Welcome! I'm Christopher Liew, a CFA charterholder and personal finance columnist for CTV News. My mission with this channel is to empower Canadians with the knowledge to make smart financial choices-from retirement planning to tax tips and investment strategies.
At Blueprint Financial, we create custom financial plans for individuals and businesses all across Canada. Check out our services on our website, the link is below.
The question that I always have is what accounts do you invest in when they are all maxed for the year. Currently just doing a general account after maxing which doesnt have any tax benefits.
yeah that's the last destination that i mention in this video, you'll have to do non-registered accounts. But check out what i recommend you consider in the video for non-reg accounts, such as canadian dividend stocks or non-dividend growth stocks to minimize your tax hit.
I am 66 years old legal immigrant , working n Canada for 29 years , I need work till 76 years old to have a Decent pension, right now I can’t retire ,my fed pension is $ 470 and Qc one is $270, my rent is $ 1.000. I have to be homeless or make $16,000 per year on poverty line in order to receive some decent pension. What’s going to happen when I turn 70? can I receive a real pension?
hey there, sorry to hear about your struggles. At 70, you’ll likely qualify for Old Age Security (OAS), which increases if you delay it. You could also be eligible for the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) if your income remains low. Also, delaying Canada Pension Plan (CPP) until 70 boosts your monthly payments by up to 42%. You might also explore provincial programs for additional support. Give Service Canada a call, they can help walk you through all this.
Very rarely do most people get this. If you make any sort of decent money you get hardly anything. Unless you are a single parent. I used to get $30 for 3 kids a month. If you’re low income you will get a lot.
Also, why is a percentage???? Many people are also finding that the quality of service has decreased. I myself have seen that when someone does not order alcohol, they get less attention and poorer service. You need to earn the tip.
I suspect that younger Canadians are putting more money into TFSAs than RRSPs… makes more sense until their salary/wage income gets high enough to really benefit from RRSPs.
Easy: I don't care for tips. No, I am not responsible for paying workers! I do 10% to max 20%. Tipping is a gratitude extra for a good job, not for paying workers. Not happy? Then Zero tip.
Tip#4 is sadly what some waiters and restaurants refuse to acknowledge. I had.a time where the waiter harassed me for tips and when I refuse, he brought over another waiter to pressure me. I said F off and they dared even say tipping is mandatory. I said quote where in the law says that, nothing to be said afterwards other than constantly say tips are required if you're eating out.
Tipping should be for a job well done. If they did an amazing job, bigger tip. And we shouldnt expect it, not everyone can afford it. When I worked as a server 2 and half years ago, most people only tipped $2, that was the standard (even if their bill was $40+). That was fine and I appreciated any tip. Some people gave more, $5 was also common for the higher tippers. I think tipping is fine, but it should be based on the quality of the service and what you can afford, not a requirement and a minimum. It's crazy when you have to tip before the service, honestly it's dumb because what if its terrible, then you're giving a tip just for them to suck. Or if you dont give a tip they are happy with they dont give you good service. 10% is more than enough and any more than that should be generosity from people who can afford it and feel the service was great
I visited Canada, swiped my card and saw a screen asking for a tip at both a fast food place and a bar. I hit no tip with no hesitation and felt no qualms about it.
People used to be grateful to get tips, now they feel its entitled. Oh my employer is screwing me over, let me gaslight and guilt trip customers to pay my salary. Its absurd how its percentage based to scale with inflation.
What's especially crazy is that the minimum wage across Canada is at least $15 an hour anywhere you go (with some provinces over $17). I certainly respect service workers, but tipping culture goes back to a time when their wages were much lower. With tips and wages, it's common for servers to earn well over $40 an hour. It really is bizarre for middle class Canadians who already struggle to afford necessities to tack on lavish tips to those who are making more per hour than them... and probably aren't paying as much in tax either.
Good point! With minimum wage rising, tipping feels outdated, especially when some servers are making more than many middle-class Canadians. It’s tough to justify big tips when so many are struggling to make ends meet.
Before this recent increase in pushing for tips, I tried my best to keep a 15% tip ontop of the bill for sit down service available to spend. I tend to decrease the tip as service gets worse as well. Now with the rise, I have found myself increasing that upper threshold to 20% but I have also become more willing than ever to decrease how much the tip is. A good example of that is when I have to ask 3 times for something, if 0% is an option I will do it otherwise its the minimum possible. For me, places where I stand up to order or could have gone through a drive-through I have a 0% tip constant. With that, I have also stopped using Skip the Dishes / Door Dash because of the tip first model. Why would I tip before getting service? is this just me paying and hoping you earn the tip after getting it? no way! I'll drive to get my own food, thanks. Another point I'd like to make is that with the cost of everything increasing, the tip amount has already gone up why would the percentage follow? wages elsewhere have not exceeded the recent inflation so its additional pressure on already hurting people. Long story short, I hope the increased ask for tips does not lead to resentment and an increase in no tip for things that in the past would have at least earned a 5% tip.
