Most of what people know about mortgages, they learn at the worst possible moment: sitting across from a lender, with a pre-approval deadline or a renewal letter in hand. The words come fast. Amortization, term, stress test, prepayment privilege, IRD. It's hard to weigh a decision when half the vocabulary is new.
So we built something for the calmer moment before that. Learn is a free set of short lessons on mortgages, debt and everyday money, written in plain Canadian English with Ontario examples. There's no account to create and nothing to sign up for.
What's in it
There are two tracks.
The main track has twelve lessons in four modules. Mortgage basics covers what a payment is made of and how fixed, variable, term and renewal fit together. Buying a home walks through saving a down payment, how much you might be able to borrow, and what a broker or lender actually does for you. Managing your mortgage covers paying it off faster, refinancing and breaking a mortgage, home equity lines of credit, and moving with a mortgage. Debt and credit covers how credit card interest works, ways to pay down debt, and credit scores alongside a simple budget.
The second track, Money basics for students, is six shorter lessons for high school students: a first paycheque, saving and compound interest, a first credit card, borrowing from OSAP to payday loans, renting a first place, and spotting money scams.
Behind both sits a glossary of more than sixty terms, for when a single word is the thing standing in the way.
How a lesson works
Each lesson takes about five to eight minutes. It starts with a worked example using realistic numbers. In the debt lesson, for instance, one household with three balances tries paying highest rate first, then smallest balance first, and sees roughly what each costs in months and interest. Every figure is an estimate worked out with the same maths that runs our calculators.
Partway through, there's something to try: an interactive figure you can change to see how the numbers move. At the end, a few quick questions check that the main ideas landed, with an explanation for each answer. Finish them and you earn the lesson's badge. Each lesson also links to the calculator that lets you plug in your own numbers.
Your progress and badges are kept only in your own browser. We don't see your answers.
What people can use it for
Before a first purchase. If buying is a year or two away, the buying lessons are a good place to start. They explain down payments, mortgage insurance and the stress test before any of it is urgent, so a pre-approval conversation goes further.
Before a renewal. If your renewal letter is a few months off, the basics and managing lessons cover the choices you'll be asked to make: fixed or variable, how long a term, and whether paying a bit extra each year is worth it.
When debt is weighing on you. The debt lessons lay out the options side by side, including consolidation, without assuming any one of them is right for you. They pair well with our debt consolidation calculator.
For a teenager, or a classroom. The student lessons are free to use in class, with no accounts, and nothing students enter is collected. They're written for Ontario students and work alongside the financial literacy parts of Grade 10 Career Studies and high school math. Parents can work through them with a teen over a couple of evenings.
As a refresher. Plenty of people have had a mortgage for years without anyone explaining why the early payments are mostly interest. Ten minutes on the first lesson usually clears that up.
What it isn't
The lessons explain how things work. They don't tell you what to do with your own mortgage or debt, and the worked examples aren't quotes or offers. For decisions that depend on your income, credit or lender, the lessons are good preparation for a conversation with a lender or licensed broker, not a replacement for one.
Would you like more of this?
This is a first version, and we'd like to build what people actually find useful. More lessons for first-time buyers? Something on investing, or on retirement and the mortgage? A version teachers can hand out? A lesson on a topic we haven't thought of?
If you'd like to see more lessons like these, or there's a topic you wish someone would explain plainly, email us at info@mortgageskip.ca. A line or two is plenty, and we read every message.
In the meantime, start with the first lesson, or browse everything in Learn.