Chapter 6: Best Investment Ever

I am so happy we adopted the plan of my former work colleague Gerry and booked a retirement trip. We have just wrapped up the first leg of this cruise experience, twelve nights sailing the Mediterranean Sea and visiting beautiful cities along the way. We are back on the ship now for part two, ten nights sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, on our way to Puerto Rico. No, we did not win the lottery. The initial plan was to do an eight-night river cruise somewhere in Europe. Early one morning about seven months ago, I hauled my tired body out of bed and stumbled to the kitchen for my wake-up coffee. My partner in crime is an early riser, so her day has been underway for an hour or two. I will never forget the words she said to me that morning, “Get your coffee and sit down. We have to talk”. I came to life very quickly. What did I do? I quickly scour my brain for any recent missteps that may have come to light. I poured my coffee and took my stool at the counter. This time, out loud, I repeated those words. What did I do? Her response allowed air to enter my lungs again. “Oh, nothing. I need to show you something.” She passes me her laptop, and I see a quote for back-to-back cruises with more discounts than Kellog’s has cornflakes. Factoring in all costs, this back-to-back twenty-two-night cruise package was cheaper than the river cruise! The plan had changed.

This story really has nothing to do with our best investment ever, but it is an example of how we have lived our lives. We know we can’t have it all, so we focus on what is important to us. Travel is something we very much enjoy so we have made it a priority. Patience and taking the time to seek out the best deal has served us well.

Our best investment ever was purchasing our home. We have lived in the same house for almost forty years. When we bought, interest rates were extremely high, compared to today. Our first mortgage rate was a whopping 14.75 percent! A decade before, some people were renewing their terms at twenty percent or higher. There was a huge financial crisis in the late seventies/early eighties and many people suffered greatly because of it. When we bought, the rates were on the decline. It was slow, but they were coming down. Before I get in to how buying our home helped us financially throughout our lives, it is important that I start from the beginning to give some context.

At that time, we banked exclusively with the Bank of Nova Scotia. As we watched mortgage rates drop, our bank did nothing for us. For convenience, I would often stop on payday at a branch managed by my friend Bill, to cash my pay cheque. This was long before the days of direct deposit and online banking. One day, Bill called out to me and asked if my bank branch had talked to me about blending our mortgage rate, taking our existing rate and the rate of the day and blending them to reduce the rate we were paying. There was a one-hundred-dollar administration fee, but still in all it was a good deal. We ended up blending our rate about three times over the next year, always initiated by us. We were not at all happy with our personal banker at our branch. Push came to shove when I received the renewal notice for a car loan we had. Although interest rates had been continuously falling, our car payment was going up! I called Barb, my banker, and asked what was happening. She said that it had something to do with insurance. I responded that I didn’t understand. Interest rates were falling so my loan payment should be going down, not up. Again, I was told it had something to do with insurance. I said to her, Barb, you don’t understand. Interest rates are down; my payment should be down. No response. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. We started the hunt for a new financial institution. We made appointments with all the major banks. We built a file with our entire financial history, current accounts and loans, etc. Some wouldn’t take us; some wouldn’t even meet with us. A wonderful young representative at TD Bank met with us. She listened to our story and reviewed our documentation. She said she would take it to her manager and get back to us. A few days later, Jill called. She said her manager agreed to take us on, on one condition. They wanted everything. Mortgage, car loan, all of it. We met again and she showed us the numbers. We were coming in at better interest rates than we had ever seen. The numbers were almost unbelievable. We were ecstatic! I asked what next steps would be. She said we would need to reach out to Scotiabank and ask for all the buyouts. We would most likely have to pay a penalty to get out of our mortgage early, but it would be worth it. I will never forget my final conversation with our banker Barb. I said Barb, I would like the payouts for our mortgage, our car loan and our personal loan, on a specific date. She said to me, Brian, is there a problem? I said, with a big smile, not anymore!

We went through the process of switching banks and started fresh with our new institution. One day my wife called me. There was a problem with our bank account. What was the problem I asked. We had too much money in the account. Payments should have come out. Something is wrong. It turned out that there was such a significant difference in what we had to pay monthly, she thought there had been a huge error. Finding not just the right bank, but the right people made a tremendous difference in our lives. We are grateful every day for all they have done for us, and we have never looked back. Making this decision to find a better financial partner meant we were finally in a position where our best investment to date, our house and mortgage, could finally be an asset instead of a constant worry. More on this next time.