Canadian Finance and Investing Thread - Paying More is our National Pastime

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Canadian Finance and Investing Thread - Paying More is our National Pastime

«‹›18 »

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

I like the World Elite, though they did recently devalue the points redemption. I've not paid for a hotel for occasional weekend trips in years thanks to it... and the lounge passes are a nice fringe benefit. I keep $6k in a BMO Chequing account to make it free... the opportunity cost of the interest is worth it IMO.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2018 03:40

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 15, 2024 16:53

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

It would be nice if we lived in a country with actual competitive offerings in banking, rather than having to resort to some idiot shady mortgage outfit to get a basic forex benefit on a credit card.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2018 21:07

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Yeah what the gently caress is Brim?

# ¿ Apr 6, 2018 03:34

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Starting to travel a bunch for work and figure I might as well run my expenses through my own card. Preferably a separate account entirely. I already use BMO World Elite for all personal transactions. Any recommendations for another for work? Open to Amex.

# ¿ May 12, 2018 16:50

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Kreez posted:

If your travel expenses are mostly restaurants and gas, the Amex Cobalt is great. 5x points on restaurants, 2x on gas. Points can be used for 100:1 bill credit, or exchanged 2:1 for SPG Points.

It�s gonna be mostly flights and hotels.

# ¿ May 12, 2018 21:20

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Any recommendations for a business travel credit card? Figure I might as well start accumulating some points. Already use BMO World Elite for all personal transactions.

# ¿ Jun 15, 2018 17:50

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Wirth1000 posted:

Ditched Tangerine back to my first ever bank RBC after ditching them a while back.

Never been happier for my banking needs.

Why are they better?

I�m increasingly dissatisfied with Tangerine so might take a similar approach.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2018 02:22

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Evis posted:

2FA isn�t that effective if they�re using SMS. It�s pretty easy to get around with SS7 or SIM swapping attacks.

Its a lot more loving effective than a single factor that is a string of six digits

# ¿ Jun 16, 2018 19:24

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Wirth1000 posted:

Don't forget the picture!!!!!

BMO doesn�t even have that

# ¿ Jun 16, 2018 22:10

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Evis posted:

This is absolutely true. I�m glad they�re moving forward with a system like this, I just wish they�d do it well.

�Well� isn�t an option with Canadian banks alas. I�ll be happy with early-2000s state-of-the-art.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2018 02:37

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Jenkl can you post your workings because that sounds suspect to me

# ¿ Jun 21, 2018 06:06

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Good deal, thanks for revising and clarifying

# ¿ Jun 22, 2018 03:38

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

PSA: when you open a Spousal RRSP, the lower income spouse is the one who needs to open the account (the �annuitant�). The higher-income contributor is not the account opener.

Learned this one the hard way.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2018 22:51

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Kal Torak posted:

Yes. You open an actual Spousal RRSP. The annuitant is the lower income spouse who will declare the income upon withdrawal. The contributor is the higher income spouse who will take the deduction.

You can't just use any RRSP to implement this strategy.

Yep. And crucially the annuitant = the account opener.

This is the part I hosed up. Investorline was pretty good about it though - instantly reversed the contribution. But I need to close that account now after going through the song and dance of opening it and open a new one in my wife�s name instead.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2018 05:37

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Dude don�t worry about it.

# ¿ Aug 21, 2018 19:46

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Yes post it here. Nobody at the bank will give a poo poo, and in all likelihood cannot legally help you even if they wanted to.

# ¿ Sep 5, 2018 06:01

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

What's the best bank in Canada from a UX perspective? I'm through with Tangerine... can't stand their lovely website any longer. Willing to pay a monthly fee or keep a $4k minimum balance or whatever. Oh, and it should have MFA too #BecauseIts2018.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2018 03:23

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Risky Bisquick posted:

I use td, it works I guess. Are you looking for strictly banking or also investing?

Investing I already use InvestorLine and I�m happy enough with it. BMO�s stance on authentication is an absolute joke though.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2018 05:21

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

We�re going to be paying my MIL for childcare when my wife goes back to work post-maternity. Anyone know the process for claiming this as a childcare expense? Is it fine to have a paper trail, or do we need to issue a T4 etc?

# ¿ Dec 10, 2018 23:44

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Out of interest, why is the location of the childcare a relevant consideration, especially in the case of a relative?

# ¿ Dec 15, 2018 22:23

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

I cap it at $2500 per kid. Don�t see any advantage in going beyond that.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2019 15:43

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

I have a large mortgage, a large marginal tax rate, and a non-registered account with unrealized 5-figure capital gains. I would like to chuck some of the cash in there towards the mortgage, but have been traditionally resistant because I�ll incur said capital gains.

Am I being stupid? Is it sane to incur capital gains, contribute to a RRSP with the proceeds, and apply the refund towards the mortgage?

