# Married Couple seeking financial advice and opinions



## lizzie (Jul 10, 2013)

Hi everyone.

I see that a lot of people post up their financial situations to get a critique on how they are doing and where they can make some improvements and we'd like to do the same. Thanks in advance for any and all replies.

Some information about us, we are a married couple aged 30 and 28. Both are university graduates and have been working full time for the past 6ish years. We live in Alberta and have only begun to invest in RRSPs in the last couple of years. We feel that our income is good now and that we are saving a decent amount, but also have some large mortgages and would like to hear any thoughts or suggestions on how to improve and expand on our goal for financial success.

Our main goal is to try and pay down the mortgage on our primary residence as quickly as we can. But also, would like to figure out how much of a emergency fund we should keep in our savings account. Should we continue to pay our primary mortgage down the way that we have been? Or invest more instead? My husband recently started a new job that gives him a DB pension plan with a guaranteed payout at retirement, he does not have to contribute to this pension. It is 100% employer funded. He is also contributing 5% of his income into the employee share purchase program because the employer matches 25% of it. This share purchase plan is bought under a RRSP account. Before that he was contributing $600 per month into RRSP's but now we are thinking of diverting his $600 monthly RRSP contribution into a TFSA instead. If this isn't a good option, then what else should we consider?

We will also likely be having children in the next year or so, so keep in mind that my income will likely drop for at least the year of maternity leave. We figure if needed, we could always reduce on the monthly contributions to our RRSPs/TFSAs and reduce the extra amounts we are paying into mortgage payments as we are currently paying more than the minimum monthly amount.

Sometimes we get caught up in the idea of upgrading and buying a bigger house, but struggle because if we stay in our current house we can likely be mortgage free faster. Are we on track for the age group that we are in? What should we be doing differently? Buy more RRSPs? TSFAs? Buy more Real Estate? Sell our rental property? Please help us to determine what path we should stay on.


*Some background info:*
A big financial problem that we have been dealing with was the purchase of a condo in 2007. This was during the height of the real estate boom in 2007 and we made the mistake of buying a condo for $250,000. Fast forward to today and its worth probably about $170,000 if we decide to sell it now. So right off the bat we are in the hole. I know this hurts our overall financial health. Our mortgage owing on the condo is currently $200,000. We decided to rent out the condo as the market is quite strong, rather than selling it and taking the hit right away. Right now we are taking a net loss of about $350.00 per month after we collect the rent.


*Condo*
We lived in the condo for 2 years then decided to buy a house. We are renting out the condo at an overall loss of about $350 per month. This is due to condo fees, insurance…etc. Our condo mortgage has a monthly payment of $1100.00 and mortgage rate is fixed for 3 years at 2.79%


*House*
Our house was purchased for about $360,000 and I am guessing that we could likely sell for about $400,000 today. Our mortgage owing on the house is $288,000. We have decided to pay above the minimum payments hoping to pay it down sooner, so am paying a total of $2,000 per month. (Minimum payment is prob closer to $1200) The current mortgage rate has a variable rate of 2.2%. With our current progress, we will have the balance paid off in about 14 years. In the last 2 years we have made a $30,000 lump payment onto this mortgage, and are trying to pay $20,000 lump sum for each year going forward. If we somehow manage to keep this up, we can be mortgage free on this house in about 7-8 years. How realistic\smart is this? I currently am planning to use 10k from my current 22k in savings to make another lump sum on Aug 1. Should I still be doing this or build up a emergency fund instead?


*Income

Him: *
Salary: $90,000 per year 
Annual Bonus: $10,000 per year
Long term bonus: $8,000 per year (will start receiving this annually starting in 2 years)
Pension: Defined Benefit Pension. Expected annual payout of $50-75k annually at age 55 depending on 5 highest years of income.
Expected increase: approx 5 to 8% increase per year

*Her:*
Salary: $60,000 per year, 
Expected increase: 0% - I haven’t gotten a raise in the last 3 years, and any raise received will likely be minimal.
No bonuses/pensions.


