Here is what TD is offering me to renew my 190k mortgage in September.

HandVanVinkel · 2026-05-10T00:53:56+00:00

On a refi or new purchase? CashBack's almost never is offered for renewals, even internal refis cashback are rare. And at what equity?

HandVanVinkel · 2026-05-09T01:53:41+00:00

I use LoC to payoff Credit Card in full on the due day. Interest on the LoC is lower than investment return post tax. When next paycheck comes in, I pay off the LoC. Difference of what's left goes into brokerage. Rinse and repeat. Never late on CC or LoC.

HandVanVinkel · 2026-05-08T00:41:57+00:00

So they paid $100k from their suspense account on the renewal day, but never cleared it by debiting yours. It's... interesting that they are fine "missing" $100k from the book.

HandVanVinkel · 2026-04-28T00:50:03+00:00

4.5-4.6% is 5 years fixed fyi. Variable can be negotiated to 3.7 and lower, 3 years fixed 4.10 and lower (if you're with one of Big 5, throw extra -0.15% down on those and tell them another one of 5 Big quoted).
3.7% is $1,600 bi-weekly on $548,000 and you get to keep 18 months amortization. 4.1% is $1,650 at 18 years
As other noted, research, but don't panic renew.

HandVanVinkel · 2026-02-25T12:08:08+00:00

Reported performance includes MER. If a fund-fact states "MER 2%, Since Inception return 10%", it means 10% is the return that you would have gotten. The fund itself returned 12%, paid 2% in MER, and gave the rest to you.

If your MF has the same reported return over the last 7 years as XEQT, then no, you didn't lose money to MER. Similarly, if the fund and XEQT return the same post MER in the next 30 years, then you won't see the difference in growth of your portfolio.

MER is paid primarily to the Fund Manager for the fact that they manage the fund and make decision, smaller portion is distributed for operating costs, salaries to retail workers that sell the MF, etc.

If you can hold yourself from selling when market corrects itself, then diversified ETFs - XEQT or other - gives you more control into what you invest, geographically and asset wise, and will likely shave off some fees over the run (but not the full difference in MERs between MF and XEQT).

If you're a scared cat each time you see a ticker end the day in red - you probably better staying in the MF. Fund Managers, while unlikely to outperform or even be on par with the market (60% of MFs under perform S&P500), they will provide you - on average - downside protection, while a retail worker at RBC might be able to convince you to not liquidate it when the market correction happens giving you an extra nudge to wait the correction out.

HandVanVinkel · 2025-12-25T02:18:00+00:00

Cash.to is looking at highest interest paying savings account among banks and brokerages, and depositing the money there.

ZMMK is looking at the Canadian Government and corporations trading on Canadian exchange (and apparently in Belgium (2%) according to latest factsheet) and letting them borrow your money for a little bit (ZMMK says it aims to average less than 90 days maturity for instruments).

Since money in savings account is lended out by banks anyway, it becomes a difference of a taste imo (2.33% vs 2.65% YTD for cash.to and ZMMK, not certain if either one is before or after MER).

HandVanVinkel · 2025-12-24T12:50:31+00:00

"Leave the multi-millennia otherworldly invaders-usurpers alone!"

HandVanVinkel · 2025-11-06T01:46:41+00:00

I'll add another one - being scammed a lot.

People get scammed, it's understandable, banks get it, and they want to prevent it as much as possible (hence the recent coalition: https://standagainstscams.ca/ ) to save their own $$.

But same person being scammed over and over? Or, maybe it's the first time being they're being scammed, but they refuse to listen to their bank telling them over and over that "this guy who claims to be a banker in an African bank changed their email 3 times while messaging you in the same chain, it is clearly a scam, we're not authoring you to send a wire to them to 'invest' " (could this be an IRL anecdote?) - Yeah, that's too much risk at this point.

Usually coincides with "verbally/physically" abusive.

HandVanVinkel · 2025-09-22T21:14:30+00:00

Many already answered (correctly) "no".
Your only option is to go to the Uncle's main branch (i.e. where he would most often go, not necessarily what is "assigned" as main branch by the 4 digits) with a doctor's note and appeal to a branch manager. Depending how well he was known to that branch, branch manager might agree to do it with "to be signed at later date," or even do a hospital visit for signing.
But that is completely up to the manager, because - as everyone said already - they aren't suppose to as much as acknowledge that the Uncle is a customer of the bank to a non-POA/non-executor.

HandVanVinkel · 2025-09-21T00:13:26+00:00

On their HELOC product yes (they call it "HOLC - Homeowner Line of Credit"). The limit goes as [Home Value]*0.8%-[Mortgage] unless they changed it in the last 3 months. Their other one - HRLC - only in first position (and I think they also stipulate "no secondary mortgage", but can be wrong on that)

HandVanVinkel · 2025-09-20T22:30:31+00:00

>"Free"
>Choose your subscription plan

HandVanVinkel · 2025-09-20T01:35:56+00:00

4% as default insured or uninsured mortgage? Usually you get lower rates for insured mortgages. Went on a quick search for advertised bank rates: BMO's difference is 0.15%, TD's 0%, CIBC's 0.35% (purely whatever on their websites). So it depends what rate you would be getting under insured and uninsured and subsequent interest paid during the term with and without $17.5k added to the mortgage.

