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. 4 published so far; 153 planned.

Budgeting4/32
  • How Big Should Your Emergency Fund Be? (Canada)
  • How to Calculate and Track Your Net Worth in Canada
  • How to Create a Zero-Based Budget
  • How to Track Where Your Money Actually Goes
  • Automate Your Budget: the Set-and-Review System
  • Avalanche vs Snowball: How to Pay Off Debt Faster
  • Disability Money Deadlines, Age by Age
  • EI Sickness Benefits and Disability Insurance (LTD) in Canada
  • Good Debt vs Bad Debt and Your Debt-to-Income Ratio
  • Government Benefits and Credits You Might Be Missing (Canada)
  • How Credit Scores Work in Canada (and How to Check Yours)
  • How Disability Income Support Fits Together in Canada
  • How Much to Save Each Month to Reach a Goal by a Date
  • How to Build a Debt Payoff Plan (Canada)
  • Insolvency vs Bankruptcy in Canada: Your Options
  • Insurance Basics: Protecting Your Budget
  • Lifestyle Creep: Keeping a Raise From Disappearing
  • Money Systems That Work With ADHD
  • Money in Canada as a Newcomer
  • Pay Yourself First: How to Automate Your Saving
  • Provincial Disability Income Support (AISH, ODSP, and More)
  • Renewing a Mortgage in Canada: What to Know
  • Sinking Funds: How to Budget for Irregular Expenses
  • The Canada Disability Benefit: What It Is and Who Qualifies
  • The Child Disability Benefit (CDB): A Top-Up to the CCB
  • Turning 18 With a Disability: What Changes
  • What Credit Actually Costs: APR, Interest, and Fees
  • What Happens If You Miss Payments (Canada)
  • What Happens to a Disabled Adult's Benefits When a Parent Dies
  • Where to Hold an Emergency Fund in Canada
  • Who Manages the Money: Guardianship, Trusteeship and the Alternatives
  • Working While on Disability Support: What Gets Clawed Back
Investing0/39
  • Asset Allocation ETFs: One-Fund Investing Explained
  • Asset Location: Which Investments to Hold in Which Account
  • Bond ETF or GIC? Comparing the Two Safe Options
  • Bonds and Fixed Income Explained (Canada)
  • Building a Bond Ladder
  • Building a GIC Ladder for Retirement Income
  • 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
  • Dividend Investing in Canada: How It Works
  • Dollar-Cost Averaging: Automatic Investing Made Simple
  • Getting Money Out of an RDSP: DAPs and LDAPs
  • How and When to Rebalance Your Portfolio (Canada)
  • 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 a Canadian Hedge Currency?
  • Split Shares, Structured Notes and Other High-Yield Products
  • TFSA vs RRSP: Which Should You Use First? (Canada)
  • The FHSA Explained: Saving for a First Home in Canada
  • 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?
Retirement0/42
  • 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
  • CPP Disability (CPP-D): Eligibility and How It Converts at 65
  • CPP Survivor and Death Benefits Explained
  • Commuted Value or Keep the Pension?
  • 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
  • Healthcare and Long-Term Care Costs in Retirement (Canada)
  • LIRA and LIF: Locked-In Retirement Accounts Explained
  • OAS and CPP When You Live Abroad
  • Old Age Security (OAS): Eligibility, Timing, and Clawback
  • Pension Income Splitting in Retirement (Canada)
  • Planning an Estate Around a Disabled Beneficiary
  • Provincial Health Coverage When You Move Abroad
  • RRIF Minimum Withdrawals: The Table, and What It Forces You to Do
  • RRIF or Annuity? Comparing Flexible and Guaranteed Income
  • Retiring Outside Canada: The Whole Picture
  • Sequence-of-Returns Risk: Why the First Years Matter
  • Severance and the Retiring Allowance: What Can Go Into an RRSP
  • Taking CPP and OAS: The Order, Not Just the Age
  • The 4% Rule and Safe Withdrawal Rates (Canada)
  • The Bridge Benefit: Income Between 55 and 65
  • The Cash Wedge: Not Selling Into a Bad First Five Years
  • The Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS): Who Qualifies
  • The OAS Clawback: The Threshold, the Maths, and How to Stay Under It
  • The Pension Income Amount and the Age Amount
  • Using a Younger Spouse's Age for RRIF Minimums
  • What Happens to a RRIF When You Die
  • What Inflation Does to a Fixed Retirement Income
  • When Can I Retire? How to Know If You Have Enough (Canada)
  • When to Start CPP: Taking It Early vs Late
  • Where Canadians Retire Abroad: Cost and Tax Compared
  • Which Accounts to Tap First in Retirement (Canada)
  • Withdrawing In Kind from a RRIF
  • Withholding Tax on RRIF Withdrawals: Why the Minimum Catches People Out
  • Working While Collecting CPP: The Post-Retirement Benefit
  • Workplace Pensions in Canada: DB vs DC Explained
  • Your RRSP and RRIF After You Leave Canada
  • Your Retirement Income Plan (Canada)
Taxes0/40
  • Becoming a Non-Resident of Canada: What Actually Counts
  • Canadian Tax Brackets by Province: How They Work
  • Capital Gains Tax in Canada: How It's Calculated
  • 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: The Bill for Leaving 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
  • 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 Dividend and Interest Income Is Taxed in Canada
  • How Investment Income Is Taxed in Canada
  • How Much TFSA and RRSP Room Do You Actually Have?
  • How the RRSP Deduction Lowers Your Taxes
  • How to Track Adjusted Cost Base (ACB) in Canada
  • Income Splitting and the TOSI Rules (Canada)
  • Marginal vs Average Tax Rate in Canada Explained
  • Probate Fees by Province
  • Reading Your T3, T5 and T5008 Without Guessing
  • Return of Capital: What Box 42 on Your T3 Actually Means
  • 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 vs Beneficiary
  • Tax Instalments in Canada: When You Have to Pay Quarterly
  • Tax Treaties and Withholding for Canadian Retirees Abroad
  • The Deemed Disposition on Death
  • The Disability Tax Credit (DTC) and Form T2201 in Canada
  • The Final Return and the Year of Death
  • The Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption: Selling Your Business
  • The Medical Expense Tax Credit (METC) in Canada
  • The Principal Residence Exemption: What Is Actually Exempt
  • The Small Business Deduction and Corporate Tax Rates (Canada)
  • What Happens to Your TFSA When You Move Abroad
  • 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