Oakwise

Guides

Straight answers to Canadian money questions

Plain-English, cited, and reviewed. One canonical guide per concept, with a worked Canadian example and the sources to back it. 30 published so far; 188 planned.

Budgeting15/51
Investing3/41
  • Choosing an Advisor: Types, Fees, and How to Check
  • Dividend Investing in Canada: What You Actually Get Paid
  • TFSA vs RRSP: Which Should You Use First? (Canada)
  • A GIC Ladder for Retirement Income
  • Asset Allocation ETFs: One-Fund Investing Explained
  • Asset Location: Which Investments Belong in Which Account
  • Bond ETF or GIC? It Depends on When You Need the Money
  • Bonds and Fixed Income in Canada
  • Building a Bond Ladder
  • Cash-Secured Puts
  • Compound Growth and the Time Value of Money (Canada)
  • Corporate Bonds and Credit Ratings
  • Covered Call ETFs in Canada: What You Are Actually Buying
  • Dollar-Cost Averaging: Automatic Investing Made Simple
  • Getting Money Out of an RDSP: DAPs and LDAPs
  • How and When to Rebalance Your Portfolio
  • How to Open an Investment Account in Canada
  • Index and ETF Investing in Canada: A Beginner's Guide
  • Investment Fees and the MER: What You're Really Paying
  • Keeping Your Canadian Bank and Brokerage Accounts as a Non-Resident
  • Mutual Fund Series A, F and D, and the Trailing Commission
  • Mutual Funds vs ETFs vs Stocks: What's the Difference?
  • Options Basics: What a Call and a Put Actually Are
  • Preferred Shares in Canada: Rate Resets and What They Really Do
  • RDSP Age Rules and the 10-Year Holdback You Need to Know
  • RDSP Grant and Bond: How the CDSG and CDSB Work
  • REITs in Canada: Income, Return of Capital and What You Own
  • RESP and the CESG Grant: Saving for a Child's Education
  • Risk Tolerance: How Much Risk Should Your Investments Take?
  • Robo-Advisor vs DIY Investing in Canada
  • Rolling an RRSP, RRIF, or RESP Into an RDSP in Canada
  • Segregated Funds: The Guarantee and What It Costs
  • Should You Hedge the Currency?
  • Split Shares, Structured Notes and Other High-Yield Products
  • The FHSA Explained: Saving for a First Home in Canada
  • The Home Buyers' Plan: Using Your RRSP for a First Home
  • The RDSP Explained: Canada's Registered Disability Savings Plan
  • Time in the Market vs Timing the Market
  • Why Your Safe Bond Fund Lost Money: Prices, Yield and Duration
  • Writing Covered Calls Yourself
  • Yield vs Total Return: Is Your Fund Eating Its Own NAV?
Retirement4/46
  • RRIF Minimum Withdrawals: The Table, and What It Forces You to Do
  • The OAS Clawback: The Threshold, the Maths, and How to Stay Under It
  • When Can I Retire? How to Know If You Have Enough (Canada)
  • When to Start CPP: Taking It Early vs Late
  • Annuities in Canada: Turning Savings Into Guaranteed Income
  • Applying for CPP Disability, and What to Do If You Are Denied
  • Borrowing Against the House in Retirement: Reverse Mortgage vs HELOC
  • Bridge Benefits: Why Your Pension Changes at 65
  • CPP Disability (CPP-D): Eligibility and How It Converts at 65
  • CPP Survivor and Death Benefits: Who Gets Each One
  • Converting Your RRSP to a RRIF: What to Know
  • Decumulation: How to Draw Down Your Savings in Retirement
  • Downsizing in Retirement: What the Move Actually Frees Up
  • Drawing Your RRSP Down Early on Purpose
  • Helping Aging Parents With Money
  • LIRA and LIF: Locked-In Retirement Accounts Explained
  • Long-Term Care Costs in Retirement: Who Pays, and What You Can Claim
  • OAS and CPP When You Live Abroad
  • Old Age Security: Who Gets It, and When to Start
  • Pension Income Splitting: Which Income Moves, and Whose Age Decides
  • Planning an Estate Around a Disabled Beneficiary
  • Provincial Health Coverage When You Move Abroad
  • RRIF or Annuity? Comparing Flexible and Guaranteed Income
  • Retiring Outside Canada: The Whole Picture
  • Retiring Single
  • Sequence-of-Returns Risk: Why the First Years Matter
