When faced with bankruptcy, a family in Ontario wanted to know their options. Here are the 6 steps we recommended, reducing their debt from $57K down to $15K.  The bankruptcy situation The financial hardship began when Sara (name changed for privacy) became sick and took a leave of absence from her work. She was away from work for 6...Continue reading

One of the biggest obstacles for people to overcome in dealing with their debt is the fear that others may find out you have experienced a financial crisis. As in the article “I am embarrassed by my debt “ by Trevor Glasser overwhelming debt can be not only embarrassing but debilitating and destructive to your...Continue reading

What is a Pay Day Loan? Pay day loans are short term unsecured loans for unexpected cash needs. Usually the loans are intended to be paid back within 2 weeks or by the next pay date. They should be used to cover very occasional emergencies and not for making up the shortfall in monthly budgets....Continue reading

Purchasing a “big ticket item”should be viewed as a long-term goal because it will usually take a few years to save up. BusinessDictionary.com defines a big ticket item as: Items that are of high value such as houses or cars, as well as other expensive products like furniture and appliances. There is no actual dollar...Continue reading

Debt is a major contributor to stress.  There is a direct correlation between the epic rise in anti-depressant prescriptions and the percentage of Canadians who find themselves overwhelmed with debt. How Bad is it? This percentage has grown at an alarming rate over the past three decades. It is now estimated that an astounding thirty-five...Continue reading

Banks, credit bureau agencies, hiring agencies, and even peers have done a great job in attempting to tie our self-worth or societal standing to our credit rating. I hear people say to me every day “I want to solve my debt but I don’t want to damage my credit rating”. I fully understand what people...Continue reading

This is a common theme for people in debt.  Unfortunately society seems to make an association between a person’s character and their net worth.  Sadly, this is not a fair measure at all as other people don’t know how you got into the situation you are in.  Having debt issues does not necessarily reflect on...Continue reading

Small business financial assessment Several months ago through my referral network, I was asked to contact a small business client in financial trouble who did not want to go bankrupt.  After an initial phone call to assess their financial difficulties, they decided to come into my office and meet me for their free consultation. Upon...Continue reading

 How does Canadian Insolvency Work The Bankruptcy Insolvency Act (BIA) provides two remedies to settling debt through either bankruptcy or consumer proposal and each has pros and cons. Regardless of which one a consumer (or business chooses) the unsecured debts are dealt with and within 24 hours there is a stay of proceedings where creditors...Continue reading

It might sound crazy but dealing with insolvency can create a wealth opportunity. To understand what I am talking about let’s first consider what the different aspects of this concept are including the insolvency itself and wealth creation. What is insolvency? The basic definition of insolvency is when an individual can no longer meet the...Continue reading