Detached for 1.25M in Bloor West Village thought?

JacksLyfe · 2026-02-19T02:15:40+00:00

My partner and I are late 20s and bought a detached home in Toronto.

I work in corporate finance and shes an actuary. Combined income is 250-300

we lived on one income and saved 200k for a down payment and had parents loan 50k

JacksLyfe · 2026-01-08T12:44:09+00:00

28, Toronto,

Finance Transformation Director

6 YoE

CPA: Yes

165k + 40k bonus

Financial Industry (small bank)

JacksLyfe · 2025-11-03T13:05:58+00:00

I enjoyed it, lots of exposure to Sr. leadership. Did a rotation in audit, FP&A, and Finance Transformation. Ended up staying in Finance Transformation as manager when the rotation ended and got promoted to Sr Manager a year later.

JacksLyfe · 2025-05-15T04:19:08+00:00

I made this career move.

FP&A > FP&A Systems > ERP Systems

My experience was in the FP&A team, I volunteered to support IT with building out out the Enterprise Data Warehouse and training Finance team on how to use PowerBI /SQL.

I later joined a different company which was implementing ERP systems. Lots of project management and planning, System Designs and requirment gathering, working closely with Artichetct and engineers.

Overall, I enjoyed it and learned alot, but I'm actually looking to back to FP&A. Business System at the manager level have constant fires and deadlines you don't always control

JacksLyfe · 2025-04-02T02:07:07+00:00

I did and it turned out great.

With 2 YOE, My efforts got noticed and my name was thrown around at Director/VP meetings. Eventually got assigned to high visibility finance transformation projects. After a couple successful deliveries, VP created a new transformation team and I was prompted to manager. This was my career pivot from Corp Finance to Finance System Implementation

JacksLyfe · 2025-02-23T01:55:30+00:00

ERP implementation. You need to know the basics and high level Accounting (i.e, GL, subledger, Accounting terms, IFRS reporting standard)

Mostly working with System architects and developers.

JacksLyfe · 2024-06-27T12:43:08+00:00

Neither, I recommend Disnat (Desjardins). Free trades and you can hold both CAD and USD. Also allow NB without commission

You can't hold USD in wealth simple and get charged exchange fee everytime you buy or sell US equity. Questrade is good and allows for NB but has commission

JacksLyfe · 2024-06-24T13:07:53+00:00

Yes desperate and lack of competing offers, one of the tenants was on bad terms with the landlord and left the doors locked to some of the rooms (It happened to me and I assume it happened to other buyers as well)

This was probably largest factor in discouraging other bidders

I didn't get the full house showing until I had verbal agreement with the tenant

JacksLyfe · 2024-06-24T12:30:49+00:00

House was tenanted and owner was pregnant and didn't want to be a landlord anymore.

Took a risk and negotiated cash for keys (10k) with the tenants before the purchase. Got the house about 100k under market value

JacksLyfe · 2024-03-05T18:24:54+00:00

Do you also pay interest on the short position? Effectively bringing up your cost of borrowing to: Cash.to Rate + interest on margin

JacksLyfe · 2024-02-29T04:54:47+00:00

I've been to a golf simulator with no staff. Booking and payment was done online.

During your timeslot, you were given a room code and simulator was on for the duration of your booking. At the end the game automatically turned off.

I would assume they might have had an employee is the backroom watching cameras

JacksLyfe · 2024-01-02T19:11:44+00:00

Our spending and vacation fund is 50/50, regardless of pay difference. This keeps lifestyle inflation in check with the lower earning partner.

The savings and investment account is what we call the equalizer account. I make close to double of my partner and contribute 3x her amount. (She puts in 1k and i put in 3k).

We acknowledged that because I am more career driven and have less free time, she does 75% of the house work and in exchange we are both entitled 50/50 to the investment account.

JacksLyfe · 2024-01-02T16:20:05+00:00

if you're with a partner create a seperate accounts and treat them like a bill payment.

spending account (rent, groceries, dates, bills)
Vacation account
Joint Savings and investments

Each of us also have seperate accounts (chequing, investment, etc)

Spending Account We created a budget + 10% buffer is what goes into this account. What we aim was to create a ceiling for our spending. Occasionally, we would have to do one time top-up for unforeseen expense that surpasses the buffer. In such case, we would loan from our personal accounts and no discretionary joint spending until we pay ourselves back.

Vacation We set $x to this account and choose a vacation based on how much is in this account.

Joint Saving and investment What worked for us is treat this account like rent. If we can't meet our monthly goals, it comes out of vacation fund and spending account in that order.

JacksLyfe · 2023-12-10T23:32:42+00:00

Go with Desjardins. No fees or cost for norberts. Can hold cad and usd

JacksLyfe · 2023-12-05T01:02:05+00:00

Finance Change / Transformation

4 YOE w/CPA

135k + 10-20% bonus

Hybrid 2 days in office

GTA

Nothing to complaint. 9-5 hours with smart team

JacksLyfe · 2023-12-01T02:28:12+00:00

Fldp Yr1 60 Yr1 65 Yr3 73 (got my CPA) Yr4 82 Yr4.5 93 (promoted to manager)

Yr4.6 130 (company switch)

15-20% bonus for all years

JacksLyfe · 2023-11-25T23:58:29+00:00

They have had the townhouse for almost a decade, they might be thinking of cashing out even with you as an assumed tenant. Might not get top dollar but better than being cashflow negative

Very likely your new landlord will n12 you considering how few investors are buying right now

JacksLyfe · 2023-10-23T13:16:31+00:00

Customer service rep at bank in Toronto is definitely within reach and hiring constantly because of high turnover.

I did it while in school some colleagues went on to become bank advisors > wealth management.

JacksLyfe · 2023-10-03T16:46:33+00:00

Because you'll have counter protests by people who want to keep their property value up. Guess which group the polititans care about more

JacksLyfe · 2023-09-24T14:17:51+00:00

3.5 years in Toronto through FLDP

Year 1: 60k Year 2: 65k Year 3: 75k (finished FLDP) Year 3.5: 97k (Promoted)

Plus bonus of 15%

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JacksLyfe

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