*Total Annual Income currently: (Salary+Annual Bonus) = $160,000*

*Assets*
Checking Account: $200
Savings Account: $22,000
RRSP Him: $54,000 (Monthly contribution of $600) 
RRSP Her: $25,000 (Monthly contribution of $500)
House: $400,000 (Monthly payment $2000, min payment ~1200)
Condo: $170,000 (Monthly payment $1100, min payment is ~1000)
Car: $30,000 (No monthly payments, own the car 100%)

*Total Assets: $701,200*

*Liabilities*
Condo Mortgage Owing: $200,000
House Mortgage Owing: $288,000
No other liabilities

*Total Liabilities: $488,000
*

*Net Worth: $213,200*


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

I think you're doing pretty well, overall. Here are a few thoughts. 

1. Instead of paying extra on your house mortgage, do the condo mortgage instead. Its rate is higher, so it's costing you more money every month. It's all debt - it doesn't matter in the long run whether you owe the money on your principle residence or on the condo. 
2. Regarding your husband's RRSP, I'm in the same position as he is (100% employer funded DB), and what I've been doing is contributing to my husband's RRSP instead of my own. The reason is, you can only split pension/RRSP income after age 65 (I believe) and I am hoping to retire early. So by equalizing the two RRSPs, we'll be able to each draw down our own RRSPs and end up paying less tax. 
3. For an emergency fund, I personally aim for 3 months of expenses. But everyone's comfort level is different. 
4. I note your $22k is sitting in a savings account. I would put that into a TFSA immediately. You can still have it just in a regular savings account inside the TFSA, if that's your emergency fund. But then the interest won't be taxed. Also, there are higher interest rates available within TFSA's for some reason. For example, People's Trust offers a 3% TFSA savings account.


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## KrissyFair (Jul 8, 2013)

You're definitely moving in the right direction. But here are a couple of thoughts:

1. How soon can your husband sell the company shares after he makes the contribution? It's great that you're taking advantage of their match but my only thought is: salary, pension and investments all tied up in one employer seems like a lot of 'future' eggs in one basket. And not that I generally take my financial planning advice from popular media, but have you seen "Fun with Dick and Jane"? No one wants to rob banks to pay the mortgage when their employer goes belly up 

2. For the condo/emergency fund combo I have a question. You said the term on the condo is 3 years, when is that up? What I would do is divert the mortgage payments to savings to build what will function as a bigger emergency fund. (There's no consensus on this board about those, but 2 properties and kids on the way soonish is a good reason to have a sizable e-fund.) BUT when your term is up I'd put those savings against it. You'll be without an e-fund at that point, but the decreased payments on the mortgage will mean it will cash flow for you and you can then use that to rebuild the emergency fund. So you get to keep access to the cash now, but get the prepayment advantage when the time comes.


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## lizzie (Jul 10, 2013)

Thanks for the replies so far Spudd and KrissyFair.

*Spudd:*
1. We never really thought about paying down the condo first, but it is an intriguing idea so that we can get closer to being cash flow positive each month. The only reason we haven't done this in the past was because as a rental unit, the mortgage interest is tax deductible expense. Right now we have 1.8 years left on a 3 year term. With just over 20 years remaining on the entire mortgage. Would it also be a good idea to stretch this back out to 25 years so that the monthly payments get even smaller?

2. Good tip on the RRSP sharing, we will definately look into that to see it would work for us

3. Do you count all expenses you incur to calculate your emergency fund? ie. Would you assume that BOTH of us loses our job, and that both of us do not qualify for EI, and that we also lose our tenant for rental income all at the same time? In other words, do we calculate what we need for our emergency fund based on the absolute worst case scenerios?

4. The reason why we haven't moved our 22k of savngs into a TFSA is because we didnt want to use up our contribution room if we plan on using it to buy mutual funds/investments from with in TFSA as well. Is this a valid view of it?

*KrissyFair*
1. My husbands shares become immiedately vested upon purchase. So that means he can sell it right away and pocket a profit of 25% right away. Totally aware of the issue of having all the eggs in one basket. We don intend to keep the shares in the company long term, but will transfer them out to anther RRSP vehicle periodically. This should help us to remain a bit more diversified.

2. We have 1.8 years left on a 3 year term. With about 20 years remaining overall. This is the same advice that Spudd gave above about paying down the rental property to get cash flow positive, we never considered this for some reason before, but will not carefully examine that option. Do you also think that we should stretch the mortgage back out from 20 years to 25 years to get a lower monthly payment on top of making lump sum payments toward it?

Thanks again for everyones replies, its getting us thinking for sure!


