Debt Free In 30

Should you pay someone to do your taxes, or should you just do them yourself? Simple question; what’s the answer? Scott Schaefer is here, and we’ll discuss four factors to consider: Complexity, expertise, time, and who you hire.  There is a lot of practical advice on this episode, and we end with a warning NOT to use cash back (it’s too expensive in most cases).

How do you strike a balance between your finances and your personal happiness? Enter Melissa Leong – financial expert and author of Happy Go Money. In her latest book, Melissa combines psychology and personal finance to provide an easily digestible guide to spending, budgeting, and investing. On today’s podcast, she joins Doug Hoyes to discuss why more money in the bank doesn’t correlate with happiness, how you can revamp your relationship with money, and other practical financial advice for listeners. This is a “must listen” podcast.  Enjoy!

Once a year we crunch the numbers and release our annual Hoyes Michalos Joe Debtor Bankruptcy Study.  It’s the only study that exists that looks at real numbers from actual people (it’s a study, not a survey) so every year it generates a lot of media attention.  Today’s podcast is the only interview Ted and I do together on Joe Debtor, and we explain the four key trends we identified this year: Income are up (but not because our clients are getting big pay increases). Expenses are also up, so there is less cash available to pay debt. As a result the credit profile of our clients is deteriorating, leading to more payday loans and high interest instalment loans. The student loan crises is leading to more younger people going bankrupt or filing a consumer proposal. Full explanations and more on today’s show. Full details with all of the charts can be found here: https://www.hoyes.com/press/joe-debtor/

On today’s show we have a first time guest, Richard Moxley, who explains how to win at the credit game.  He explains why the credit score you buy is not the same one your lender uses, why age matters, and what practical steps you can take to rebuild or improve your credit.

I have no idea whether or not we will have a recession soon, but whether we do or not, there are some steps you can take to prepare.  On today’s show Scott Terrio returns to discuss what causes a “personal recession”, and what steps you can take to prepare for whatever happens.

Ted Michalos returns to discuss loan scams, including advance fee loans, savings loans, and “pay off your consumer proposal” loans.  Listeners may quibble with our characterization of these loans as “scams”, but we explain why we believe they should be avoided, and we give our suggestions on better alternatives for people who want to improve their credit and are tempted to get these types of loans.

Kelley Keehn returns after a three year absence, and on today’s show we discuss some of the many interesting ideas she has in her new book, Talk Money to Me. We discuss the impact of low interest rates, whether or not she thinks budgets are a good idea, why she thinks the fourth asset class is your career, and what we need to know about the reciprocity rule. That and lots more on today’s show!

On today’s show first time guest Alexandra Macqueen, CFP explains what a reverse mortgage is, how they work, and who qualifies.  More importantly, Ms. Macqueen does not sell reverse mortgages; she’s a financial planner and university educator, so she has no vested interest in whether or not you get a reverse mortgage, so she is able to offer unbiased advice on this increasingly popular borrowing option for home-owning seniors.  Are they a good idea? That answer and more on today’s show.

On today’s show Scott Terrio explains that, for most of our clients, debt “sneaks up on you”.  You borrow the money and expect to have no trouble paying it off, but then life happens, and the debt problems begin.  We discuss how debt causes problems, and Scott creates a new term: Financially Catatonic.  All that and more on today’s show.

For the last show of the year Doug Hoyes and Ted Michalos look back on 2019 and ask the obvious question: the economy is doing well, unemployment is low, and yet bankruptcy and consumer proposal filings in Ontario have had the largest spike upward in over a decade, up about 16% so far this year.  Why? We debunk the conventional wisdom from the talking heads on TV (it has nothing to do with unemployment or interest rates, and it’s not a temporary blip) and explain what’s really happening.  We play a clip from our predictions show from last year so you can see how accurate we were, and then Ted and Doug close the show with their predictions for personal insolvencies in 2020.

If you listen to the news, or read the comments on YouTube, you may think the world is getting worse.  All we hear about are political scandals, crime, and economic problems.  That’s not surprising; bad news sells; negative clickbait works! But as we discuss on today’s podcast, world health continues to improve, and extreme poverty is at its lowest level in history.  So why do we think things are getting worse?  It’s partly due to the “negativity instinct”, a concept discussed in the book Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World, and Why Things are Better Than you Think by Hans Rosling.  On today’s show we discuss how to spot negativity, and how you can see the positive side of life.

Everyone likes gift cards.  Free money!  An easy gift for anyone on your Christmas list, but there is a downside. On today’s podcast, first time guest and Hoyes Michalos credit counsellor Patty Sweeney explains the advantages and disadvantages of gift cards, and she gives lots of practical advice if you give or receive gift cards.

Robert Brown, author of Wealthing Like Rabbits, returns for his sixth appearance on the podcast, where we discuss marketing in its many forms. Cross selling, upselling and reselling are happening all the time, and we often don’t realize it. We provide many examples, and strategies to keep more of your money in your pocket.

Over 600 big name store locations have closed in Canada in the last three years, resulting in over 17,000 lost jobs, and that doesn’t include hundreds more small stores that have shut down.  Is this just the impact of Amazon, or is there something deeper happening?  And what does this mean for the Canadian economy going forward? On today’s show first-time guest Stephanie Hughes explains why the stores are closing, and what this means for the typical retail worker specifically, and the Canadian economy and real estate.

The Sunk Cost Fallacy is easy to understand: you’ve spent the money, it’s gone, but you keep on doing what you’re doing, whether or not it makes sense, because you’ve spent the money. You go to a restaurant and eat every morsel of food on your plate, whether you are full or not, because you’ve spent the money! On today’s show Ted Michalos explains how the Sunk Cost Fallacy is a disaster with how you treat debt, and we give some practical advice on how to overcome it.

On today’s podcast we’ve got two hockey parents: Kristen Kral, a credit counsellor in our Brantford office, and Rebecca Martyn, our Windsor trustee, who give their thoughts on how to save money on kid’s sports (particularly hockey). Enjoy!

It’s amazing how many of my client are confused about the difference between a TFSA and an RRSP, so today Ian Martin and I go through the basics. But isn’t this a podcast about debt? Yes it is, so we also discuss what happens to a TFSA or RRSP if you go bankrupt, and we discuss which savings vehicle is best once you are out of debt and are getting back on track.

It’s the start of Financial Literacy Month in Canada, so instead of following the crowd and telling you to make a budget (which is the most common suggestion you will hear this month), I will go a different route and tell you a story about a 20 dollar bill. A fable, as it were. Enjoy!

We advise our clients to open a new bank account at a new bank where they don’t owe any money, before filing a consumer proposal or bankruptcy, to ensure that their money is not “accidentally” seized by a creditor.  It’s wise to have a bank account at a bank where you don’t owe money even if you aren’t in financial trouble, for exactly that reason.  But which bank should you pick?  Are they all the same?  On today’s podcast credit counsellor Diane Cunha walks you through how to pick a bank and save money on bank fees.

Ted Michalos often says “no good deed goes unpunished”.  What does he mean by that?  Does he have a negative view of humanity?  On today’s show he gives examples to illustrate his point, and we give practical advice on how to make sure that if you are helping friends of family with money problems, you don’t put yourself in financial jeopardy.