Recession is a word that, for reasons many can’t explain, strikes fear into their hearts. The word conjures up images of mass layoffs, tanking investments, and so on. But what even is a recession, and what causes them? Here are five factors that can contribute to one.

Renovating your home can be both super-exciting and super-stressful. The saying “the couple that renovates together stays together” exists for a reason! But beyond enhancing your enjoyment of the home you live in, renovating can also add value to its sale price, when it comes time to move. Not all renovations are created equally when it comes to the ROI, however. Here are five of the ones that give you the biggest bang for your buck.

So you just got your tax refund from the government. Awesome! Now what? While many people take this and immediately blow it on something they’ll later regret (how many stories have we heard about Peloton bikes collecting dust in the basement?), you’re looking for something better to use it for. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here reading this, would you? Here are four better things you can do with your tax refund.

Market downturns can be scary when you’re invested in the stock market. Watching your hard-earned nest egg drop in value by a double-digit percent makes many investors’ stomachs drop like they’re headed down the steepest drop on a roller-coaster ride. That feeling can lead to some major money mistakes if you let your emotions rule your money choices, though. Here are four mistakes many investors make when thinking with their hearts, and not their heads, during market downturns.

Brainstorming can be tough, especially for those of us that need to mull things over a bit before putting anything down on paper. There are ways to short-circuit our usual ways of thinking though, techniques that help us get out of our own way and really unleash the creativity within us. Today we’ll be talking through one call 100mph Thinking.

The Canada Pension Plan is a powerful benefits that Canadians get to take advantage of in retirement. As you probably know, you can start receiving CPP payments as early as age 60, or wait until as late as age 70, with 65 being the “normal,” expected age. So when is the best time to start taking CPP? The answer depends on your personal situation, but if any of the following scenarios describes you, the answer might be age 60.

Up until recently, I was that guy who joked around that I got my daily water intake through a combination of coffee and/or beer, depending on the day. I’d always been really, really bad at drinking enough water… that is, until one of my family members started talking about the immediate benefits they saw from drinking 8 cups a day. On his – and my wife’s – insistence, I started doing the same. Here are some of the things I experienced.

If you’re an introvert like me, coffee chats with colleagues you don’t know well (or at all) can be a little stressful. You don’t want to ask canned, generic questions, but at the same time you don’t want to seem like a creeper when you ask about a childhood vacation they took because you saw it on Facebook or whatever. Luckily, there’s a happy medium: generic questions that reveal things about the person. Here are a few great examples.