Sometimes it may be hard to know if you are in over your head, but if you can relate to some or all of the statements below, it is likely that you have taken on too much debt.
1. You have no savings at all.
2. You only make the minimum payments on your credit cards.
3. Your bank account is always overdrawn and you often have nonsufficient fund (NSF) fees charged to your account.
Many folks find themselves overspending during the holiday season and then they feel overwhelmed at their financial situation in the New Year. It is easy to get carried away when you keep on finding another great gift for your kids or for your spouse, but you need to know when to stop.
Since the past is now behind us, if you are in a position right now where you have overspent, do not panic. Instead, create a practical plan and put it into action ASAP in order to pay off that holiday debt.
Did you know that 6 out of 10 Canadians live from paycheck to paycheck? What’s worse is that almost 60% of Canadians would be in serious financial trouble if their pay were delayed by one week.
These are disturbing statistics, so what are we going to do about it? It is obvious that more and more of us are taking on more debt than we can manage. Is it due to greed or trying to keep up with the Joneses? What compels us to sink into so much debt?
If your mortgage is up for renewal soon, or you are looking to buy a new home, you will want to do some research in order to find the best possible mortgage rate. For Canadians, I would recommend that you check out the Ratesupermarket website. It is very easy to use and once you fill in some basic information, it will find the results in your local area quickly.
The results will include the approximate amount of your monthly payments, how much interest you would expect to pay throughout the mortgage term assuming the rate remains the same, and more.
As most of you know, the Bank of Canada raised interest rates again on September 8th and as a result, my husband and I decided it would be a good idea for us to put another $5000 towards our open variable mortgage. Although our interest rate is only at 3%, we know that we can get less than half of that in interest if we keep it in a savings account.
If our plan was to stay in our existing house for another 5 years or more, it would be really tempting to just fix our mortgage as the fixed interest rates are still really reasonable right now, and it is certain that the interest rate on our variable mortgage will continue to rise, albeit more gradually for the next little while.