Money explained, with the maths shown.
Yoseri’s publication. One money question per article — budget, debt, savings, tax, investments — and we show the calculation instead of asking to be taken at our word.
Credit or deduction
$1,000 as a deduction and $1,000 as a credit are not worth the same — unless you are in the first bracket. Above it, the gap is exactly your marginal rate minus 14%.
· 1 min read The Breakdown · lead story“How much should I save a month” has no answer in percentages
The question assumes one destination. There are three, they do not pay the same, and the order you fill them in is worth more than the amount you put in.
· 5 min readSome articles are not shown here. They describe Canadian tax rules — income tax, pension plans and tax-sheltered accounts do not transpose from one place to another. Region shown: . ·
The main slot. One subject unfolded in depth, with the maths shown.
17 articles · 1 a week
Self-employed: in year two, you pay two years of tax
The year-two cash shock does not come from a bigger tax bill. It comes from the calendar: last year’s balance and this year’s instalments land in the same twelve months.
· 6 min The Breakdown“How much should I save a month” has no answer in percentages
The question assumes one destination. There are three, they do not pay the same, and the order you fill them in is worth more than the amount you put in.
· 5 min The BreakdownCanadaPaying every two weeks takes three and a half years off the mortgage
The accelerated bi-weekly payment is not a financial trick. It is a thirteenth monthly payment a year, dressed up as a calendar.
· 6 min The BreakdownConsolidating: $524 less a month, $2,967 more in the end
Consolidating lowers the payment by lengthening the term. The two figures move in opposite directions, and only the second one shows up at the end. Here are both, side by side.
· 5 min The BreakdownCanadaTaking $10,000 out of an RRSP leaves you $6,000
The tax withheld at source is not the tax. It is a down payment — and the contribution room never comes back.
· 5 min The BreakdownCanadaThe dealer’s 0% is really a loan at 3.25%
You are offered 0% financing, or $2,500 off if you pay another way. That is not a gift against nothing: it is an interest rate, and it can be worked out.
· 5 min The BreakdownCanadaFHSA or TFSA: the same $34,000 is not worth the same
Two accounts, one down payment. One hands back part of your tax straight away, the other does not. On a $34,000 goal, the gap runs into the thousands.
· 6 min The BreakdownThe 50/30/20 rule assumes a rent you do not have
It allows 50% for your needs. At 40% rent, you are left with $310 for food, transport and insurance. The rule does not miss slightly: it breaks.
· 5 min The BreakdownAvalanche or snowball: the cheaper one is not the one you keep
Two methods, $38 apart over two years. The more rational one often loses to the one that gives an early win. Here are both calculations, side by side.
· 5 min The BreakdownCanadaTFSA or RRSP: at equal rates, the gap is zero dollars
It is not a question of product, it is a question of one number: your marginal rate today against the one you will have on withdrawal. On $5,000 over twenty-five years, it decides $2,146.
· 6 min The BreakdownHow many months in your cushion? "Three" is a lazy answer
The three-month rule circulates everywhere without ever saying three months of what. The right calculation depends on your real spending, the debts you must service and how stable your income is.
· 5 min The BreakdownThe fund says +3.44%. You are down $444.
Two people, the same fund, the same contributions, opposite results. Neither got it wrong, and the fund is not lying: they are not measuring the same return.
· 5 min The Breakdown0.47 of a point in fees: what it really costs over thirty years
Fees of 0.67% instead of 0.20% cannot be felt. Over thirty years, at $300 a month and 6% gross, the gap reaches $24,600 — 23% of everything you will have paid in.
· 5 min The BreakdownInvesting $100 a month: the commission takes 10% before you even start
A $9.95 commission on a $100 purchase is a tenth of your contribution gone before day one. The question is not what to buy — it is how often.
· 5 min The BreakdownQuebecClaiming your pension at 60, 65 or 70: the calculation nobody makes
Deferring your public pension by five years takes it from $890 to $1,264 a month. The calculation is simple; what it hides is less so — it commits you to an assumption about your own longevity.
