Learning to manage your money and investments is hard enough as it is. Now imagine having to figure it all out in a foreign country.
You’re trying to decide where to open your first bank account, while at the same time looking for a place to live and, quite possibly, job hunting. It’s a lot to take in, especially when everything is new and unfamiliar.
Hi, my name is Erica Alini, I’m a personal finance reporter at the Globe and I, too, was once new to this country. That’s why I wrote the Newcomers’ Guide to Finances in Canada, a free, five-week newsletter course on personal finance and investing for people who’ve recently moved here from abroad – as well as those who are contemplating making the leap.
The Newcomers’ Guide begins with the basics of getting to know Canada’s banking system and understanding credit scores. It moves on to navigating the rental market and saving for a house down payment, debt and borrowing, taxes and government benefits, and investing.
There are sections on financial products specifically geared to immigrants, such as newcomer bank accounts and career loans. And there’s plenty of straight talk about what’s great, not-so-great, or just downright bad about managing your money in this country. An important take-away from the first newsletter, for example: loyalty to your bank doesn’t pay.
Last year Canada welcomed over one million people. Yet, there is precious little personal finance content aimed specifically at recent immigrants. So if you know someone who’s still trying to find their way around – be it an international student, a refugee or an established professional – please consider forwarding them a link to the Newcomers’ Guide.
It’s the road map to making good financial decisions in this country that I wish I’d had when I first arrived.
Subscribe to Carrick on Money
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Erica’s personal finance reading list
An alternative to the 4 per cent rule
Andrew Hallam, best known for his smash hit book Millionaire Teacher, on the merits of a flexible retirement withdrawal plan.
The new rental market middlemen
An eye-opening look at a new breed of property management companies using non-standard rental agreements that seem aimed at circumventing protections for tenants.
Where Canadian home prices still make sense
Manitoba and Saskatchewan dominate the ranking, which is no surprise. What I didn’t expect to see on the list is Moncton, N.B. House prices in the city may still be affordable, but I hear rents have been rising fast.
A ‘truck mortgage’
That’s how a Canadian on Reddit described his $37,000 balance on a seven-year auto loan at 8.99 per cent interest. Not surprisingly, the overwhelming advice from others on the thread was to use his considerable cash savings to pay off that debt tout suite.
When did you start taking CPP?
The Globe is interested in talking to Canadians about when they started taking their CPP/QPP benefits. Was it the right decision? Should you have waited longer? Or started sooner? Share your thoughts with The Globe by taking our CPP/QPP survey.
Tools, explainers, guides and charts
A Statistics Canada report titled “A tale of two renters” digs into rental affordability data for existing and new tenants. “In Toronto, the median monthly shelter cost for a two-bedroom dwelling was $2,180 for recent renter households compared with $1,460 for existing renter households,” the study reads.
On social media
An expectant mom decides to have a “nesting party” instead of a baby shower. Friends came over to share a to-do list of cleaning, folding and tidying up chores and left behind frozen meals for those first few days postpartum. If I could go back in time, I would absolutely swap my baby shower for a nesting feast.
On youtube
Haley Sachs, known to the internet at Mrs. Down Jones, dispenses some sound advice about money-management basics for freelancers.
ICYMI
In case you missed these Globe and Mail personal finance-related stories
- The ‘Bank of Mom and Dad’ is no longer just for down payments
- With lower salaries and less remote work, the job market looks very different: ‘Now probably isn’t the best time to make a leap’
- CRA announces last-minute extension of underused housing tax deadline to April 30
- Fixing the affordability crisis in Canada is key to fixing medical care
More Rob Carrick and money coverage
Subscribe to Stress Test on Apple podcasts or Spotify. For more money stories, follow me on Instagram and Twitter, and join the discussion on my Facebook page. Millennial readers, join our Gen Y Money Facebook group.
Even more coverage from Rob Carrick:
- 🎧 Catch up on Stress Test: Why millennials and Gen Z are Alberta-bound for a more affordable life • Rising interest rates brought pain for new homeowners – and opportunity for house hunters • Why more Canadians are choosing to be childfree or delay parenthood • Love in the time of inflation: How to manage rising costs when dating • You're not bad at money – you're suffering from money shame • Retirement might look different for Gen Z and millennials. Here's how to plan for it • Recession-beating tips for the job market, housing, investing and the cost of life • Is the middle class dead for millennials and Gen Z?
- ✔️ The housing file: A house isn’t special. Get your head straight about the reality of home ownership • The good, the sad and the unaffordable: Saving for a home downpayment in Canada’s big cities • Property taxes are popping in some cities – how worried should you be about other tax hikes? • Our other real-estate problem – people have too much wealth tied up in houses • Borrowers and savers, here’s how to time the eventual rollback of interest rates
- 📈 Investing: Canada's top digital broker is TD Direct Investing, with an assist from the TD Easy Trade app • 2023 Globe and Mail ETF buyer's guide part one: Canadian equity ETFs • For the ultimate in cheap investing, check out the Freedom .08 ETF Portfolio • Yes, there is risk in Canadian bank deposits for the unwary and complacent • CDIC covers bank deposits, but who protects your investments if your broker goes bust? • Answers to your questions about the low-risk ETF paying almost 5% • Happy fifth birthday to one of the all-time best investing products for everyday people • An investing strategy that wins cleanly over the long term by outperforming in bad years like 2022
- 💰 Your money: Mortgage holders, savers and GIC investors, it’s time to change your thinking on interest rates • How much debt is each generation of Canadians carrying, and how do you compare? • For the sake of their financial futures, young people should leave Toronto and Vancouver • This practical new spin on a savings account might just peel you away from your big bank • Rental fraud grows amid rise in fake, falsified tenant applications • Are Canadians worse off financially now than in the 1980s? • From groceries to auto loans, here’s how much more it costs to live right now • When saving for retirement, should you change your asset mix over the course of your career? • Do retirement income needs always rise alongside inflation? Not necessarily • When the bank suggests you lock in your variable rate mortgage, it has an angle
Erica Alini