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

I realized after I posted my message, and was wandering around the neighbourhood after being kicked out of my office due to a gas leak, that the interest on the condo mortgage acts as a tax deduction. So presumably that is why you're not paying that one faster, which makes sense. As long as the tax deduction is greater than the difference in interest between the 2 mortgages, you might as well pay down the non-tax-deductible one first.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

I think you are doing very well for your age and you look to be set up for long-term success. My caution would be this: a lot can change in the next few years. You are at the beginning of what should be a long journey towards achieving your financial goals, but a few wrong turns at this early stage could throw you off your course. 

This is specifically a caution against adding more mortgage debt to your balance sheet - you are already very exposed to real estate (relative to your exposure to other sectors) and most of your wealth is illiquid (most of it is in future earnings). You've also had one bad experience in RE already, and it may well be we are at the top of another peak if you were to upgrade your housing now. 

The other question I have after reviewing your post is what role the condo plays in your long-term plans. You say the (rental) market is "strong" now, but you are running it at a loss. Do you intend to keep it as a long-term investment in RE? What would trigger a sale? I think it would be worthwhile to create some what-if scenarios so you are clear about why you are keeping it / when you would sell it. 

The point is not so much to create scenarios around RE or that investment in particular, but to develop joint decision-making skills around your finances. Given that you are keeping a money-losing property now, it seems clear that you are expecting a long-term return from this property. But what rate of return would you actually need to achieve to see a positive balance on your balance sheet? What's the likelihood you will see that rate of return (after costs and inflation, and the time value of money) and how would that compare to a return in a diversified portfolio?


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

Regarding your TFSA, if you put the cash in now, you can always transfer from the savings TFSA to a brokerage TFSA if you decide to buy investments in your TFSA in the future. I know that ING Direct's TFSA account has no fees to transfer out to another institution and it's quite painless to do that (because I did it myself a couple of years ago).


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## lizzie (Jul 10, 2013)

Thanks MoneyGal.

I know that things can change quickly, and as life happens, we could be facing more obstacles. This is a big part why we are posting up our situation and gathering opinons. We dont normally share this information with people, but am now taking advantage of the relative anonymity of this forum to do so.

As for what our long term goals are for the condo - honestly we have no idea. All we knew was that we didnt want to sell right away otherwise we would be out of pocket a huge chunk of money to cover the difference between what we paid and its market value. We figured that we would rent it out for the time being and taking a smaller monthly loss vs a huge one time loss. The first trigger point that we would have to wait for us to at the very least break even and walk away without further losses. ie. We owe 200k on the condo and can sell it for 200k. At this point, I dont think we would mind walking away from the mortgage payments that we have already contributed to it, especially since the majority of it has been paid for by our renters. I am not expecting a profit at this point, but the thought of keeping it for 20 more years and havig a paid off property sounds like a positve step for our retirement portfolio. But this could pose alot of risk too, if rental market tanks and we cant find a suitable tenant. Rent it or sell it...big question and I dont think we have figured it out yet. Any suggestions would be welcomed.

Thats a good point you bring up for the rate of return vs a diversified portfolio, and at the current housing market, it would appear that a diversified portfolio would be more stable and would return a greater yield. Believe it or not, our mutual fund RRSPS have returned in the low 20% for the last year, thats a much better investment than our losing RE investment currently.

I would seriously consider selling the condo, but just not sure if its worth it right now due to the upside down mortgage.


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## ehrof (May 2, 2011)

It seems that your marginal tax rate in Alberta would be around 36%, therefore your effective condo tax rate is less than 1.80% (calculated as 2.76% x [1 - 36%]). You should make the minimum mortgage payments on the condo and put the additional cash payments towards you house mortgage which isn't tax deductible.

I would also suggest doing a rent vs. sell analysis on the condo. It might make more sense to take your lumps now by selling rather than lose $350/month (less whatever is principal payments on the mortgage). Also selling it gets rid of some risk (needing to keep it rented, further deflation of the real estate market where you already have a significant mount of your net worth invested). After you do the analysis, you might decide you want to keep it but you will have a better idea on what the opportunity cost is.


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## lizzie (Jul 10, 2013)

Sorry if my messages appear delayed or out of order. looks like my messages have to be approved by a moderator before it gets posted. That is one take away that I'll have to do, is the rent vs sell scenario and see what looks better.


