https://macleans.ca/longforms/retirement-is-dead/

Thought this was an interesting article to discuss, especially regarding a generational cohort that doesn't quite get the attention of Boomers and Millenials.

I’m posting this publicly because today is August 31, the final day of our second closing extension, and Manzil still has not funded our mortgage.

Nothing has been resolved. I am now abandoning Manzil and trying to arrange an emergency conventional mortgage through TD to save the purchase.

Everything below is supported by emails, invoices, trust ledgers and other records I have retained. I am naming the relevant Manzil employees because this is a factual account of my own experience.

The Manzil employees involved included:

• Faraz Islam
• Fahad Saadat, Mortgage Agent
• Mustafa Elkalza, CFO u/MustafaElkalza
• Ahmed Sajath, Underwriter

• ⁠Mohamed Sawwaf, CEO (never heard a lick from him)

We purchased a home in Oakville for $1,485,000. Manzil’s financing amount was approximately $1.185 million, and the agreed closing date was August 18, 2026.

Before closing

We began the financing process well before closing. The appraisal was requested in early July and paid immediately. On July 22 and 23, Faraz Islam provided the financing options and expressly listed the closing date as August 18.

On August 7, Faraz sent us the commitment letter and payment schedule. I reviewed the commitment letter and identified several errors and inconsistencies, including:

• An acceptance deadline that had already expired before the letter was issued
• Conflicting wording and formulas for the early-termination calculation
• An unresolved “[one month]” placeholder
• Ambiguity about cure periods and prepayment rights

Faraz responded that the expired date was a typo, the brackets could be ignored, and all conditions precedent—including the appraisal, inspection, credit and title—were satisfied.

We signed the documents and completed every requested step. When Manzil’s Plaid identity-verification system repeatedly failed, we kept trying until an alternate verification method succeeded. We also provided the required insurance.

On August 14, we were instructed to provide $259,537.80 for closing. This included our remaining down payment, adjustments, administrative charges and legal costs.

We deposited the full $259,537.80 on August 14 and immediately provided proof.

That same day, I warned everyone involved in writing:

“We have moving scheduled on the 18th afternoon, and a tenant will be taking our current property on the 19th, so we can’t have any delays otherwise we won’t have a place to go.”

Manzil knew four days before closing that a missed closing would leave my wife, young daughter and me without a home.

August 18: the closing failed

Our movers were scheduled for 2 p.m. on August 18. Everything we owned had been packed.

We were not told until 6:34 p.m.—after the normal closing day was effectively over—that the closing would not occur and that an extension was being negotiated.

We had already surrendered our previous home for a new tenant. Our belongings went into storage. My wife and young daughter had to stay in a hotel. I had to travel to the United States for work while they remained displaced.

Because our clothing, medication and basic belongings had been packed for the move, my family had to purchase clothes, food and other essentials. We also had to obtain emergency prescriptions because medication was inaccessible.

This was not a minor scheduling inconvenience. Manzil’s failure to fund left my family effectively homeless after we had deposited more than $259,000 and completed everything requested from us.

The communication afterward was shameful

Following the failed closing, calls repeatedly went to voicemail, emails went unanswered, and nobody at Manzil appeared willing to take responsibility or provide a clear explanation and reliable funding date.

I do want to be fair to Faraz Islam. During part of this period, Faraz was dealing with a family emergency, so I do not blame him for being unavailable during that time. When he did respond, he confirmed that Manzil would cover our expenses and later approved an additional reimbursement.

That does not excuse Manzil as an organization. A company handling a $1.185 million, time-sensitive mortgage cannot depend entirely on one employee. Mustafa Elkalza and the other Manzil employees copied on these communications knew that my wife and young daughter had been left in a hotel, that our belongings were in storage and that our expenses were mounting.

Their lack of ownership, urgency and meaningful communication was shameful.

On August 20, I emailed asking for an update on reimbursements and attached our hotel and storage receipts. After receiving no response for most of the day, I sent another email expressing my anger at being ignored.

Faraz eventually replied on August 21:

“As we discussed on the phone, we will cover this cost and reimburse you the full amount, Insha’Allah.”

We were subsequently told that $7,541.14 in hotel and storage costs had been wired.

By August 25, the money had still not reached my account. On August 26, I contacted CIBC directly. CIBC told me it had no record of the transfer and nothing was being held.

Meanwhile, our expenses continued growing. By August 29, I had documented more than $13,600 in hotel, moving, storage, meals, clothing, groceries and medication costs. A further $6,095.66 remained outstanding after accounting for the initial reimbursement amount.

