Debt Free in 30

It's the holiday season, so today we have no industry experts, and we won't talk about numbers.  Instead, our focus is on real people with real financial problems. Money problems are nothing new.  In fact, back during the Great Depression, financial problems were rampant, and that's when a song written in 1930 became very popular. Brother, Can You Spare a Dime tells the story of man who was buildi...

Our guest today is Georgia Graham, Programs Manager of WEST ( Women's Enterprise Skills Training ). Their mission is to improve the employability of women in Windsor-Essex County. WEST completed their own study which focused on identifying their community's financial needs, and whose results paralleled our own. The study   Women's Financial Preparedness: Bridging the Divide in Windsor-Essex   foun...

My guest today is Michael Chong, the Member of Parliament for the federal riding of Wellington-Halton Hills, and an advocate for the privatization of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.  First, some background: As we have discussed on   we've   previous shows , the big banks are required to have mortgage insurance on all mortgages where the borrower has less than a 20% down payment, and t...

It is understandable that when you are experiencing financial problems you don't want that information broadcast to your friends, family and co-workers. This is a concern raised by many potential clients which brings us to this week's technical podcast question: Who will find out if you filed a bankruptcy or consumer proposal in Canada?  We answer that question on today's show. The real question h...

There is a lot of chatter surrounding Canadian real estate, housing prices and mortgage rates.   Vancouver sales have started to drop but not in Ontario. Is there a housing bubble in Ontario? When will it burst?  Part of the answer might be in the next round of changes to Canada's mortgage rules. In today's podcast we talk about how this will affect your ability to obtain a new mortgage or refinan...

Does financial literacy belong in high schools? This question is surfacing more and more as Canadians dig themselves further into debt. Today's guest is Prakash Amarasooriya, a member of the Toronto Youth Cabinet who recently  launched a petition  urging the Ontario Ministry of Education to beef up their Grade 10 career studies course to include basic financial skills like budgeting. Within less t...

Air Miles has been in the news a lot lately about their  new points expiry policy . Maybe it's because of the media attention, but we have had a lot of potential clients ask what would happen to their Air Miles and other loyalty points if they file bankruptcy? Here is a short summary of what would happen under bankruptcy law: Section 67 of the Bankruptcy & Insolvency Act says that a bankrupt's ass...

Everyone wants to end poverty.  The controversy begins when you start talking about how to solve the problem. One solution which has received a lot of media attention lately is the concept of basic income or guaranteed annual income. In Ontario, former senator Hugh Segal is due to release a report which will guide the Ontario government in developing a pilot project around basic income. To help us...

My guest today is Kerry Taylor.  Her website,  Squawkfox ,  was voted Canada's best money blog by the  Globe & Mail  in 2010, and in 2014  Chatelaine  said she was the "gold standard for personal finance blogging". I've followed Kerry's work for many years, so I was very interested to read her  Globe & Mail article where she described her visit to Mogo Lounge , operated by Mogo, a new "sexy, finte...

We're living in very different times in terms of our economy. To help us explore this topic further I talked with economist David Bond about how the Canadian economy as a whole is impacted by household debt and the root causes of debt, including income inequality and our tax system. David is a PHD in economics from Yale University, but more than that he brings a broad perspective of someone who ha...

We all want to help when someone is in trouble. But helping someone out of financial trouble can come with unexpected costs and consequences. It is for that reason that I strongly advise against ever loaning money to family and friends. On today's show we hear three stories: Mabel is a widow who chose to help her adult son who was struggling financially after a divorce. In the end, Mabel ended up...

On October 3, 2016 Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced big changes to Canada's mortgage lending rules, designed to make it more difficult for high ratio borrowers to qualify for mortgages. It appears that both the government and industry professionals believe that the sky is falling. On today's show Ted Michalos and Doug Hoyes discuss how the new rules will impact borrowers, lenders and more. ...

This is a common question, and changes to the law have changed the answer from what we would have advised a few years ago. The answer depends on: How much debt you have; and What type of debt you have. We explore the answer on today's podcast.