· 5 min The BreakdownCanadaThe order in which you empty your accounts is worth $64,800
Accumulating is half the work. Nobody looks at the other half until they get there — and between the best and the worst withdrawal order, the gap reaches $64,800 over thirty years.
· 6 min The BreakdownAn envelope budget without rollover is not a budget
If going over your envelope costs you nothing the following month, your cap is only decoration. Rollover is what turns your intention into a constraint.
· 4 minOne fact, one angle, read in two minutes.
19 articles · 2 to 3 a week
Your account says $1,420. You can spend $278.
Two figures live on the same screen: the book balance and the available balance. It is the second that decides whether your payment goes through — and it is almost never the one people look at.
· 2 min The Short“Saving up for a trip” is not a goal
An amount with no date cannot be tracked: nothing says whether you are ahead or behind. Add the date and the same goal becomes a division you can check every month.
· 2 min The ShortYou think you have 2.9 months ahead of you. You have 1.4.
$8,640 spread over three accounts looks like a cushion. Two of the three cannot be used — one is your working float, the other already has a destination.
· 2 min The ShortYour statement says $200, the card charges on $933
Card interest is not charged on the balance printed on the statement. It is charged on the average daily balance — and the gap is a multiple, not a rounding.
· 2 min The ShortThe “free” skipped payment costs you $58 and two extra months
Skipping a payment does not pause the interest. The principal does not move, the month’s interest is added to it, and the loan restarts higher than it was.
· 2 min The ShortThe 2.5% foreign exchange fee is written nowhere
They do not appear as a separate line. They are folded into the rate shown, transaction by transaction — which makes them impossible to see and easy to pay.
· 2 min The ShortEleven subscriptions rising 8% a year: $299 more in three years
Each increase is a dollar or two. None gets noticed — that is how you recognise them. Their sum over three years gets noticed very well.
· 2 min The ShortBudgeting on two pays a month makes you forget $4,062 a year
A year has twenty-six fortnights and twelve months. Two months a year get three pays — and a budget built on two treats them as a surprise instead of a given.
· 2 min The ShortThe annual plan is cheaper from month 10, not from month one
$129 a year against $12.99 a month: two months free, says the page. They are only free if you stay. Cancelled at month 7, the annual plan cost you $38 too much.
· 2 min The ShortPaying the minimum: $946 of interest on $1,240 borrowed
The minimum payment is not a convenience, it is a price. On a $1,240 balance at 19.99% it costs three quarters of the sum borrowed, on top of it.
· 2 min The ShortCanadaTaking $5,000 out of your TFSA and putting it back the same year is not neutral
The room you free up by withdrawing does not come back right away. It comes back on 1 January — and that is the most common way to over-contribute without knowing.
· 2 min The ShortYour account fees come to exactly one dollar a day
$365.40 over twelve months, in four lines, three of which you have never read. None exceeds $17, and that is exactly why none gets noticed.
· 2 min The ShortCanadaYour $2,400 tax refund cost you $192
A big refund means $200 too much was withheld every month. The money was yours, it slept elsewhere, and meanwhile your card was running at 19.99%.
· 2 min The ShortBuying then selling $1,000 costs you 2.07% before any return
Two commissions and one bid-ask spread. On $1,000, your investment has to gain 2.07% just to get you back to even. On $10,000, 0.28% will do.
· 2 min The ShortVariable income: budget on your floor, never on your average
An income swinging between $380 and $1,840 has no useful average. Budgeting on it means spending a good month as though it were normal.
· 2 min The ShortThe management fee is the only one of your six fees you know about
0.67% advertised, 1.30% paid. The other five sources appear on no line of your statement — and together they nearly match the first.
· 2 min The ShortNobody can prove you are not using your subscription
A bank statement holds debits, not uses. That is the limit most savings apps would rather not name.
