Want to build a real estate empire or grow a business from scratch, but you don’t have the cash? Try a little leverage. Borrow to buy real estate It was the mid-1980s and D.G. Southen was only 24 years old when he bought his first investment — a house near the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont. He borrowed $20,000 from his parents to put a down payment on an $80,000 house. To pay the... 

Believe it or not, the top 10% of tax filers by income pay just 16% in taxes. Do they know something you don’t? Split your taxes Chad DeGraff, a 39-year-old securities lawyer in Toronto, recently figured out a way to save an amazing $25,000 on his taxes over the next five years. Chad has an $800,000 investment portfolio that spins off about 5% a year in income (about half dividends, half interest... 

If there are mistakes on your driving record, your insurance premiums can soar. In the last five years, did you get three speeding tickets or four? If the Ministry of Transportation has the wrong answer in their files, it could be costing you big bucks on your auto insurance. Just like with your credit score, it pays to make sure the official record is correct. In this case, you can easily verify... 

Do you religiously follow your car’s service manual? Here’s some good news: sometimes you don’t have to. When you buy a new car, you’ll typically get two different service manuals, one from the dealer and one from the manufacturer. “The dealers make money on frequent visits, so their manual tries to get you to do as much maintenance as possible,” says Kirk Robinson of Robinson Automotive....