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TOP FINANCIAL YOUTUBERS

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Top Financial Youtube Channels If you are reading this blog post, there is a high chance that you have an interest in personal finance.  This is very good, because the more knowledgeable you are, the better the decisions you make. Expanding your knowledge of personal finance can be done in many ways. Through the internet, you can now access and an endless amount of free information to help guide you. This includes blogs, podcasts, and videos. Below I focus on three of my favourite personal finance youtube creators. These are all based on my own personal opinion. It was very hard to narrow it down to only a few creators, but I chose all three for a specific reason. Graham Stephan - The Real Estate Guru Graham Stephan has an amazing YouTube channel revolved around real estate and personal finance. He is 29 years old and worth about $6 million. He works as a YouTube creator, real estate agent, and investor. In his videos, he shares advice on how to invest i...
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SAVING FOR A DOWN PAYMENT? Here's what to do.

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SAVING FOR A DOWN PAYMENT? Homeownership is a very important part of personal finance. When you purchase a home, you are buying an asset that helps to build equity. If you decide to rent a place, you are limiting your growth and helping someone else to build more wealth. The first step to owning a home is saving up for a down payment. In Toronto, the average down payment for a home is $62,000 according to Sotheby's International Realty. That is a lot of money. THE PROBLEM As the prices of homes continue to rise in many large cities, it has taken increasingly longer for people to save up money for a down payment. Many people believe that if they are saving a large amount of money for a few years that they should do something with it until they have reached the amount that they need. The goal is that they will help to grow their money while they save. This is a very good idea. If you have money sitting around for years you will LOSE about 2.3% of the value of that mon...
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SPOTIFY PREMIUM FOR $1.66 PER MONTH

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WHAT? I'm sure that most of you reading this are wondering how I get Spotify Premium for under $2 a month. I will get to that, but first, let me give you a backstory. I started using Spotify over two years ago. I made my account after I got a year's worth of free premium subscription after getting a new phone with Rogers (one of the largest Canadian carriers). I am an avid music lover, in fact, I play and teach guitar part-time. Having premium made it extremely easy for me to listen to music, download it, and use it while I was teaching. Once my subscription was over I could not stand the annoying ads and restrictions that the free version had. I was hooked to premium. I needed to find a way to get it for a cheaper price. THE NORMAL COST Spotify premium currently costs $9.99 CAD in Canada and $9.99 US in America per month for the premium subscription. The tax is included within the price which is nice. This means it would cost me $119.88 a year. $9.99 x 12 ...
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NEVER BUY A NEW CAR!

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WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER BUY A NEW CAR! For the average American, owning and operating a vehicle costs about $9500 per year according to Investopedia. That is a TON of money. The reality is for some people, owning a car is a necessity. If you have a family, use a car for work, or live in an area without sufficient public transit, you need one. The ultimate goal to save money on transportation costs is to use alternatives other than owning a car, such as public transit, biking, or carpooling services. For those who fall into the categories listed above, there still is a more affordable option. The answer is BUYING A USED CAR. SO WHY SHOULD I BUY A USED CAR? Buying a used car can definitely be very scary. You could end up with a great deal or with an endless problem that sucks money from your pocket. If you follow the right steps you could greatly benefit financially. Whenever you take a brand new car off the showroom floor its value goes down IMMEDIATELY. That's how vehicles...
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VANILLA LATTE's OR 1 MILLION DOLLARS

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VANILLA LATTE's OR $1,000,000 In this post I wanted to see just how much money an individual could make if they invested all the money that they spent on Starbucks coffee. The result is pretty ridiculous. There are a few factors that I assumed in this test; 1) The beverage being used is Skinny Vanilla Latte (Venti) because it is one of the most popular drinks at Starbucks. This drink costs $4.65. 2) It is assumed that this person will buy coffee every single day from Monday to Friday, every single week. 3) It is also assumed that for the investment they will invest it in an S&P 500 Index fund, which tracks the 500 largest U.S. companies. 4) The average return of the S&P 500 throughout history has been 9.8% yearly, and so that figure will be used as the yearly return of the investment. 6) The individual will contribute to the investment from the age of 18-65 years old. It is at this age that the majority of people drink coffee for both school and work. This...
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MUTUAL FUNDS...?

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MUTUA L FUNDS? As the average person what a stock is, they'll probably know. As for them what a mutual fund is, definitely not as likely. This is because in order to actually understand what a mutual fund is you must understand what a stock is. If you don't have a strong understanding of what a stock is, check out my previous blog post on stocks. SO WHAT IS A MUTUAL FUND?  Think of it this way. There's a group of people who aren't experts in investing, so they want someone experienced and educated in the field to do it for them. So what they do is they give their money to an investment manager. This manager pools all the money from a large group of people and with their team they decide what to invest in with the money. The investment manager will buy a portfolio of many different stocks and other assets that they believe will help them to grow the money for their clients. WHERE DOES YOUR DOUGH GO? When you invest in a mutual fund, you aren't actually ju...
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STOCKS...?

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STOCKS...? For most people, hearing the word 'stock' sounds risky and confusing. This makes total sense since most people are not properly educated on what a stock is, and how the stock market works. The good thing is that its never too late to start investing in stocks. Below I will explain the fundamentals of what a stock is, how the market works, and most importantly, how you could make money. WHAT IS A STOCK? Most companies that exists can either be considered as a private or public company. A private company is a company that is owned by one individual owner, or a small group of owners. All the decisions made by this company are based on those owners, as they have the main say in what goes on in the company. On the other hand, there are public companies. These are companies that are owned by thousands, or millions of people. These are people who have bought stock from the company, also known as shareholders. All public companies first started off as private busin...
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