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Removed an unnecessarily mean post
xtal fucked around with this message at 01:31 on Jan 22, 2021 |
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Jan 21, 2021 21:54
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The Scottish are very private about their money. A law requiring them to disclose assets would go against their culture.
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Jan 21, 2021 22:06
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Jenkl posted:Yeah man I'm not trying to say this isn't annoying or bad business or unreasonable. Just that them thinking it's the law is pretty normal, whatever their legal team told them counts as fulfilling their duty to FINTRAC is what they go with, even if its harsher than competitors or out of date. Not sure this FINTRAC things complaining comes from? If they told you that they are probably lying through their teeth to cover their failure to identify additional compliance requirements in advance of closing. It sounds like a bog standard requirement from their lender to confirm that the money is actually a gift (I.E. wasn't borrowed in HK and cycled through your parents accounts, borrowed by your parents implying you may be expected to pay it back or whatever). Similar asks have been made of most of my friends who have received gifts to buy property even when the gift was made domestically. Their brokers were competent however, and told them this up front.
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Jan 21, 2021 22:28
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MrAmazing posted:Not sure this FINTRAC things complaining comes from? If they told you that they are probably lying through their teeth to cover their failure to identify additional compliance requirements in advance of closing. Yeah, you're exactly correct. They lied to me about it being Canadian law that they needed 90 days of the deposit information, when it was their own desire to see. I was briefly teed off by the mouthbreathers, but they've lost my business and it's over with.
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Jan 21, 2021 22:55
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Yeah, I'm also going to have to side with the lender on this one. Honestly we should be doing a better job of tracking foreign money.
Zettace fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Jan 22, 2021 |
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Jan 22, 2021 03:46
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With regard to mortgage pre-approvals, I'm aware they have a time limit on them. What happens if you end up not using it? I've had a few people tell me "nothing", but a buying agent told me this can hurt your credit. slidebite posted:Yes, from people I know it is common, but that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. If I were personally in that position I'd at the very least still have a hefty rainy day fund left. Also keeping in mind you will almost certainly need to spend money for the new home, be it even simple things like moving, or repairs, etc. Keep in mind the money you put down now is less money on the mortgage over X-years you finance it. Not *as* big of a deal now with the low rates, but compound interest is still a bitch when it works against you. Thanks for the feedback.
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Jan 22, 2021 17:17
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Cyril Sneer posted:With regard to mortgage pre-approvals, I'm aware they have a time limit on them. What happens if you end up not using it? I've had a few people tell me "nothing", but a buying agent told me this can hurt your credit. I did one and it made my credit score drop for about a month, and then pop back up.
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Jan 22, 2021 18:25
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Any advice on settling with insurance company after not at fault auto accident. I was just offered an amount to settle “for pain and suffering” and not sure whether it’s customary to negotiate the amount. Sorry if this is the wrong thread for this.
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Jan 22, 2021 21:41
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First offer is always* a lowball so yes. Substantiate it as much as you can though (imputed wages if applicable, loss of quality of life for x days, severity of injury etc). *generally Guest2553 fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Jan 22, 2021 |
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Jan 22, 2021 23:33
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This is somewhat related to Canada and finances: some of my Grade 12 students were wondering if they are able to draw EI while still attending high school next semester. Is this possible?
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Jan 27, 2021 20:55
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Professor Shark posted:This is somewhat related to Canada and finances: some of my Grade 12 students were wondering if they are able to draw EI while still attending high school next semester. Is this possible? As I understand it: no. EI as it stands is meant for people who are unemployed through no fault of their own and are continuing to look for full-time work. They may still pay EI premiums, but they're still considered primarily students, so employment isn't the priority for them. Same issue as when I worked my summer job during university and was let go once the busy season was over.
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Jan 27, 2021 22:56
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Canadian Finance Thread, thank you for being typically Canadian and boring as heck. The CSPAM finance thread has added around 200 pages in the last three days - who could possibly have time to keep up with that?
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Jan 27, 2021 23:41
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Wealthsimple sending me an email warning about the dangers of investing in meme stocks is pretty rich considering how hard they've been pushing their new Crypto trading platform.
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Jan 28, 2021 04:56
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I took $2k out of my RBC RRSP mutual funds into cash a bit less than a year ago to start with RBC InvestEase (their robo investor). The transfer didn't work so I kinda forgot about it. Now I'm trying to take that $2k which has just been sitting in cash next to my mutual funds doing nothing and start an RBC Direct Investing account with it. Yes, this is probably the worst possible time for it because new accounts are probably taking forever. Anything I should know about RBC Direct Investing?