On August 31, Faraz approved deducting the additional $6,095.66 from Manzil’s administrative fee. That approval does not change the fact that these expenses only existed because Manzil failed to close.

“Logistical difficulties” and continuously moving deadlines

On August 25—one week after the original closing date—Fahad Saadat finally sent a formal “Funding Update.”

His explanation was:

“Unfortunately, we are experiencing some logistical difficulties that are preventing us from completing the funding at this point.”

He said the funding would need to be pushed to Friday, “or Monday at the latest.”

Fahad copied Manzil’s finance team, including CFO Mustafa Elkalza, supposedly for “full transparency and visibility.”

That email did not explain:

• What the “logistical difficulties” actually were
• Why Manzil committed to an August 18 closing if the money was not ready
• Why we were not warned before depositing $259,537.80 and packing our home
• Why we were only informed after business hours on closing day
• Why Friday and then “Monday at the latest” passed without funding

I emailed Mustafa directly on August 26 and described the entire situation: the missed closing, my wife and daughter living in a hotel, our belongings in storage, the emergency prescriptions, the growing expenses and the failure of the promised reimbursement to arrive.

I received no substantive response from Mustafa addressing any of it.

We have now gone through two extensions. Manzil contributed an additional $20,000 deposit on August 19 as part of the extension, according to the trust ledger and written confirmation. However, putting down another deposit did not produce the promised mortgage funding.

Today is August 31, the last day of the second extension. The mortgage is still not funded.

We are now trying to rescue the purchase ourselves

Today, I began working with a TD Mobile Mortgage Specialist to try to obtain emergency financing.

TD requested my employment history, address history, assets, tax slips, pay statements and closing documents. I provided everything within approximately an hour.

I am now trying to obtain a conventional mortgage on an emergency basis because Manzil failed to provide the financing it committed to provide.

Why I consider this borderline fraudulent

I am not stating that a court has found Manzil guilty of fraud. That has not happened, and litigation may follow.

What I am saying is that, from my perspective, this conduct feels disturbingly close to it:

• Manzil committed to funding an August 18 purchase.
• Faraz stated in writing that the appraisal, inspection, credit and title conditions were satisfied.
• We signed every document requested.
• We deposited $259,537.80 four days before closing.
• We explicitly warned them that a delay would leave our family without housing.
• We were not told the closing had failed until after 6:30 p.m. on closing day.
• We then received vague references to “logistical difficulties” and continuously moving deadlines.
• Friday passed.
• “Monday at the latest” arrived without funding.
• Today, on the final day of the second extension, we are arranging emergency financing ourselves.

Manzil markets itself to Muslims seeking an alternative to conventional interest-bearing mortgages. We trusted that the company would operate with amanah, honesty and transparency.

Instead, after paying substantial Manzil administrative and financing-related fees, my family was left living out of a hotel while our possessions sat in storage, and I spent nearly two weeks chasing people for basic answers.

I am posting this so other families understand the risk before trusting Manzil with a time-sensitive home closing.

I have preserved the complete email history, trust ledgers, signed agreements, wire records, hotel invoices, storage invoices, receipts and extension documentation. If Manzil disputes any factual statement above, I am prepared to produce the corresponding records.

At the time of posting:

• The original August 18 closing has still not occurred.
• The second extension expires today, August 31.
• Manzil has not funded the mortgage.
• Our family remains displaced.
• I am seeking emergency financing from TD.
• I expect the resulting financial losses and conduct to become part of a legal dispute.

EDIT:

Manzil have already started trying to scrub their image. Manzil since I know you are seeing this. I promise you I will not let this go to the day I die until you and your entire team face justice.

Proof of removals (Mustafa the CFO is the only moderator on that sub reddit): https://ibb.co/vvJwY49j

I just moved to Canada and discovered while registering with my bank that there is basically no way around having a credit card, I must have one otherwise my long-term financial situation in Canada might be impacted.

I am very reluctant to get a credit card, as I was previously in Europe and that’s not really a thing.

What is your advice? Are there more pros or cons?

Thanks!!

EDIT: Huge thank you to everyone who responded, I really appreciate it.

I'm currently employed in Canada as a senior web dev:

$100k salary

Benefits
$1,000 Dental

$500 Health

$$ Drugs (I think it's almost 500)

I have a wife and two kids.

No RRSP Match

I'm getting an international opportunity (remote, so I don't have to move). The company is based in the US, but the tech team is mostly in South America. What salary range (paid in USD) would make this make sense? I get 15 PTO, and it is fixed income.

I'm thinking of going with 95-100k. The job is a senior PHP developer/architect position.