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## YYC (Nov 12, 2012)

I would be concerned about being in a negative equity position on the rental unit when renewal comes and for that reason I would likely focus on paying it down as aggressively as possible. It would certainly suck if you get through the next 1.8 years and the bank decides they need a re-appraisal before renewing (Scotiabank is aggressively pursuing this these days, per Garth Turner). Let's say property values stay stable for the next 2 years (unlikely, in my opinion, it's more likely that they would decline), and you pay down another $10k (this is a total guess) on the rental. You still owe $190,000 on a property worth $170,000 and the bank will only give you a mortgage for 80% of that, so you could end up owing $54,000 in that case just to renew the mortgage. No guarantees it would come to that, but in my opinion it's the biggest scariest risk you have in your current situation.


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## tiffbou2 (Jul 4, 2013)

Well, I think with your assets and particularly with your current and future salaries, you are doing a lot better than any 28 and 30 year olds I know!
One little piece of advice that is more personal than financial: When my husband and I were 28 we were in fairly good financial shape - not nearly as well-off asset wise as you are, but we had been both working in well-paying jobs for 3 years, home owners for two years, and had a decent amount of equity in our home and RRSPs. We had no debt. Then came babies. For us, they wreaked havoc on our financial life, mostly because our salaries were the reverse of yours (I was the higher wage earner by about $40K) so when I took mat leave, it was hard. Then we got unexpectedly pregnant again right after #1, which meant another mat leave, then I made an emotional decision to take an additional year off (no pay, not even EI) until my daughter was old enough to go to a licensed daycare facility (they had to be 18-months. I previously had a terrible experience with a home based daycare. By the way, full time daycare alone can cost $1K/month!). You may think the future is mapped out, but until that little person comes and changes your lives, you have no idea how your decisions are going to be influenced. WORTH IT, of course. And while again, I think you are in phenomenal shape for your ages, I would sock more into emergency funds if you plan to have kids. Not to mention, so many unanticipated costs associated with children.

On that note, I would advise you to not upgrade your home until you have children and they are at least walking. We bought our starter home at 26, knowing we would be having kids soon. We thought we did well in preparing - bought a 3-bedroom in a nice neighbourhood, close to schools. It wasn't until our kids were mobile that we realized how unsuitable our house was to our new family lifestyle. Things you wouldn't think of until you were in the situation, like no sightlines from the kitchen to family room, no direct access to backyard, etc, etc. A baby doesn't need much space or consideration of layout at all but once they're walking, it will soon become apparent what features in a home you will need and want for your family. We made a wishlist when we moved based on what we knew didn't work for us in our former home and our house now is much more suitable.


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## lizzie (Jul 10, 2013)

So it’s been over 3 years since I first made this post, and so much has happened during that time that I thought I would come back and give an update and to just document for myself where we are at now.

We still own the condo that is worth less than the mortgage we owe. The darn economy is still kicking out butts over our decision to buy it. We currently still owe $184,000 on it and I suspect we would get $175,000 if we sold it today. (Original purchase price was $250,000!) Luckily we have been able to rent this out ever since with no gaps in tenants. 

In our principle residence, we currently owe $233,000 on an original mortgage of $355,000. I think if we sold our house today we could get at least $450,000 for it. So that’s a good upside for us. We tinkered with the idea of moving to a larger house but really unsure if we want to take on a larger mortgage. But it’s still on the back of our minds. Some of you had advised us not to buy a new house until we started to have kids, and about a year ago we welcomed a beautiful baby girl into our family! Having a baby definitely makes you see short comings of what we need in a house….did I mention we also dropped about $35,000 in renovations to upgrade our kitchen and tear down some walls. So I think this house could keep us happy for another 5 years before we have to really make a decision on to whether or not to move.

The big factors here, are what schools are available for our kids and whether or not there are enough amenities in the community or if it’s the right community to raise a child. So we gave ourselves a deadline of 5 years or so to make a final call. (Before they start school)

Anyways, it’s a bit of a long post, so onto the details….


Updated Aug 19, 2016: I added current figures and left the figures I had 3 years ago in brackets.

