Video Transcript:
00:00:00:01 – 00:00:15:09 The most important thing is getting started and with some proper guidance and good decisions, it can happen.
00:00:15:11 – 00:00:28:21 We take a look and assess your current financial situation, and target your finances to where they’re most effective. For example, you’re carrying credit card debt, any responsible financial planner will target that first.
00:00:28:23 – 00:00:37:20 We basically aggressively set up strategies get those out of the way. Those payments are going to determine how much mortgage you qualify for.
00:00:37:22 – 00:00:49:07 If your goal is to, for example, buy your first home within the next five years or ten years, what type of a property are you looking for? What price range are you looking at? And then we work backwards.
00:00:49:08 – 00:01:07:09 And we basically calculate for them how much they need to save every month to get them from A to point B. It’s the habit of starting to automatically save. If there’s a gap, basically we start off with what we can afford, and then leveraging the tools at our disposal to basically set that savings program in place.
00:01:07:11 – 00:01:19:22 What I would first do is set up your first home savings account. You can actually make contributions to that account up to $8,000 a year. Now you don’t have to contribute the full $8,000.
00:01:19:23 – 00:01:32:09 If you don’t use it all up, you can carry it forward to 2027, 2028. There’s a lifetime limit of $40,000 that you can contribute into these accounts.
00:01:32:11 – 00:01:45:05 Now there are three primary benefits. Number one is the tax deduction; you’re getting a tax break right up front, huge return. Second is any contributions within that account compound away tax free.
00:01:45:08 – 00:01:53:11 Third benefit is that you can pull that money out or withdraw that money at any time, tax free, for the purchase of your first home.
00:01:53:13 – 00:02:07:23 The second stop is your RRSP or registered retirement savings plan. The government has a program where you can access up to $60,000 of your SPP using the first-time homebuyers withdrawal plan.
00:02:08:03 – 00:02:21:19 The third stop is your tax-free savings account. Unlike the first two accounts, the contributions are not tax deductible. But again, the money compounds away tax free.
00:02:21:21 – 00:02:41:19 So some of the costs you may forget to include in purchase of your first home: legal fees, notary fees, possibly inspection fees. There may also be a property tax adjustment as well. We normally advocate that people save about 3% of the purchase price of your first home for sundry expenses.
00:02:42:00 – 00:03:06:00 And then with regular checkups, we basically maintain the discipline. And we constantly are increasing that savings program, salary increases, tax refunds, any bits and tools in our toolkit to basically bridge that gap as quickly as possible. It takes time, discipline and strategy.
00:03:06:02 – 00:03:09:09 [Crew] Motivating.
[Adam]Oh, good.
[Crew] Thank you so much.
[Adam] No worries