Nervous about protecting your retirement savings? Here’s what you shouldn’t do + MORE Apr 25th

As the stock markets tumble in the time of pandemic, it’s difficult to know what steps to take to protect savings.

Table of contents

Who is Oaken Financial?
Oaken Financial review

Oaken Financial GICs
Oaken Financial’s High-Interest Savings Account

Is Oaken Financial right for me?

There are plenty of options for saving and investing in Canada, whether it’s via high-interest savings accounts, TFSAs, RRSPs, or other types of accounts. To help you decide which financial institution might be a good fit for your needs, we’ve taken a close look at Oaken Financial’s offerings, which are available for both personal and commercial clients. Oaken offers GICs and a high-interest savings account (HISA). Read on for a review of those accounts, and what else Oaken has to offer.
Who is Oaken Financial?
Oaken Financial was launched in 2013, but its parent company, Home Trust, was founded more than 30 years ago, in 1987. You may know of Home Trust because of their mortgage and credit card offerings; Oaken is Home Trust’s consumer deposit business. When you open an account or buy a GIC with Oaken Financial, you can choose to do so with either Home Trust or Home Bank, which is a bank the former bought in 2015…

From parking a car you’re not using to smarter meal planning to switching to generic brands, here are some savvy ways to start saving today.

Q. I bought a home in Fort McMurray, Alta., for $413,000 in 2007. Five years later, in 2012, I moved out and started renting the property, and it has remained an income property since then.
With the decline in oil prices, the town of Fort McMurray has seen real estate losing value like crazy. After 12 years of paying the mortgage, I am now underwater. The rent I’m currently able to charge does not cover all of my expenses; in 2018, I received $15,000 in rental income and had $19,000 in expenses, excluding payments on the mortgage principal.  I owe $282,000 on the mortgage, at 3.4% fixed interest; it comes up for renewal in 2024. If I were to sell, the estimated price as of Nov 16, 2019, is $150,000 to $180,000. (Yes, I know it is bad!)
As you can see, I’m in a black hole and I don’t know what to do about it. I am not receiving any positive income and the property value has dropped each year that I’ve held it. I want to sell, but don’t have enough savings to cover the gap between the expected sale price and what I owe on the mortgage…

As the stock markets tumble in the time of pandemic, it’s difficult to know what steps to take to protect savings.