· 2 min The ShortCanadaThe 30-day rule that cancels your tax loss
Selling at a loss to cut your tax works — unless you buy the same security back inside a 61-day window, including in your spouse’s account.
· 2 min The ShortYour money can only be in one place at a time
Repay, save or invest: every dollar sent somewhere is a dollar that is not somewhere else. That cost appears on no statement.
· 2 minA subject in depth, when it earns the time.
1 article · Occasional
These calculations, on your own figures.
Free with manual entry, no banking credentials and no card. You see your first statement in four minutes.
One term explained plainly, without jargon piled on jargon.
16 articles · Recurring box
Credit or deduction
$1,000 as a deduction and $1,000 as a credit are not worth the same — unless you are in the first bracket. Above it, the gap is exactly your marginal rate minus 14%.
· 1 min The GlossaryRule of 72
Divide 72 by your rate: you get the number of years to double. A division you can do in your head, and it works on your debt as well as on your savings.
· 1 min The GlossaryLine of credit
Cheaper than a card, except on one point: it has no grace period. Which makes it better for what you carry, and worse for what you pay off in full.
· 1 min The GlossaryEffective annual rate
Two loans both quote you 19.99%. One costs you 19.99%, the other 22.12%. It all turns on one word you never read: compounding.
· 1 min The GlossaryAmortisation
Your payment never moves. What is inside it does: over twenty-five years, you wait ten and a half before principal overtakes interest.
· 1 min The GlossaryDisposable income
What is left once you have paid what you cannot not pay. It is the only figure that says whether a month is liveable — and it is on no statement.
· 1 min The GlossaryNet worth
What you own minus what you owe. The one figure that sums up a financial position in a single number — provided you count both sides.
· 1 min The GlossaryCanadaMarginal rate
The rate that hits your next dollar, not the ones before it. Crossing a federal bracket in 2026 moves your average rate by sixteen hundredths of a point — and leaves you 82.8% of your raise.
· 1 min The GlossarySavings rate
The share of your net income you do not spend. The most predictive indicator of where you are heading — and the easiest to dress up.
· 1 min The GlossaryTracking error
Two funds track the same index and do not return the same thing. The difference has a name, a cause and a size — and you pay it every year.
· 1 min The GlossaryHousing ratio
The share of your income that goes on housing. It is the figure your lender looks at first, and the one that decides your room to manoeuvre.
· 1 min The GlossaryEnvelope rollover
What you have left — or what you are short — at the end of the month, carried into the next. It is the mechanism that separates a budget from a good intention.
· 1 min The GlossaryVolatility
Two investments, the same average return: the one that zigzags more is the more volatile. That is not your risk of losing, it is the price of the ticket.
· 1 min The GlossaryLiquidity
Something unexpected lands and your money is in the walls. Liquidity is how fast an asset becomes usable money again, without a loss.
· 1 min The GlossaryVariance
Your results swing naturally around their average. A bad year does not prove your method is broken — and a good year does not prove it works.
· 1 min The GlossaryMaximum drawdown
Your portfolio hits a peak, then falls. The gap between the two is your drawdown. The trap is not the loss: it is what you have to win back to erase it.
· 1 minEvery figure published here can be redone by hand.
Yoseri News applies to its writing what Yoseri applies to the app: no invented figure. A calculation is shown, an assumption is written down, a limit is owned. When a tax cap changes from one year to the next, we point you to your real entitlements rather than invent an amount.
- Calculations you can redoThe rate, the term and the amount are always given.
- Assumptions written in black and whiteAn assumed return is announced as one.
- Pointers to your real entitlementsCaps and tax rules change: we tell you where to check.
- Investment adviceYoseri is registered as neither an adviser nor a dealer with any market authority.
- A recommended productNo commission, no paid partnership.
- A statistic without a sourceIf we cannot source it, we do not write it.
The articles explain. The app does the maths on your figures.
What you read here with examples, Yoseri does with your real transactions — read-only, inventing nothing.