Is it best to own a first home as an income property or primary residence? + MORE Jun 1st

 Q. I would like to know whether it is better, financially speaking, to own my first house as an income property, or as my primary residence in Ontario. I am single, living with my parents, earn a steady income and have $80,000 in savings. I’ve already purchased a new-construction freehold townhouse for $320,000 (paid $30,000 in deposit), which will close in August 2020. While I had been planning to rent out this property, I’m wondering if it is better to treat it as my primary residence initially, to take advantage of all the benefits available to first-time home buyers (including the ability to borrow from my RRSP), then change to a rental later.
–Larry
A. I see where you are going with this, Larry. You’re wondering if you can take advantage of the Home Buyers’ Plan now—and, if you don’t, will the fact that your first home purchase is an income property prevent you from participating in any first-time home buyer programs when you do purchase your first primary residence in the future…

Q. My wife and I are wondering whether we are on track to leave each of our three children an inheritance of $250,000. I’m 63 years old, retired and receiving a monthly OPTrust pension (a type of defined benefit pension) of $3,400 net. When I turn 65, this pension amount will be reduced to about $2,700 net monthly as it is integrated with my CPP.
I plan on taking my CPP and OAS at 65, which I estimate will be $750 and $425 net a month respectively. I currently work part-time, earning about $1,300 net monthly. I plan to keep working part-time until my 58-year-old wife retires in May 2022. She currently nets $3,000 per month from her employment. She has a defined benefit pension with OMERS, which is estimated to pay her $1,900 net monthly until she turns 65, and then will be integrated with her CPP, reducing her pension to about $1,400 net monthly. She also plans on taking her CPP and OAS at 65, which are estimated to be $550 and $425 net monthly.
We own our own home, estimated to be worth $200,000…

Making $48,000 a year working as a credit analyst, Pat has aspirations of sending her son to university, but that’s a dream that seems unattainable.

Q. I have been concerned about high fees charged on my investments and have been trying to figure out a way to move my funds without getting hit with a huge tax bill. I started with mutual funds and today I have a 60% equity and 40% income balanced portfolio plan. My last statement shows about 5% return over the last 5 years—an okay return but the 2% or more that I pay in fees (there is still not full, complete disclosure, nor and easy to understand  information on all the fees charged) make me question whether I am receiving value for the amount charged.
Between my wife and myself, we hold an RRSP, SPRSP, TFSA and LIRA, with a total of about $1 million (less today due to big market drop related to the COVID-19 pandemic). I have been thinking of opening multiple discount brokerage accounts in the same breakdown of account types and transferring all of the registered funds into like accounts and purchasing ETFs with those funds. But the problem I suspect is that once I transfer the registered funds, I will be told I no longer have a large enough investment to qualify for service from our existing advisor, and will have to sell all of the unregistered investments and pay taxes on the sale…