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How long should you leave your house on the market?
Ever wonder why that house on the corner of your street has been on the market for two years? So does everyone else.
Keeping a “For Sale” sign parked on your lawn for more than three months is a mistake, says Gary Bachman, a real estate agent in Winnipeg. “People start saying, ‘What’s wrong with the house?’”
In Toronto, where homes, on average, don’t sit beyond 27 days, people start...
Homes: Renovate or relocate
There comes a time in every homeowner’s life when he needs to upgrade. Starter homes aren’t meant for long-term living, and when the kids arrive, things quickly start to feel cramped.
At one time, that meant it was time to move, but that’s not the only option. More and more homeowners are opting to build additions instead. Some are even razing their homes and rebuilding from scratch. All...
Mortgages: Befriend your bank
It’s been a busy year for Dan Mass, a Calgary-based broker with Canada First Mortgage. Besides his usual workload, he’s had to deal with a number of clients who have either had their homes foreclosed or have concerns that they won’t be able to pay their mortgage bills. “We’ve seen defaults rise this year for sure,” he says.
While Canada isn’t facing U.S.-style delinquency rates—the...
Mobile phones: How to manage your money on the go
It happens to the best of us: an important bill goes missing or an investment gets ignored. Thanks to modern technology, it never has to happen again. All you need is an iPhone and two minutes to download a personal finance application from the app store. There are plenty to choose from, but we think these six are the best.
Pennies ($2.99)
Proper money management starts with a budget. But it’s...
Getting a late start on the college fund
As American newspaper columnist Bill Vaughan once said, “A college education adds many thousands of dollars to a man’s lifetime income — which he then spends sending his son to college.” This sentiment is as true today as it was when Vaughn was writing in the ’50 and ’60s, only these days, it’s often two working parents who, combined, can’t afford their kids’ tuition. But don’t...
Mapping out a prenup
Mapping out a pre-nuptial agreement is never particularly romantic. But it can be especially tricky when children from previous relationships are involved. Winnipeg-based engineer John Lang found this out the hard way. When Lang (not his real name) married his second wife 22 years ago, he wanted to guarantee that his sizable estate would be fairly divvied up among his new wife and his three children...
Adviser advice
It’s an understandable thought: if two pretty smart guys like Steven Spielberg and Elie Wiesel could get scammed by a crooked adviser to the tune of millions, surely it could happen to anyone. In fact, although Bernie Madoff’s $50-billion Ponzi scheme was deemed the biggest in U.S. history, the actual number of individuals caught up in the scam was relatively small. Still, the impact on investors’...
How to start your own business
Recession, schmecession — now is the time to become your own boss. Here are six handy tips to get you started.
Be original
Coming up with a brilliant, money-making idea is the first step on the path to selfemployment. The second: checking to see if that product or service is already available. However, if it has been done, don’t automatically throw in the towel. “There’s nothing wrong with...
Bryan Borzykowski is a Toronto-based writer and editor working mainly for business publications. He writes for the New York Times, Canadian Business magazine, Globe and Mail, Bloomberg Businessweek Custom Publishing, Toronto Star, MoneySense and more. Bryan's the editor of Review magazine and is a senior editor with Connected for Business magazine. He's also a contributing writer with Hello! Canada and was once a weekly music columnist for Metro News. He's been nominated for several National Magazine Awards and he's co-authored