# ¿ Feb 5, 2019 01:27

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Risky Bisquick posted:

So its valid to do, the end result is you defer the tax burden from today to the future and lock the money up in a restrictive RRSP. If you have the expectation of having no taxable retirement income and have a low marginal rate it makes sense.

See chart 5, middle column, and read that blurb. That is the scenario you are alluding to with a lower marginal rate.

e: keep in mind that if you have retirement income from say dividends, pension, rental income, whatever, that will impact your marginal rate and the outcome of your situation.

You mean high, right?

I have a high marginal rate and am considering the same maneuver; simply because the tax savings are so huge. I figure my income will be lower in retirement, and I can always draw down a RRSP slowly.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2019 02:58

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Wtf is a computershare

# ¿ May 25, 2019 06:48

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

FWIW, I think you made the right choice. Can always do the consulting later.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2019 21:57

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Lol sorry to hear dude. Hope it�s resolvable without a poo poo load of hassle.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2020 16:00

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

I was discussing this exact topic with a friend recently. We couldn't quite agree if there was indeed currency risk during the settling period - my position is that there is no currency risk if you are going CAD => USD (because you are waiting for the sale of DLR.U to settle, and it's priced in USD). However, going the other direction, I would argue, does have the risk (you're waiting for DLR to settle, which fluctuates with USDCAD).

Can anyone confirm/deny the above?

Also: this seems to only be an issue at certain brokerages. At Investorline, you can buy and sell near-simultaneously - with no 3-day gap.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2020 23:12

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Kal Torak posted:

You are 100% correct and not enough people understand this. As soon as you buy DLR, you are long the USD. You have locked in your rate. Whether you journal immediatley or 2 days later or a month later, you will get the same amount of USD because DLR.U doesn't really move.

If you go the other way, you lock in your rate when you sell DLR. So while you are waiting to journal, the rate keeps moving.

Sweet, thanks for the confirmation.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2020 06:24

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Square Peg posted:

The additional costs are internal to the fund, I believe, and have to do with the contracts the funds use to do their hedging.

Personally I don't see any reason the Canadian dollar will ever go significantly up, the only real reason it ever got close to the US dollar was due to Dutch disease from the tarsands and those might be irrevocably hosed thanks to global market forces, the pandemic, and everyone (hopefully) switching to non-fossil fuel sources. But even if I'm wrong, currency hedging is still analogous to market-timing, imo.

While I agree with the above, I think there's a bullish argument to be made for the Canadian dollar long-term purely on climate change grounds.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2020 03:41

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Nofeed posted:

Moving my eFund over to EQ bank. Anyone want to send me a referral code and get some sweet dollars?

If you're not comfortable posting the link here I can be reached at nofeed@fastmail.com as well.

Cheers!

Sure why not. Thanks!

https://join.eqbank.ca?code=DAVID9685

# ¿ Jun 13, 2020 17:44

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

How are they a year into this and still haven�t managed to catch up with call center capacity?

# ¿ Feb 7, 2021 23:30

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

I just got 1.7 fixed from BMO. With a 2k bonus.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2021 18:21

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

pokeyman posted:

Canadian Tire Bank still top of the table, I think that's been a pretty decent streak.

I went back to the OP to see if https://www.highinterestsavings.ca/chart/ was linked there (it isn't and it probably should be), and on page one is a post from 2013 about Questrade's long-term viability. I wonder if they'll ever shake the vague sense that they're gonna get gobbled up "soon".

Also from page one is Lexicon intentionally not saving anything in their RRSP. I dunno if you still read the thread, but if you do, have you stuck to that plan?

I have not. Huge change in circumstances since then. I now have a regular jobby-job and it�s optimal for me to contribute.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2021 04:50

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

I used to obsess about all these details but I�ve decided life is too short. Now I just buy VGRO or VBAL depending on the account�s time horizon and call it a day.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2021 23:36

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Outrail posted:

Rapidly approaching this mindset.

So you have VGRO and VBAL and that's it?

Yep, except for some other stuff in a taxable account that I don�t see the point taking the gain on.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2021 22:33

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Yep as the family �handle our investing choices� guy, I can confirm it�s a no-win situation and it would be best to get a pro involved. Heads - we made a decent return for which you get no credit or remuneration, Tails - you clearly hosed up and we should have listened to Janet from HR�s stock tips.

The combination of involving a pro but vetting and keeping that pro honest is likely a solid choice. That�s what I would do if I could have another go around of involving myself with the parents.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2021 17:48

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 15, 2024 16:53

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Postess with the Mostest posted:

Yep, it's a big deal

This seems like a very strange rule to me given that money is fungible.

What�s stopping the giftee living off the gift, and putting their rent money etc into the taxable account?

# ¿ Sep 14, 2022 22:45

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Canadian Finance and Investing Thread - Paying More is our National Pastime

«‹›18 »