How to change a past tax return + MORE Apr 9th
Canadian second-hand economy spending up $1B + MORE Mar 15th
I’m about to retire and still have a mortgage. Am I in trouble? + MORE Jan 23rd
When does it make sense to sell real estate in a larger city and buy in a smaller one? + MORE Jun 6th
Planning can help you make sure your retirement savings will last + MORE Jun 14th
Should you buy or rent, right now?
– moneysense.ca
Bruce Sellery weighs in with his own experience. After moving from Calgary, Alta. to the Greater Toronto Area, he and his partner crunched the numbers. While renting was cheaper, they still opted to buy and the biggest reason: The return on any money saved by renting wasn’t sufficiently high enough to offset the equity earned from owning.
For more, watch Bruce discuss his experience.
brightcove…
Challenges Of The Canadian Lending Landscape
– walletpop.ca
With this investment comes the incursion of overseas firms into the Canadian competitive space: recent examples include OnDeck and Avant. However, even as Canadian banks are looking to the US to expand their loans process, American and international lenders are finding it difficult to succeed in the Canadian market.
Cost of Acquisition: Market Differences Matter
Customer acquisition in Canada comes with a high price tag, as the alternative lending space in Canada has low barriers to entry, so there’s a lot of competition. Rather than working to challenge or antagonize the established Canadian banking marketplace, alternative lenders in Canada need to capitalize on a flurry of expansion and wider market turnover in the fintech space in order to lower the costs of acquisition…
Is a Black Friday road trip really worth it?
– moneysense.ca
Black Friday may be a U.S. tradition, but Canadians have bought into the shopping frenzy. Thousands will cross the border in the hope of snagging one of these legendary doorbuster deals. But when you factor in the cost of the trip how much are you really saving? Is it actually worth the effort?
If you’re one of the fortunate shoppers able to score big doorbuster deals it might be, at least as long as you’re okay with waiting hours in the cold and not afraid to throw the occasional elbow to protect your prize. Consider this Walmart doorbuster. The discount retailer is offering a Samsung 4K 60″ TV for around US$600—a US$1,000 savings. With deals like that you can see why consumers are breaking down the doors.
Does the math make sense?
Doorbusters are particularly enticing but most Canadians are convinced that any of the deals they’ll find on that day justify the trip. Unfortunately, the math suggests otherwise.
Consider the following: The average American spends roughly US$400 on Black Friday so we’ll use that as our baseline…
Canadian companies using mobile technology in a bid to bank the unbanked
– canadianbusiness.com
Referred to as the unbanked, these people do all of their transactions in person with cash, adding unnecessary tedium to their lives. They lack the tools needed to save or invest their money and the ability to secure loans to grow their businesses.
“I think a lot of people would be surprised to know how many people in the world don’t have access to these tools,” says Sarah Stockdale, the head of university growth strategy for global crowdfunding company Tilt.
“Some people talk about financial inclusion as an aspect of human rights.”
While most of the unbanked people are outside of Canada, a number of Canadian companies and entrepreneurs are trying to tackle this issue by providing low cost digital banking services to disadvantaged and low-income people around the world…