Family Formation & Housing

For young couples starting families, buying their first home and/or other real estate. Covers mortgages, credit cards, interest rates, children’s education savings plans, joint accounts for couples and the like.

5 apps to help get your personal finances on track

Posted By |

By Julia Faletski (Sponsor Content)

For many people, managing your money means simply checking your bank account every month and paying your bills. That’s a great starting point. But if you want to get on a strong financial footing and maybe even retire a millionaire, you’ll need to set goals and have a plan for how to get there. That means budgeting, saving, building a strong credit score, and more.

Fortunately, today’s technology means you don’t need to be a math wiz to make these smart money moves. In fact, you don’t even have to look at a spreadsheet. There’s an app for that.

To help you get started, we’ve curated a list of apps that will help you automate —  and dominate — your personal finances:

Budgeting

To start out your financial journey, you’ll want to know how you’re doing today. Budgeting is probably the most fundamental aspect to personal finance. There are lots of budgeting apps out there, but Mint is one of the more well known ones for a good reason. Mint allows you to manage your finances from beginning to end: you’re able to link banks accounts, credit cards, investment accounts (like WealthBar!) and bills. You can track your spending, create a budget, and see a complete picture of where your money is going, all in one place. It’s great for both keeping track of your day-to-day transactions and long-term goals.

If you want more of a step-by-step guide to creating and following a budget, take a look at You Need A Budget (YNAB). Not only are you able to link accounts and track expenses, but you can also get advice on how to pay down debt, manage monthly expenses, and accumulate savings. It’s always a bonus when a company infuses their features with financial education. Knowledge is power!

Taxes

We get it, tax season probably isn’t your favourite time of the year. Luckily, apps like TurboTax aim to make filing your taxes painless. The app will take you through a number of easy-to-answer questions — prompting you to provide the pertinent information — and then it will do the calculations for you. No need to go through all the tedious steps yourself! The goal is making sure no money is left on the table in unclaimed deductions.

Credit score

Having healthy credit goes a long way when you need to borrow money for a big purchase like a house or even get a credit card. Credit Karma allows you to take the guesswork out of understanding your credit score. They make it easy to access your credit rating for free, understand what is positively or negatively affecting the rating, and see how you can improve it. Continue Reading…

Trick or Treat: How much does the average consumer spend on Halloween?

Posted By |

 

By Mike Brown

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

LendEDU’s third annual study also included price comparison research that found consumers can save a good chunk of money by shopping for Halloween on Amazon rather than Walmart.

 

While our level of involvement may differ, most of us will be taking part in Halloween festivities in some capacity.

For the youth, enthusiasm for Halloween begins in September when costume ideas start taking shape. Once it starts, the fun doesn’t end until the candy-induced stomach ache kicks in roughly three hours after that last Twix.

While young adults may bypass the trick-or-treating, Halloween still offers a great excuse to dress up, look silly, and have a night out on the town.

Adults, who are often less excited than children, play an integral role when it comes to Halloween. Without them, who would chaperon the trick-or-treaters, hand out candy, cover houses in spooky decorations, or design the outfits that win the school costume competitions?

Like most holidays, Halloween will always have naysayers, but for the most part, it is seen as an enjoyable night that kicks off the holiday season. And according to LendEDU’s third annual Cost of Halloween survey, it is actually a day that will be forcing many to cough-up a decent-sized chunk of change.

Average American will spend US$162.29 on Halloween in 2019

With Halloween just hours away, LendEDU wanted to figure out how much families are spending on this holiday characterized by candy, costumes, and scary decorations.

​To do this, we asked 1,000 Americans that were planning on celebrating Halloween in 2019 the following question: “How much do you expect to spend celebrating Halloween this year?”

After averaging together all 1,000 responses, we found that in 2019 the average American is expecting to spend US$162.29 on Halloween. (All dollar amounts below, including graphics, are in US$).

It turns out that all of the fun brought on by Halloween comes at a price that may scare a few people away before the haunted houses even have a chance. $162.29 for a few hours of spirited and spooky celebrations is nothing to sneeze at.

>> Read More: How to Save on Halloween

​So, what is making the cost of Halloween so unexpectedly high? Continue Reading…

How to avoid the hidden costs of school

Posted By |

By Tara Thompson

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

If you have school-age children, you know that when fall rolls around there will be additional costs added to your budget. Hopefully, you planned for this increase in the budget when the school year began, but as we all know there are always unexpected costs that we didn’t think of. Here are a few things to expect as well as a few ways to save.

