Selling your home without a Realtor saves money, but can be a demanding task

Getting rid of clutter, fixing paint chips and making your home look straight out of a lifestyle magazine is a rite of passage for homeowners planning to sell their property. But that to-do list gets a bit longer if you're also planning to save money on commissions and sell the property without a Realtor.

Usually, a home seller pays an average of three to five per cent commission on the final price of a house. That means a million-dollar home could result in about $50,000 in fees paid to Realtors. 

When thinking of the potential cost savings, a DIY home sale may feel tempting amid rising mortgage renewal rates and falling home prices in many regions. But experts say it's important to know what it takes to go it alone in the real estate market.

"There's a ton of behind-the-scenes that takes place to prepare a home for the market," said Colin Noble, an Uxbridge, Ont.-based real estate broker and founder of Noble Real Estate.

How to invest consistently when you have an unpredictable paycheque

Investing consistently can often pave the way to wealth in the long term. But that strategy may not feel like it's achievable if you don't have a consistent income.

The problem is "not so much the investments themselves, it's the cash flow," said John Woodfield, senior wealth adviser with Raymond James Ltd.

Gig workers and freelancers often find themselves managing an unstable flow of income, where some months can be more prosperous than others. For many, that makes it more challenging to save and invest steadily for the future. Still, experts say consistency is possible with a slight shift in perspective.

Woodfield recommended starting with building a nest egg for tough times.

‘Pack your patience’: Fuel shortages keeping Canadians’ summer travel plans in flux

With airline tickets growing more expensive and customers facing the risk of cancelled flights, insurance experts are advising those with summer travel plans to stay on their toes.

Air carriers are continuing to grapple with sky-high jet fuel costs, an offshoot of Iran's ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has led to soaring oil prices globally since late February.

Like their international peers, Canadian airlines have been consolidating some flights and adding fuel surcharges, leaving customers with pricier tickets and more uncertainty over whether they'll even take off.

But that situation is now considered a "known event" by most travel insurance companies, making it harder for customers to protect themselves from financial loss — not to mention disappointment — if their plans are derailed.

Renting out your home short-term can mean extra cash, but it’s not always worth it

Some extra cash is a powerful lure for someone who needs help with their rent or mortgage, and has a spare room to offer. But an expert says prospective short-term landlords should go into the business agreement with open eyes.

REIT idea

Real estate is often on Manitobans’ minds. It’s close to home, literally.

Liquidation grocery stores are booming as appetite for food deals soars

As food price growth continues to outpace the overall inflation rate in Canada, many shoppers are pushed to hunt for deep discounts on groceries, even if it sometimes means foregoing top quality.

‘It’s insane’: Summer gas prices could hit record highs, upending budgets and travel

As the conflict in the Middle East drags on and the global oil supply dwindles, the price of gas continues to hover near historic highs, with no sign of dropping before the travel-heavy summer season kicks off in earnest — or even before it winds down.

School’s out and the pressure’s on: How to plan for summer childcare costs

Far from being a much-needed respite for many working parents, summer often means a two-month childcare hole to be filled with camps, family vacations and various patchwork solutions.

Young people are facing another tough summer labour market. Here’s how to land a job

It's shaping up to be another tough year for summer job seekers.

Competition is still high as fewer companies open up entry-level or seasonal roles amid ongoing economic uncertainties and the rise of artificial intelligence.

"It has been slow," said Alexandra Tillo, senior talent marketing consultant at Indeed Canada, referring to fewer summer jobs being added to Indeed's job search site, compared with previous years.

"We're not expecting this summer to be easier for youth and teens to find a job than it was last year," she said.

New book examines how leading stock pickers only right half the time, still get exceptional returns

The world’s best, most successful investors are not market wizards. They’re maestros, argues a former top fund manager turned successful financial writer.

To Lee Freeman-Shor, wizards are traders, speculating on price movements, and the successful ones are indeed skilled, making money by trading frequently based on pricing data.

Maestros, in contrast, are often more focused on a company’s fundamentals. They invest based on the quality of the business and the prospects for future growth and profitability.

A few years ago, Freeman-Shor — a former, award-winning money manager with a master’s degree in psychology and neuroscience — authored The Art of Execution: How the World’s Best Investors Get it Wrong and Still Make Millions.

As AI fuels a surge in travel scams, here’s how you can protect yourself

The stream of travel scams has become a flood, posing pitfalls that range from fake websites to phishing emails, phoney vacation listings and hacked loyalty points.

Financial independence, retire early: The math behind the viral money movement

The FIRE movement — "financial independence, retire early" — has attracted millions of followers. But is it genuinely achievable, or is it a strategy reserved for the already comfortable?

Winnipeg, U.K. economic experts team up to better understand poverty trap

Money know-how is essential to survival no matter where you live in the world. Without adequate financial literacy, it’s difficult to achieve what many experts in the field call “financial well-being.”

A growing field of research suggests one reason financial literacy initiatives have failed to make in-roads, especially for low-income individuals, is because they do not address the many facets of financial well-being, says one of the leading experts in the field.

“Financial well-being for most people is about a balance, and what you see quite strongly is that it really has a social component,” says Adele Atkinson, a professor at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

Atkinson, who will be in Winnipeg this week, is a member of the university’s well-respected Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management (CHASM). She says financial well- being goes beyond long-term financial security.

Money Happens: What to do when becoming a homeowner feels out of reach

NEW YORK (AP) — Ever since graduating from high school, Tyler Jones hasn’t stopped working and doesn’t have any debt. Still, homeownership feels like an unattainable goal, only possible for past generations.

“Every time I get a paycheck, it’s all already spoken for,” said Jones, a 21-year-old who works at a deli and a nonprofit in Springfield, Massachusetts. Being a homeowner is one of Jones’ dreams, and his inability to save for it frustrates him.

Currently, 65% of working-age renters can’t cover their monthly expenses after paying for housing, according to an analysis from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Nearly half of all renters were cost-burdened by rent in 2024, that means they spent more than a third of their income on housing and utilities, which is based on data from the most recent census.

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Framing household money conversations correctly key when talking to kids

When David Walter's preteen daughter offered to contribute rent money out of the blue, he decided it was the perfect moment to talk about housing costs.

"She's a bit of an entrepreneur," he said of his eldest of four kids. The 11-year-old was already earning her own money, buying and selling repackaged items.

Walter, a financial planner at Sun Life, recalled discussing housing costs and why it was inappropriate for parents to charge a preteen for accommodation. However, that income could still be put to good use.

He recommended his daughter sock the money away in a savings plan for her education, her first car, or another bigger goal. And so she did.