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Australia always had service fees as well, a couple of their banks have gotten rid of them in the last couple years, but they're definitely still there. They're only like $5 a month though for unlimited transactions, usually. The NSF fees will kill you over there, too though. I'm wondering what I should be doing for investing. I have a TD bank account that I use for chequing, and two ING savings accounts, one which has my savings in it, the other which has the money I use to pay my taxes with. Obviously the taxes one I'm not going to change, but I'm open to options on the other one. I moved back to Canada in late 2011 after leaving in early 2009. I have never had a TFSA. Does this mean I have the same $25,500 available as everyone else, or is my limit lower because of the time I spent outside of the country? Should I even use my TFSA? I'm in a high marginal tax bracket, but I'm self employed so my income is far from steady, it's not like I'm a senator or something with a guaranteed high wage forever. I definitely wouldn't be using the whole $25500 or however much it is straight away, obviously, but it'd be good to know what the limit is to avoid accidentally going over it. How much should one keep in their regular savings before investments? Six months of emergency money? Then after that I guess the suggestion is to put the rest in e-series? HookShot fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Sep 25, 2013 |
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Sep 25, 2013 21:01
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cowofwar posted:As a Canadian citizen who was age of majority when the program started you should have the full contribution limit. That said, TFSA contributions are after-tax and RRSP contributions are tax deferred. So if you are in a high income bracket now and expect to be in a lower bracket when retired then your RRSP should be a priority. Otherwise TFSA should be a priority. You should avoid using your RRSP for the first-time home buyer's withdrawal and just contribute in to your TFSA for a down-payment instead. Ok cool... I don't have an RRSP because I'm stupid (and also because I didn't expect to come back to Canada when I left) so I should probably get onto that. I honestly don't have a clue what tax bracket I'm going to be in when I'm of retirement age though.
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Sep 25, 2013 23:06
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tuyop posted:Let's see... I make an automatic $50 transfer to an ING savings account (I think they gave me money for doing this at some point?). Mint has the latest one being credited TO ING on 17 September and leaving my chequing on 18 September. The one before that was TO ING 2 September, FROM Chequing 4 September. If you move money into your account, it reads as a deposit at ING before it leaves your Chequing. It's obviously not cleared until it arrives and is processed, which can take some time, but yeah. Yeah I did one that took three days about a week ago too. So it can vary. edit: urrgghh sorry for double posting.
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Sep 25, 2013 23:06
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tuyop posted:There are a lot of resources in the financial independence world for working this out. I think that basically you can figure out your retirement "income" level by filling in the variables here: This is a good point, I should definitely need less at retirement than making now, obviously adjusted for inflation. Still, it's hard when income varies a lot. Oh well! cowofwar posted:Also I believe your tax return should indicate both your TFSA contribution and RRSP contribution limits.
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Sep 25, 2013 23:42
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Every time I've come across one of those "verify your identity by answering questions" things there's always been one answer that's a piece of credit I've never had, and there's always been the "I don't have this" option, which is obviously the correct one. Never two though. I think you're on the right track by getting your credit reports, but it might be nothing.
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Oct 7, 2013 19:24
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Yeah TD can print off four cheques for you if you ask them nicely, for sure.
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Oct 19, 2013 02:41
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Right now I have three credit cards. I have a TD Infinite Travel card which has no annual fee because I have a select service account (or whatever the hell they're calling it). I love the fact that I can book things straight through Expedia with it, that I don't have to pay an annual fee, but the points accumulation rate is pretty low. I use this card basically to book hotels. I use it for a lot of payments that I know are going to be regular forever, since I'm keeping this card, whereas all my others I churn for points. I also have an Amex gold business charge card, because I want the points. I transfer my points to Aeroplan. It's a good card, they make it easy to pay it off, and the transfers to Aeroplan are instant. First year is free, I'm cancelling in month 11. This is the card I use day to day except at places that don't take Amex and at small businesses because I do feel bad and use my Visa instead. I have an Aerogold Visa for the same reason. Also no annual fee for the first year. CIBC's customer service sucks though and it's my least favourite. This is my backup card when places don't take Amex. In two months I'm getting one of the different Amex cards for even more points, but between the referral bonus on the Amex and the bonus on the CIBC and the few grand I've spent on both cards I've already got a free flight to Europe available to me. HookShot fucked around with this message at 23:34 on Oct 30, 2013 |
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Oct 30, 2013 23:29
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When I was in Grade 10 as part of CAPP we had a project where we had to find a "job" in the paper, and the find an "apartment" to live in and budget and figure out how much everything we had to buy would cost, basically make a fake budget for when we were adults. It was actually pretty useful, and I could see in grade 12 how taking it a step further and talking about investment would make sense too.
