Handling Money (and Taxes) with a Side Hustle or Self-Employment

The Canadian stock market is relatively small by international standards and is dominated by a few large corporations. Indeed, the top 10 companies by market capitalization in the TSX Composite Index reads like a who’s who of corporate Canada, including four of the big five banks, Canadian National Railway, Enbridge, Suncor Energy and BCE.

I’ve spent the past few weeks looking deeper under the hood of the high-yield bond ETFs and the results might surprise you. They certainly surprised me! Let’s first define what a high-yield bond is.

Nobody loves paying taxes – in April or any other time of year. But maybe there is some good news to be had, by taking some time to correct a common misperception: Many Canadians assume their overall tax rate is worse than it actually is.

Buffett is a wealth of wisdom, knowledge, and experience. He has truly been one of the greatest investors in modern history. These are facts that cannot be disputed. However, for me, even his clearly stellar track record doesn’t justify trying to pick stocks over the long run.

On the show today we welcome Randy Cass, owner and founder of Nest Wealth, who were the first financial firm to employ the use of robo-advisors in Canada.

With the increased popularity of ETFs and index funds, traditional commission-based mutual fund advisors must be feeling the pressure. The problem for many of them is that they do not have the infrastructure to buy ETFs for their clients.

Many of you have been in the situation where you were quoted a salary or hourly rate, were excited to get your first paycheque and disappointed when you don’t receive as much as you expected. You’ll have to thank taxes, CPP contributions, EI premiums, and benefits for that. I’ll go into more detail about how each of these deductions work.

Most readers of this column will know that one of the biggest wealth destroying mistakes you can make is trying to time the ups and downs of the market.

This is Episode 40 of the Rational Reminder podcast, with Cameron Passmore and Benjamin Felix.

The Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (the RAMQ) has created a centralized directory, where you can draft just such a document, called an Advanced Medical Directive, and make it available to doctors and caregivers in our healthcare system.