Thank you!

Basically it. I got quite a sum from my uncle who never had kids but raised me when my mom and dad weren't there. Was basically on the will.

Bank called me(the red one) asked if I can come in to speak with them about a 90 day high interest for like 4.5-5% for 90 days. I looked up GIC'S and they're not good either if I lock it in for a year.

Can I just move the money around different banks and not invest in the market and keep getting that interest? I'm a very conservative person even when it comes to investing. It's a trauma thing from being poor and not growing up with any money at all.

Hello everyone,

I signed a home purchase contract to buy a home for about $650,000. My agreement that I signed and the builder/seller signed said it was $650,000 including GST. Now my realtor is sending me another addendum to the contract that it it is $650,000 plus GST for a total cost of ~$680,000 (numbers are rough but it is the house purchase price plus 5% for GST). My realtor I feel is being a little bit disingenuous by saying the contract is just to say "that I will be claiming the GST" but it's a little bit more than that. My realtor and the selling realtor work for the same realty company (same building as well).

To be fair there is a chance the seller/builder would have never sold it to me for $650,000 including GST but I want to ask what the opinion of everyone here is.

The closing date is in a couple days and I've already made all the arrangements to move. I'm in the new city, my old place is gone, they my furniture is en-route from the moving company.

Edit 1 - Tuesday 11:00AM: I talked to my real estate lawyer and he said he knew about the addendum and that it was coming to me and I asked what his legal opinion was, and he said I should not sign it. I then spoke to my realtor and my realtor is saying that I should sign it because that is what we agreed upon.

Edit 2 - Tuesday 11:10AM: The lawyer called me and said my real estate agent said I knew it was $650,000 plus tax and the contract is an error and they are trying to get the contract fixed. My response was I put the contract through AI tools and it told me it was $650,000 including GST so that's what I thought.

My husband and I are trying to cut down our monthly expenses, and our phone bill is one area I’m looking at. My main concern with switching to a cheaper provider is coverage.

My husband works on the road and can sometimes be in rural or fairly remote/off-grid areas in Ontario, so he needs reliable cell service and data/internet access while he’s out there. Losing reception regularly would be a dealbreaker.

We don’t need anything fancy ideally just unlimited Canada-wide talk/text and a decent amount of data. I’m more interested in reliable coverage for the lowest reasonable price than getting a huge amount of data we’ll never use.
For anyone who spends a lot of time driving/working around rural Ontario: which cheaper carriers have you actually had good experiences with?

I’m especially curious about the lower-cost providers and whether the savings are worth it compared with Rogers/Bell/Telus when you’re outside major cities.

If you could also share what you pay per month, how much data you get, and roughly what parts of Ontario you’ve tested the coverage in, that would be incredibly helpful! Thank you!!

Hello all. Please keep your judgement to yourself, just looking for helpful individuals to give me advice on an upcoming situation. I'm 20 years old and recently graduated from post-secondary. I've got an upcoming financial decision that I need help on. Hopefully this isn't a really dumb question.

I've got about 2.5k CC balance coming due in a week. I've got only about 1k in my chequing to contribute to it, and I've got about 10k in my TFSA.

Do I pay as much as I can out of my chequing and wait till my next paycheck (2-3 weeks from now?) to pay the rest OR is it a no-brainer to withdraw from my TFSA and pay it all off immediately before it's overdue.

Thank you.

Hi all,

About me if it matters:
- 34 m
- Toronto, Ontario resident, own my own home and paying mortgage.
- currently on EI
- $0 income since December 2025
- Diagnosed with ADHD and chronic pain, on medication for both
- actively applying for jobs but market for my field is cutthroat right now with a lot of layoffs

Situation:
Money is very tight, and my medication is expensive. I haven’t been able to budget for my meds for 4 ish months and have been only taking the leftover when things got very bad, but I’m admitting that this has taken a toll on my health even more than not having a job. After stretching my last prescription this whole time, I’m running out.

I’m hoping there’s no judgement or shaming on this post, but are there any programs I should look into for getting the care and meds I need? Anything that makes them cheaper, pr subsidizes the cost? I would leave out the emotional dump here for how I feel and what I’ve been going through here, as it’s not important for the question.

I previously called my pharmacist, and they weren’t that helpful as they are new in the field.

I can add any other information if it matters.

Wasn’t sure what flair to add here, so going with the closest one.

I'll give some back story, though I don't know if it makes any difference.

