One thing that is probably more important to you than to me is the taxation situation for your estate. (My niblings will be fine)
My understanding is that the difference in taxes if you died with 500k in an RRSP vs. 500k in a non-registered account is substantial for your kids.
anyone else thinking through home country bias issues?
weāre about to do a bit of rebalancing, and itās hard to keep to the investment plan after a decade of Canada & International underperformance compared to US markets. Iām also really aware that Canada is only ~3% of the world market, and ~30% of our investments.
So how much is the recency bias of past performance (vs. hoping for reversion to the mean like the first decade of this century), vs a reality that I know more about allocation than I did when I started with a third/third/third approach towards equity?
how are the rest of you thinking about geographic allocation for your equity exposure?
Iām so mad about paying anything at all for foreign taxes or currency conversion and stuff like that, so most of what I have is canadian. I think the broadest ETF is american/ global, but it politely hides the costs of that from me so I donāt object.
yes, knowing that the US dividends have the withholding on dividends because Iām holding them in a Canadian domiciled etf is very annoying, but I donāt want to faff about with paying the currency exchange, or norbertās gambit to clean that up.
I know that Canadian companies pay out higher dividends than US (another argument as to whether we should be happy about that because it means theyāre less likely to be reinvesting it into their own growth because Canadian investors love their dividends), so itās slightly less painful that weāve got that friction.
When I first started investing some American ETF withheld a few cents for their government and I was deeply displeased. Itās not rational or efficient, but now I only invest in things that donāt tell me when someone else is getting my money.
has anyone looked at the adviice.ca tool? $9 for something a bit more powerful than the spreadsheets I built myself sounds like it is a low risk thing to try out.
This looks interesting. If you try it I want a review.
It is $11 after tax, so i decided to do it. Before buying, it asks questions around whether you plan to downsize or have rental income. Iām not sure if they would give different modules in that case, or if they would tell you to pay for actual advice.
It asks for a lot of detail at the expenses level and a fair amount at the investment (including expense ratios but no way I could find for adjustments to geographic asset location stuff)
It lets you play with changes in expenses at different seasons of life (go go, slow go, no go) which I have not done.
I donāt yet see a good way to modify the rrsp meltdown approach beyond the most generic. The machine recommended adjustments are a user interface challenge now that they have so many to play with.
It is not all that user friendly, though they did their best. The output is on the level of what I have received from two other planners, so definitely a good value compared to that.
It took a solid 90 minutes to get data in, and we already have all of it (including all the historical numbers to estimate cpp).
That sounds fun.
If I get it, it will be for fun. I think my spreadsheets are as accurate as is possible without knowing the future.
Is there a crystal ball function?
it has a nice little function where it says you could increase your spending by 3k/6k/12k/30k and how that would change the success ratio in the monte carlo. or how you could change your success or estimated estate by decreasing your spend that much
but no crossing your hand with silver
Sounds worth $11. Thank you for splashing out and investigating for the group.
the shadowy one says that we both bought simulator games today (civilization and baseball management simulators as part of the Steam sale, and this financial futures simulator)
Heās not wrong.
Civ is fun. I hope he gets Ghandi to nuke Hitler.
Does anyone have any good sources for nice cleaning supplies? Iām thinking mop and broom but am also low on products.
Canadian Tire sells this mop handle with interchangeable heads. I have one handle that can connect to a mop, a broom, or a squeegee. Other heads are also possible but I donāt have them. Iāve never been so happy about my cleaning gear.
And my current cleaning liquid comes from you: citrus peels soaked in vinegar, then diluted in a spray bottle. That and dr Bronnerās and baking soda are all I use.
The red vileda ones? My broom head needs replacing and my spray mop has basically given up. So I am hoping for better cuter but will probably get a new broom head and switch to a regular mop.
I kind of want pretentious muji ones but I donāt want to go to the places with a muji
Or the kind of nice beautiful and practical things you see in Winners and then never again.
My interchangeable heads system is called swopt, apparently. They are sturdy and I have less cleaning supplies clutter.
For cleaning products, I really like Dr Bronnerās salās suds. You can clean basically everything with it: floors, dishes, all purpose cleaner, bathroom (with or without baking soda)ā¦ I LOVE it!!
Our neighbour, a professional cleaner, swears by Barkeeperās Friend products. Thatās what we use nowā¦along with vinegar and citrus peel.
Wealthsimple vs Qtrade: a comparison
At the start of the month I was enticed by Wealthsimpleās offer of a 1% match if I switched to them from Qtrade. Today my RRSP and TFSA completed the transfer. (The RESPs are still in process) Here are my observations.
support is live chat, qtrade had an annoying sytem of sending them a message and getting a message back in my in-platform inbox, which I might or might not notice. Iām sure I could toggle some notification preference to improve that situation, but just talking to someone right away is way better. Iāve contacted them twice. Both times I was connected right away and the answered my questions well. It feels like a big step up in terms of customer service.
They do promotions. On top of that 1% match (which will be paid out in monthly increments for a year) they offered me $10 to try different features. Iāve earned $30 for trying crypto, managed funds, and taxable accounts. I have no intention of keeping the crypto or managed funds, but Iām waiting for them to go up before I sell. I only put $10 in each thing, the minimum to earn the reward was $1. For now Iām letting the three things ride, watching them race. So far my crypto is up $1.01, taxable managed is up $0.21, taxable nonmanaged is up $1.48.
No commissions or fees on normal trades. Qtrade was free for certain ETFs, which steered my purchases. Having all of them be free is good for me making smarter choices, maybe?
Fractional shares! Before I was doing the math each time. How many shares can I get for $150 if they each cost $42ā¦ No math now, I just hit the button to buy the maximum and all the cash turns into investments. Nice.
They have a website but their focus is the app. Itās a really good app. I check it much more than I checked the Qtrade website, which is kind of pointless. Nothing important has happened in the last 35 mins, Smacky. Chill.
They advertise to me. Qtrade felt neutral, I could buy whatever investment I wanted but none were suggested and no products were pushed at all. In the WS app there are banners suggesting I try their investment products and stuff. I donāt like this at all.
WS has a cash account that I havenāt used yet, that earns 4.5% and works as a chequing account, but no foreign transaction fees or ordinary use fees. This seems like a great account and I expect to use it in the future.
So far those are all my thoughts.