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It's more like seeing someone who makes 75k a year suddenly go spending crazy because their house keeps getting more and more valuable. They have the same job, the same income, they're just suddenly buying more stuff because they keep getting richer, but it's entirely tied up in their house value. It's not like you get monthly dividends from house equity, it's a one-time cash-out thing. Same with investments. Their funds are up, they go on a fancy vacation or buy a new car, funds down, they act like they just lost their job. It ain't spending money until it's liquid, and it's not a loss you need to worry about until you plan on cashing out.
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Jun 29, 2016 00:37
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Baronjutter posted:It ain't spending money until it's liquid, and it's not a loss you need to worry about until you plan on cashing out. Which is why, when I took accounting in school, we had it hammered into our heads that a good net income does not mean good cash flow.
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Jun 29, 2016 02:55
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cowofwar posted:Most people treat worth as income. Huh. If I asked "so what's he worth anyway" I would expect an answer like "$2M" not "$200K/year". Maybe a regional variation?
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Jun 29, 2016 04:26
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Either the dude is super rich or he was investing super dumbly anyway, my stocks lost like 3% and are already back up 1.5% since Brexit and I literally have 20% of my portfolio in a European index fund.
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Jun 29, 2016 14:37
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I have this argument with people all the time when they tell me how lucky I am to have a house and mortgage. "Think of all the money you're making" they say!
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Jun 29, 2016 15:02
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Subjunctive posted:Huh. If I asked "so what's he worth anyway" I would expect an answer like "$2M" not "$200K/year". Maybe a regional variation?
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Jun 29, 2016 15:38
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People are financially illiterate tool bags, news at 11. I stopped trying to convince others and am now okay with them losing their money on dumb stuff.
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Jun 29, 2016 15:47
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When I was in the US and made a large (for me!) donation to a Canadian charity, there was a foundation that would basically accept it as an eligible US donation (deductible) and then pay out 95% of it to the Canadian charity. It let me get a tax deduction for a donation across the border. Does anyone know of something that works the other way? To wit: a donation to a registered US charity, deductible against Canadian taxes? The charity is a college, if that matters.
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Jul 1, 2016 15:28
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Afaik you can claim deductions to international charities without any problems in Canada but I've never tried personally.
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Jul 2, 2016 00:06
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They need to be registered in Canada, except that you can claim donations to US charities against US-sourced income (which I don't expect to have). http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/p113/p113-e.html#P99_6372 has the details.
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Jul 2, 2016 00:44
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On the topic of canada and taxes, I found a neat (and somewhat saddening) trend analysis and ranking of effective tax rates in the different provinces after accounting for all the bullshit not-a-tax taxes. Full writeup and interactive charts here, prepare to 
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Jul 4, 2016 17:19
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I'm hoping someone can give me a vacation pay 101 primer, specifically for in BC. As an salaried employee in a management role (ie, no earned overtime), I'm assuming vacation pay is based on a standard 40h work week. One thing I can't determine (specific to BC), is whether or not vacation pay is based on base salary, or also includes bonuses. For instance, base pay is 50k, bonus over the fiscal year is 50k. Total compensation is 100k. 3 weeks vacation, but only 2 weeks taken off work. If I were to be paid out for the final 5 days, would it be a percentage of 50k, or 100k?
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Jul 6, 2016 05:28
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Vacation pay is based on your base only. In Canada, most companies write their benefits plan such that any un-used vacation vanishes and you are only legally entitled to a pay-out to the extent you use less than two weeks of vacation (the statutory minimum). Some companies do pay out for additional in-used vacation but you should read your company's benefits plan to find out.
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Jul 6, 2016 10:45
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Just moved to the US and no longer living in the Canada. I have about 15k in my RRSP with Great West Life and I just realized that most their fees are 1.5 - 2% for all their funds. Any recommendations where I can transfer the money that has low fee US/Canadian index funds? Would it be possible to transfer my GWL RRSP to a brokerage RRSP which will serve me as a US resident and then buy an index fund? edit: don't want Canadian mutual funds so I don't run into any tax issues in the US. lol internet. fucked around with this message at 06:53 on Jul 9, 2016 |
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Jul 9, 2016 06:28
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What tax issues would you encounter from holding Canadian funds?
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Jul 23, 2016 01:19
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Foreign income reporting
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Jul 23, 2016 02:36
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Unless he's withdrawing from the RRSP there's no income anyway, and RRSPs don't require reporting under FBAR. Even outside of the RRSP context, proceeds earned from Canadian securities as a US resident just gets you a 1099-INT and it's trivial to include alongside US-sourced investment 1099s. I don't know of any US investment service that manages RRSP accounts though.