Clothes

When we send our kids off to school we already know about many of the costs. Back-to-school shopping can be crazy. New clothes are important if we want our kids to fit in with their peers. New shoes are also a popular item and they often need multiple pairs. If you live in an area that has cold weather or rain they will need coats and jackets. If possible try to reuse some of your kid’s clothes. I know they always want new clothes but try to mix in some new with some of the old, and don’t forget to utilize hand-me-downs if you have more than one child.

Supplies

Then there are the dreaded school supplies. A long list that never seems to end and probably a new backpack and lunchbox to go with them. There are ways to save money by finding good sales and also by re-using supplies from the previous year. I keep a plastic bin with unused and used school supplies that can still be used during the year and the following year if I still have them. This saves money and is a good way to be green. Continue Reading…

How Canadians are impacted by rising home prices: National Survey

Posted By |

 

By Penelope Graham, Zoocasa

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Election season may have come and gone, but the need for affordable housing remains a top-of-mind issue for Canadians, regardless of governing political party. According to a recent national survey conducted by Zoocasa, a whopping 84% say they feel the ability to afford a home is a major issue that’s negatively impacted the population: and 78% feel the government needs to make it a priority focus.

As well, the survey findings reveal that anxiety around affordability extends beyond those who wish to get onto the property ladder; while renters express particularly strong feelings of uncertainty (93%), current homeowners are also feeling the squeeze from spiralling home values, with 80% in agreement.

Let’s take a look at the top concerns indicated by Canadians.

Incomes can’t keep pace with Real Estate prices 

It’s no secret that prices for houses for sale in markets across Canada have seen enormous growth over the last five years. According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, the national average home price now exceeds half a million dollars, at $515,500 (though it should be noted that removing Vancouver and Toronto houses and condos from the equation would trim that total to $397,000).

This has left the majority of Canadians – 91% – feeling as though home prices have outstripped wages in their city or town, while another 92% say they feel rising home prices have reduced the ability of middle-class Canadians’ abilities to purchase a home.

As a result, in order to seek out greater affordability, more than half of first-time buyers said they’d leave their current location and move to a market with lower home prices, contributing to what’s referred to in real estate circles as “driving until you qualify.”

Other homeownership hurdles

But rising home prices only tell a portion of the story: while 70% of respondents agree they’re the largest obstacle to getting on the property ladder, the inability to save enough for a down payment also ranks highly on the list of challenges. Continue Reading…

What are the unique skills required for investing in real estate?

Posted By |

By Curtis Brown

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Real estate has been an extensive career opportunity for quite some time now. People have successfully made a living out of buying and selling of properties and houses. If you ask anyone who has been in this field for a long time, they will tell you it is not an easy job. You need to have excellent communication and convincing skills to flourish in the real estate market. But the trick is not just selling.

You should also have the knowledge to assess and know when to buy so you can get maximum profits out of it. Many successful real estate agents have had numerous happy clients over the years. It’s probably a good idea to look at the set of skills they possessed to get an idea about how you should hone and develop your skill in investing in real estate.

Understand market conditions and risks

The market has many facets. It can be very stable at one time and volatile the next moment. However, if you look closely, it follows a trend. You should be able to analyze these trends so you can take advantage of all the uphills and downhills. There is no denying the fact that there is always an element of risk associated with real estate. However, since you have decided to enter the game, you might as well take some. In case it pays off, the profits may be much more than expected.

Discipline has been the most important skill

This applies to almost all career choices, and its implication in real estate is even more significant. Discipline and patience are two virtues that you definitely cannot do without. Once you embark on the path of discipline and follow up with your clients religiously, you will be able to track down and understand potential customers easily.

Network and Management skills

Since real estate is all about communication and buying and selling, one thing of paramount importance here is the kind of network that you have. A lot of marketing in real estate is based on word of mouth, and heavy networking will help to build a good reputation in the market. You should also be able to manage multiple properties at once. This is one strategy that most successful real estate agents apply. They deal with more than one home and keep stacking up their profits one after the other. You will have multiple avenues of income through this method. Continue Reading…