in the News – February 2020: February’s Money News has been a rough month for financial markets as the COVID-19 virus continues to spread. Though this outbreak has understandably dominated headlines and may have widespread financial impacts, there were many other interesting personal finance stories this month: Read & Watch: These articles by the Globe and BNN discusses…
Money News – January 2020
Personal Finance in the News – January 2020: Welcome to January’s Money News, and a brand-new decade! Here are a few personal finance focused news articles that grabbed my attention this January: Read: In this article, Jamie Golombek at the Financial Post explains how the CRA has redesigned the T1 Personal Income Tax form for the coming tax year. Are…
Building a Budget
If you’ve already started to track your spending, you might be asking, “Now what?” The answer is, “Now build a budget!” This blog post will go through the basics of setting a personal budget to help get you started. If you haven’t already, you can also check out the Tracking My Spending post, which goes hand-in-hand with this one. …
Money News – December 2019
Personal Finance in the News – December 2019: Here is December’s Money News: Read & Watch: Daniel Tencer at The Huffington Post explores the differences between American and Canadian finances. This article also explores how the differences highlight potential financial lessons, warnings, and opportunities. Read: Surviscor has released its 2019 Online Brokerage Review. In addition to providing a good overview…
How to Track Your Net Worth in Excel – YouTube Video
My Money Moves Presents our first YouTube Video: Want to know how to track your net worth in Excel? Some readers of the blog post Net Worth 101 have asked how I track my net worth in Excel. Some have also asked how to use the Excel template available on the Free Financial Resources page. Though the Excel sheet provides…
Money News – November 2019
Personal Finance in the News – November 2019: A quick glance at November’s Money News for you: Read: November is Financial Literacy Month here in Canada – this makes November the perfect time to launch My Money Moves! In addition to going through my latest Money Blogs, you may also be interested in this Market Watch article that breaks down…
Net Worth 101
What is Net Worth? Net worth measures how much money you have. The formula for net worth is very easy: Assets – Liabilities = Net Worth Remember, assets are things you own, and liabilities are things you owe (e.g. debt). Here’s a simple example: If all you have is $10 in your pocket, but you owe your friend $3, your…
Seven Financial Rules I Live By
Personal finance can be complicated. For me, I’ve found that simplicity serves me best. Here are some of the basic financial rules I use with my money: 1. Budget & Track Your Spending No matter what your finances are like today, they’ll probably be better if you start tracking spending each month and building a budget. This will let you…
Money News – October 2019
Personal Finance in the News – October 2019: A quick glance at October’s Money News: Read: New York Life Insurance Company takes a look at common financial regrets. What do you regret? Or, more importantly, what do you fear regretting in the future? And what can you do today to reduce the chances of regret? Read & Watch: According to…