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Jul 23, 2016 04:34
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Subjunctive posted:Even outside of the RRSP context, proceeds earned from Canadian securities as a US resident just gets you a 1099-INT and it's trivial to include alongside US-sourced investment 1099s. Is this true even in the context of securities held at a Canadian institution? (trying to formulate a plan of action for my non-reg holdings for if/when I move to the US)
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Jul 25, 2016 02:06
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Lexicon posted:Is this true even in the context of securities held at a Canadian institution? Yes, I kept mine with a Canadian institution.
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Jul 25, 2016 02:17
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I'm fairly new to investing, and could use some feed back on some "big picture" tax allocations. I opened up a TFSA with TD Direct Investing last year, and have been following the CCP allocations with it; TDB 900, 902, 909, and 911. When I maxed out contribution room last year, I also opened up an RRSP with Questrade; also loosely following the Vanguard CCP suggestions; VAB, VCN and VXC. I'm a few contributions short of maxing out the TFSA this year, but have plenty of RRSP contribution space. A) should I contemplate selling off my US Equities (TDB909) within the TFSA, and holding US Equities (VXC, possibly a mix of VUN) exclusively in my RRSP for tax withholding purposes? B) once I approach my RRSP limit (or choose to hold some money in a non-registered account for easier access with no tax-penalties), is it more tax efficient to hold CDN bonds or CDN equities outside a tax sheltered account? As a side note, I think in retrospect that my CDN allocations is a little on the heavy. I'll try and deal with that during my next few buys, or when liquidating my US holdings in the TFSA.
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Jul 29, 2016 15:14
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Reggie Died posted:I'm fairly new to investing, and could use some feed back on some "big picture" tax allocations. Didn't have enough time to do a proper think through of your scenario, and would need some more numbers to do a proper response, but here is what my initial thoughts are based on what you wrote. Unless you have USD in your RRSP and use it to buy VTI or another us listed index directly, there's no tax difference between the options you presented. There's no tax penalty per se associated with the rrsp, just fit withholding that will be credited against your tax due at the end of the year. All else being equal, you don't pay extra taxes when your income comes from an rrsp. There is a 15% withholding on foreign dividends which works out to an extra 0.3% drag ($30 for every 10k), but for someone in your situation (non maxed registered accounts are your only investments) it's not going to make a significant difference at this level and you shouldn't structure your holdings to avoid it. Transaction fees prohibit making frequent forex trades and would take years to recover unless you're already very wealthy. Good is the enemy of perfect etc etc. Your last question is going to be very hard to come up with an answer to. Do you mean most tax-efficient in any given year or at the end of a lifetime? Bond incomes by itself is most inefficient in an unregistered account because interest income is taxed at full marginal rate, but being able to shelter the games from equities could be more valuable in the long term. If you're asking these questions you're already in pretty good shape though I'd wager. I don't see anything "wrong" (ie, 3% MER MF with a DSC that a family friend sold you), so I'd recommend not pulling any triggers right away and just learning more for now. The most I'd think about doing right now is opening up your tfsa with questrade to take advantage of the lower fees, but that's just personal technique since there are valid reasons to have an account with TD. Hope some of this helps.