*Income*

*Him: *
Salary: $110,000 (2013: $90,000)
Annual Bonus: approx $20,000 (2013: $10,000)
Long term bonus: approx $10,000 (2013: $8,000)
Pension: Defined Benefit Pension. Expected annual payout of $50-75k annually at age 55 depending on 5 highest years of income.

Her:
Salary: $60,000 (2013: $60,000 per year) But currently on mat leave.
Pension: Defined Contribution, about 6% of Salary Per Year (Just started contributing this year)
Total Annual Income currently: (Salary+Annual Bonus) = $200,000 (2013: $160,000)


*Assets*
Checking Account: $200 (2013: $200)
Savings Account: $15,000 (2013: $22,000)

RRSP Him: $92,600 (2013: $54,000)
TFSA Him: $48,000 (2013: $0) 

RRSP Her: $48,000 (2013: $25,000)
TFSA Her: $25,000 (2013: $0)

RESP Baby: $6,500

House: $450,000 (2013: $400,000)
Condo: $175,000 (2013: $170,000)

Cars: $25,000 (2013: $30,000)

Total Assets: $885,300 (2013: $701,200)

*Liabilities*
Condo Mortgage Owing: $184,000 (2013: $200,000)
House Mortgage Owing: $233,000 (2013: $288,000)
No other liabilities

Total Liabilities: $417,000 (2013: $488,000)

*Net Worth: $468,300 (2013: $213,200)*

I think we have made some good gains, we were making a lot of lump sum mortgage payments, but decided to take a break from that to work on topping up our TFSA accounts. Once these are maxed out, we will likely return to paying down the mortgage with accelerated lump sum payments. 

The new house bug is still in our ear though….should we or shouldn’t we??? The next house we want is likely in the $700,000 range in a better neighborhood, but that amount just seems crazy to me. Should we stick it out in our current home and pay off our mortgage early, or start all over again with a high mortgage?


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

I think you are doing very well over the past 3 years. The AB economy is the one black cloud over everything so capital appreciation on RE is likely on hold (or a bit of a downer) for awhile.

1. I agree with topping up your TFSAs if you can vis-a-vis paying down your house mortgage but that depends on your interest rate on the mortgage and what you can get for your money in the TFSA.

2. I would dump the condo when you can come out of it relatively free and clear, i.e. net proceeds from sales price equal to or greater than mortgage remaining Being a landlord is a headache for most people and especially those with busy careers and raising a family. That will be a monkey off your back (note you might have a capital loss to recover too.... from the day you moved from the condo to the house....and assuming you got an appraisal done at the time). Do you know what the condo was worth when you converted from a principal residence? Helps to know if you would be in a cap gain or cap loss position at this point in time.

3. I would not get itchy feet on a new house in a better neighbourhood yet. You are giving it 5 more years and by then the condo should potentially be gone. Your kid(s) will get social connections through pre-school and kindergarten. Less important in the early years will be their need to socialize in the neighbourhood. Taking on a high mortgage again is a real boat anchor without a very sizeable down payment (from your existing house equity).


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## lizzie (Jul 10, 2013)

AltaRed said:


> I think you are doing very well over the past 3 years. The AB economy is the one black cloud over everything so capital appreciation on RE is likely on hold (or a bit of a downer) for awhile.
> 
> 1. I agree with topping up your TFSAs if you can vis-a-vis paying down your house mortgage but that depends on your interest rate on the mortgage and what you can get for your money in the TFSA.
> 
> ...


Thanks for your reply. 

I think a lot of what you wrote already echos our own thoughts, but it's good to hear it from others to reinforce the best course of action. 

The mortgage on the condo is relatively low. I have 2yrs left at 2.05 percent. And yes, as soon as I'm able to "break even" on this I will definitely consider selling. I just want to be able to walk away without having to sink any more money into this pit. 

Your suggestion on holding out on the house....is probably the best idea...we are likely to stick to our strategy of topping up tfsa and then pay down mortgage for a few more years. 

It's hard when you see your friends move into big shiny new homes but we've never been the flashy type anyhow so just gotta keep doing what we've been doing. 

Thanks again for you're input


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## OurBigFatWallet (Jan 20, 2014)

Overall I'd say you're in a good position. I would be curious to know the value of the condo prior to renting it out vs the value when you sell in a couple years (assuming you sell). When it was converted from a principal residence to a rental there was a "change in use" which means the gain in value after that point becomes taxable.

