Summer is almost upon us! I wanted to share with all of the readers from Ontario a little tax rebate that may help you decide how to travel this summer. The Ontario Staycation Tax Credit! This is a pretty exciting tax credit for everyone who likes to travel. Ontario residents can claim 20% off their accommodation expenses with this tax credit. For individuals, you can claim up to $1,000, which translates to a $200 rebate. For households, that limit is $2,000, meaning you could receive up to $400 next tax season!

I have probably heard more misinformation about TFSAs and RRSPs than I have heard the truth. It is not that people are trying to spread lies and lead people astray - I hope. I think it all stems from people being under-educating about registered accounts. I was once filled with misinformation myself. I only had one TFSA that was just getting the 0.5% savings account rate and wasn’t invested in index funds or GICs.

As some of you may already know, I am not much of a fan of FinTok - the financial side of TikTok. The term “invest” gets thrown around a bit willy-nilly on these FinTok videos. There is a difference between investing and speculating, and today I hope to help you decipher what a good investment is and what is just speculation.

There have been a lot of articles popping up in my newsfeeds about inflation recently. I thought what a perfect topic inflation would be for this week’s Chris’ Corner. I imagine a lot of you readers may have learned about inflation the same way I did - that is my Grandpa rambling about how cheap things used to be in the old days a la Abe Simpson. These days it is impossible to buy a bag of chips and a pop for $0.10 but we also make a lot more than $0.40 an hour.

All of you have probably heard about cryptocurrency by now, and it probably has left you with more questions than answers. If you are like me, you have probably heard someone rambling about the "blockchain" or "decentralized currency" without giving you any actual information on what it all means. These crypto experts give me the same vibe as a world leader simply saying, "It's the economy," and not going deeper than that when trying to explain some adverse event.

A lot of people when looking to take their first steps into investments are not too sure where to start. That is alright! There is no 'proper' way - or secret method that provides guaranteed success in invest your hard earned dollars. There are pros and cons of every method of investing out there.