Personal Finance – ThinkTak Investments

April 17, 2018April 17, 2018

Can you avoid paying capital gains tax after selling your principal residence even if you have rented it out? Yes, you can! Here’s how…

Capital gains tax is usually a scary enough term by itself! The mere notion that half of your profit is taxed seems discouraging (it shouldn’t be). But one highly misunderstood advantage that Canadian residents have when it comes to their principal residence is what CRA refers to as the “election of subsection 45(2)” protects you from capital gain after you sell your property even if you have rented it for a few years. Lets’ dig into this more: Continue reading “Can you avoid paying capital gains tax after selling your principal residence even if you have rented it out? Yes, you can! Here’s how…”

February 15, 2018

RRSP vs. TFSA … which one should I use? A plain and simple guidline…

It’s again that time of the year! RRSP Season (I think that’s what they call it). As someone unfamiliar with these terminologies (like an immigrant or someone who hasn’t had much savings anyway until recently), you might have been wondering what these actually mean? What are their differences and what one achieves with perhaps the highest anticipated savings accounts in Canada? Continue reading “RRSP vs. TFSA … which one should I use? A plain and simple guidline…”

December 5, 2017December 5, 2017

Toronto housing prices down y/y, a first since 2009

Toronto saw a 37% increase in its inventory from last year, and TREB’s benchmark home price index has fallen 8.8% since May 2017 making it the largest six-month decline in its history that goes back to as early as 2000. So how much further will this “correction” go?

Bitcoin is now worth over $10,000 – Now let Warren Buffett explain to you how bubbles are formed

It’s a no-brainer. When it comes to value-investing, nothing beats Warren Buffett and his mentor Ben Graham (you might want to read the bible of value-investing by him called The Intelligent Investor). He has accumulated his wealth by closely following this mindset and ended up being the world’s richest man for a few years (he is a super interesting person and HBO has a very interesting documentary on him called “Becoming Warren Buffett”). Basically, value-investing is the opposite of whatever you see in the news and the mainstream media (yes, you can say he’s a contrarian – in a way – but that’s because he has a different perception for everything that happens to everyone on a daily basis). It’s like when you open any music channel and it plays Justin Bieber; eventually, you’ll start thinking that his stuff is cool (and worth a Grammy) since you have not bothered looking at other alternatives outside of the mainstream media. But if you search (i.e. study) enough, you’ll soon be questioning a lot of stuff!

Continue reading “Bitcoin is now worth over $10,000 – Now let Warren Buffett explain to you how bubbles are formed”

October 31, 2017October 31, 2017

Is it better to invest in dividend paying stocks or invest in rental properties?

I just came across an awesome article that, in my opinion, tackled this question in the absolute best possible way. Koodos to Ryan Thurston, who made these calculations available to everyone on Quora. I would strongly recommend everyone to take a few minutes and read this brilliant reply to this question here.

October 25, 2017October 23, 2017

Trump Tower Toronto – How every single investor (but Donald Trump) lost money in this investment in a booming housing market in Toronto

Donald Trump refers to himself as “a genius” when it comes to his initial decision to launch Toronto’s Trump Tower back in 2002. At the time, it was supposed to become Toronto’s tallest residential tower. But a lot happened between 2002 and 2016, the 14 years that took the team(s) that were involved in this project to complete the tower which was at last taken over by JCF Capital which eventually sold the hotel to InnVest which is a major Canadian hotel operator. The condos are back on the market under the St. Regis brand which itself is a division of the Marriott International.

I would encourage everyone to read this awesome article by the Toronto Star and Columbia Journalism Investigations.

October 23, 2017October 20, 2017

Early Retirement – How much money do I need to save before I retire “safely”? And “The Rule of 25”

This is a question that pops up a lot in the social media these days. Millenials all seem to be rushing to “retire” as soon as they could, or at least, the idea of an early retirement is something that is soothing to the mind. But what is an actual PRACTICAL way of approaching this? I’ll look at the best alternative (from my point of view)… Continue reading “Early Retirement – How much money do I need to save before I retire “safely”? And “The Rule of 25””