Who does higher interest rates hurt the most? The obvious answer is people who have variable rate mortgages. But there’s a group of people that are even more at risk, and are hurting more from the impact of higher interest rates. They are renters. Why renters? Because as the cost to borrow becomes more expensive, would-be buyers who… Read More »
How negative real rates distort everything Normally a mortgage is a liability. And bonds are a low risk, low return asset. However when real interest rates are negative you can throw these conventional concepts out the window. The graph below shows the difference between a government bond yield and inflation (CPI.) The economy experiences negative real rates when… Read More »
Let others make your mortgage payments for you If you’re tired of paying your mortgage on your own then this post is for you. The MIC manoeuvre is a legal tax strategy that allows you to effectively get other people to service your mortgage, so you don’t have to. How does it work? You simply borrow money to… Read More »
Why inflation matters U.S. government bonds in 1990 were paying investors 8% a year. That sounds amazing! Especially for a low risk investment. 🙂 But not everyone was buying them. Why? Because investment returns don’t tell the whole story. The inflation rate that year was 5.4%. That means the real rate of return on those bonds was only… Read More »
One advantage of owning real estate is being able to access the value of the underlying asset for financial gains. The more properties we own, the more equity we can use to buy additional properties. This is why it’s often easier for homeowners to grow their net worths, but harder for renters. One of the best reasons to… Read More »
Five years ago I acquired a variable rate mortgage from CIBC. It was the cheapest rate I could find at the time. I was quite pleased with the rate but that mortgage term expired a couple of months ago. So I shopped around to see if I can find another good deal. I expected my mortgage to become… Read More »