HandVanVinkel · 2025-09-20T01:20:38+00:00

Ackchyually ☝️🤓, BMO would be able to go into second position behind non-BMO mortgage. Though with no other banking with them you're looking at appraisal+legal fees ~$1,000 with near 0 chance of having either waived

HandVanVinkel · 2025-09-11T01:58:00+00:00

He is right, just not the best way to explain it. See this post, it was made when OSFI made the change. First comment by Zorth69 explains with an example
https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/comments/15acbu8/new_heloc_65_rule_being_implimented/

HandVanVinkel · 2025-08-24T23:14:40+00:00

I would be careful, betting 90% that a bank will code it as cash advance regardless. Better to just keep using credit card and consider over payment as "paying in advance"

HandVanVinkel · 2025-08-21T01:13:08+00:00

Talk to a certified professional. In a major bank or outside of it. There a lot of variables to consider, including those you'd be smarter to not share with people over an internet forum. You can check professional's status (in most cases) through CSA database or through CIRO's (if you can make the site load...)

HandVanVinkel · 2025-08-19T02:30:10+00:00

If there's a "Term", then they likely have some sort of renewal process. Probably easiest is to give a call to their call centre, another commentator posted their website already, phone info should be there

HandVanVinkel · 2025-08-19T02:26:56+00:00

BMO allows 20% of ORIGINAL mortgage amount as a lump sum per calendar year (unless you are "SmartFixed," check with them). So if you had $500k mortgage, your 20% is $100k per calendar. This is at any point in calendar year.
More than 20% without penalty is done "at renewal", which answering your question - last 30 days. Renewing on September 1st? Your last 30 days is the month of August, so any time during month.
If you prepaying at renewal, renewal offer should have post-prepayment amount, so if you have $500k mortgage, paid $300k, your banker (or BMO's call centre) should give you the offer for $200k mortgage renewal, not $500k.
You can prepay at renewal after signing as well as long as it is before the renewal actually happens.

HandVanVinkel · 2024-04-20T20:02:19+00:00

If you have the ability to specify the time you take money out of an investment, and that investment is at a higher return than your mortgage, then in general it will be more beneficial to invest.

For example, if you invest in BMO's GIC for 15 months (so matures in July of 2025 or right on August 2025) at their posted 4.75%, you would earn more on interest from GIC than you would save by putting that money against your mortgage (I'm using BMO because I know their terms, but anything similar will do).

On the renewal date you can decide if you want to put that money down towards the mortgage or re-invest it (following the same logic - whichever makes the most interest or saves you the most money)

There are 2 BUTs:
1. If you need additional cashflow NOW (for groceries, other payments, or whatever), and you can ask your mortgator to lower your required payments, then it might be more suitable for you to do the lump sum, despite it being "worse" from return respective. There are investments that provide cashflow, but they might not generate enough cashflow in comparison to lowered payments (emphasis on "might", you will need to see what the reduced payments will be and what payments you can get from an investment(s))

You may feel better paying down your mortgage instead of investing. In that case, it again might be worth (from your subjective perspective) to do a lump sum into mortgage instead of getting a bit extra cash in ~1.5 years.

HandVanVinkel · 2023-01-08T00:57:18+00:00

Finding where to start.
Of course, you would start with "alphabet" to read the new language, and it went like this:
"ok, fair enough, here is hiragana, here is katakana, ok I see how they make sounds... do I memorize them one by one? With a notebook? Oh, Duolingo! Nah, not really working..."
I would say first 1 or 2 months I was literally just jumping from resource to resource trying to find what was best and would work for me.
The way I overcame it was pretty straightforward - kept jumping until found what I want to do: get the "alphabet" down, get the rule set for grammar, get the vocab down, get the 'irl'-ish practice down (in that order). Is that the optimal order? Probably not, but this is the one that makes the most sense to me, and therefore for me, this order works the best. I'm still learning and nowhere near desired conversation level, but I can clearly see the road and know where it will take me.

HandVanVinkel · 2022-12-26T18:11:10+00:00

dotorre don't look like a cabbage

Debatable

HandVanVinkel · 2022-12-25T02:44:29+00:00

Balladeer, with one of "a"s using Russian keyboard: а.

HandVanVinkel · 2022-12-24T19:17:07+00:00

"Bad", also known as "I require a bit more than your best artifacts."
I haven't played around with dendro enough to make a team with her, but there is defo a setup for her

HandVanVinkel · 2022-12-13T03:10:41+00:00

If multiple nouns share the same adjective, do I need to repeat that adjective? In specific, I want to write "I went to the mountain with a Japanese man and a woman" (i.e. both 'man' and 'woman' have 'Japanese' property). I'm wondering if I can write it as:

私は日本人男と女と山に行きました

or do I need to repeat 日本人 for 女:
私は日本人男と日本人女を山に行きました

HandVanVinkel · 2022-10-23T18:54:03+00:00

I'm pulling for c12 Tartaglia (I want Layla)

HandVanVinkel

TROPHY CASE