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Jan 29, 2021 18:16
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Hi there thread. I am a newcomer (technically) to Canada, just got my work permit and SIN number. I am trying to get a credit card, but it appears that I have to be a full permanent resident to get one. Does anyone know of any institutions that make an exception to this rule? I have an American credit card I'm perfectly happy with, but want to start building my credit here in Canada. Any other basic ways I might be able to do that even if I can't get a credit card? Or am I just SOL until my PR comes through? TIA
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Jan 29, 2021 19:08
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Was in a similar position when I moved here a.couple of year ago, most banks will allow you to open a secured credit card(you lock up $$ to match your desired credit limit) to start building history with just your work visa. I went with TD because they gave me $300 to open an account but I think they all have welcome offers you should take advantage of. https://www.td.com/ca/en/personal-banking/solutions/new-to-canada/ Of course this was all pre-corona when I could actually go to branches and talk to people. Best of luck!
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Jan 29, 2021 19:20
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If you have an American Amex card, you should be able to get a Canadian Amex through their Global Transfer. May be possible with other issuers with operations on both sides of the border as well, if you have history with HSBC, TD, or the like.
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Jan 29, 2021 19:41
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odiv posted:I took $2k out of my RBC RRSP mutual funds into cash a bit less than a year ago to start with RBC InvestEase (their robo investor). The transfer didn't work so I kinda forgot about it. Now I'm trying to take that $2k which has just been sitting in cash next to my mutual funds doing nothing and start an RBC Direct Investing account with it. Yes, this is probably the worst possible time for it because new accounts are probably taking forever. Norbert's Gambit works exceptionally well at RBC DI. Their commissions are uncompetitive, so don't trade frequently. Like many (all?) brokerages, they offer a practice account if you wanna poke around without wasting dollars.
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Jan 29, 2021 20:09
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Cool thanks! Yeah, definitely don't plan on doing a bunch of trading. I just want to buy and hold a few things (power, trains!) long term or semi-long term. If I end up liking the platform I might move all of my RRSPs out of my mutual funds and into ETFs here. edit: went back through my emails and found out I had a promo signup code for a bunch of free trades back in December 2019. Maybe I shouldn't have been too hasty signing up and should have hunted around for a code. Oh well. odiv fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Jan 29, 2021 |
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Jan 29, 2021 20:15
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This site aggregates all of the new account promos for brokerages in Canada. Might be worth a little money to switch every two years or so.
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Jan 30, 2021 02:26
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Muscle Tracer posted:Hi there thread. I am a newcomer (technically) to Canada, just got my work permit and SIN number. I am trying to get a credit card, but it appears that I have to be a full permanent resident to get one. Does anyone know of any institutions that make an exception to this rule? Just wanted to say welcome to Canada!
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Jan 30, 2021 04:18
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Hi thread. So I’ve developed an interest in investing after losing a few hundred bucks trying to chase the meme stocks. Now I want to do it properly. I’ve spent the last 2 years watching my parents trying to figure out their retirement because of my father’s general mistrust in the stock market and while they’ll be okay it’s required some pretty strict and disciplined cost cutting to get there. I’m 33. I have a modest cash savings and I don’t owe money on a house. Currently I’m saving shitloads of money working from home and only paying property tax (4000 per year). This is an excellent time for me to start banking savings I would've spent on frivolous purchases I don’t need. Should I get a Wealthsimple account or just dump everything into VRGO on my TD direct investing brokerage under my TFSA?
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Jan 30, 2021 16:45
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The latter, and read Canadian couch potato
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Jan 30, 2021 16:46
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Kraftwerk posted:Hi thread. Hello! Either will work, they're the same basic strategy. Wealthsimple is a bit easier, VGRO at a discount brokerage is cheaper. The main trick will be figuring out how to be confident enough to hold your position for the next decade or three, which is the scale you need for any chance at seeing expected returns. TFSA is a good choice because if you get cold feet, you don't lose the tax-advantaged room. (Also, you can open a TFSA at Wealthsimple too, just remember to track your combined contribution room across all your TFSAs.) In my case, I read a lot, starting with this entire thread. I learned that e.g. people talking up stocks has always been a thing, that long term expected value has no relation to the day-to-day movements of the market, that trying to pick winning stocks doesn't work, and that financial news is worthless. Also that there's been a recession every few years for the last century or two, it's not a reason to panic. And that there's always someone saying "this time it's different", but they've been wrong so far. There's no rush, you're not "too late", so feel free to start with VGRO while e.g. working your way through If You Can over the next few months. Or whatever form your education might take.
