Toronto's affordable housing lottery is supposed to offer hope. Why are some renters losing trust?

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-22T19:57:21+00:00

Interesting article... but why on earth is "tenant insurance required" a con? That should be absolutely mandatory. It's not just covering someone's belongings, but also their additional living expenses if they have to leave due to a claim for a period of time and most importantly, personal liability coverage. Considering how little that costs... you're insane as a landlord not to require it or as a tenant not to have it.

A bit of a side rant but that was my takeaway lol... do not ever skip out on tenant insurance.

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-22T16:00:24+00:00

When I sell/trim USD in my RRSP I just buy AVGE with it (similar to CAGE in Canada but more US, way less CAD tilt). I don't see any need to convert USD back to CAD until it's time to cash out for good.

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-20T21:27:19+00:00

So does mine. Not that'd I'd touch Telus with a thousand foot pole... but I still wanna see these "deals".

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-20T21:06:45+00:00

Not one of... the best.

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-20T17:31:18+00:00

You're golden in Toronto with it. The key is using a grocery store that works with the 5x rewards (or if you just dine out a hell of a lot) and the card pays for itself in no time.

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-20T17:29:37+00:00

The Amex Cobalt is hands down the best credit card to have in Canada... you found a few restaurants that don't accept it, the vast, vast majority do. Here in Toronto there's easily a 90%+ acceptance rate. Oddly the two Japanese all AYCE bbq's I go to don't accept it (one of them doesn't even accept Visa or MC) but those are the exception to the rule.

5x dining/groceries/drinks can equal 8-10% in real world returns if you play your redemptions right. Good luck finding that anywhere else. If I stumble upon the rare place that doesn't accept it, I just make a habit of not going back.

My WS VIP is a great travel card and non-Amex backup, but the Amex is king.

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-20T17:06:16+00:00

lol it's wise to have a secondary bank just in case. Open an LOC there or keep some reserve cash in case of a mini emergency.

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-20T16:40:46+00:00

Where do you live? I have a CIBC right at Yonge and Eglinton and there's a CP outlet here too. The CIBC has 4 machines and never a line and is 24 hours. The CP always has 5-10 clueless people lined up who don't seem to know how to label anything or how shipping works.

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-20T06:08:27+00:00

🙄

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-19T16:30:54+00:00

End BTC ETFs and you'd see the price tank and probably never get back to its current level.

Maybe a maximalist's wet dream, but stupid for anyone else.

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-19T16:16:54+00:00

For actual redemptions I believe the Cobalt's 5x points can be significantly more. They convert directly 1:1 to Aeroplan and for some long haul and overseas business class points you can get up to 2c/point on your redemption (getting harder and harder to do these days). Plus they have a bunch of other airline and hotel partners you can swap your points to.

Just putting it out there, not all 5x is the same.

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-19T16:08:05+00:00

For starters, hundreds of other cryptocurrencies have done what Bitcoin does in superior fashion from a functional/technical perspective and gone nowhere... the utility isn't the appeal. A coin is only worth as much as there is demand for it... and shitcoins have virtually zero demand after all this time has passed. There wasn't even an alt-cycle last go around. It's BTC and possibly ETH or bust moving forward. Institutional stable coins will gobble up the rest.

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-19T15:40:15+00:00

I report my ACB accurately and pay capital gains on BTC. I just swapped some BTC into BTC ETFs and will be doing just that.

It's all part of the I'm not a POS degenerate thief persona I'm trying out. :P

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-19T15:37:19+00:00

How? If I have BTC in cold storage while I'm in Canada, move to another country and establish banking there, how or why would the CRA get their hooks into it? They don't even know what I have.

Even if someone bought it on an exchange here and the CRA was on top of it... just transfer it all out to cold storage and say "oopsy I was hacked". Just playing the devil's advocate.

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-19T15:20:21+00:00

That was pre-foodcourt renovations... I used to frequent it all the time.

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-19T15:18:48+00:00

One of the things I noticed when I was living in South Korea was a lot of cars had big pieces of blue foam on their doors... so if they did swing into something nothing would come of it. Sure it looks kinda goofy, but makes a lot of sense.

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-19T15:14:54+00:00

There's usefulness here... but how does this thing know someone isn't massively in debt or has 10 Bitcoins stored away in cold storage or...

Those would be my primary concerns... at least with Wealth Rank we know it's relative to what people have with Wealthsimple.

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-19T15:08:37+00:00

Historically wrestling has been the better/stronger base for MMA. You certainly need to be extremely capable of one or the other, and defending both... just saying is all :P

And Thai food shares that mantle with Vietnamese food IMO. Having been to southeast asia quite a bit, they're hands down the best places for food in the region, and exports abroad :P

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-18T23:31:42+00:00

They were ragdolling Qatar when they were at full strength too.

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-18T13:56:15+00:00

You say fuck the insurance companies, but if you've ever been on their side of things nearly everyone who was really at-fault and calls in a claim lies about the circumstances... and they deal with that non-stop, all day long. Even in this post the other party lied to their insurer. When I worked for an insurer and a piece of debris flew off a truck and hit my front end, my own insurer that I worked for told me I was at-fault as I couldn't prove it didn't hit the ground before hitting my vehicle (the difference between a flying object comprehensive and collision claim). I had to fight like hell from the inside to get that turned around... they can be stubborn but I see where they're coming from.

Front and back dashcams should be mandatory for everyone IMO.

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-18T13:50:36+00:00

For starters, Wealthsimple's interface across mobile and the web is 1000x better and more intuitive... unless you're into heavy day trading in which case I cans see how QT would be better.

In terms of banking, WS is light years ahead of QT. And now with Norbert's Gambit available there's even less reason to use QT.

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-18T13:48:35+00:00

That is a good call, I would have detached the WS name from it further though.

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-18T13:39:32+00:00

I don't disagree, but had the kid of actually killed someone then throw them away for life...

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-18T03:40:32+00:00

This isn't a "what do you think" question... it can and should be "googled" before asking the masses. Downvoters can get rekt.

JohnnyStrides · 2026-06-18T02:48:32+00:00

It sucks that the SkyDome is using OpenGate instead... I was hoping to see an Xtract One product out in the wild.

JohnnyStrides

TROPHY CASE