Canadian Personal Finance Blog

June has started folks, that means you are already 1/2 way through the year, and now is the time to revise, revisit and see how well you are doing on your financial plan for the year. Are you succeeding so far? If not, why not? Don’t give up, maybe you have set too lofty goals, and you need to reset them to more attainable goals? Don’t wait until the end of the year to adjust, good teams adjust as needed, don’t worry about the calendar.

There is talk of interest rates going up, due to the pressure of the exploding Canadian Economy (where exploding is a good thing in this context). If you check the Bank of Canada’s Rates and Statistics page you will see that Core inflation is slowly increasing which is always a concern, and this alone might be enough to see interest rates going up to help “cool down” things a little.

What does this mean for we the lowly consumer? Higher interest rates could send the Canadian dollar higher, if our American brothers do not follow suit. We could even see a Canadian Dollar at parity to the American dollar by years end, which is a bad thing for companies that export. Higher interest rates are even more directly felt by the consumer who carries debt with a floating interest rate too.

If interest rates go up, what can you do?

• Lower your debt level now, or as soon as possible (easier said than done, but the obvious must still be stated).
• If you are investing on a regular basis, does it make more sense now to invest in your own debt? If your investments pay 4% and you are paying 7% on your mortgage, aren’t you getting more money back by lowering your debt load?
• Lock in your mortgage or debt now, while rates are lower.