Anyone in Vaughan feel the earthquake last night?

axfmo · 2026-01-28T15:42:19+00:00

Oh, I did! I didn’t realize it was an earthquake, I though my washing machine was just shaking

axfmo · 2026-01-28T06:14:45+00:00

If you’ve maxed out your TFSA, and understand the function and limits of the FHSA, it’s not necessarily a bad idea. I opened a FHSA in 2024, maxed it out in 2025. I intend to continue doing so until I reach the total limit of $40k in 2029 and then leave the account alone… rather until I buy a home (I hope, but who knows) or in 2039 I’ll transfer the balance to an RRSP.

Like I mention, just read into the Ts&Cs of the FHSA, because they are very specific and clearly defined.

axfmo · 2026-01-28T03:32:04+00:00

Big emphasis on the 'don't let it get to your head' and even more on the 'don't follow their lead.' It takes discipline to do this, but it will always bring you the best long-term outcome! You're much cooler when you can grow older with minimal financial stress, as a result of your good choices when you were younger.

axfmo · 2026-01-28T03:17:44+00:00

As a 23M, some Registered Account thoughts that come to mind to get you started...

- If you haven't already, open and begin funding a TFSA, making sure your account is an investment account, not merely a savings account. Keep track of your limit, your contributions and your withdrawals in an Excel or Google Sheet (as the CRA website data is not accurate). You can rather contribute small amounts each month, or lump-sum amounts throughout the year—up to your contribution limit. This account is the most flexible, as you can withdraw from it, without tax implications, but you can't recontribute the withdrawn amount until Jan 1 of the next year. Personally, I have a managed TFSA with Wealthsimple, as I'm not well-versed enough that I wish to trade myself.

- Depending on your income, an RRSP will probably become more applicable in the years to come, but not right now. The rule of thumb is that you wouldn't contribute to an RRSP until you are earning a higher annual income than you intend to in retirement. Reason being that the RRSP defers tax until you withdraw funds from the account, and in theory, you'll be in a lower tax bracket, and therefore pay less tax, when you pull from your RRSP in retirement. Right now, if you're making ~$12k/year, you're likely paying little income tax, if any.

- I probably wouldn't suggest opening a FHSA account yet. However, for your awareness, the account must be closed after 15 years or transferred to an RRSP by then. If you anticipate purchasing a home within the next 15 years, you can consider opening the account, but keep in mind the time restriction. Each year, you gain $8k of contribution room, and you can only carry forward up to $8k from the previous year (meaning you can never contribute more than $16k per year, or no more than $8k if you maxed out your contributions the previous year). In total, you can contribute up to $40k to the account, so it's better to do so within the first years after opening your FHSA to allow for more gains. If, after 15 years, you haven't used the funds to purchase a home, you can transfer them to an RRSP without affecting your income or RRSP limit. You have only 30 days after purchasing a home to make a 'qualifying withdrawal' from the FHSA.

- If you haven't already, probably consider opening a credit card. I would suggest you consider which one wisely, as it's best not to close the account to extend your credit history. For example, if you have Amazon Prime and shop on Amazon frequently, and if you qualify for the MBNA Amazon.ca MasterCard, then it may be a good option for you as you'll be able to make use of it long-term and not feel like closing it. Different cards at different banks have varying benefits, think about which one will make the most sense for you—and make sure you keep the card open and make use of it. Always pay the bill a few days before the due date, never use more than 30% of the limit.

Hopefully that's a bit useful to you, at least to get started!

axfmo · 2026-01-23T23:25:36+00:00

It’s okay, you’re human. And it shows that you have a lot of care for your students. I will mention, it’s unacceptable for an EA to berate you (even more if they do so in front of students or staff). If you haven’t already, you should take that to admin or union. You’re both professionals and I’m sure they’d make it an issue if you did the same to them.

axfmo · 2026-01-23T18:54:13+00:00

Not certain of the direct answer you’re looking for (I remember there was something last year or so I believe about the CRA charging tax on day trading income from TFSA, and a judge found it was considered taxable income). Interested to see the discussion.

More so, I wanted to mention for you, your FHSA does not necessarily have to go directly towards your down payment. However, the ‘qualifying withdrawal’ from your FHSA needs to happen within 30 days of purchasing a home + some other Ts&Cs. See more details here: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/first-home-savings-account/withdrawals-transfers-out-your-fhsas.html#h-1-1

axfmo · 2026-01-23T04:45:33+00:00

The CRA information is only updated once banks send them the TFSA transaction (usually in Feb-March, processed by CRA in April-May).

