Julia wants to make sure that her estate passes to her heirs with as little hassle and cost as possible when she dies. She knows she needs a will and decides to buy a do-it-yourself will kit. When she opened it, she soon discovered some serious shortcomings.
Don, 65, and Marie, 63, are about to retire. They have accumulated about $500,000 in their RRSPs and own their home, free and clear. They want to leave as much as possible to their two children. Don and Marie realize that the value of their home should pass tax-free to their children and know their RSPs will be fully taxable at that time.
A recent TD Canada Trust survey found that 10% of Canadians are considering the purchase of a condominium for their adult children. This is up from 5% just a year earlier and certainly reflects drastically increasing housing costs over the past decade.
College and university are more important than ever before.
Generally, two out of every three new jobs require some form of post-secondary education. According to the 2006 Census, Canadians with a university degree earned an average annual salary of $56,048 compared to $37,403 for Canadians with a high school diploma.
Yet the cost of a post-secondary education keeps growing.
One of the top retirement goals for many is travel. As many as 1.5 million so called 'snowbirds' travel to the Southern United States during the winter. With summer just around the corner, thoughts turn to travel within our borders, too. The Canada Safety Council states that a few simple precautions can help ensure a safe, healthy and enjoyable trip any time of the year.
During financial crises, stock prices suffer. However, they typically recover over time.
This chart illustrate the cumulative returns of a balanced (60% stock/40% bond) portfolio after five historical financial crises. In the short term, uncertainty from such external shocks can create sudden drops in value. For example, the portfolio posted a negative return one month after the October 1987 stock-market crash. Over a longer period of time, however, returns were much more attractive, and investors who stayed the course reaped considerable rewards.