Just paid off my mortgage. What should I be doing with the monthly money I don't have to pay towards the house?

This is really a matter of what your goals are. Having a paid off house is nice, but unless you downsize or move to a cheaper area you really can't access that equity to live off of.

When do you want to retire? Do you have a pension/retirement fund? If no, then it is probably wise to start looking into registered accounts. At 44, your income levels might make most sense to start with maxing out your RRSP and then TFSA. Assuming you retire at 65, you still have 20 years of growth.

Alternatively, if you don't need to be saving for retirement or otherwise dont want to invest then you can literally spend that additional monthly cashflow on whatever you want.

A rental property, in a way, is running a small business. For the most part it is generally hands off but it is no where close to 100% passive. Depending on the property you purchase you may be getting calls from your tenants every few weeks about something being broken or you might never hear from them for months on end. Turning around units when you get new tenants is the hardest part and a serious time crunch, unless you leave the unit vacant for a month.

At 44, do you want the additional stress of being a landlord? I am not saying that you shouldn't purchase a rental property, but I find that it is the first thing people gravitate towards when they don't otherwise understand how investing as a whole works.

/r/PersonalFinanceCanada Thread