After roughly 12 years of being a home owner, we made our last mortgage payment ever which means that we are now debt free! I don’t think our lives will change all that much as we still have some savings goals to deal with – RRSP, TFSA etc which should suck up some cash.
Regardless, it’s a great feeling.
On with the links
If you are interested in business and entrepreneurship – I wrote a review of the book “Built to Sell” by John Warrillow. It covers how to make your business less reliant on you and easier to sell. A similar topic to E-Myth Revisited, which I also reviewed.
I was interviewed by BrighterLife about RESPs. Surprised? You can read all about it at: What happens if your child doesn’t go to university?
Canadian Couch Potato in partnership with PWL Capital is giving away some free financial advice. You have to make a charitable donation, but it is for a great cause.
Jennifer Stewart is trying to cut down on excessive kid toys and is asking for RESP gifts at Xmas for her child. I think this is a great idea, since most kids end up with way too many toys.
Facebook has admitted it made a mistake by not allowing residents of Effin, Ireland to put their hometown on their profiles. Check out the video on the article – funny song.
The Oblivious Investor came up with a good point about investment planning in Asset allocation is not a goal.
Rob Carrick has some good advice – Get your debt to zero in 2012. Sorry Rob – already done. 😉
I’m heading to Asia in the new year and while I’m not a fan of flying – as long as I don’t have to sit near any RIM employees, I should be ok. Bizarre story!
A lot of entrepreneurs have grand delusions dreams about owning their own business. One man decided that working for “the man” isn’t so bad after all.
Canadian Capitalist says an easy solution to high mutual fund MERs is to invest in lower cost products.
Blunt Bean Counter had a good article about individual pension plans.
My Own Advisor figured out the top Canadian REITs.
Michael James came up with a better standard for explaining investment costs.
Million Dollar Journey talks about tax considerations for the self-employed.
Boomer & Echo explains ADRs (American Depository Receipts).
18 replies on “LinkStuff – I Am Debt Free Edition”
Congrats on closing off the mortgage! …I am on track to finish mine off in 2015..fingers crossed.
WOW – great stuff Mike! What an amazing feeling that must be.
We’re 12 years behind you! Kidding aside, the new house definitely set up back a bit, but we love it here.
Thanks for the mention and enjoy your debt-free weekend!
Mark
Congratulations Mike. We should be done our mortgage by 2013 – but plan to use a HELOC for investment purposes after that. (Actually we do this already) In your mind would we be debt free at that point?
@BTI – Thanks Mich! Good luck with your mortgage.
@MOA – Thanks. Yes, I have to make sure I don’t go to any open houses. 🙂
@Ross – I guess technically you wouldn’t be debt free, but in my opinion if the value of the investment assets (ie stocks) is higher than the loan – that’s pretty much the same thing as being debt free.
Hi Mike,
Congrats! It’s a nice feeling to be free and clear! Enjoy.
R
Congrats! Now go borrow again to get a bigger house, or to put titanium floors in. It’s the HGTV thing to do you know… 😛
Congratulations on paying off your mortgage! I remember that feeling quite vividly. As Preet suggests I then went out and bought a bigger house, but I paid that mortgage off after a few years. It’s a great feeling to be debt-free.
Mike, congratulations on being debt-free.
Any plans on upgrading now or renting out the house to upgrade?
@Rachelle – Thanks.
@Preet – Maybe I’ll start shopping for a bigger house with titanium floors!
@MJ – We’re happy with our house. Moving is a huge hassle and realistically, we’d have to probably borrow $300k to $400k to make the upgrade worthwhile. Not going to happen!
@Steve – Thanks. No plans at all.
Congrats!
Congrats, Mike. I think it would be wise to take that monthly payment you;re saving and use it to pay off my mortgage. The paperwork is in the mail.
P.S. Thanks for the mention. 😉
Congrats on being debt free. Wondering about your thoughts on leveraging your mortgage on investments (assuming mortgage rates are better than HELOC). This would make interest portion of mortgage payments tax deductible.
Also, re: sitting beside RIM employees – it is likely unfair to brand all RIM employees because of the actions of a couple of morons. They got into trouble because they were drunken morons not because the work for RIM. I’m sure most RIM employees would be great company on a flight.
@Mr. Cheap – Thanks!
@CCP – Haha – how about if I just buy you a beer next time we get together instead?
@Gary – I’m also sure most RIM employees would be good company – it was just a joke.
I won’t be borrowing to buy investments again. You can read about my first experiment with that here: https://moneysmartsblog.com/smith-maneuver/
I am working on a new business idea however and if that works out – I will definitely use the HELOC to help finance growth.
Congratulations on paying off your mortgage, Mike. I’m with Preet, it’s time for reno’s! Maybe start with that deck you’ve been repairing one board at a time 😉
@Echo – haha. Good idea.
The problem is that we need to waterproof the basement, so it makes sense to wait until that happens before doing the deck.
The joys of a nowhere-new construction.
Amazing! Congrats on paying it so fast.
It must be a great feeling to be done. When you were getting really close (i.e. within a year) did you work on accelerating even more since it was within reach?
@PIE – No, I didn’t. It’s easy to try to put more money to pay it off faster, but you will probably end up just taking money from other areas. Robbing Peter to pay Paul…
You’re amazing, Mike! Congrats, that’s such a huge accomplishment. 🙂