For the Government of Canada’s Financial Literacy Month, this year’s campaign theme, Managing Your Money in a Changing World, considers our increasingly complex and constantly changing financial marketplace and the importance of checking up on your financial health, particularly as it relates to managing and paying down debt.
More Canadians are carrying large debt burdens, which is affecting their financial well-being. It’s important that there is a financial ecosystem that exists to support them in challenging times. This includes resources available from trustworthy sources and speaking with their bank. With support, tools and resources, Canadians can make a plan to manage their debt and improve their ability to achieve their financial goals. Reducing debt will lead to better financial health.
The government of Canada has a wealth of resources including a Check up on your debt tool, what to do in a financial emergency and how to optimize your financial health. To access these resources go to Financial Literacy Month.
Advocis, the Financial Advisors Association of Canada, also runs a Financial Literacy Month campaign. Their theme this year is Coming Back Stronger: Emerging Together During Inflationary Times, considers how inflation is contributing to or influencing the financial decisions of Canadians. To see their campaign site and access the wealth of resources go to Financial Advice for All.
We have also put together a list of useful articles from both sources below:
FHSAs: Helping You Buy Your First Home!
The tax-free First Home Savings Account (“FHSA”) gives prospective first-time home buyers the ability to save up to $40,000 on a tax-free basis towards the purchase of a first home in Canada. Like a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP), contributions to an FHSA are tax deductible and withdrawals to purchase a first home – including withdrawals of any investment income or growth earned in the account – are non-taxable, just like Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs).
Click here to read more.
Adopting a Fresh Perspective: How Millennials Can Save for Desires, Not Just Necessities.
Born between 1981-1995, Millennials are a group of individuals primarily in their 30’s (as of 2023) and born from a demographic of Boomer and older Generation X parents. The parents within these cohorts grew up in a time where the “middle class dream” was an ideal that defined the typical markers of success. However, this formula has proved elusive for the Millennial demographic and in turn have had to pivot towards defining new markers of success that look quite different from the ideals of previous generations. This includes the acceptance of long-term renting as a reality in lieu of home ownership, taking on multiple roles and streams of income to afford exorbitant living costs, and prioritizing personal wellness and a healthy life-work balance to avoid burnout. And yet, despite a mindful shift in personal and financial priorities, it may often feel to many that their efforts have yet to yield any sense of financial freedom.
To learn more click here.
How to Retire Without Selling Your Home
As you get closer to retirement, it is very important to understand how to utilize the assets you already own to enjoy your post-income years. Now, more than ever, Canadians are realizing that their home is more than just a nest egg that they can sell in their twilight years or pass on to their children, but instead it is a financial product that they can leverage to live a more financially liberated life.
When considering this, however, it is important for Canadians to determine if they are looking to downsize, live in their house for the rest of their lives and/or if they want to leverage their home as a financial asset.
To continue reading click here.
3 Tips for Teaching Teens About Money and Investments
Teaching teens to save their money can be challenging – especially when they live in a digital world dominated by online “influencers” who live lavish lifestyles that seem to come easily so long as you keep going viral. It’s no wonder that teens and young adults feel so much pressure to keep up appearance and are ever eager to make an impression online. Offline, however, there is a cost to all of this…. How can we encourage young adults to fight the online allure and not only save their money but invest it?
Read some tips here
5 Questions Women Should Ask When Going Through Divorce
When one door closes, another one opens. Or so the saying goes.
If you’re a woman going through divorce, this maxim may also be a reminder that, as you close the door on your marriage, you’re blasting open a portal into a whole new realm of unknowns and uncertainties.
You’ll be asking yourself a lot of questions. How will I be able to afford this house, or my next home? Will I be able to take care of my kids financially and afford the lifestyle I want on half of the income our family once had? How will all this affect my retirement?
To read more click here.
For more information on these topics, or anything else, reach out to your Arbutus Financial team member.