Hi Riley, you have a great plan in place, and it sounds like you have several great backup plans in place as well! You can definitely do this! In the 2020-2021 school year, I completed my master’s degree and internship while teaching full time, while also parenting a 1 year old and navigating a high-risk pregnancy with my second baby, who was born less than a month after the school year finished. It was challenging, but having that goal of finishing the program before my second baby was born was really motivating, and it worked out! Having that “WHY” in mind, as well as the “HOW” is key–and you definitely have both of those in place. Good luck to you, in all of your endeavors!

Hi Carla, Several of my friends have started using the Almond Cow milk maker to make plant-based milks at home. They have all raved about the quality, as well as the cost savings. Something to consider!

You don’t have to invest money within a TFSA in stocks, funds, etc. Money within your TFSA can be in a simple TFSA savings account or invested in guaranteed investments like GICs. I have some emergency funds in a TFSA savings account with EQ bank (the interest rate is currently 3.00%, which is a little bit better than their regular savings account rate) and I’ve also previously bought GICs within my TFSA at EQ.

If the funds in a TFSA are liquid (like in a TFSA savings account) you can just withdraw them from the account (and your TFSA) at any time (and if they’re in a GIC, you can choose to withdraw from the TFSA once the GIC matures). However, you should bear in mind the effect of a withdrawal from your TFSA on your TFSA contribution room and make sure you don’t then subsequently over-contribute when putting the money “back” into the TFSA, as over-contributions are penalized. Definitely do your own research on this, but my understanding is that any withdrawals from your TFSA will free up contribution room but only in the FOLLOWING calendar year. (So, for example, if you’ve maxed out your lifetime TFSA contribution, and then you take out $1000 from your TFSA in 2023, you’re still maxed out for contributions for the remainder of 2023, but will get an additional $1000 of contribution room in 2024: see “How to know your TFSA contribution room”, and the explanations on how to figure out your contribution room, on the government of Canada page about TFSAs, here: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/publications/rc4466/tax-free-savings-account-tfsa-guide-individuals.html).

A related thing to keep in mind is that if you want to move money that’s in your TFSA between different financial institutions while keeping it under the TFSA umbrella (e.g., if you want to move money between TFSA savings accounts at different institutions or take money that’s been sitting in a TFSA savings account and move it to a TFSA investment account at a different institution) you can’t just withdraw the money from one account and deposit it in your account at the other institution without it affecting your contribution room. (For example, if you’ve maxed out your TFSA contribution room, if you withdraw $1000 from one of your TFSA accounts, you’ll be over-contributing if you try to deposit it in another TFSA account at a different institution that same calendar year.) I’ve been able to move money between TFSA accounts at different institutions without effecting a withdrawal by making a request to the institution and having them do the transfer (which took them some time).

All that being said, if you’re investing in higher yield/higher risk investments (outside your RRSP) it makes more sense to use your TFSA contribution room for that rather than a savings account. (Someone else mentioned Modern FImily, and they talk about this here: https://modernfimily.com/investing-101-part-4-accounts-you-can-invest-in-canada-edition/.) But if not, nothing wrong with having your emergency fund in a TFSA savings account.

Good luck with everything!

I spend my PC points as I earn them because a few years ago people were having them stolen all the time. I can’t remember what the issue was, or if it was fixed, but it left me with the feeling that it wasn’t a terribly secure system.

Maybe their offerings are/were different in your region; unfortunately the cheapest one I see now is $39/month which is pretty close to what I’m paying now, though it does have more data than my current plan.

Laura, we are in Ontario, 2 adults, 2 kids and spend too much on food. Do you have any info you can share on how you save on costs, what you eat for meals etc? One of the things that complicates ours is that I am celiac and all 4 of us are dairy intolerant – oat milk and almond milk are so much more expensive than regular milk. I know there is calcium in other foods but not enough for them to get what they need without having some of the milk substitutes. Would love ideas for savings in other areas though.

Canadian here (BC). I use public mobile and pay $12/month. Low data, but I WFH so works great for me!

Good luck with all these exciting life changes!