9 years ago I bought a house for my mum to live in. Let's say it was 50,000. I've done improvements on it for her comfort - new roof, floors, handicapped bathroom etc. She has since had to move into long term care. I then sold the home to my step sister for $100,000 (about 125,000 less than if I had put it on the market)

What amount would be considered capital gains? Is there any allowance for the improvements I made during this time or will the 50,000 all be taxed at 50%

TIA

Question because this is new to me.
I paid about $3200 income tax for 2025’s income. This is probably the most I have ever had to pay.

I just got an e-letter from CRA that they want instalments made for 2026’s eventual income tax filing…just over $1000 on each of Sept 15, Oct 15 and Nov 15?

I have never been asked to do this before. Do I have to make these instalment payments? Why can’t I pay what I actually owe when I file in March 2027?!

My serious question is - what happens if I don’t pay the instalments and just wait til I actually file my taxes early next year? Can I ignore this notice?

I'm 25 and am looking at my financials. I just graduated from my Bachelors and am making 50k for my first job with a 10k bonus if requirements are met (no RRSP matching).

I have an emergency fund for about 4 months. Then, I'm looking to pay off my student loans and then invest in an FHSA, TFSA, and then RRSP.

I feel like I have a late start and am looking at the numbers. It would take me 8 years to max out my FHSA at $40k, but to have enough for a 25% down payment, I need around 160k, which would be another 24 years.

What's the best way to make more money? I'm thinking of investing in becoming a CPA so I can start my own business on the side of my full-time job. Or I might double down on my current job to ask for a raise in the next 2 years and do a part-time job on the side for extra income.

Is this how most people live? Saving for my future, I can't imagine saving to have children and being able to buy a home in this lifetime. I'm considering investing a good chunk into a business and seeing how far it goes, but it's risky.

Does anyone have similar experiences? Have you reinvested in your education or worked to build a business? What was the ROI like? Do you wish you did anything differently?

If I'm being left with $0 in savings per month, but saving via only DCCP, is this bad/unsustainable?

My DCCP savings per month is $500, plus another free $350 match from the company = $850 per month

Gross salary is ~90k, so the DCCP savings would account for ~11% of my gross salary, but of course the money cannot be touched until retirement

I have a very large amount of unused RRSP contribution room (I started very late on saving for retirement), while my wife has almost none as she has a DB pension and maxes out all her registered accounts every year, and has a significant amount in her unregistered accounts.

Would it make sense to create a spousal RRSP and have her gift me to contribute to it? I'd get the rebate but it would use up my RRSP room that I can't use at my current income level, and I can apply any rebate back to the RRSP, and it stays "her money" in a legal sense. We don't mingle our money except for household expenses.

The drawback is she is the higher income earner so in retirement it's not as tax efficient, but it must be better than unregistered.

Does anyone have experience with having event tickets from another country mailed to Canada prior to leaving on their vacation, and the implications of duties and taxes?

i.e. I buy concert tickets for a concert in Italy and the promoter ships them to my address in Canada months before I will be visiting Europe. The tickets are shipped by FedEx and claimed at the face value I paid (let’s say 75 Euros per ticket), will I be charged duties and taxes on those tickets? Seeing as a concert or event is viewed as a service, is there even any duties or taxes on them? (No, there is no digital version, only physical paper tickets)

Thanks!

I'm gonna give him the money back, it was an honest mistake and we are very close. TD bank app if it matters. Cheque was a Canadian government cheque.

I closed my TD credit card last month. I've been expecting the statement via mail for a few weeks now. Today I got a text message saying I missed my minimum payment for the card.

I call in and in order to get the statement I need to pay $10...

How is this a legal practice? It's their card. Delivering the statement to me should be their responsibility, no?

I recently came across Ben Felix’s posts (https://rationalreminder.ca/blog/2018/9/6/asset-location-promising-theories-vs-practical-applications) and videos suggesting that asset location is overrated.

The usual advice is (all other things being equal, including sufficient contribution room) to prefer bonds and US equities go in RRSPs; Canadian dividend bearing stocks go in a non registered account, and high growth stocks in a TFSA.

As I understand it, his argument seems to be (1) those recommendations are based on current tax law, and we don’t know if that will continue to hold in the future, (2) without knowing the actual future returns, we can’t know what the optimal allocation is, and simulations predict half the time, only a small (0.3%) after-tax benefit is realized, and (3) the additional effort or cost to assign and rebalance assets, and/or delay in doing so because of the complexity, is not worth the marginal expected benefit. There another layer that claims that perceived asset allocations are skewed by how much tax is deducted when the investments are cashed out. The long and short of it is that he suggests the same investments across RRSP, TFSA and non reg accounts.

