Thoughts on personal finance, investing, and financial clarity for Canadians.
The commodity advice assumes you just need to work harder. For people already doing most of it, the real question is quieter: am I getting ahead? A CFA on the number that actually answers it.
Read more →The 2023 Statistics Canada medians give you a number to measure against — but the single figure blends together dollars that behave nothing alike. Here’s how to read what your net worth is actually made of.
Read more →The usual rule — compare your rate to your return — was written for a kind of debt most people asking don’t actually have. Here’s the after-tax math that decides it, and the trap that quietly costs the most.
Read more →Barista FIRE treats early retirement as all-or-nothing. The Canadian math — CPP, OAS, and a little chosen income — shows what staying lightly engaged is actually worth.
Read more →Parts 2 and 3 landed on a retirement target in today’s dollars. Part 4 builds the two bridges to it — the inflation bridge that turns $1.73 million today into about $3.13 million at 65, and the contribution path that shows what you actually have to save each month to get there.
Read more →Part 2 landed on a single retirement target. Part 3 flexes the four inputs behind it — spending, CPP and OAS, return, and longevity — one at a time. The order of impact inverts how most articles weight them: spending moves the number most, longevity least.
Read more →The popular salary-multiple rules feel rigorous, but they’re built on U.S. assumptions about Social Security, returns, and longevity. Part 2 of a five-part series re-runs the same present value math with Canadian inputs — and lands on a meaningfully higher target.
Read more →Most “save X by age Y” rules assume retirement is the goal — but retirement is just one possible answer to a deeper question: what is the money for? Part 1 of a five-part series on the math behind your savings number.
Read more →Most articles about hiring a financial advisor were written by financial advisors. Here’s an honest take from a CFA charterholder on where advisors genuinely add value, where they don’t, and how to decide for yourself.
Read more →You started late, you’re in debt, and the clock is shorter. Here’s the math that shows why you’re probably going to be fine — and what to focus on now.
Read more →You can operate. You can deliver a baby at 3am. Then as soon as you get your staff job, you quietly realize that you don’t know what to do with all that money showing up in your bank account. Here’s an honest, unsponsored look at what’s available.
Read more →You Googled "TFSA vs RRSP," got twelve articles that all say the same thing, and still aren't sure what to actually do with your money this year. Here's why: most of that content is stale, and almost none of it accounts for the FHSA.
Read more →It's late 2025, and I'm at a playground watching my son swing along the monkey bars. I'm there with two friends who are both physicians. While the kids run around together, we get to talking — and the conversation always turns to money.
Read more →The professional advice we got was that it's best to leave your investments in the corp. I'm an investment professional, so I decided to do the math myself and see what it looks like.
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