Your home sold—now what? + MORE Apr 1st

If you’ve sold your home or are planning to soon, you may have a large amount of cash that needs a temporary parking spot while you prepare for your next move. A regular savings account pays very little interest—so unless you need the money right away, it makes sense to seek higher returns.

Several options are available—but what is best for your situation? Short-term investments such as bonds and guaranteed investment certificates (GICs) pay interest but might not give you the flexibility you need. Stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offer potentially higher yields but also come with higher risk. A simpler and more accessible solution is to use a high-interest savings account (HISA), like Simplii Financial’s HISA.

Simplii is a Canadian digital bank with over two million customers. It offers 24/7 access to online and mobile banking with no monthly fees, as well as access to one of the largest national ATM networks through CIBC. With Simplii’s HISA, you can earn high interest, and you don’t have to lock in your money for a set period of time, as you would with a bond or GIC…

Lululemon Athletica Inc. is expecting modest growth in its U.S. business this year, with consumers pleased with the clothing retailer’s fresh offerings but cautious about the economy.

Chief executive Calvin McDonald told a quarterly conference call Thursday that the company has done some polling with Ipsos that suggests U.S. customers are spending less due to concerns about inflation and the economy.

“This is manifesting itself into slower traffic across the industry in the U.S. in quarter one, which we are experiencing in our business as well,” he said. 

“However, we see guests who visit us responding to the newness and innovations we’ve brought into our assortment… We are controlling what we can control and we expect to see modest growth in U.S. revenue for the full year of 2025.”

Tariffs make U.S. consumers more cautious

Chief financial officer Meghan Frank said that trend of consumer caution has not been apparent in other regions of the world where the retailer operates…

Oliver, Who Learned to Ask for What He Needs

AGE: 16SIBLING STATUS: Only childINCOME SOURCE:Has a regular allowanceREGULAR INCOME: $150 a month from allowanceCURRENT SAVINGS:$500 in an online chequing account; an RESP for university (ifhe gets in); a stock simulator account with $5,000 in it—Olivermakes stock trades to practise, then his dad executes the tradesfor real in an online investment account that Oliver will haveaccess to when he’s 18

Back to Oliver. I asked Oliver if there was anything else he wanted to ask about finances.

He looked at his dad. Then to me.

“Is crypto a good investment?”

“That’s a doozy of a question,” I said, smiling.

John cleared his throat. “I suspect this is directed at me because, well, I don’t know if Oliver told you, but I have a sum of money put aside that I invest on his behalf. He gets to make the choices in a stock simulator account, and then I trade them in real time so that he gets to learn about investing, dividends, capital gains, et cetera…

Stakes High for Switch 2 After Nintendo’s Stock Valuation Surges (7974 JP)  Bloomberg.comEXCLUSIVE – Nintendo Switch 2 Will Have a 3-Phase Launch Plan For Its Games  Insider Gaming70% of Gen Z and Millennial Gamers Are Ready to Purchase a Switch 2, CNET Survey Finds  CNETNintendo suggests there will be enhanced Switch 2 versions of some Switch games  PolygonHow to watch the Switch 2 Direct  The Verge

“Bonds are back,” you may have read on a financial news site or heard a financial advisor say recently. True enough, money is flowing into these fixed-income investments at the highest rate in years, and for good reasons.

In fact, Canadian savers have an abundance of good choices right now for places to earn rates of interest that will keep their money growing ahead of inflation. So, where should you put your money: in bonds, guaranteed investment certificates (GICs) or a high-interest savings account (HISA)? You may be surprised at how similar these are for interest rates. But there’s more to the story.

Is it time for Canadians to invest in bonds again? 

The talk of bonds coming back only makes sense if you understand where they went. For most of the past decade, bonds have been a terrible investment as interest rates fell to historic lows, meaning they paid almost no interest. Then inflation took off as the global economy lurched out of the COVID-19 pandemic, and central banks were forced to raise interest rates—fast…