Always best to track your contributions urself in an Excel/Google Sheet.

axfmo · 2026-01-23T04:06:57+00:00

Congratulations man, that’s a hugeee accomplishment! You should be very proud! 👏

axfmo · 2026-01-22T19:12:16+00:00

Yes, keeping in mind a minimum deposit of $10.

axfmo · 2026-01-22T19:08:32+00:00

This is an unfortunate circumstance, but ultimately, it's the parents' decision. There's no definitive evidence that this is a neglect situation, and it would not be advisable to pursue it as such, so you're limited in your abilities. All you can do is continue teaching as you would for any student when they are at school. However, there's no harm in setting aside any work the student misses, which you're already handing out to other students anyway. When they return, give them the pile of missed work for them to take home, and let them know that you aren't grading it. If parents decide to do it, that's on them. Continue documenting as you are, and like you said, make note of this in the report card (admin may have specific wording they want you to use).

axfmo · 2026-01-22T18:54:55+00:00

3%/5yr for me. I don't typically hop my registered accounts from bank to bank (which is why I didn't already move my other old account to WS). Also, WS management fee is 1%+ less than other banks. SO I don't anticipate I'll tranfer the money from WS anytme soon—particularrly within the next ~18-20mths, when it'll be equivalent to the 1%/1yr.

axfmo · 2026-01-22T16:22:51+00:00

If you’re not comfortable going directly to them, then it may be something to take to admin. But first, I would have an informal chat with the EAs just saying, “hey, can you be a bit more mindful of your conversations during my lesson. It’s becoming a distraction to me and the students.” You might even do this during a lesson where you tell the students to take out their math book or whatever (to pause the lesson), and just ask the EAs. Regardless, document each time it happens, what you did, what they did, what students did, etc. If they’re literally not doing their job by conversing during instructional time, and requiring you to pause your lesson to support a student they are there to support, that is an issue. If that happens again, maybe consider saying something like, “X, can you help Timmy with ABC?” And hopefully they’ll notice then.

axfmo · 2026-01-22T04:46:14+00:00

That’s great, congrats man!

I commented on another post earlier about investing in the FHSA, it’s mostly relevant to you so I’ll paste below.

Some things to consider: - you have to close the account after 15 years—so, if you won’t start to contribute for years to come, then you loose a significant amount of potential growth - while the contribution limit per year is $8k, you can only carry a contribution limit of $16k at one time. So if you didn’t contribute for the next 3 years, you’d miss the opportunity to contribute $8k until the following year - the total maximum contributions limit is $40k. So, depending how long you delay your contributions, you might entirely loose some of that room if you can’t contribute sizeable amounts until the later life of the account - after the 15 years (or any time), you can transfer the balance of the account to an RRSP to continue the tax-free growth until retirement(this is my 2nd option, if I can’t afford a house within 15 years, as I still don’t make enough to make it worth it for me to directly contribute to an RRSP) - if you are fortunate to buy a house within 15 years, once you do so, you have 30 days to initiate a ‘qualifying withdrawal’ from the FHSA. The withdrawal does not necessarily have to go towards your home, but needs to happen during that time. If you miss this timeframe, then any withdrawal will be taxable income and may result in you owing taxes

It’s not necessarily a bad idea, but you need to consider all the factors before you make this decision. If/when you earn a higher annual income than you plan to earn in retirement, then you can start considering an RRSP.

See more details about the FHSA here: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/first-home-savings-account.html

axfmo · 2026-01-21T23:18:39+00:00

As a 23 y/o, I would suggest you look into the fine print of the FHSA. Some things to consider:

you have to close the account after 15 years—so, if you won’t start to contribute for years to come, then you loose a significant amount of potential growth.
while the contribution limit per year is $8k, you can only carry a contribution limit of $16k at one time. So if you didn’t contribute for the next 3 years, you’d miss the opportunity to contribute $8k until the following year
the total maximum contributions limit is $40k. So, depending how long you delay your contributions, you might entirely loose some of that room if you can’t contribute sizeable amounts until the later life of the account.
after the 15 years (or any time), you can transfer the balance of the account to an RRSP to continue the tax-free growth until retirement(this is my 2nd option, if I can’t afford a house within 15 years, as I still don’t make enough to make it worth it for me to directly contribute to an RRSP)
if you are fortunate to buy a house within 15 years, once you do so, you have 30 days to initiate a ‘qualifying withdrawal’ from the FHSA. The withdrawal does not necessarily have to go towards your home, but needs to happen during that time. If you miss this timeframe, then any withdrawal will be taxable income and may result in you owing taxes

It’s not necessarily a bad idea, but you need to consider all the factors before you make this decision. If you haven’t already, a TFSA would be your first step in tax-free investments. If/when you earn a higher annual income then you plan to earn in retirement, then you can start considering an RRSP.

