Apartment hotels offer a home away from work

Major hotel chains are expanding their all-suite or extended-stay brand lodgings.

Great article by BERT ARCHER. Check it out here - http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/travel/apartment-hotels-offer-travellers-a-home-away-from-work/article1540787/

Mark Carney signals interest rates to rise

‘With recent improvements in the economic outlook, the need for such extraordinary policy is now passing,’ Bank of Canada says.

Read the full article here in today's Globe and Mail online - http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/mark-carney-signals-interest-rates-to-rise/article1540317/

If you haven't pulled out and dusted off your mortgage statement recently, now is a great time to have a look. Do you have an interest rate high enough that it might justify breaking your mortgage, paying the penalty and getting in at a lower rate? Perhaps you've been sitting on the variable vs. fixed rate fence and might be wondering if you should lock in?

Call your banker for options and remember to shop around. There's a few banks out there offering 2% plus cash back if you bring your mortgage to them. But of course, they've capped the offer and have their limits, so make sure to read the fine print as always and crunch the numbers.

You'll have to call your bank to find out what your penalty would be if you broke your existing fixed term mortgage, but you can get online and play with different interest rates and even do some pre-remortgage shopping.

A few calls could potentially save you thousands of dollars. Have a look at your mortgage details today.

Finding the motivation to melt your mortgage

April 9, 2010

JENNIFER WILSON-SPEEDY

YOURHOME.CA EDITOR

Who wouldn’t love to shave a few years off their mortgage payments? Burn My Mortgage aims to do just that, casting families in the GTA to participate in the new W Network series, billed as “home finance meets The Amazing Race.”

Check out the full article at: http://ow.ly/1wsm6

Why are Canadians taking on more debt?

The recession, depending on where you lived in Canada, was tough for many, but I think opened our eyes to one's true needs vs. wants. I was proud of the many articles and conversations eliciting chats about watching our spending, cutting back or what I like to call, "intelligent frugality". Apparently though, the lessons were short lived.

According to the Globe & Mail this morning, CIBC economist Benjamin Tal said, "As of February, household credit was up by more than 7 per cent from a year earlier – more than three times faster than income growth.

The debt-to-income ratio, as a result, hit a record 147 per cent in December, and is accelerating at the fastest rate since the mid 1990s." Here's the full article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/debt-will-bite-consumers-report/article1520029/

Consider this the next time you're thinking of buying something on credit that you don't absolutely need - how long do you want to be a slave to your lender? When I was in the financial industry, I'd ask my clients a question: What does more money, less debt mean to you? Of the thousands of answers I received over the decade I was in the biz, the answers varied (more vacations, putting the kids through school, being able to retire, etc.), but there was one common theme as I questioned further. Every root answer was the same - freedom.

So, if we all want more freedom - what money can buy - why then, do we continue to fall prey to financial slavery?