On the new house, I would definitely wait until you're off mat leave at least. $700k seems pretty common these days in Calgary depending on the area but I'd still hold off. And I wouldnt worry about what everyone else is buying as far as houses since everyone has a different set of circumstances. 

On the topic of schools, I would be careful moving to a different area solely for schools. I've heard stories of families who bought homes across the street from schools only to be placed on a wait list.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

lizzie said:


> It's hard when you see your friends move into big shiny new homes but we've never been the flashy type anyhow so just gotta keep doing what we've been doing.


It is hard until you step back and recognize those friends are likely having some stress and/or sleepless nights making ends meet. We never were inclined to pay attention, nor be influenced by, the material things of others. We stayed comfortable in our own skins, having spare cash for vacations and outings, buying quality things when we really wanted them, and having a considerably larger retirement portfolio than almost all of our friends and relatives. I've seen countless similar examples in my 67 years on this planet.


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## lizzie (Jul 10, 2013)

We only lived in the condo for about 1.5 years maybe less. We original purchased it for $250,000 and before we even moved in it had dropped to the $210k range (based on similar units for sale) 

We never did an appraisal when we converted it to a rental, the thought hadn't even crossed our mind. I always assumed at that time it would be based on our purchase price. 

If I had to take a guess based on memory of what other units were being listed for, I would say it was worth about $200k when it became a rental. 

How would I find out for sure? When I do go to sell this what steps should I take to ensure we max out any legal benefits available to us?

If I sold it for 180k and assuming my 200k price was accurate, would that mean I have a $20k capital loss? I don't have any non registered investments right now, so what good will a capital loss do for me?


With regards to 'not keeping up with the Jone's it's kinda funny...because I know most of my friends who are buying the bigger houses are struggling more financially and have less savings and retirement funds...but I think most other ppl view them as "richer and more successful" vs when they take a look at us with our smaller houses, older cars and more frugal life style and probably think we are less successful. Not that I care all too much what others think, but I supposed I would still rather someone think I was more successful than not.

Thanks also for the warning about schools and wait lists. I had heard similar stories as well, we will have to be very diligent when doing our research when the time comes


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## OurBigFatWallet (Jan 20, 2014)

Easiest way to find the value when it switched from a principal residence to a rental would be to get a realtor to do a historical search of comparable units that sold around that time frame in your building. I think they can go back up to 5 (?) years, maybe more, to look up units similar to yours that sold around that timeframe. Using that number you can then come up with a reasonable value. You'll want to document all of this as CRA may question the value when it is being sold, so you'll want to show them that you made a reasonable effort to determine the value when you moved out (even though it wasn't sold). The only downside is that if the unit dropped in value while you were still living in it, and then (in theory) in went back up after you started renting it out, the gain in value would be taxable. If you took a capital loss on the condo the nice thing is that capital losses can be carried back 3 years and carried forward indefinitely. So if you do eventually open a non registered investment account and realize some capital gains - that is where the capital loss would come in handy. Here is some more info on capital losses, hope this helps: http://www.taxtips.ca/filing/capitallosses.htm

I agree - lots of people in Calgary are still buying higher end homes, maybe some are trying to impress others.......obviously it depends on individual circumstances but not the best move in this economy IMO. From what I've seen in the past the true wealth is hidden, and is usually held by people who live way below their means (older cars, small house, etc) vs the people who try to show off their wealth with material things, flashy vehicles etc.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

I agree with OBFW that it is important to establish the value of the condo (on the date it became a rental) as best you can and to do it before a lot of data gets lost. CRA will not let you use the original $250k purchase value as your 'cost base'. A realtor friend should be able to help regarding comparables, and potentially municipal 'assessed values' for comparable units at the time might reinforce the annual trend. Municipal assessments themselves are not valid for CRA purposes but they can be used for trending. I presume you still have your own 'assessments' for all those years?

As OBFW said, capital losses can be carried forward indefinitely so that someday when you have a non-registered investment account AND are attracting potentially annual cap gains from stocks/mfs/ETFs, you can use the losses to offset those 'annual' cap gains.

Be patient and take the next 3-5 years to pay off debt and increase the value of your investement assets. Life will look a lot different for you in 5 years if you continue to 'live well within your means'. Us old farts have all went through these experiences and one of the big enemies to a plan is impatience.


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