Any Canadian who’s traveled to (or ordered something from) the US knows about converting CAD to USD. It’s never fun to watch every dollar of your hard-earned money suddenly turn to $0.75 (or less!), and with additional foreign exchange fees, it can really add up. And exchange rates aren’t going anywhere. The cost of one US dollar has remained above $1.25 CAD since 2018. At the time of writing (mid-2023), $1 USD costs $1.34 CAD. The bright side is that anyone already holding USD or loo...| Million Dollar Journey
Once you have taken a hard look in the mirror and decided what your target asset allocation should be (with some help if you need it), it’s time to look at just how you should go about actually getting money from your paycheque into an indexed investment. An index fund is a general term that covers a few different specific types of investments. When we talk about an investing “index” - that’s just code for “all of the assets in a given market”. That given market could be all o...| Million Dollar Journey
An overview of all the tax changes introduced in the recent budget and how they'll affect everyday Canadians.| Million Dollar Journey
There may come a point during the year that you max out your registered Canadian investment accounts, or if you are living abroad, there might be certain restrictions on what you can contribute to tax-advantaged accounts. The great news is that no matter what your situation is, you can still open a non-registered tax efficient ETF portfolio. If you are living and earning an income abroad, or have maxed out your TFSA and RRSP, you may not be able to contribute to an RRSP or a TFSA. Read on to ...| Million Dollar Journey
It’s been a stressful few months for investors using the popular swap-based ETFs from Horizons. These funds have been available since 2011 and have attracted some $5.3 billion in assets because of…| Canadian Couch Potato
The recent 2025 Qtrade Promo Offer Code is one of the main reasons we have them at the top of Best Canadian Online Broker rankings. Every year the DIY brokerages put their best foot forward during the first few months of the year because they know it’s when Canadians pay the most attention to their finances. This is the first year I’ve seen an offer quite this good. (Last’s year’s Qtrade promo was also solid - but this one tops it for the folks with under $250,000 to invest.) To lock ...| Million Dollar Journey
If you’ve started your research on investing, but still aren’t quite sure how or where to get started, you are not alone. Plenty of almost-investors get stuck at the starting line for reasons like not feeling educated enough, feeling like they don’t have enough money to start investing, or simply feeling unclear on which type of investment to choose. When it comes to investing, the best time to start is now, and index investing is the perfect way to begin. It’s simple, easy to manage,...| Million Dollar Journey
Because I’ve written a lot about the Best Canadian ETFs and the top dividend ETFs, I tend to get a lot of questions and comments asking me about the MER and taxes on ETFs that hold equities from other countries. Obviously when you’re asking those types of in-depth questions you already understand the value of index investing, and instant diversification. Personally, I like to balance my love of Canadian dividend stocks, with non-Canadian ETFs to get super-convenient international exposure...| Million Dollar Journey
Want to get paid a tax-free salary while working in a place where you don’t need to own a jacket or winter boots? Here’s the nuts-and-bolts behind how my wife and I are enjoying deduction-free salaries, and watching our tax-free investment portfolios grow, while living in a world-class city. If you’re a longtime reader of MDJ, then you might have been following along as two teachers decided to completely uproot their life in the middle of a pandemic. Since I began writing about our Qa...| Million Dollar Journey
Given the realities of skyrocketing interest rates it’s no wonder that interest in Canada’s Best Cash ETFs, high interest savings account (HISA ETFs), and money market ETFs has significantly increased as well. While Cash ETFs aren’t exactly the same thing as money market ETFs, the two are very similar. The terms high interest savings account ETF and Cash ETF on the other hand, mean exactly the same thing. While cash ETFs are a solid investment (more on that below), you really need to c...| Million Dollar Journey
I recently received an email from a reader with a bright financial future. They have a maxed out TFSA and has recently maxed out her RRSP as well. Here’s a snippet of the email below (edited for brevity). First of all, thank you for sharing your wisdom and financial journey. I love reading your blog and I learn so much from it! I was wondering if you could give some advice on where to put my money after maxing out my RRSP and TFSA contributions. I saw on MDJ that you like all-in-one ET...| Million Dollar Journey
Swap-based ETFs or total return index (TRI ETFs) can improve the tax efficiency of your portfolio by converting investment income into unrealized capital gains. It is important to understand how these products work if you are considering using them in your taxable investment account or corporate investment account.| Physician Finance Canada
Old Age Security - better known as OAS - is one of the least understood aspects of Canadian retirement planning that I’ve come across. In order to full wrap your head around OAS and how you can get the most out of it for your particular situation, this deep dive is going to cover: (use the table of contents below to jump to the section that pertains to you) OAS Eligibility (Who gets full or partial OAS) What is the OAS Clawback? (How Do I Keep My Whole OAS Cheque?) How Much OAS Will I Get? ...| Million Dollar Journey