I’ve been happy leaving cash in the wealthsimple account. No promo nonsense, just leaving it and getting a decent amount of interest.
This week they sent me a metal credit card. Apparently this is a status symbol. Are you all impressed?
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it has no fx fees on top of the regular exchange rate, so that is cool
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Thanks, plainjane! I had just parked my savings in a TD account that paid almost nothing while I was trying to figure out my next move. Back to Tangerine it is! I’m really glad I got your timely message about it. I checked and sure enough, I had the offer. I had pulled all but $25 or so from there when I realized the interest rate was super low (also based on a useful post on this thread). This is a very useful thread!
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No fx fees and 2% cash back on everything
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I don’t have a traditional, regular payroll deposit unfortunately. But I can look to see if there’s a free chequing account tied to a decent savings account rate. Having a back up chequing account is probably wise.
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Just got an extra $60+ in interest in July thanks to PlainJane’s heads up on the Tangerine offer. yay!
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I had a reporter reach out to me last week also, asking if I had contacts that were in a similar position.
I wonder why there seems to be a cluster of them? We have one who reached out to us to ask about attending CMTO (last spring, and she is coming), then this second one, and now this on reddit
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This reads like hope porn. I wonder if they are trying to print a story with some version of “I lost 100lbs without any effort or deprivation!” except retirement. Instead of a downer-but-realistic piece about how the general population needs living wages, supportive retirement vehicles the average person can use, social safety net that helps people who need help, financial literacy education, and the tough news that some delayed gratification is part of the deal.
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starting at 40 would have been faster in total number of years, because I would have been making real money from the beginning that I could shovel in. harder I guess if I had built up expensive obligations.
eta: there is also a huge difference in when one started, age, and potential housing costs. it really impacts what is doable for people seeking to duplicate.
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Yeah, I think selling this as a take advantage of the recession, buckle down and retire early completely ignores the fact that expenses especially rent are so much higher.
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has anyone used a fee-only financial planner in Canada? How did you find them?
I “feel” like I’m doing the right things/on the right path, but it’s hard to figure out because of my weird pension/insurance set up. I don’t really have a number that I’m aiming to save to and I have no idea if I’m on track. The numbers are going up every month, but is it enough? No idea.
Every time I spend from my short term savings, I feel like I’m being “bad” with my money (historically, I have been Very Bad With Money, running up debt, but have been able to avoid that for the last 4 years).
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I got a person I found via https://www.adviceonlyplanners.ca/ to stress test my assumptions and to provide her opinion about what a safe annual spend would be
the page is old, and some of the advisors might be in different roles now.
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I used this guy:
He’s only certified in Quebec so when he works for clients in other provinces, well, then he’s not certified. But he’s a poster at the other place and an actual early retiree.
He’d likely do a consult to figure out with you what you’re looking for. He did charge a very reasonable flat fee.
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I’ve never had a consultation but have had good financial advice from this guy and, more importantly I wouldn’t see him taking a fee for the sake of taking a fee.
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We have. They were great at helping us prepare for retirement. We were in Saskatchewan at the time. I don’t think the people we used are still in business.
Ultimately, though, we didn’t have enough money to make it worth our while to use them. At the time we had about $50,000 to invest. Most fee only planners won’t take clients with such a low amount to invest. Depends who they are. My Sis was asking around in New Brunswick and all the fee only planners she talked to wanted at least $100,000+.
It was expensive. It cost $1000 per year for the planner’s advice, and another $1000 per year for the broker’s fees that worked with the planner. I figured out we were losing money on it. So we left them behind.
Still they were able to do more detailed retirement income projections than the bank. They ran us through a retirement lifestyle scenario. They didn’t just assume we wanted to golf, ski and go on cruises in our retirement.
They helped us look at the different stages of retirement and plan for them. Including walking us through getting wills, health directives and powers of attorney done.
They were able to access some American material. I recall one called “Five Wishes” on end of life desires.
They connected us to their professional network of lawyers and accountants to deal with.
So, even though we didn’t earn a net return through them, we felt they were worth the money they cost us.
We left them five years ago, after we moved to a new province.
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I think this really depends on whether you just want them for a one-time plan, or if they are managing your investments ongoing.
Some planners don’t want to just do plans/advice, their business model is really around the investments.
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thanks all! I’ve got some research to do!
I also found this site that has a directory of fee only planners. In case anyone else is looking I’ve also found this list https://valueofsimple.ca/links/directory-of-fee-only-planners/
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@regular_things , I think the website you tried to link to is from about 2018. I see our old fee only planner on it, but I don’t think they are doing it anymore. Their website gives a 404 Not Found error.
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oh yeah, it’s an old list! but somewhere to start from at least.
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