|
Is there a good primer on capital gains anywhere? I'm looking to sell some stock for the first time and want to know what I'm in for. What is the current preferred eft site these days? I would like to move away from TD.
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2015 13:24
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 05:30 |
|
|
Demon_Corsair posted:Is there a good primer on capital gains anywhere? I'm looking to sell some stock for the first time and want to know what I'm in for. Simple answer is that your taxable capital gains are the difference between your selling price and average cost base, which is the average cost of buying the position plus any trading fees. You are taxable on half of your capital gains at your marginal rate. So let's say you bought 1000 shares at $10/share then later bought another 1000 shares at $20/share. Each trade cost $9.95 in trading fees. This means your total cost base is 1000x$10+1000x$20+2x$9.95=$30,019.90. Average cost base is total cost base / 2000 or $15.00995/share. Let's say the stock is now trading at $40 and you decide to sell 500 shares. You'll receive 500x$40-$9.95=$19,990.05. Your profit is then $19,990.05-500*$15.00995=$12,485.075 The taxable amount is half that, or 6,242.5375, and say your marginal tax rate is 30%, you'd then owe tax of 1,872.76125. To figure out the marginal rate, look at what your highest combined federal and provincial tax bracket would be based on your non-investment income.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2015 03:17
|
|
|
TFSAs are a pretty bad idea for anyone who is obligated to pay the US government taxes on all worldwide income (so Canadians living in the US, and US citizens living in Canada).
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2015 06:23
|
|
|
The OP of this thread should have mentioned something to that effect because two days ago was literally the first time I heard of TFSAs for Americans being a terrible idea, and I was lucky it was even mentioned at all. That fact isn't obvious for the vast majority of people, and every Canadian-American I've talked to here wasn't aware of this and everyone's freaking out.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2015 16:21
|
|
|
Olive Branch posted:The OP of this thread should have mentioned something to that effect because two days ago was literally the first time I heard of TFSAs for Americans being a terrible idea, and I was lucky it was even mentioned at all. That fact isn't obvious for the vast majority of people, and every Canadian-American I've talked to here wasn't aware of this and everyone's freaking out. Perhaps you should check with an accountant or tax professional rather than relying on the OP of a thread in a comedy internet forum for important financial advice.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2015 16:26
|
|
|
So I finally got a few thousand to play with with my TD e-series stuff. I went about 40% international index -e, 40% US index -e, 10% Canadian index -e, and 10% Canadian bond index -e%. Seem reasonable? It's a lot less Canadian heavy than couch potato recommends but I agree with a lot of the posters here who say by living and working in a country you're already super exposed to its markets.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2015 16:28
|
|
|
Olive Branch posted:The OP of this thread should have mentioned something to that effect because two days ago was literally the first time I heard of TFSAs for Americans being a terrible idea, and I was lucky it was even mentioned at all. That fact isn't obvious for the vast majority of people, and every Canadian-American I've talked to here wasn't aware of this and everyone's freaking out. The OP of this thread is not an accountant, has no personal need to be aware of any tax complications that arise from US citizenship, and also this is a comedy forum; i.e. not the best place to receive tax/investing advice when you're a non-domiciled citizen of a nation widely-reputed for the tax burden and compliance issues it imposes on its citizens worldwide.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2015 16:29
|
|
|
Lexicon posted:The OP of this thread is not an accountant, has no personal need to be aware of any tax complications that arise from US citizenship, and also this is a comedy forum; i.e. not the best place to receive tax/investing advice when you're a non-domiciled citizen of a nation widely-reputed for the tax burden and compliance issues it imposes on its citizens worldwide.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2015 16:40
|
|
|
My mom is currently working in the US under a Visa for her company and is applying for a SSN, she is a life-long Canadian Resident. Is there anything tax wise she should be worried about? I feel like my parents won't research this at all until it's too late.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2015 16:45
|
|
|
DariusLikewise posted:My mom is currently working in the US under a Visa for her company and is applying for a SSN, she is a life-long Canadian Resident. Is there anything tax wise she should be worried about? I feel like my parents won't research this at all until it's too late. Any savings in taxes that she'll receive will have to be offset by Canadian taxes. Tell her to make sure to be ready to receive a tax bill from the CRA at the end of the year. This is if she is still resident in Canada. Declaring yourself not resident can be complicated. She would have to get rid of drivers license, Canadian credit cards etc. There's no hard and fast rule so she should speak to an accountant.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2015 17:12
|
|
|
Cultural Imperial posted:Any savings in taxes that she'll receive will have to be offset by Canadian taxes. Tell her to make sure to be ready to receive a tax bill from the CRA at the end of the year. This is if she is still resident in Canada. It's just a temporary work Visa I believe. She's been going down to Texas for 2 weeks a month for the last few months, but she still is a resident here and employed by the Canadian branch of her company.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2015 17:25
|
|
|
Olive Branch posted:I know all of this, but then why bother giving information in the first place if this is a comedy forum? You were very helpful making the OP, but then you might as well just delete that second post reserved for follow-ups. Do you still not get it? This is a general interest topic, started by a [non-American] layperson, in a highly non-serious place, and your complaint is that information pertaining to your niche scenario wasn't covered. If you want to summarize your findings on US citizens and TFSAs, I'm more than happy to put it in the 2nd post though. I assume there's probably a bit more to it than "US citizen + TFSA = bad".