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Jul 30, 2016 23:47
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Thanks for the reply. I think I was getting confused with a Canadian ETF holding US funds (VUN) vs a US ETF holding the same underlying funds and/or tracking the same sector (VTI)? The former can be held anywhere, with the tax witholdings being priced into the fund, whereas the latter should be held in an RRSP or unregistered account, for the clawback? Sorry I've been reading articles here and there but it hasn't really sunk in yet. And your right, I should probably just worry about saving and filling up my RRSP before the intricacies of what to hold in non-registered accounts
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Jul 31, 2016 02:39
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Reggie Died posted:Thanks for the reply. I think I was getting confused with a Canadian ETF holding US funds (VUN) vs a US ETF holding the same underlying funds and/or tracking the same sector (VTI)? The former can be held anywhere, with the tax witholdings being priced into the fund, whereas the latter should be held in an RRSP or unregistered account, for the clawback? From what I understand, any fund can be held in any account as the tax is paid either way (eg, VTI or VUN), but only the foreign fund in directly held in an RRSP can have the FWT be effectively claimed back by using the taxes paid to offset your own tax liability due to agreements between governments. Past a certain threshold it becomes worth the trouble (ie, eliminating the 30 basis point drag saves you more money than the $20 bucks to do Norbert's gambit or eat the 1% loss on forex for each and every trade). I'm personally hitting the point this year where my registered accounts will be full and I can start investing in an open account as well. My own ideas are that the simplicity of avoiding forex is worth the (for me) drag of 35 bucks a year i could save. I could potentially save up to maybe 120 bucks a year by overhauling my assets locations across the board but since I make small regular contributions it comes way too complex for me to try and figure out. I'm happy with the 99% solution that only requires 10% of the work, but that's a judgment call everybody has to make for themselves. If I'm ever worth 7 figures maybe I'll have a different perspective. Hopefully these posts aren't too disjointed, it's late and I'm on mobile so it's hard to proofread. Guest2553 fucked around with this message at 06:50 on Jul 31, 2016 |
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Jul 31, 2016 06:46
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If you want to follow the couch-potato guide in a non-registered account then there are swap-based ETFs you can use that track the market and reinvest dividends directly into the product itself (which puts off any tax payments until the date you sell as opposed to having to claim dividends every year). Check out: http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2014/05/08/a-tax-friendly-bond-etf-on-the-horizon/ http://www.horizonsetfs.com/horizons/media/pdfs/productlineup/Horizons_Product_Line_Up.pdf The main ones are HBB (Canadian Select Bonds), HXS (S&P 500) and HXT (S&P / TSX 60). Read up on them though since they're derivatives and not quite the same products that you might be used to.
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Jul 31, 2016 13:46
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Guest2553 posted:From what I understand, any fund can be held in any account as the tax is paid either way (eg, VTI or VUN), but only the foreign fund in directly held in an RRSP can have the FWT be effectively claimed back by using the taxes paid to offset your own tax liability due to agreements between governments. Past a certain threshold it becomes worth the trouble (ie, eliminating the 30 basis point drag saves you more money than the $20 bucks to do Norbert's gambit or eat the 1% loss on forex for each and every trade). So basically, until I hit a certain threshold, converting CDN to USD is usually more expensive than any tax savings from holding the US ETF/Stock directly? And once that threshold is reached, I should be thinking of what investment vehicle (RRSP -> un-registered -> TFSA) to hold those funds in? That's what I'm gathering form this article: http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2014/02/20/the-true-cost-of-foreign-withholding-taxes/ I think I'll have to sit down and re-read (and not "parse" through, as I typically do) the paper he wrote with Bender. Just for the knowledge, as it's probably outside my scope with only $60k between the two accounts. Less Fat Luke posted:If you want to follow the couch-potato guide in a non-registered account then there are swap-based ETFs you can use that track the market and reinvest dividends directly into the product itself (which puts off any tax payments until the date you sell as opposed to having to claim dividends every year). Check out: Thanks, I'll give these a read too.
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Jul 31, 2016 15:52
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Tangerine on apple pay now.
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Aug 3, 2016 17:10
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For TD E-Series funds (TDB 900 and 909 specifically), can anyone point me in the direction of where I can find the fund's record date for dividend payouts?
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Aug 9, 2016 15:44
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I'm getting ready to break up with my financial advisor. I have almost $6k in a TFSA with this allocation. I haven't been told enough about this to understand what's going on with my money. Something about real estate bubble and nearly 40% in banks makes me feel uncomfortable, but I might just be too dumb to get it. I want to close this account and transfer the funds to my bank's TFSA to keep it simple. Since I'm going to have to meet with my advisor to arrange this, is there anything I should know or have ready when they say "no please don't go" - I shouldn't get dinged on my contribution room as long as everything is transferred properly. - Where should I start to learn how to handle my own investments? Between my two TFSAs, I'll have >$10k by the end of 2016. A lot of talk about index funds here, but I don't know where to begin. I'm an investment baby. My only life plan right now is to keep jamming as much of my income into savings as I can.
