fractional shares are very appealing
obviously so is 1%
research shows that looking more often leads to making more emotional decisions, which leads to suboptimal outcomes
cash account is not directly CDIC insured, I believe it has the same type of risk that customers in the US were exposed to here How thousands of Americans got caught in fintech’s false promise and lost access to bank accounts - so it’s your call as to whether you want to give them large deposits in exchange for that rate
please note, I check daily
I contain multitudes
Once I’ve bought a thing I leave it until I want that money. I don’t want to day trade or do a lot of transactions. I check my investments often, but actually do something with them only a few times a year.
I just like it when the numbers go up so I can change my spreadsheet.
That’s good to know about the non insured.
Hi plainjane, I hope you don’t mind the question from a random Canadian new to this kind of detailed/optimized savings and investing? I remember that you worked in banking, and my brain goes to mush about a lot of these things! I read the article you linked here, because I’ve been looking at the ws cash account as a place to build savings (rather than hold large sums (ie more than $100K).
In the Wealth Simple description, it doesn’t say that there is a 3rd party involved like Synapse in the US? If I’m reading that article correctly, the issue was that the “not bank” savings accounts were held by Synapse as a middleman, who then reinvested the $ in the FDIC protected banks? So that when the “not bank” OR Synapse collapsed, the money wasn’t protected because they weren’t FDIC members.
In ws’s description, it says " The funds added to Cash account(s) (the “Funds”) are ultimately held securely in trust in the name of the primary account holder with a single or multiple members of the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (“CDIC”). CDIC protects eligible deposits held at CDIC member institutions in case of a member institution’s failure. Wealthsimple Payments Inc. and WSII are not CDIC member institutions. Under the trust framework, CDIC insures eligible cash balances up to $100,000 per beneficiary, per member institution, provided certain disclosure rules are met."
The trust system here doesn’t sound like a 3rd-party company that could fail in the way Synapse did? Am I missing something? (that seems highly probable, lol, see brain mush above.)
If these “not bank” risks are similar to what the article describes, I will definitely think more carefully about putting my small savings to grow here. Thank you!
I appreciate this assessment, Smacky! I’ve been looking at WS’s products and wondering about opening an account with them.
I am definitely not an expert in this, but I believe that WS is the third party in this case between you and the account that is being covered by the CDIC. So if there is a problem, it is unclear how easy it will be to disentangle the layers, or how long it might take.
It is probably a very small risk, certainly smaller than the Synapse mess imo. I just prefer not to take it if I can get 4.5% or 5% from EQ’s notice accounts.
Thank you! I’ve been wondering about EQ, too. 
playing some more with the adviice simulator, I have hit the limits of what I can figure out with scenarios that balance out tax liabilities at different points.
there is one philosophy that says to kick tax liabilities down the road - which argues for spending down the non registered as quickly as possible. Since it is easier for me to hold money in RRSPs, this is also desirable if the shadowy one dies first.
there is another that says to get the rrsps to a lower number to reduce the required min withdrawals later, and for the estate, to avoid a large tax bill if you (& spouse) die early. So max out the 20% tax bracket so you don’t hit the mandatory 30% or 40% later.
atm my plan is to try to balance out and do both/neither because I think that going to far in either direction isn’t great, but it is more challenging to model something like that with off the rack software.
It would be nice if they did more with the sum of taxes, not just sum of spending and sum of final balance
Looking at potentially switching home insurance from TD
TD wants 1397+HST
Intact’s web site gives a prelim quote of 964+HST, which I could try to use to argue TD down. (Unfortunately though they said they would email it to me, it looks like they haven’t, and of course I didn’t screenshot and I closed that window)
Co-Operators and PC Insurance want us to call them
Desjardins says I need to call because it’s over 100 years old
Sonnet says they don’t have anything appropriate for us
Other ideas? I need to do it this week.
TD has the most expensive insurance I’ve found so no matter what you pick it’s probably better.
Cooperators need 90 days notice to change providers. An underwriter I know told me they have also had a huge lift in pricing this year, so I don’t know if they will be cheaper.
Any luck with alumni discounting? I get a work discount.
This is also SO’s task to investigate while I’m away.
wow, I had no idea that it would take so long to potentially switch insurance. If I’ve left it too late (renewal is Aug 1) then I will pay the lazy tax this year.
TD is with alumni pricing
Yeah it sucks but I’m glad the girl I spoke with was very clear about it.
Ours is for Dec 1.
ratehub’s quotes are 1450-2980
makes staying with TD look better
Intact phoned me yesterday, leaving a message
They phoned me again today 3 times. The first 2 times they didn’t pick up when I did. The third time a rep answered and wanted to connect me with one of the insurance people who are allowed to do an actual quote. I was on hold for about 5 minutes, she asked me if it was ok to put me on hold for another 2-3 to connect me with the person who could give a quote, I said sure, and after a few more minutes the call disconnected.
They didn’t call me back.
according to reddit, wealth simple is dropping their rate on their cash account from 5% to 4.5%
my guess is that EQ will probably follow suit on their notice accounts, but perhaps will wait a bit longer since they only just released the product
a good reminder that anything that has money easy to access can easily change their terms and if you want to lock in a better rate before the expected cut in Sept, you’ll probably need to put it away in a GIC. Since our money is mostly for the kitchen reno, a GIC is inappropriate at this time, so we’ll float with what happens.
Yup. I just got the email this morning. The cash account is 4% if you don’t have a direct deposit in it (which is my case, I use it as a savings account) so now it’s 3,5%. I currently have an offer for a 5% rate at Tangerine, I think I’ll move my money over (again 
)
I think the forum has at least one representative per region!
Today we drove past a gross conservative event. Worse, people with freedom convoy truck stickers were camping near us. The good news is it was pouring rain
Two of the areas only have one person as far as I know