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Nov 1, 2013 16:30
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slidebite posted:I know we have spoken about it here before, and while people should man up and educate themselves, financial institutions have really dropped the ball on the TFSA. Most people simply have zero clue as to what it really is and are mislead by the name "savings account" and 90%+ of the financial institutions really aren't helping. Now neither my mom nor my brother have a TFSA because they're worried of doing it wrong again.
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Nov 7, 2013 23:39
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Kal Torak posted:What did he do wrong? The CRA has also been very liberal about waiving any penalties for over-contributing the last four years. He probably could have gotten the penalty waived and then spent 5 mins reading about the TFSA rules on the CRA website. It's not scary and it's too bad people don't take the time to educate themselves. I'm not 100% sure, I wasn't in the country at the time. I think it had to do with my mom deposited $5,500 in his account, then he took out $2,500 or so for tuition, then wanted to replace it that same year and TD Bank told him that was fine, and he got nailed with the fee because of it. I don't know why they didn't waive the fee, he definitely had to pay it. I completely agree that people should be educating themselves, but my brother was 18 and my mom is of the generation that never thinks to look things up on the internet, and just took the word of the bank, thinking they would know what the hell they were doing. I'm just saying I can understand why people who have gotten burned from things like bad advice from their banks would be hesitant to use it.
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Nov 8, 2013 02:03
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My husband became a permanent resident in April (and has lived in Canada since). Does he have $5500 in contribution room for 2013, or does it start next year, or does he have $3630 as the pro-rated amount of how long he was in Canada?
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Nov 8, 2013 18:04
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Ok cool yeah, he has a SIN. When I came back to Canada and was only a resident for like two months all my tax stuff was pro-rated (so my credits were basically all 2/12 of what they normally would be) so I thought maybe TFSAs worked the same way.
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Nov 8, 2013 18:31
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Yeah, I agree with all the other posters. I mean, if she's like 20 years old it might have an impact, but otherwise I wouldn't worry about it, and I certainly wouldn't pay $35 for what's not going to amount to a lot of points on a credit score.
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Nov 11, 2013 04:32
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Lexicon posted:Nostalgia: I remember getting 4-5% at ING Direct in the mid-2000s. Ah, those were the days. Hahaha yessss back when I was in University and saving my money for the first time in 2006/2007 that 4.5% was pretty much the best thing ever invented.
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Nov 14, 2013 23:22
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I get paid in USD so woo free pay rise!
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Dec 5, 2013 18:07
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I use my Amex gold business card for everything at large businesses, or my Aerogold visa at small businesses and gas stations. I use my TD infinite visa randomly as well (or for anything recurring), and use those points to buy hotel rooms at the places I fly to. My TD card has no annual fee because I have their account that includes a the waived fee, the Amex and Aerogold I cancel and reapply for every year so I pay no annual fee plus I get the bonus points again. Keep in mind if you're getting cash back that the cash is technically taxable. That's one reason why I exclusively use points based credit cards. As for figuring out how much the points are worth, I get we'll say 1 point per dollar spent (it's more than that on groceries and gas with the Aeroplan, but whatever). I buy my groceries at a small business since Whistler has no big box stores so I always use my Aerogold there as well. a trip to Europe from Vancouver costs 60,000 points in economy return. Usually tickets are around $1000. I know, sometimes more, sometimes less, but we're averaging things here. $60,0000 spent = $1,000 plane ticket = 1.67% return. Of course this changes depending on where you go. If I spent the points to go to South America where plane tickets are more expensive I'd probably get more mileage, or if I went to Hawaii where plane tickets are cheaper I'd be losing out. Still, that's my baseline for returns. But also between the two credit cards bonuses I got a free trip to anywhere in NA or to northern South America for basically free. The thing with Aeoplan points is you just need to find an airline with no fuel surcharge and the fees and taxes for international trips come out to like $200.