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Aug 9, 2016 17:48
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Ashley Madison posted:I'm getting ready to break up with my financial advisor. I have almost $6k in a TFSA with this allocation. What is going on with your money is this: it's been put in a mutual fund that is ca. 90% invested in the Canadian market (between Cdn Equity and Income Trusts), which they are charging you 2.3% of your balance (about $140/year) to hold this fund. Which is a huge rip-off. So good on you for getting out of it and trying to figure out your best option. Also, you need to find out if it's a back-end load, and if so what kind. If it was a front-end load, you paid a 5% commission just for the privilege (ha!) of buying it. If back-end, you may have to pay a set % (your link says 5.5%) when you sell, or it may be one that decreases over time (one's I've seen at CIBC decrease as a percentage to 0% at 7 years). Just so as you are fully aware of how badly they can still gently caress you on your way out. Once you've managed to salt the leeches off, you are free to do what you like. All the major banks have online brokerages that will let you buy and sell securities, ETFS, mutual funds, etc. yourself. The OP has a lot of good resources as I recall; one that is always recommended is Canadian Couch Potato. Most people here prefer ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) to mutual funds or individual securities: ETFs act as mutual funds that are traded on the stock exchange, usually have much lower fees (0.05-0.35%), and are by and large passive index funds (simply track the TSX, S&P 500, etc. etc.) You'll probably get good ideas from CCP what you should be buying, and what allocation you should be looking at (say, 30% international, 5% Canada, 20% US, 20% bonds, 25% other). Just always be aware of fees and how they impact your bottom line. If the market is on average returning 5% (after inflation) year-over-year, that 2.3% fund you own is taking half your winnings, and will take it all years whether you win or lose. Imagine expecting over the lifetime of your investment to make $300,000 ($100,000 doubling twice over 28 years), but you get $150,000 and give the bank $150,000. Fees with ETFs are much smaller (decreased by a factor of 50-100), but you have to pay a brokerage fee to trade them (average now is $10), so it can get expensive depending how many you buy and how often you rebalance. Anyway, keep at it and continue to ask questions - it's very overwhelming at the start (I still remember having no clue a couple of years ago). A book that make a lot of difference for me what The Four Pillars of Investing by William Bernstein - it's very well put together and lays the fundamentals for how to build a portfolio.
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Aug 9, 2016 18:18
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Also another thing to mention is that if you invest in the Canadian market as a whole (ie index investing), you are inevitably going to be heavily weighted in financials because the Big 5 banks make up a pretty significant chunk of the TSX. Ditto for the energy sector.
Vatek fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Aug 9, 2016 |
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Aug 9, 2016 18:29
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EDIT: Before you proceed with the below advice, I suggest you choose a proper destination for your money. Questrade or TD E-Series are the general recommendations in this thread, following a Canadian Couch Potato model, or slight variation of. Another thing to consider is your current TFSA room. Depending on your age, you might be able to just haul out the money in cash and throw it into another account. It might make things go a little smoother / more quickly / avoid transfer-out fees. It'll also allow you to avoid the awkward "I'm breaking up with you" talk with your financial advisor. Just tell them you need the cash, and they can send it to your bank account. So, can you do this? It depends on when you were born. If you were born in 1991 or later, you should have $46,500 total room. Minus the $6000 (or the total of all your TFSA account contributions, if you have more than one account) you have in there now, your room is $40,500. Any money you take out this year won't be added back to your room until next year, meaning if you take your $6000 and put it into another TFSA account, your room will be at $34,500, which certainly leaves you a lot of room to breathe. If you have an account on the CRA website, you can check out your TFSA room as of January 1st, 2016. When the CRA recalculates your TFSA room next year, they'll re-add that $6000 you took out from your Rick Rickshaw fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Aug 9, 2016 |
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Aug 9, 2016 19:09
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This is the way to go, though I'd say to go ahead and get the cash out and into a normal savings account while you figure out how to invest. Whatever you choose will need that done anyways, might as well get the ball rolling.
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Aug 9, 2016 23:48
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Aagar posted:... charging you 2.3% of your balance (about $140/year) to hold this fund. gently caress me. Aagar posted:A book that make a lot of difference for me what The Four Pillars of Investing by William Bernstein - it's very well put together and lays the fundamentals for how to build a portfolio. I will look this one up. Sounds like the kind of book I'd be in to. Vatek posted:Also another thing to mention is that if you invest in the Canadian market as a whole (ie index investing), you are inevitably going to be heavily weighted in financials because the Big 5 banks make up a pretty significant chunk of the TSX. Ditto for the energy sector. I did not know that. Thank you. Rick Rickshaw posted:Another thing to consider is your current TFSA room. Depending on your age, you might be able to just haul out the money in cash and throw it into another account. It might make things go a little smoother / more quickly / avoid transfer-out fees. It'll also allow you to avoid the awkward "I'm breaking up with you" talk with your financial advisor. Just tell them you need the cash, and they can send it to your bank account. This is a great idea. and I'll definitely check out CCP for more info. yippee cahier posted:This is the way to go, though I'd say to go ahead and get the cash out and into a normal savings account while you figure out how to invest. Whatever you choose will need that done anyways, might as well get the ball rolling. That's the plan for now! Start researching my options and hopefully be ready to start by January. Thank you for all the useful info! I'm sure I'll have a lot more questions soon.