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Jan 30, 2021 17:04
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pokeyman posted:Hello! Either will work, they're the same basic strategy. Wealthsimple is a bit easier, VGRO at a discount brokerage is cheaper. The main trick will be figuring out how to be confident enough to hold your position for the next decade or three, which is the scale you need for any chance at seeing expected returns. TFSA is a good choice because if you get cold feet, you don't lose the tax-advantaged room. (Also, you can open a TFSA at Wealthsimple too, just remember to track your combined contribution room across all your TFSAs.) Thanks for this! It’s amazing information and I’ll definitely do the homework he’s suggested. I don’t have a clue how to read the retirement funds and their compositions at sunlife. As far as I can tell my defined contributions and matching with my employer have all gone into the sunlife “granite 2050” fund at 100%. I have like 15k in there right now. Does anyone know sunlife well enough to know if this is the best place for my money? Should I split everything up into the other funds like the BLK fund?
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Jan 30, 2021 19:03
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Google says the MER on that fund is 1.31%, which makes sense since it's closer to a managed fund than passive investing. VGRO has an MER of 0.25%. With 15k, just over the next 10 years, the difference in fees would be about $2500. That said, to emulate the Sun Life fund, you would need to rebalance your portfolio to have more bonds and less stocks over time. It's work, but I think it's worth it to save $2500. (You can also rebalance over time without selling: change where you place your contributions until you reach the desired ratio.) xtal fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Jan 30, 2021 |
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Jan 30, 2021 19:18
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I know enough about sunlife to say that you'd be hard pressed to do worse and you should explore every effort to self-direct as soon as possible after vesting, or minimize the amount of money inside it by contributing just enough to get full employer match and self-directing the rest.
Guest2553 fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Jan 30, 2021 |
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Jan 30, 2021 19:20
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My company didn’t give me great options, but I did find one index fund with a higher MER than market, but not terrible overall. I only contribute enough to get the match as well, doing everything else on my own. Since it’s a small component of my retirement fund, I don’t worry about composition or target dates. It’s just a place to get free matching money. Review your options, looking at MER. Fees to transfer everything to a new institution aren’t that bad, so don’t feel like you’re locked in at one brokerage. Get started, feel it out, do some research to see if it’s worth switching to somewhere else.
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Jan 30, 2021 19:34
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I just don’t know what sunlife’s options are because everything is convoluted and hidden behind sub menus. I don’t even know if I’ll work with this employer forever so eventually I might end up liquidating these funds into my own self directed portfolio anyway. Maybe I should just let it sit in granite and enjoy the matching funds that come in while taking my other after tax income into VRGO.
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Jan 30, 2021 19:45
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It's (past) time for me to start contributing to an RRSP. Where is the best place to open one?
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Jan 31, 2021 00:49
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JawKnee posted:It's (past) time for me to start contributing to an RRSP. Where is the best place to open one? Optimize for lowest fees for monthly ETF buys: Questrade Optimize for lowest complexity: Tangerine Before you do this though you should decide what your investment strategy is. If you're in the buy and hold forever stage the right one is probably a passive index fund strategy where you feel you can follow it for 40 years without fiddling with it. 80/20 or 60/40 equity/bond funds are common.
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Jan 31, 2021 01:24
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Mantle posted:
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Jan 31, 2021 01:25
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Mantle posted:Optimize for lowest fees for monthly ETF buys: Questrade Okay, I'm already using Questrade for my TFSA but didn't realize I could open an RRSP account with them, thanks!
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Jan 31, 2021 04:09
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On page 171 there was a discussion about whether it's better to use money from your RRSP for a home-buyer's plan or money from a TSFA for a downpayment on a house. I was fairly confused but I think I got the gist of it. But then again, I still don't know what the answer is. But what about if I don't have a TSFA, just an RRSP through my union and a regular ol' chequing and savings account at HSBC. We're aiming for a 10% downpayment, so about $35,000 each. Buying a house within the next 6 months or so. Better to use HBP, or just use cash that's sitting in my lovely chequing and savings accounts doing nothing? Or option C, set up a savings TSFA right now with EQ Bank (the highest interest I could find, 2.3% on a 3 month GIC), put all my cash into that, and then... something happens after that. Assuming I'm understanding how stuff works (which I unlikely), with buying a house on the horizon I don't think an investment TSFA (like at questtrade) would be the right thing to do at this time, right? stratdax fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Jan 31, 2021 |
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Jan 31, 2021 04:19
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stratdax posted:On page 171 there was a discussion about whether it's better to use money from your RRSP for a home-buyer's plan or money from a TSFA for a downpayment on a house. I was fairly confused but I think I got the gist of it. But then again, I still don't know what the answer is. I would highly recommend against an investment TFSA, at least with money set aside for the down-payment. 6 months is way too short of a time frame for any real predictability on how ETFs will go, so it puts your money at risk, even in a low risk portfolio mix. A general rule of thumb is that you should only invest with money you won't need for at least 5 years. EQ's 3 month GIC TFSA sounds like a great option at the moment, but I would be wary about brushing too close to what your eventual closing date will be. Though, my understanding is that EQ is currently offering 2.30% on all TFSA accounts, not just the 3 month GIC. It's worded a little unclearly on their webpage, but I see no reason why you should put it in a GIC instead of just their normal TFSA savings account. There is always a risk that they'll lower the interest rate, but with your time horizon, I think it shouldn't matter that much. Plus, it gives you the most flexibility. EQ's normal savings account rate is 1.50%, which isn't bad compared to other banks at the moment, and I don't see the TFSA account's interest going below that. Of course, you should always leave behind a good amount in your chequing/savings account as an emergency fund, and to have funds for closing costs (taxes, lawyer/notary fees, other poo poo). As for the RRSP, something I would consider is how your union's account is managed. Money invests better in the long run, obviously, so you don't usually want to take money out of your RRSP if you can avoid it. But, if the group plan has a high MER or managed poorly, you can use the HBP to get it out and eventually deposit the money back into a lower priced option like questtrade or a robo-advisor. I'm not sure if your plan allows for this but I would at least inquire about it. As a small note, only money that has been in an RRSP for at least 90 days is eligible for the HBP, which may or may not apply to you but worth keeping in mind.
