We just received the LONG OVERDUE quote on the cost to excavate that pesky tree that has grown up through our basement and out the window of our Toronto tri-plex and I have to say that I am crapping my pants (And not in a good way Ms. Steph Davis). The quote came in at $20,000. This does not, as far as we can tell, include the cost of a new window or the other important things like a new wall and fixed flooring that would once again make that room habitable for our tenants. Yes … the words that come to mind are not for this family show.
So … let’s not dwell on that … instead let’s move on to talking about how we’ll probably pay for this mess … I’d love to tell you that we have a giant bank account full of cash that we’ll just use to cover the cost but the reality is that every time we end up with a big chunk of change we invest it in a new property. We like to send our money out into the world to make more money. It’s why all our tenants have larger TV’s than we do … but that is a topic for another day.
One of the big questions I always ask myself when considering advice I am getting is:
WHO BENEFITS FROM THIS ADVICE?
Sometimes the answer is the person giving the advice will benefit just as much as I will … and that is ok as long as I know that. I just want to understand where the advice is coming from.
In the last three months I have spent a ton of time speaking with friends, family, colleagues and current joint venture partners about their investments. In having these conversations my objective was to find people that would be interested in the opportunity to make a great return on their money investing in rent to own properties with us or that would be interested in using their RRSP’s to provide us with a mortgage on one of the investments in exchange for a secured return.
I am going to get to the point today, which is often very tough for me (according to my lovely wife and business partner, Julie!). You see, I just returned from a conference on how we can utilize the cash in our Registered Retirement Savings Plan (similar to an IRA in the USA) and become fat and rich like our Banks, and lend that cash out as mortgages. But besides learning about the process of how to do it and following all of the government rules and regulations, it was pointed out just how few Canadians actually understand what their RRSP is.
Yes … the words that come to mind are not for this family show. 
