An increasing number of retirees are turning to companies like Uber and Airbnb to stay active. When Howard Petrook retired a couple of years ago he, like a lot of new retirees, wanted to stay busy. The lifelong entrepreneur wasn’t interested in watching TV all day or spending hours playing golf. But what would he do? After being a passenger in an Uber – the popular cab-like service where cars are hailed via a smartphone app – he found his...

Home renovation projects can be stressful, but careful planning can help ensure you get the job done right and keep surprises to a minimum. Whether you’ve heard about home renovation disasters from close friends or from TV, you know there are people out there who have lived through some trying home construction projects. The lesson learned from those stories: Before starting a project, plan ahead and do your homework. Work out as many aspects...

Understand the pros and cons of giving part of your estate to your kids sooner, rather than later. Some parents like the idea of giving a gift of money to their children during their lifetime – to allow them to have cash when they really need it, whether to pay for a wedding, fund their education, or purchase a home. If you go this route, make sure you are comfortable with the amount you are giving, and know that once you make the gift, you...

RRSP accounts are straightforward enough, but there may still be a few things about them that will surprise you. Many Canadians already know that a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) is a valuable – and versatile – retirement planning tool, but there’s more to these accounts than meets the eye. Here’s what most of us do know: RRSPs are typically used as a long-term savings vehicle. The money we put in grows tax free until we take those...

New Year’s resolutions don’t have to be long lists of things you’ll never get to. Instead, pick one cause or charity to support in 2017. Here’s how. This is the time of the year when we make resolutions – to lose weight, to be better with our money or just to be a better person. But instead of making multiple resolutions that most of us never keep, what if we just decided to do one thing in 2017 to help make our world a better place? Surely one...