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Jan 31, 2021 05:42
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Okay beauty, that all makes sense. Thanks, I appreciate it.
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Jan 31, 2021 06:47
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stratdax posted:Okay beauty, that all makes sense. Thanks, I appreciate it. Assuming you have the RRSP room, you can take the down-payment money out of your chequing account and put it into an RRSP account now, lowering your taxes for the year and bumping up your tax rebate. Then, as long as the money has been in the RRSP for longer than 90 days, you take it back out using the HBP without having to pay back the taxes. You'd have to be confident that you can pay back the HBP amount before you'd incur penalties. But that bigger tax rebate could help with other moving costs. In order to not mess with your union account rules, you could open a new RRSP account with Questrade and transfer the money into there, and invest it in something super stable like a short-term-bond ETF or a GIC. I know Questrade offers GICs but I'm not sure what the process is of buying them, I think you have to call them.
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Feb 1, 2021 06:02
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I've been treating my TFSA and RRSP separately and buy VCN/XAW/ZAG in both accounts in appropriate proportions to simplify rebalancing/contributions. If I eventually branch out to taxable accounts, I imagine some ETFs make more sense to keep in one account type than another for tax purposes and I might want to consider that in how I'm allocating things? Alternatively, if I'm lazy, would it make sense to just keep doing my thing in my RRSP/TFSA and then get VGRO in my taxable account? Also is there any difference in how terrible Blackrock and Vanguard are as companies? Since they're gigantic financial services companies I'm guessing they're both awful but given two seemingly equal ETFs (e.g. XAW and VXC) I'm wondering if it could be a differentiator.
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Feb 2, 2021 03:07
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Shofixti posted:I've been treating my TFSA and RRSP separately and buy VCN/XAW/ZAG in both accounts in appropriate proportions to simplify rebalancing/contributions. If I eventually branch out to taxable accounts, I imagine some ETFs make more sense to keep in one account type than another for tax purposes and I might want to consider that in how I'm allocating things? Alternatively, if I'm lazy, would it make sense to just keep doing my thing in my RRSP/TFSA and then get VGRO in my taxable account? You're certainly not doing anything wrong. If you have the inclination and want to eke out a few more basis points, the term is "asset location", and here's a handy video: https://rationalreminder.ca/blog/2018/9/6/asset-location-promising-theories-vs-practical-applications If you really want to get into it, the best source I'm aware of is the Canadian Portfolio Manager Blog (they cover a bunch of that material in podcast form too). One trick to keep in mind when trying to maintain an asset allocation across your whole portfolio is that your RRSP has yet to be taxed but your TFSA is already taxed, so you can't just add them together to figure out your weightings. The latter blog above has also gone into the weeds of the minuscule differences between very similar funds, e.g. https://www.canadianportfoliomanagerblog.com/war-of-the-worlds-ex-canada/ You might hear somewhere that Vanguard's parent company in the USA has a unique corporate structure where the funds own the company, and this lets them keep expense ratios low. It also means they don't have any outside shareholders who might benefit from raising fees. Vanguard Canada is (I believe, might be wrong about this) not set up in the same way, so I don't think that's a meaningful difference here. Other than that, there's not much difference.
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Feb 2, 2021 04:00
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If I'm going to be investing on a monthly basis to an ETF, should I do it through Questrade? TD charges a 9.99/trade commission that seems like chump change but probably adds up over time. Not sure how secure or trustworthy Questrade is and if the ECN fees are something to worry about.
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Feb 2, 2021 16:13
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