Lol. Imagine your subway driver asks for tips, you give him 10% and he says "I have to split this with the guy who greases the brakes, suggested tip is 25%, satisfactory tip is 50%"
I usually tip cash AFTER I receive service. In places that require you pay BEFORE receiving service, having a tip option is stupid. If you require me to pay first, then you are not working at a place that should require a tip.
In usa waiter's are not paid even minimum wage, but in Canada everyone is paid at least minimum pay. Why should I pay someone for bringing food from kitchen to table?
I’ll often pay in cash. That way I don’t have to see those silly machines that convince you to tip. Generally tip for sit-down restaurants, taxis and barbers. Not much at other places. At hotels, often leave a few dollars for the maid.
Me too. Expenses have increased when wages stay suppressed in Canada. Guilt-tripping the customers when brazen service workers post tiktok videos about how they make $50/hr in tips makes me fume.
F tipping culture, charge a proper price and pay a proper wage. I refuse to tip, and if you try and make it mandatory i just don't go there. 20% of $0 is 0.
I used to always tip 15-18% regardless of how mediocre the service was. Now with shrinkflation on top of increased prices, I'm apathetic towards the expectation now. If I stand to order and pick up, I won't tip anymore. For sit down restaurants or various other services, it'll be more or less 10% but to the nearest whole dollar.
What made no sense to me was after food prices rose in 2021, the tip went up on meals, but my wages did not go up until 2023. It should be based on the number and type of dish the waiter brings to the table, not the value of what is on the dish. I feel like the standard of 15% was made by people who have all this money they don't care. Maybe tip $1 per drink/plate instead.
Hey, I pick up take out food. I have no idea what "service" I am encouraging with a 10% tip, so I often just go up to the nearest bank note (PAY BY CASH and tip in cash) Before Covid-19 a meal was $15.00. Now, with 15% inflation, a meal is 24.00$. WHAT????? The restaurants are now making enough to actually pay there workers enough to NOT require a tip. Demand restaurants pay their workers a living wage. No please, just do it. Or me not eating there in the first damn place. As for Europe tipping. Do NOT tip in France as it has already been included in the price of the meal, Really, it has. Look at French laws and even your bill. In Germany "drink money" (AKA "tip") usually is just rounding up to the nearest full Euro (small bill, say under 15 Euro) or to the nearest Euro bank note available.
Don't want to reach 1 million. I went all in on high yield dividend ETFs and retired at 46 making 4k a month in dividends. Wife makes the same. No debt. No point getting at million at 65. I would much rather do nothing and travel while making a bit less than to work until 65. Not everything is kept in the TFSA but that's ok.
So in Ontario, service workers used to be paid less than minimum wage and then made up for it in tips. But then the government changed it, and increased the minimum wage all around. So everyone was getting minimum wage and less people were getting paid below because that was basically eliminated. So now they get the same minimum wage everyone gets (which at the time of this comment is now $17.20/hr). So now.. they're basically getting paid the same as someone who works at Walmart, McDonalds or wherever and the ability to make tips. I don't know what my point of this is, but just a background of Ontario.
I defiantly don't tip on bad service at a dine-in restaurant often followed by never returning to that place. I don't like the idea of F#$%ing with people who touch my food.
As a Canadian, I still don't know what to tip. Where I have tipped (mostly cash): First round of drinks at bar (a buck or two for solo maybe $5 for an extra person or two depending on the work required if it's just opening a can or removing a cap vs mixing a drink and how many people I order for), Sit down with a server restaurant ( $5 to $10 for 2 people depending on a lot of factors typically Id bring cash for this tip) , food delivery ( I don't really get delivery anymore probably because of stupid tip culture, but in the past it was about 10% or $5 bucks for 2 meals or a pizza) Barber ( a couple bucks up to $5, but I've just cut my own hair for 20 years now) Taxi (a couple bucks up to $5) That is about it. I've heard of tipping on vacations to more southern countries and resorts. To try to avoid the stupid tipping culture, I've even opted to take European cruises in the Caribbean where the gratuities are included. Haven't really heard of tipping hotel staff, but I guess if people are slobs and leave the room with a lot of work to clean, I guess a tip would appropriate then? If I stay multiple nights I prefer a maid doesn't come in to clean the room. I just ask for any extra towels and leave a DND sign on the door and try not to leave the room a complete pig pit when I leave. Because the tipping culture has started to get too crazy, it's sort of made me want to protest by tipping less. No I don't want to tip fast food. If i order standing up, I am not tipping. Also the % style tip seems less relevant to me now. I prefer round to the dollar or half dollar and tipping Over $10 for anything I do (plus one person) just seems way too much. Only time I'd tip for than $10 for myself plus one, is if someone was absolutely extraordinarily helpful, probably saving me time and money, and was just above and beyond. In that case, it would likely be for some other kind of service that normally doesn't receive tips.
