Mortgage-Free By 30 – Here’s How + MORE Sep 28th

Q: My wife and I have two joint life insurance policies. The first one is term life with a death benefit of $250,000 that we purchased in 2004 and the second one is a universal life with the death benefit of $500,000 that we purchased in 2009. The current fund value of UL is $11,051. The premiums that we are paying are $150 for UL and $25 for term life. Our term life policy matured this year and our premiums for the new term have increased to $73. We would like to keep one policy and cancel the other but we don’t know which one we should stick with. We have two kids ages 10 and 8, $100,000 worth of mortgage remaining, $40,000 in car loan and no other debts.
—Sam K., Toronto
A: The first step is to determine how much coverage you need. For that, you can check out a needs analysis calculator.
The downside of cancelling the universal life plan is there may be penalties if you draw out the cash surrender value. Also, if the universal life policy has a guaranteed cost of insurance, the pricing could be very favourable because you were younger when you took the policy…

I recently got a Facebook message from a reader who was in a bit of a pickle about how to purchase a place in lower mainland, B.C. using the equity from a home she owned in southern Mexico. She asks: 
I own a home in southern Mexico with no mortgage and no outstanding debt. Now, I’d like to take the equity from this home and use it to buy a place in British Columbia. I am a Canadian citizen and, up until now, I’ve been renting a place during the months that I live in Canada. Now, with a few grandchildren around, I want to have a more permanent place in my home country. What do I need to know to make this happen?
My response was to channel my inner Mark Twain: “Buy land, my son. They’re not making any more of it.” Now, I’m sure Twain never envisioned the density of contemporary cities when he first uttered these words. Still, he certainly appreciated how finite land was, and is, as a resource. He isn’t alone. Many people consider property an integral part of their financial plan…

After making his first foray into the housing market four years ago, MoneyWise writer Sean Cooper set out on a journey to pay off his mortgage by the age of 30. In September 2015, he achieved his goal and kissed his mortgage goodbye. Here is his story:
In August 2012 I bought my first house – a beautifully renovated three-bedroom bungalow with a basement apartment. I was thrilled to have finally become a homeowner, having spent two years searching for a detached house in Toronto, Canada’s second-priciest housing market at that time. It cost me $425,000 and I made a sizeable down payment of $170,000. That left me with with a $255,000 mortgage – an amount I’m proud to say I paid off in full as of September 22, 2015! You read that right – I paid my mortgage down to zero in just over three years, all before turning the ripe old age of 31!
Reaching My Mortgage Goal
It’s been a long journey to mortgage freedom. Two summers ago, I set the ambitious goal of paying off my mortgage by age 31 (I had originally aimed to pay it off before Star Wars: the Force Awakens opened in theatres last Christmas) and I managed to do so, three months ahead of schedule! To celebrate, I threw a mortgage burning party to thank my friends for their support…

Company: Mogo Finance Technology Position: Mortgage Team Lead Location: Winnipeg, MB Apply to: careers@mogo.ca or jasminel@mogo.ca Mortgage Team Lead Experience Required: Min. 5 years   Mogo (TSX: GO) is not a bank—by design. It’s a financial technology company for the next generation of Canadians by offering convenience, transparency and a more engaging customer experience. With over 200K members and growing, we are using technology and design to not only transform the way consumers access financial solutions (it takes only about three minutes to create a MogoAccount online), but also empower them to take control of their financial health. Savvy members READ MORE