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Aug 10, 2016 00:52
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Is there any actual impact to having unused TFSA accounts sitting idle? I opened one with TD but took my business elsewhere and I simply withdrew from my Tangerine one to redeposit. I'd like to close them but given how much waffling around has been necessary with TD in particular, I'm perfectly content going the route of  if there's no downside.
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Aug 17, 2016 04:37
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I've always been pretty good at saving. I've had investments since I started making money. But I've always let other people manage it for me. I'm currently with Worldsource and I've just come to the realization that they might be bullshit because I started to read jl collins stock series last night. I'm primarily invested in Marquis Growth Portfolio Series A (https://funds.dynamic.ca/fundprofiles/en-US/CA6I/A/CAD) with an MER of 2.5%. I've only been with Worldsource for about a year but I'm thinking that it's time to move. I applied for a Questrade account at http://www.questrade.com/campaigns/lowest_commissions (100 free trades) but I haven't heard anything in over 24 hours. Is this normal? I'm thinking of just moving 10k in Questrade for now (from my RBC chequing account) to see how things go since moving everything over from Worldsource will be complicated (I've got TFSA, LIRA RRSP, RRSP and RESPs with them). Advice appreciated. Edit: Just read this: http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2016/05/02/ask-the-spud-switching-from-e-series-funds-to-etfs/ - might take a different approach and start with TD e-series. Rhaegar fucked around with this message at 07:44 on Aug 17, 2016 |
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Aug 17, 2016 07:05
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Worldsource is screwing you out of a shitload of money so you should deal with the hassle and move everything.
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Aug 17, 2016 16:42
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Rhaegar posted:Advice appreciated. It took a while for Questrade to open an account for me. Registering that my paper documents had arrived on their end also took some time. There was an annoying period where their system wasn't quite consistent, sometimes I would log in and the account I transferred 5k wouldn't show up and the only thing I got was a message telling me to open an account. I opened a support ticket and the account reappeared. It all worked out in the end, though. Totally recommend sticking with it.
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Aug 17, 2016 16:41
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Vatek posted:Worldsource is screwing you out of a shitload of money so you should deal with the hassle and move everything. Do it, and start yesterday. Sure, it will be a hassle and take a long time. Is it worth ca. 50% of your gains over the X years? Just work out how much you think it'll gain in, say, 30 years, and ask if you're ok with handing it over to Worldsource. Unless, of course, Worldsource is beating the corresponding index by 2.5%, every year, to justify the active management. I can 99.999% guarantee they are not over the long term.
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Aug 17, 2016 16:54
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Rhaegar posted:I applied for a Questrade account at http://www.questrade.com/campaigns/lowest_commissions (100 free trades) but I haven't heard anything in over 24 hours. Is this normal? If you plan on only investing in ETFs, you don't really need to wait for this promo, as ETF trades are free anyway. I opened my Questrade account through their main "New Account" page, filed all the IDs required digitally and had a RRSP and TFSA open in 24 hours. Same thing for my RRSP transfer request, they accepted it digitally as a "Letter of Direction" and it cleared within 5 days. I'm honestly still a bit surprised at how easy it all was. In comparison, TD required me to send physical documents to open an account, then to convert it to e-Series. Then when time came to invest, I was told that I couldn't purchase the indexed funds I wanted to because it didn't match the "Investor Profile" that was assigned to me when I filled their questionnaire. Then my TD web access stopped working and phone customer service couldn't do anything about it. One of these days I'll have to visit a branch and close everything down. Jan fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Aug 17, 2016 |
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Aug 17, 2016 17:03
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Jan posted:If you plan on only investing in ETFs, you don't really need to wait for this promo, as ETF trades are free anyway. Thanks everyone above for the advice. I'm a bit confused by this statement though. I thought typically ETF trades had a flat fee but index mutual fund trades were free? Is Questrade different in that regard? If Questrade offers free ETF trades (for occasional lump sum purchases) and free index fund purchases (for regular contributions) then it seems like Questrade is a no brainer.
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Aug 17, 2016 17:39
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