  • Severance and the Retiring Allowance: What Can Go Into an RRSP
  • Splitting CPP Credits and Pensions on Divorce
  • Take the Commuted Value, or Keep the Pension?
  • Taking CPP and OAS: Which One to Start First
  • The 4% Rule and Safe Withdrawal Rates (Canada)
  • The Cash Wedge: Cash to Live On While the Market Recovers
  • Turning 65: The Age Amount and the Pension Income Amount
  • Using a Younger Spouse's Age for Your RRIF Minimum
  • What Happens to a RRIF on Your Passing
  • What Inflation Does to a Fixed Retirement Income
  • What to Do When a Spouse Passes Away
  • Where Canadians Retire Abroad: Cost and Tax Compared
  • Which Account to Take Money From First in Retirement (Canada)
  • Who Qualifies for the Guaranteed Income Supplement
  • Withdrawing In Kind from a RRIF
  • Withholding Tax on RRIF Withdrawals: Why Nothing Comes Off the Minimum
  • Working While Collecting CPP: The Post-Retirement Benefit
  • Workplace Pensions in Canada: DB vs DC
  • Your RRSP and RRIF After You Leave Canada
  • Your Retirement Income Plan (Canada)
Taxes8/50
  • Canadian Tax Brackets by Province: How They Work
  • Capital Gains Tax in Canada: What You Owe and When
  • How Crypto Is Taxed in Canada
  • How Investment Income Is Taxed in Canada
  • How Much TFSA and RRSP Room Do You Actually Have?
  • How Your Dividends Are Taxed in Canada
  • Return of Capital: When a Payment Isn't Income
  • The Disability Tax Credit and Form T2201 in Canada
  • Becoming a Non-Resident of Canada: What Actually Counts
  • Being an Executor: What the Job Involves
  • Claiming the Disability Tax Credit for Past Years
  • Common Tax Credits and Deductions Canadians Miss
  • Deductible Business Expenses in Canada (Home Office and Vehicle)
  • Departure Tax: What You Owe When You Leave Canada
  • Disability Supports Deduction and Related Tax Credits
  • Eligible vs Non-Eligible Dividends and the Gross-Up
  • Filing Your Taxes in Canada: A Beginner's Guide
  • Filing the Final Return After Someone Passes Away
  • Foreign Withholding Tax on US and International Dividends
  • GST/HST for Small Business: Register, Charge, and File
  • Henson Trusts and Qualified Disability Trusts in Canada
  • How Rental Income Is Taxed in Canada
  • How Spousal and Child Support Are Taxed
  • How to Track Adjusted Cost Base (ACB) in Canada
  • Income Splitting and the TOSI Rules (Canada)
  • Making a Will in Canada
  • Marginal vs Average Tax Rates, and What They Mean
  • Naming Beneficiaries on Your Accounts
  • Power of Attorney and the Personal Directive
  • Probate Fees by Province: What Yours Charges
  • Reading Your Pay Stub and Your T4
  • Reading Your T3, T5 and T5008 Without Guessing
  • Salary vs Dividends: How to Pay Yourself From Your Corporation
  • Self-Employment Taxes in Canada: Income Tax and GST/HST
  • Selling the Cottage or a Second Property
  • Should You Incorporate Your Business in Canada?
  • T1135: When Foreign Property Has to Be Reported
  • TFSA on Death: Successor Holder or Beneficiary
  • Tax Instalments in Canada: When You Have to Pay Quarterly
  • Tax Treaties and Withholding for Canadian Retirees Abroad
  • The Charitable Donation Tax Credit
  • The Deemed Disposition on Death
  • The Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption: Selling Your Business
  • The Medical Expense Tax Credit in Canada
  • The Principal Residence Exemption: What Is Actually Exempt
  • The Small Business Deduction and Corporate Tax Rates (Canada)
  • What Happens to Investments When Someone Passes Away
  • What Happens to Your TFSA When You Move Abroad
  • What Your RRSP Contribution Saves You in Tax
  • Your Notice of Assessment and CRA My Account

Collection

Living with Disability — the dense bits, explained

The Disability Tax Credit, the RDSP, CPP-D, AISH, and benefit-preserving trusts — 23 guides that go with the story collection.

See the collection