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Dec 9, 2013 19:39
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Kal Torak posted:Do you have a source on this? I was under the impression it was considered a discount and therefore, not taxable. If the CRA has another interpretation, I have never seen it. http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/pyrll/bnfts/lylty/ That's the best I could find with a quick Google search, I originally learned about it in university a few years ago (business school). I might ask my accountant to confirm when I see him next.
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Dec 9, 2013 21:19
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Lexicon posted:I wondered about this manoeuvre. I would've thought the bank would eventually tire of paying out customer acquisition costs on an annual, rather than one-time basis, not to mention the loss of the yearly fee. I guess they usually make enough of a profit that they don't care. I honestly don't know enough about how much they make to tell you why they allow it, but they do. I know there is a limit though: Amex will only let you have two credit cards at once (although you can have as many of their charge cards as they'll approve you for AFAIK) and I believe CIBC's system will only allow you to have one of each of their cards at once. I'm going to be cancelling my CIBC card at the end of this month so I don't end up in the 50% of people whose accounts are sold to TD Bank, since they get half the Aeroplan cards starting Jan 1, that way I'll get another TD card with a nice points bonus when they launch their line in early 2014.
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Dec 9, 2013 22:31
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Honestly I've found the CRA really helpful every time I've had to talk to them (never been audited or I might have a different story), and I would actually not take the word of the person whose financial qualifications are a three day course on selling people mortgages or whatever.
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Dec 11, 2013 16:24
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Lexicon posted:Does anyone know how USD contributions to a TFSA work? What exchange rate is used? But yeah don't actually take that as advice.
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Dec 19, 2013 21:45
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Is your small business incorporated, or a sole proprietorship?
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Jan 10, 2014 21:12
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I always have 2/3 Amex, and at least one Aeroplan card to get points from (in the last seven months I've gotten enough bonus points to fly to Europe and back for free) and I haven't paid a cent in annual fees, and while I haven't looked heavily into it I'm pretty sure I get all those benefits and more
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Jan 27, 2014 23:17
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Yeah, I have a couple credit cards I've had since 2006 or so that I use regularly and never close, I usually apply for 1-2 cards every 3-6 months, and so far it's never affected my credit so badly that I've been denied. I'm also not looking to buy property in the next couple years either, when I get to that point I'll slow down on the churning and go a year without doing it or something, but I really doubt it has any real long term effect on my credit score, especially since I close the accounts within a year anyway.
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Jan 28, 2014 19:54
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Lexicon posted:Good lord! Gaming the signup bonuses I presume?! Yeah, exactly. As I said, in the last seven months I've gotten enough for a free round trip ticket to Europe.