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2015 17:25
|
|
|
DariusLikewise posted:It's just a temporary work Visa I believe. She's been going down to Texas for 2 weeks a month for the last few months, but she still is a resident here and employed by the Canadian branch of her company. Is she getting an L1/TN? Has she actually obtained the visa? If you live in the vancouver area, I have advice on where to obtain the visa. Don't go to peace arch. Go to linden.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2015 17:32
|
|
|
Olive Branch posted:The OP of this thread should have mentioned something to that effect because two days ago was literally the first time I heard of TFSAs for Americans being a terrible idea, and I was lucky it was even mentioned at all. That fact isn't obvious for the vast majority of people, and every Canadian-American I've talked to here wasn't aware of this and everyone's freaking out. If you, or none of your American friends, all of whom have to file with the IRS every year, couldn't figure out that the fact that Canada was giving you something tax-free might have implications in the other country where you owe taxes, well I don't know what to tell you but that's pretty dumb. And the fact that you seem pretty upset at the fact that a general information post on a comedy forum didn't give you specifics about your tax situation with a different country entirely is ridiculous.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2015 19:39
|
|
|
HookShot posted:If you, or none of your American friends, all of whom have to file with the IRS every year, couldn't figure out that the fact that Canada was giving you something tax-free might have implications in the other country where you owe taxes, well I don't know what to tell you but that's pretty dumb. I did overreact in jumping to the OP's conclusions, I recognize that. I figured that the high population of Americans in the site and posting in this subforum would flock to this thread if they were living in Canada, but I see now we're a minority, so to speak. I'll go continue to deal with a tax adviser and my own situation without making GBS threads up the thread anymore with my woe. Edit to add: Despite the joking and sarcasm regarding taking financial advice from a humor website, people here seem pretty knowledgeable and it's still educational. So thanks for the info and threads for people like me who don't know their 1040 from their TPS reports. Olive Branch fucked around with this message at 22:34 on Jun 17, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2015 20:23
|
|
|
Yeah, the whole thing does suck. I know a few Americans who live in various other parts of the world who have given up their US citizenship because of the whole tax situation.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2015 23:31
|
|
|
HookShot posted:If you, or none of your American friends, all of whom have to file with the IRS every year, couldn't figure out that the fact that Canada was giving you something tax-free might have implications in the other country where you owe taxes, well I don't know what to tell you but that's pretty dumb. Not that dumb. The US/Canada respect RRSPs/401(k)s/IRAs, and I think, but am not totally sure, that Canada respects the ROTH IRA, which is very similar to the TFSA. It's just the TFSA that is the odd one out.
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2015 10:18
|
|
|
So update on my mom's portfolio which we are fixing up. Appointment at the bank today to convert her existing managed-by-the-bank (bonus fees!) TFSA, RRSP, and LIRA, to self-managed-online versions. This will mean about 200k to invest, with her intending to retire in about 6 years. She's making accelerated contributions - maxed out TFSA, some RRSP to bump her down a bracket where possible and save that income for retirement - tune of 50k a year, plus extra she's owed will put her at 500k+whatever gains we achieve in the next several years. Currently they have her like 98.6 percent in GICs at that bank itself, it was painful to read, and my mom who grew up poor knows nothing about this stuff, neither did I until tax and accounting classes at school followed by research and of course comedy forums. My current thinking is to use foreign high yield bonds and foreign short term bonds (couldn't find a canadian bond index short-term enough to not be highly volatile in light of what seems likely to happen in Canada), likewise canadian stocks don't seem that attractive when i wonder how bad an impending crash would hit us so - really any advice? Currently thinking 10 percent high yield bonds (something like XHY), 10 percent short term US bonds 10 percent short term canadian bonds (sigh) 40 percent US equity 20 percent European equity 10 percent emerging markets She doesn't need to access any part of it for at least 6 years, possibly longer, and will be making regular large lump sum contributions which are good for channelling into ETFs.
