The holiday season is upon us and there's much to do. You might have a gift list, a grocery list and even a Christmas decorations list to help keep track of what you need to do. But what about an end-of-year financial checklist? It can be easy to forget about financial housekeeping matters this time of year. We've put together this brief end-of-year financial checklist to help you get started.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and happy holidays, from all of us at the Investor Office and the Ontario Securities Commission.

Avoid a Financial Hangover

In the midst of holiday shopping, it's easy to lose track of your spending and fall into a pattern of impulse buying. To avoid a financial hangover this holiday season, plan ahead and manage your finances with these quick tips:

1. Budget. Create a budget to limit your spending and plan who to buy gifts for, and how much to spend. Use one of our budget worksheets to get started. You can bring it with you on shopping trips or save it on your desktop as a handy reference when online shopping.

2. Financial Health Check. Regularly check your financial health and know the difference between what you own and what you owe. Be careful not to take on more debt than you can afford.

3. Save. Look for ways to save money. Use coupons or shop around to compare prices. If you received a holiday bonus, save a portion of it for the future.

4. Avoid Fraud. Unfortunately, fraudsters use the holiday season as an opportunity to target people. Review your credit card and other financial statements for unauthorized or suspicious transactions. If someone is offering you an investment opportunity, remember to look out for the warning signs of fraud.

New Financial Literacy 101 YouTube Series

If you haven't seen our new Financial Literacy 101 video series about money and investing basics, check out our YouTube channel. Watch our first two videos on what you need to know about Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) and Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs).

Watch now
✓ RRSPs 101 (Part 1) NEW
✓ TFSAs 101 (Part 1) NEW

Coming soon
✓ RRSPs 101 (Part 2)
✓ RRSPs 101 (Part 3)
✓ Stocks 101
✓ Mutual Funds 101
✓ ETFs 101

New Spending Habits Calculator

We launched our new Spending Habits Calculator last month. Use it to find out how much you spend on non-essential items and how spending adjustments can help you save more money.

Visit GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca for more popular and free articles, tools and calculators to help you with your finances.

All-in-one ETFs

An all-in-one exchange-traded fund (ETF) bundles many other individual ETFs together. It can provide more diversification than a regular ETF. It may also offer lower fees and the convenience of automatic rebalancing. All-in-one ETFs can be bought and sold on the stock exchange, just like many other types of ETFs. Read our new article to learn more

InvestingFundamentals.ca

For many people investing is complex. There can be lots of unfamiliar terms and concepts, and people might not know where to start. To help with this, we’ve created InvestingFundamentals.ca, a new interactive microsite dedicated to some of the investing fundamentals.

Visit InvestingFundamentals.ca to learn about the 8 investing fundamentals for making smarter investing decisions using easy-to-understand visuals and language. Explore InvestingFundamentals.ca today!

Mortgage Investment Entities

Mortgage Investment Entities (MIEs) are mortgage-financing businesses that pool together money from investors to lend to other people as mortgages. An MIE earns income from the mortgage interest, financing fees, mortgage renewal fees, cancellation penalties and other fees that it charges. As an investor, it's important to understand how the MIE works, as there many different structures, and associated risks. Learn more

Familiarity Bias

Do you only invest in GICs or a handful of stocks because you are unfamiliar with other investment choices? It’s understandable to be anxious about the unfamiliar, but learning more about different investments that may be suitable for you can help make your portfolio less risky.

Familiarity bias is a type of behavioural bias that could have an impact on your investing outcome. Learn more

Review Your Account Information

The end of the year is a good time to review your investment statements. As most of us know, it's important to regularly review them to help track your progress toward meeting your investing goals.

During the year, you should have received key information whenever you bought or sold an investment. You should have also received information about your investment performance and fees. Learn more

Avoid Holiday Debt

There's plenty of pressure during the holiday season to spend money. Check out these 8 tips to avoid holiday debt.

Update on Syndicated Mortgage Investments Oversight

The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) and the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) are informing market participants about new timing for the transfer of regulatory oversight of certain syndicated mortgage investments to the OSC.

The change was expected to take place at the beginning of 2020. The new regulatory regime is now expected to be effective in July 2020, subject to requisite approvals. Additional details regarding the transfer will be provided next year. Link to news release

Find more information about syndicated mortgages on FSRA's Syndicated Mortgage Investments Resources webpage. Learn about real estate investment products at GetSmarterAboutRealEstate.ca.