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Jan 29, 2014 01:20
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blah_blah posted:Easiest first step is to cycle through the two Amex Aeroplan or Aeroplan equivalent cards -- the Amex Gold Rewards and the Amex Aeroplan Plus Gold to get 25k+30k = 55k Aeroplan points. You need a referral to max out the points, otherwise you get 45k -- PM me if you want one. Both cards require $500 of spending in 3 months (trivial) and have no annual fee for the first year. Then I guess you could get the new TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite with the first year fee waived (might have to ask for this at a branch or on the phone) for 15k points (mediocre). That gets you up to 70k Aeroplan without any fees in the first year (you can always cancel later) and the Amex cards also have pretty great rewards in general. Then get your partner to do the same for 90k more points (by referring her). Some other points: - Amex has a policy that a person can have two charge cards and two credit cards at the same time, so you can have as many as four Amex cards at any given point. CIBC will only let you have one of each of their cards at once. TD is new to the Aeroplan stuff, I don't know what their policies are yet. - I always apply for cards in pairs. Apply for one, wait a couple days, apply for another. Then I wait at least three, but not more than six months before I start applying for new ones. - Use a calendar that you will check regularly and make sure you put an appointment to cancel the card after nine or ten months. - Sometimes referrals to yourself work, but not always. Referrals to/from your spouse will always work. However, you have to have an Amex first before you can get in on that sweet, sweet spouse referral action. - The business cards often give better bonuses than the personal cards. Since I have a business, I definitely take advantage of it. With the Amex cards, sometimes they offer bonuses for transferring to BA Avios. I think it's about twice a year, you get a 25% bonus. Aeroplan also offer bonuses for transferring to their program from time to time. The last one was in December, the bonuses sucked, but it was still something. I usually wait for the bonus offers before I transfer my Amex points to Aeroplan. I don't do Avios so I don't know how that program works/whether it's worth it. The main thing to consider with Aeroplan is that you want to use it for overseas travel only. This is because Air Canada and a number of other airlines charge "fuel surcharges" that are usually around 50% of the price of the regular ticket and makes it completely pointless to use the points. It's easy to find a list of airlines that are part of the Star Alliance that don't charge a fuel surcharge, and so I recommend sticking with those exclusively. One of the big ADVANTAGES is you can use Aeoplan points to do a "mini RTW" as they're called. I'm basically stealing this from FlyerTalk, since I'm too lazy to write it out myself: quote:The Mini-RTW is a name given to a type of reward booking using Air Canada's Aeroplan miles. It is actually not a "round-the-world" ticket at all - it is a regular award redemption. Just as you would use 75K frequent flyer miles to go to Japan on another airline, you can use 75K to do so using Aeroplan miles. The difference is that Aeroplan allows you to "stopover" in multiple cities at no extra mileage cost, making it very attractive compared to other reward travel. It should be noted that this isn't really that much better than some other airlines. For example, Delta offers one stopover + open jaw, which is only one stopover worse than Aeroplan's deal. But many of the airlines only offer one stopover and no open jaw. So there is definitely value here. Cultural Imperial posted:If it's not status points, they're worthless.
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Jan 29, 2014 04:35
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tuyop posted:Oh man, this is so much better than maybe having a good credit score. And yeah, I should correct that somehow flying north in Canada is still a great, great deal with Air Canada. I looked at flights to the Yukon and it was something like $150 in fees round trip, and those flights usually go for ridiculous amounts of money. blah_blah posted:It's definitely not the most efficient redemption in existence but North American flights aren't that bad, YVR - SFO on AC/United (which is something I fly several times a year) is usually around $550 for round-trip direct flights in the best case scenario, or 25k Aeroplan points + $170 in ridiculous fees. So the miles still save me around $400 per flight. Oh nice, maybe it's not so bad domestically then. I've never actually used them for flights within North America, but I've looked up flights to Europe where the fuel surcharge was over $600, on top of the 60,000 point redemption.
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Jan 29, 2014 16:48
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blah_blah posted:I have had a TD First Class Visa Infinite for at least 5 years now and it's been my main card until about 6 months ago. To be honest, it's a pretty mediocre card and definitely not a card worth paying an annual fee for (I always got the fee waived through my Select Service account). I guess it could be an okay card if you are booking lots of travel through the TD/Expedia website, but that's kind of an edge case. I did some quick math and each Aeroplan point is worth around 1.7c to me, and most of the midrange Aeroplan cards have bonus categories and hence probably generate closer to 1.25-1.5 points per dollar on average. Also, the signup bonus is just atrocious -- would you rather have 25000 Aeroplan points (worth around $400-450 to me) or $100 in Expedia credit? I agree with basically all of this, mine is my main recurring expense card since I've had it for years, and I don't pay the annual fee for it either with my select service account. But yeah, I wouldn't pay the annual fee for it at all. It's handy for booking hotels/car rentals, I will give it that.