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2015 12:15
|
|
|
Seventy percent equity on a six year horizon?
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2015 12:19
|
|
|
Only out of skittishness on the bond market generally right now. Should I just bite the bullet and go with the original plan for a 45-50 percent bond allocation and try to find it in non-Canada places? Increasingly that's looking like the consensus in every article I look up on alternatives to bonds, and it is the conventional wisdom for, as you note, a short horizon.
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2015 12:24
|
|
|
JibberJabberwocky posted:So update on my mom's portfolio which we are fixing up. Appointment at the bank today to convert her existing managed-by-the-bank (bonus fees!) TFSA, RRSP, and LIRA, to self-managed-online versions. This will mean about 200k to invest, with her intending to retire in about 6 years. She's making accelerated contributions - maxed out TFSA, some RRSP to bump her down a bracket where possible and save that income for retirement - tune of 50k a year, plus extra she's owed will put her at 500k+whatever gains we achieve in the next several years. There's nothing wrong with an equity allocation for a person who's got probably 30 years of retirement to come. I'd personally be reluctant to be in HY bonds, they're the most likely to catastrophically fail if rates rise quickly. For someone in your mother's situation a reasonable strategy normally would be 20-25% LT govt bonds, 20-25% mid- to short-term corporates, some reits for less correlated yield and then a large-cap value enhanced index fund of some sort. Given rate expectations over the next two years you could make a good case for less initial bond fund allocation, using reits and value stocks as an alternative, and then use her contributions after rates have increased to start adding bonds. The reason for a value-biased fund is that value stocks have a higher income bias than growth stocks. Enhanced indexing is modestly more expensive than pure indexing but allows you to do things like take a value or growth bias. FrozenVent posted:Seventy percent equity on a six year horizon? See above, it's not a 6-year horizon, it's a thirty plus year horizon with two life phases - one high contribution where risk to currently invested capital is significantly less than annual contributions, and one where there's no contributions but she will want some ability to potentially beat inflation. She's got to aim for some capital growth in the short term and at least aim to beat inflation in the long term, which equity is more statistically likely to do. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to go pure yield in retirement unless your savings massively outstrip your spending needs. As for Canada vs non-Canada, you need to keep in mind that adding FX exposure statistically reduces risk overall but can add tail risk - if you need to make withdrawals with both poor local currency performance and poor foreign investment performance your losses can be amplified.
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2015 14:36
|
|
|
Cultural Imperial posted:Is she getting an L1/TN? She's getting a L1, her work is handling most of the process I believe, everything is out of Winnipeg.
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2015 16:49
|
|
|
DariusLikewise posted:She's getting a L1, her work is handling most of the process I believe, everything is out of Winnipeg. Tell her to make sure she has her story straight and that she is very precise about what she is doing in the USA when she gets interviewed for her visa. The cbp are humungous assholes. Tell her to rehearse her story. I can't emphasize this enough.
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2015 17:45
|
|
|
I apologize if this has already been covered, but: I finally applied for the MBNA SmartCash credit card, but I was declined. I got a letter the week after saying it was due to my lack of revolving credit. What's my next step? Should I just go to my bank, get whatever card I can from them, use it as much as I can for six months and try again? I'm 28 years old, but I've never had to deal with anything like this (and my parents were never any help at all).
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2015 17:54
|
|
|
Why do you want that exact card?
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2015 18:33
|
|
|
Baronjutter posted:Why do you want that exact card? I don't want that exact card. It was just the recommendation that I got. I'll take any other recommendations, but considering my credit isn't exactly that well-established, I'm probably limited.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2015 18:57
|
|
|
That amazon card a bunch of us got was ridiculously easy to get and seems to give pretty good rewards.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2015 19:07
|
|
|
Baronjutter posted:That amazon card a bunch of us got was ridiculously easy to get and seems to give pretty good rewards. Ooh I'll check it out. I was looking at that one too for Amazon purchases and foreign travel. Speaking of which, is there anything that I should know about using a credit card in other countries? (Remember, I'm pretty far behind when it comes to credit card knowledge).
