One Smart Dollar

Most Canadian robo-advisors tend to skip high-fee mutual funds in favor of low-fee ETFs, so your fees are much lower from the start. Here’s the proof: all three of our popular robo-advisors start with a tiny base fee of 0.5% of your total investment amount. Justwealth also starts with a 0.5% fee but doesn’t lower it until your investment reach $500,000, when it moves to 0.4%. They begin with a 0.5% fee for accounts of $10,000 to $100,000, with a lower 0.4% fee for accounts of $100,000 to $500,000, and finally a super low 0.35% fee on accounts over $500,000.

That’s why there’s car insurance, health insurance, even things like phone insurance. So if you bought your kitchen appliances brand new with a manufacturer’s warranty, you can skip appliance coverage and buy coverage just for your major household systems. So even if you’re a well-established homeowner, it’s not too late to buy a home warranty plan. As we’ve seen, a home warranty provides valuable coverage for important items and systems in your home that aren’t covered through homeowner’s insurance.

If you’re brand new to using a financial management platform, Personal Capital is a great place to start. As far as personal finance tools go, Mint is free, and dare I say, easier to use than Quicken. If you want a tool that’s really simple and can give you a quick update from your smartphone, Tiller may be too robust for your needs. One of the best free features of Trim is that it automatically helps you find money-draining subscriptions you might have forgotten about, and help you cancel them to save more money!

This is the time when most people start to accrue debt – everything from credit card debt to “good debt” like student loans and mortgages. In addition to employer match dollars, most 401(k) plans offered by companies include ways to make saving simple – like an automatic deduction from your paycheck. Budgets provide insights into your spending and savings habits that allow you to make better financial decisions and avoid the financial missteps that so many people typically make in their 20s. A side gig is one of the best ways to boost your savings because extra income means more money that you can set aside or throw at your debt.