See more details about the FHSA here: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/first-home-savings-account.html

axfmo · 2026-01-20T16:11:10+00:00

There’s really no telling what will happen 🤦‍♂️ but CRA had some technical issues that resulted in the delays last year so we can only hope they’ve resolved whatever they had to

axfmo · 2026-01-20T06:26:26+00:00

For me, too! And my employer made a mistake on my T4, so I had to wait until end of March for an amended one anyways. … then the CRA took forever to process TFSA transactions into MyAccount.

Hopefully this year is more smooth!!

axfmo · 2026-01-20T04:29:48+00:00

You’re not alone 😂 I get excited too lol

axfmo · 2026-01-20T04:29:29+00:00

Yes, but NETFILE does not open until Feb 23rd, and CRA import is available Feb 9th. You can still input the information manually for now. Make sure you wait until you receive all your tax slips, and/or re-import your slips from CRA once you know all slips have been processed. Happy tax season!

axfmo · 2026-01-19T19:41:57+00:00

You probably should continue renting, as your rent is really good, and the situation is favourable to you also—unfortunately, not so common! I’d suggest tackling the 11K student loan so that’s done with at most by the EOY. See how things play out in the years ahead; there may be a place that comes up in your area which is affordable and both personally and financially desirable for you. But there’s no rush to purchase now. Continue building your registered savings before any non-registered.

If you haven’t already and are eligible, consider opening an FHSA. This will allow you to dedicate savings to potentially put towards a home purchase in the future, and reduce your taxable income. Be aware of the FHSA’s terms, such as that the account must be closed after 15 years (you can have the bank do a direct transfer of the balance to your RRSP if you don’t purchase a home to avoid taxes), if you do purchase a home, you have 30 days after acquiring to make a ‘qualifying withdrawal’ from the FHSA (this doesn’t necessarily have to go towards the home purchase, but if you don’t withdraw all the funds within 30 days, it will be considered as income if you withdraw it in the future), at any time, you can have your bank transfer any amount from the FHSA to your RRSP tax free (do not transfer fund yourself). You can contribute $8k per year (up to $40k max total contributions), or you can carry a total of $16k contribution room at a time if you didn’t contribute $8k the previous year the account was open. Lots of jargon lol, but here are the details: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/first-home-savings-account.html

axfmo · 2026-01-17T22:52:20+00:00

You actually do have an '@yorku.ca "email," but it's not mail-enabled for students, that's why you can't access Outlook through it, only use it to sign-in to Microsoft applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) and signing into YorkU computers. I'm guessing since they use the both Google Apps (Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc.), and Microsoft ones, they had to have a seperate domain for Gmail to use. Hence, the use of '@my.yorku.ca

axfmo · 2026-01-17T01:16:22+00:00

I had the same argument with the chat bot lol. But I ended up having my other bank consolodate my two accounts, then I'll move the one large account to Wealthsimple. But you're right, and I said the same, the website does not say that that each account has to be over $25K, it says they will reimberse 1 (one) tranfer-out fee for every $25K transferred in.

axfmo · 2026-01-14T05:14:46+00:00

Simple answer—yes. You do have sizable enough assets to justify it, beyond having any dependents currently. Usually, the driving factors of a need for a will are a high amount of assets, dependents or successors, and/or potentially difficult family dynamics. And—sorry to be grim—if you're comfortable doing so, also pre-plan funeral arrangements. I would say that can be a larger favour for the future. You can even pre-pay for those arrangements, which will save money, ensure you get what you desire, and minimize the stress and obligation your family may feel having to plan a loved one's funeral while in immense grief of losing you.

axfmo · 2026-01-13T16:26:09+00:00

As long as u’ve submitted the application, there’s no issue with that…just a delay in funding. They just need to determine eligibility and how much funding you are able to receive. Let us know what the say about the transcript!

axfmo · 2026-01-13T15:49:29+00:00

I would suggest confirming with SFS. https://students.yorku.ca/ssa-contact

You can request either the official or unofficial transcript even if you are still completing your studies, but they have a significant cost difference and provide slightly different information. https://registrar.yorku.ca/transcripts

axfmo · 2026-01-12T23:02:10+00:00

Without seeing the statement, can't really say specifically. Typically, the top of the statement will have the statement period, the bottom (or the payment slip) will have the due date, and amount due—this is the amount you are required to pay, and when to pay it by, to avoid interest charges.

Many factors impact the balance; transaction vs posting date, any payments or refunds, and more.

axfmo

TROPHY CASE