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2015 19:15
|
|
|
The Smartcash MC is actually handsdown better than the Amazon.ca Visa for everything except Forex fees, but the latter is still worth having. 1% back flat, no fee. Go for that one, mojo1701a.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2015 19:20
|
|
|
Just call ahead of time and let them know where you're going or they'll flag your card as stolen. Sometimes they can get really stupid like "You told us you'd be in Prague until May 20th so we locked down your card because there was a purchase in Novy Bor on May 19th". Some places are fine and you just let them know what countries you are going to and very loose dates, sometimes they want your loving city by city itinerary.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2015 19:21
|
|
|
mojo1701a posted:Ooh I'll check it out. I was looking at that one too for Amazon purchases and foreign travel. You should call in and tell them which countries you're travelling to just before you leave so that your card doesn't get blocked (eventually), though often it will work for most things without that anyway. Note that some places don't accept foreign cards, so have a backup. The Amazon.ca Visa is good because they don't tack on the usual 2.5% forex commission that everyone else (credit and debit) does.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2015 19:26
|
|
|
Baronjutter posted:Just call ahead of time and let them know where you're going or they'll flag your card as stolen. Sometimes they can get really stupid like "You told us you'd be in Prague until May 20th so we locked down your card because there was a purchase in Novy Bor on May 19th". Some places are fine and you just let them know what countries you are going to and very loose dates, sometimes they want your loving city by city itinerary. I know they're a bunch of gougers, but I've had great success with Scotiabank when travelling*. When I opened my accounts, I just said to the lady something like "Look, I'm going to go work on a ship. I need to be able to use my cards everywhere, and I need to be able to send money to this account from around the world. I don't want my card frozen because it was used in two different countries on two consecutive days. I will also be bringing in 4 or 5 months worth of wages in cash on occasion" And I've never had much more issue than being asked to provide a paystub to show where the cash came from. If you let them know, they're generally really good about it. The lady opening my account even gave me a list of partner banks in other countries where I could use their ATM without any fees (other than exchange rate monkey business). *The tellers in the Bridgetown branch though; so very very very slow. Minimum 1 hour to send a wire transfer to a branch in Canada from Barbados.
|
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2015 02:00
|
|
|
With all the stuff happening in China, I wanted to look into how it might be impacting my TD e-series funds. I'm actually quite surprised to discover that the Internation Equity fund doesn't include China at all. For people exclusively using e-series, is it a smart investing strategy to be completely excluding China from your portfolio?
|
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2015 23:22
|
|
|
This week the total value of all my e-series went down $10, so so far not bad.
|
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2015 23:24
|
|
|
Bucswabe posted:With all the stuff happening in China, I wanted to look into how it might be impacting my TD e-series funds. I'm actually quite surprised to discover that the Internation Equity fund doesn't include China at all. The whole point of index investing is that you aren't making company or country specific decisions beyond the initial top level allocation decision. China in the news? Who gives a poo poo - stick to your sensible allocation and forget about it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2015 00:15
|
|
|
Canada is literally the worst performing part of my e-series, and I actually have some of that European fund that I assumed would have gotten hammered with the Greece poo poo this week.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2015 00:26
|
|
|
Lexicon posted:The whole point of index investing is that you aren't making company or country specific decisions beyond the initial top level allocation decision. China in the news? Who gives a poo poo - stick to your sensible allocation and forget about it. This is the best investment advice. There's the old story about the investment company that looked back over the decades at the clients that performed best and they noticed a solid trend: the investor was dead, or had forgotten about their accounts. Specially with the e-series, just fire and forget. Don't try to time the market, don't read financial news and try to react to events, just forget and wait.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2015 01:08
|
|
|
Baronjutter posted:This is the best investment advice. There's the old story about the investment company that looked back over the decades at the clients that performed best and they noticed a solid trend: the investor was dead, or had forgotten about their accounts. Specially with the e-series, just fire and forget. Don't try to time the market, don't read financial news and try to react to events, just forget and wait. By the time things hit the news, most of the big players that can actually move markets have already considered it and it's already in the price so acting on news just means you're ovrcorrecting.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2015 18:21
|
|
|
Lexicon posted:The whole point of index investing is that you aren't making company or country specific decisions beyond the initial top level allocation decision. China in the news? Who gives a poo poo - stick to your sensible allocation and forget about it. I always appreciate the advice in this thread, but I just want to clarify my question. I wasn't specifically asking about timing the market or anything like that. I wanted to get some input about weightings of an overall portfolio that does not include anything from China at all. We all have some (maybe 10-30%) weighting towards Canada, a much higher weighting for the US, and then a big chunk for international. If the goal of index investing is to approximate the weightings of the global economy, then isn't it a big oversight to leave out an economy as large as China? Or is the thread saying that this doesn't really matter? For someone like me who is currently only using e-series to invest, I'm wondering if I should be buying funds in addition to the primary four.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2015 03:39
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 05:30 |
|
|
Great question, and the clarification is very helpful. In short, yes, the goal is to approximate the global economy - but that goal is in conflict with other goals, such as home bias for currency/tax preference, as well as the goal of low cost simplicity. e-series doesn't map perfectly onto approximating the global economy - China is a notable omission as you say, but unless your portfolio is 6 figures+, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, essentially.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2015 03:52
|
|