This doesn’t make sense to me, and is contrary to all other investment advice I’ve seen. In most other investing contexts, we chase 0.3% better returns. In other investing contexts we have no idea of future returns or tax law, but we invest anyhow based on what we know today and reasonable expectations of the future.

I can understand if his position is that “we’d have to charge you more to perform account-based asset location assignment and rebalancing than you’re likely to get out of it”, but that doesn’t seem to be the argument.

What am I misunderstanding? Are there portfolio sizes or RRSP:TSFA:non-reg account ratios where his position holds or fails? (E.g, in a 300k portfolio evenly split between account types, his argument holds; but, in a $3M portfolio 90% RRSP, 5% TFSA, 5% non-reg, his argument fails.)

I have been with my employer for 3 years. I am moving from 40hr/wk to 10hr/wk. Husband has had the same employer for 5+ years, minimal change to income each year. Total annual income is usually $210k but will be around $160k for 2027.

Our mortgage is coming up for renewal in 2027 - we will owe $185k. Will we be able to shop around for renewal rates? Will the lower income mean we should stick with our current lender and try our best to negotiate, or are we still viable for passing a whole new set of credit checks with a new lender? I read that if you're unemployed, it's better to stay, but we're both in continuous employment. Will the reduction in income look unfavourable?

Outside of the mortgage, household debt is approx $20k (car loan) and cash in the bank approx the same. This is our first renewal at 5 years into our amortization so new thing for us.

Basically last year was an anomaly where I had a lot of stocks I sold after 5 years of investing and had a huge jump in taxable income. Now Revenu Quebec has told me to pay "INSTALMENT PAYMENTS OF INCOME TAX" in advance. Thing is how much I made was a one time thing. Do i have some dividends and capital gains this year? Sure...but nothing close to what I made in 2025.

So now I'm being asked to pay an amount I don't even have. ChatGPT suggests filling out a 2026 TP-1026-V but I have no idea what my capital gains will be or how to fill it. Has anyone had success just talking to Revenu Quebec to alter it?

Hi, to start with, I know I'm not the ideal investor. I'm on ODSP, unable to work, and do what I can to survive. I live with family, etc. There is no realistic way for me to contribute large amounts to anything and saving up any amount of money is difficult. I do manage to do so, though savings account interest is horrible. I'm looking at ways that I can maybe get a bit of extra income from in a few years.

I'm hopeful that, maybe, someone can point me towards things to look at. I've started looking into things and, so far, think wealthsinple could be a good choice for me. I do need assistance, so the robo investor is a big part of why it seems like a good choice.

I know it will not be huge amounts, I know it will never be enough to live off of, I know it will take a lot of time. I'm not sure if investing is the right route, but I honestly haven't been able to find out about anything better.

And I just need something. My family won't be able to help me out forever, and benefits will most likely never increase to a point where I can live with any semblance of actual cost of living. It's the hand I've been dealt and I'm just trying to find ways to help future me a little bit, while I have family who can/are willing to help. I can at least try, right?

If anyone has any resources, advice, a "hey look into XYZ instead it might be better for you", or "you should ask in XYZ and not here", I would greatly appreciate it. I am genuinely trying to learn about options and how best to do something, and hope that "sorry, do nothing" isn't my only option out there.

Also, I know that people can be very divided on the whole idea of disability. Please be kind. I'm not looking for anything but advice and mentioned my ODSP as it is a severe limitation to what I can realistically do, and I don't see that changing for the rest of my life, so that any advice I can get accounts for that monetary restriction.

EDIT

Thank you for the responses. Especially since you guys have more knowledge than I do. I'm going to look into the recommended YouTube, but also work on seeing if there's a financial planner in my town who can help me. I'll probably contact my worker about that, as they should have more resources there than I do. it sounds like even doing investments with wealthsinple or similar won't do what I need so I'll keep investigating options.

Is cra log in down? im getting the error message

I opened a RBC Direct Investing account last November during the 1 Avion point per $2 transfer promo. I have called and confirmed that the promo is linked to my account. T&C stated that I should receive the points by Aug 31, 2026, but I have yet to receive it. Anyone here on the same boat?

I called RBC DI this morning and the agent just told me to call back again if I still don’t see it by Sep 5 or 6…

Looking to leave home and not return, hopefully to cut contact completely, but my family is weird. They might try to find me / stalk me and I am planning on making sure that doesn’t happen. When I leave I probably won’t have a permanent residence for 1-2 months later and need to make sure my mail doesn’t get sent to my old address and have information leaked there.

So I am wondering what options I have on the mailing front? Does there exist like a place that I can pay to handle my mail for me?