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Jan 30, 2014 07:24
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I got a Visa/Debit card from TD bank in the mail automatically and I don't want to use it (like 80% of the reason is I don't want to have to change my number in online banking). If I don't activate it my old card will still work forever, right? I'm only asking here because I imagine TD will tell me I have to use it, regardless of if that's true or not.
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Apr 18, 2014 02:15
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Also Tangerine sounds like a young, hip, web 2.0 kind of name. Like Twitter, and Tumblr.
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Apr 20, 2014 02:05
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Wow, holy crap, yeah. Since I live in the middle of nowhere I tend to order everything online, so I have a bunch of Futureshop transactions in the last year, I hope they weren't all soft pulls.
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Apr 21, 2014 16:43
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I think Amex will give you a credit card in your new country based on your record with your Amex from your old country, but that's literally the only perk I can think of, and I've moved internationally a few times in my life.
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Apr 22, 2014 00:44
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Just FYI TD Bank gave my brother incorrect TSFA advice and he got hit with a $50 penalty from CRA (I'm sure they would have cancelled it if he asked, but he just paid it), I wouldn't necessarily trust the banks to give you the correct info, I would actually call that hotline CRA has and ask them.
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Apr 22, 2014 18:43
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Dumb tax question: I made more money than my husband last year and want those sweet, sweet tax credits. Do I fill out schedule 5 and he fills out 2, or vice versa? edit: ok I figured out half my question, I definitely had to fill out schedule 5. Does he have to fill out schedule 2? HookShot fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Apr 27, 2014 |
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Apr 27, 2014 05:31
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Lexicon posted:Surely you're not doing this by hand? That's for TurboTax to work out. I've always done my taxes by hand, they've never actually been hard in any way. I think this is the last year though.
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Apr 27, 2014 05:42
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Lexicon posted:I'm offended by the existence of TurboTax (it exists because they lobby for the status quo, as opposed to a more sensible scenario where the CRA does most computations for us), but as a software guy, this is a job for computers I've always argued. Too much error prone arithmetic. Yeah, I always double/triple check everything, the only thing CRA has ever corrected is when I've made major mistakes like the year I paid an entire year's worth of EI Premiums without being registered for it, so they just sent me that amount back. I'm going to have to get an accountant this year though, I think. Or at least some kind of software.
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Apr 27, 2014 06:09
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I want to get some TD E-series and use my existing TFSA contribution room (I've never had a TFSA, my contribution room is either $16,000 or $21,000, not sure which, but I wouldn't even be putting 16k in so either way I'm good). How do I go about doing this? I went to the TD website and downloaded the application form to do it through EasyWeb, but there's only the option to do it as an RSP or non-registered. Do I have to go into the branch to get it done as a TFSA? Thanks!!
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May 22, 2014 18:02
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Ok, awesome, thanks. Hopefully the branch up here will know what to do despite not being specialized Waterhouse. Just to confirm, I'll be able to buy e-series through EasyWeb this way, right?
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May 22, 2014 19:14
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leaves of logic posted:Yeah, I opened mine at a regular TD branch, but do make sure to tell them you're opening a self-directed brokerage account, as has been said. Perfect, thanks!!
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May 22, 2014 19:25
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Would anyone be interested in a credit card churning-for-points post?
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May 22, 2014 20:09
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tuyop posted:Still following through with your last one. Any updates? Oops, I forgot I did one ages ago! I've booked my husband and myself two business class flights to Europe this summer for just over $1000 total. It would have been less, but on the shorter notice it's harder to find flights on LX to avoid the fuel surcharge that Air Canada charges on their flights. Still, that's less than half the price of a ticket in economy, so I'm pretty happy.
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May 22, 2014 22:26
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