Hey Jonathan thank you for these questions and sorry for just getting back to you on this – for some reason this comment got lost in the sea of pending comments out there!

I spoke with our FI minded mortgage broker friend in town who stated once our 5 year fixed rate is up, we will be able to pay off the remaining mortgage balance Vs renewing into a new term. (Our current mortgage does have prepayment options built into to too.)

And yes, we did factor in the income tax side of things with the GICs and since we are in a low tax bracket without the work salary anymore, we’re still at a nice win even when factoring in taxes.

Great post as usual. Quick question regarding your plan to invest in GIC’s instead of paying down your mortgage. It does sound like it makes sense at first glance given the rate of return on the GICs is higher than your borrowing rate. That said, will you be able to pay down your mortgage all at once after the fixed rate term expires or will you be subject to prepayment restrictions? My concern being what happens if prepayment restrictions prevent you from paying down the mortgage at the end of your low fixed rate term and your mortgage is reset at a higher rate. It may not be a factor if you don’t have prepayment restrictions.

The other thing I thought about is that you will want to make sure you are adjusting your GIC rate for taxes when comparing it to your borrowing costs (assuming these are non registered funds and the interest income will be taxed at your marginal tax rate).

Again, thanks for sharing. I’m a big fan of your content.