Today's podcast is the first ever podcast interview with Jonathan Chevreau and Mike Drak together, talking about their new book  Victory Lap Retirement .  This is so exclusive an interview that the book won't even be officially released until October 10, 2016 but it is available for  pre-order at amazon.ca , and the  Kindle version is available now . Jonathan was a guest back on Show #5  where we...

For the first time ever  Debt Free in 30  broadcast LIVE on video, over YouTube.  The response was fantastic. We asked our listeners to leave us questions through sound clips, email, twitter and Facebook in advance of the show and took questions during the show.  Doug Hoyes and Ted Michalos answered as many of those questions as we could during the webcast. We talked about debt, consumer proposals...

In June 2016 Walmart Canada announced that they believe interchange fees charged by Visa are too high, so, starting with their three stores in Thunder Bay Ontario, they would no longer accept Visa cards at their stores in Canada.  As of September, 2016 Walmart has not implemented this policy outside of Thunder Bay, presumably so they can continue to negotiate with Visa for lower fees. On this edit...

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: It's the start of Season #3 of  Debt Free in 30 , and I am excited to share that with our new season we have a new and improved format. For two seasons  Debt Free in 30  was both a radio show and a podcast. To meet the time constraints of radio it had be an exact number of minutes. Not anymore!  Much to the disappoint of our radio station affiliates I've taken the show off th...

This is our final "best of" show of the summer, and it's a doozy: my interview with Hilliard Macbeth (you can find the original show notes on our   is the Canadian real estate bubble about to burst   page) is the most downloaded show of 2016. Why is a show on debt and real estate our most downloaded show?  I think it's because there are two opposite opinions: one group believes that real estate is...

As I said on this show, Robert Brown's book  Wealthing Like Rabbits  contains the best first chapter in any personal finance book I have ever read.  (If you haven't read the book, you should).  This show is a rebroadcast from earlier this year.  You can read the full show notes on our   Change Your Debt Perspective   page. Robert advises us to "visualize" our debt.  See it. Make it real.  By visua...

David Trahair is a CPA and prolific writer.  Today's show is a rebroadcast of his first appearance on  Debt Free in 30 , back in early 2015, where we talked about his book  Crushing Debt: Why Canadians Should Drop Everything and Pay Off Debt .  You can read the full show notes on our show notes page for  Crushing Debt .  (David appeared again in 2016 on Show #90 where we discussed his latest book,...

Today's show is a rebroadcast from Season #1.  It's one of our most down-loaded shows, because it answers a common question: Should I pay down my debt, or contribute to my RRSP?  The answer is not always obvious. We all know that investing in an RRSP generates a tax refund.  If you are in the 40% tax bracket, a $1,000 contribution to your RRSP generates a $400 tax refund.  (Of course I'm over-simp...

Debt Free in 30 has broadcast 100 episodes over 2 seasons to thousands of listeners. In addition, I have interviewed many personal finance experts for their opinions on the debt issues that matter most to Canadians. To celebrate this milestone, I broke away from my usual format. No guests, no specific topics. Instead, I shared my top 30 tips to help you avoid unwanted debt. Many of these tips are...

This past season, I have talked extensively with industry experts about payday loan solutions and alternatives. When I asked my guests from show 83, Brian Dijkema and Rhys McKendry, and my guest from show 85, Jonathon Bishop about what they think would improve the payday loan industry, they had so much to say that I wasn't able to air everything in the original podcasts. Today, I am sharing their...

Today's show is a repeat broadcast of one of our most downloaded shows, with our guest Nicole Olsen, the Financial Literacy Program Director for  Financial Fitness  in Windsor and Sarnia, Ontario. Nicole shares 4 steps to save money at the grocery store (but it's her bonus tip on "unit pricing" that is a must listen).  Enjoy!  

Over the summer we will be airing rebroadcasts of our most downloaded shows.  Today's show features our most popular guest, and a mis-understood topic: Budgeting. It's a word that people either love or hate. We may get mixed reviews about the advice that I share on today's episode, but for many, budgeting is a waste of time. Budgeting takes discipline, it takes time and it takes some skill to use...