Tag: Cherry Chan

When I read a budget, my first question is simple: what does this mean for your money? If you own a business or invest in real estate, you probably want to know the same thing.  The government wants Canada to...

I sat down with Dr. Stephanie Zhou, an addiction-medicine physician, financial-literacy educator, and founder of the Canadian Physicians Financial Wellness Conference. Her story and advice are worth hearing well beyond the medical profession.  When we think about physicians, we tend...

When you hear the word franchise, what do you think of?  McDonald’s.  Tim Hortons.  Subway.  And probably someone working incredibly hard while the franchisor takes a cut of the revenue.  I get it.  I have friends who have gone through...

What would you do if you closed on a 17-cottage resort in the middle of a snowstorm, during COVID, with guests already checked in?  That’s exactly how Ed and Christine’s ownership of Springwood Cottage Resort in Arden, Ontario began. I...

Three years ago, I bought a business.  Since then, the equity I have built is equal to about 98.6% of the original purchase price. And I bought it with zero dollars of my own money down.  That sounds like one...

Every time the market shifts, the headlines get simpler, and the reality gets more complicated.  So instead of guessing, I sat down with Nick Karadza of Rock Star Real Estate, someone who’s been in the mom-and-pop investing world for well over 20 years, to get...

You can read all the theory you want about missing middle housing — zoning changes, GST rebates, CMHC financing. But at some point, you want to know: what does it actually cost, and what does it actually take, to get one of these built?  So this...

A young couple sat in my office a few months ago. Both work full time. Both make decent money. They had saved $28,000, and they were embarrassed about it.  “Cherry, we’ve been saving for four years,” she told me. “We’re not...

Let me ask you something. When you think about your mortgage, what do you feel? For most people, it’s a mix of dread and just… acceptance. It’s the biggest debt of your life, and you figure you’ll be paying it off basically forever.  But what if I...

If you have spent years paying off your home, you have probably wondered how much of it your kids will actually keep when you are gone.  Here is what most people do not realize. Before your kids can inherit your home, your estate may...