I totally get where you're coming from. Tipping can feel confusing, especially with all the changes in tipping culture. It sounds like you've found a system that works for you, tipping based on effort rather than percentages. I also agree that tipping for fast food or simple services doesn’t make sense. It’s good to stick to tipping when you feel it's deserved and reasonable
tipping is one of the worst trends that America has let loose on the world. This is plainly the business owners pawning off their payroll to the customer. No. Not cool.
I get where you're coming from. It can definitely feel like tipping has gotten out of hand, especially when it seems like businesses are relying on customers to cover wages. It would be nice if fair pay was the standard, and tipping was just for exceptional service, not an expectation everywhere.
My missus paid $168 for a haircut (!!!). I pay $24. She doesn't want to tip the hairdresser, since he is the owner/operator. I agree, since he gets enough in the first place. I've apologised to MY hairdresser when I've paid with cash, as I may not have enough, although to be honest, $5 is a little more than 20%, and that doesn't hurt to give. She understands either way.
Wow, $168 for a haircut! Yeah, a lot of people skip tipping if it’s the owner since they set their own prices. You’ve got a nice system going with your hairdresser-$5 on a $24 cut sounds like a fair tip and keeps things friendly!
The numbers are giving are not exact at age 60.I started to collect.It was approximately $344.Now it's about 6:17.I'm 66, almost 67 years old.Your numbers are not right
The numbers can vary depending on when you start CPP and any adjustments over the years. I appreciate the heads-up! If you’re looking for more specific details on your situation, it might be worth checking with Service Canada to get the exact breakdown.
When I was young tipping was at 10% and there was no pressure to give one and it was for good service received. We had a nice meal for $50, the tip was $5. Now to have the same comparable meal is over $150, if at 10% tip that would be $15. The meal went up three times and the tip would go up three times, seems fair, keeping up with inflation. But now the expected tip on the machines is 15-25% or even higher. So average that it would be 20%, now the tip would be $30 for that same meal and I am guessing the amount of service is still the same. So now that being, now the tip is twice the inflation rate of the same meal. If I am getting exclusive service Ok. But that server is working likely 4 other tables at the same time and if every table had about the same bill, their total tips could add up to $150 in about 1-1.5 hours. That’s more than most highly educated professionals make. Now in many businesses you are paying for the meal/service before you get served, it has nothing to do with whether you had good service or not. In this case if you don’t tip and if you get a vengeful server what other questionable goodie’s might you get in your meal. Just saying. All businesses should pay their employees a proper wage, don’t put it on their hopefully “valued” customers to be pressured into it, even though the customer still pays in the end. I don’t frequent places that push for tips, I do tip but only a couple of places because I really really like the food and the service and they are small mom and pop places. I truly feel like a valued customer there.
I totally get where you’re coming from. It does feel like tipping has gone from being a reward for good service to a built-in expectation, even before you’ve experienced the service. With prices rising so much, it seems unfair that tips have skyrocketed way beyond inflation, and yet the service hasn't necessarily changed. It’s frustrating when you feel like you’re paying twice as much without getting twice the value. And you make a great point-if businesses paid their staff properly, customers wouldn’t have to feel this pressure to cover the wage gap through tipping. It’s understandable to feel more comfortable tipping at those small, personal places where the service feels genuine, not just part of a transactional expectation. It’s nice to know you’re actually appreciated as a customer there. Your perspective is shared by many, especially as tipping culture keeps shifting.
Two things that bug me: 1. Why don’t they back out the tax when they have the tip options on the screen? Maybe they should forward the tax tip to CRA for their great service? 2. If 2 people dine together and one orders a $25 burger and the second person orders a $50 steak, I think the staff do the same work for both meals, yet a tip twice the size is built into the machine for the steak. It would make sense if twice the work was involved, but I’m not sure any extra work is required
You're right! Tipping on tax makes no sense-it feels like we’re paying extra for nothing. And with different meals, like a $25 burger vs. a $50 steak, the server does the same work, but the tip is doubled. Definitely doesn’t seem fair. What I always found crazy was bottles of wine - like for a $50 bottle of wine vs a $500 bottle of wine, the same 2 minutes of work to uncork the bottle is tipped vastly differently.
