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Kalenn Istarion
Nov 2, 2012

Maybe Senpai will finally notice me now that I've dropped :fivebux: on this snazzy av

tuyop posted:

So, Bernstein says to treat your whole portfolio as one account. I have an RRSP and TFSA and they're both pretty out of balance at this point. I don't want to contribute to my RRSP for awhile and I don't want to sell funds and incur fees, does Bernstein's advice mean I can just throw money into my TFSA and "overbalance" my allocation there to make my whole portfolio balanced, provided both accounts contain the same funds?

It seems dangerous because of the difference in tax treatment and balance of both the accounts. The RRSP has much more money in it and I don't want most of my money to be exposed to too much risk because of a skewed allocation, but maybe I'm just thinking of this the wrong way? There's also the concern that later I'll have to pay tax on the RRSP balance.

The tax differences are important but only at the margin. Focus on getting your portfolio balanced appropriately overall and then worry about whether you can optimize by having yield or cap gains in one account over the other.

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Reggie Died
Mar 24, 2004
I currently don't have any RRSP accounts open, but plan on doing so before the end of the year / 2015 contribution deadline.

I had planned on going the TD e-series route, but they have fee's attached to RRSP accounts under 25k. Conversely, there are no fee's for TFSA accounts.

Should I hold off creating an account and contributing until I have the 25k in hand? If so, I'm assuming just holding cash in a high interest savings account is my best bet? (my regular banking is with a credit union with horrible interest rates right now, but opening accounts and transfer fee's probably make it pointless in chasing interest rates for the next few months).

Conversely, I could pull the difference from my TFSA, and re-contribute that in January. This option might make the most sense as I just recently maxed out my contributions last month, but have only been buying $2000 chunks of ETF's. So I could transfer $6k in cash without having to sell anything, and most likely reach the min requirements within a few paychecks.

Also, can you defer claiming RRSP contribution over the course of multiple years (ie, 5k of the 25k lump sum in 2015, 8k in 2016, 12k in 2017) or can you only defer a single contribution once?

tuyop
Sep 15, 2006

Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted

Fun Shoe

Reggie Died posted:

I currently don't have any RRSP accounts open, but plan on doing so before the end of the year / 2015 contribution deadline.

I had planned on going the TD e-series route, but they have fee's attached to RRSP accounts under 25k. Conversely, there are no fee's for TFSA accounts.

Should I hold off creating an account and contributing until I have the 25k in hand? If so, I'm assuming just holding cash in a high interest savings account is my best bet? (my regular banking is with a credit union with horrible interest rates right now, but opening accounts and transfer fee's probably make it pointless in chasing interest rates for the next few months).

Conversely, I could pull the difference from my TFSA, and re-contribute that in January. This option might make the most sense as I just recently maxed out my contributions last month, but have only been buying $2000 chunks of ETF's. So I could transfer $6k in cash without having to sell anything, and most likely reach the min requirements within a few paychecks.

Also, can you defer claiming RRSP contribution over the course of multiple years (ie, 5k of the 25k lump sum in 2015, 8k in 2016, 12k in 2017) or can you only defer a single contribution once?

The account I started with TD was their version of one without fees, then it was converted to an eseries account. You don't want a waterhouse account, just a straightforward RRSP that they can convert with TD mojo and paperwork to an eseries account.

Reggie Died
Mar 24, 2004
Is there no fee once it's converted to e-series?

I actually set up the TFSA e-series in person, and had inquired about the e-series RRSP at the same time. The fee came up, and it was too close to the deadline to confirm it would be set up in time, so at that point I left it for the time being.

tuyop
Sep 15, 2006

Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted

Fun Shoe

Reggie Died posted:

Is there no fee once it's converted to e-series?

I actually set up the TFSA e-series in person, and had inquired about the e-series RRSP at the same time. The fee came up, and it was too close to the deadline to confirm it would be set up in time, so at that point I left it for the time being.

The kneejerk reaction of a teller when asked about eseries is to respond with information about self-directed accounts. Self-directed accounts are usually Waterhouse accounts that have fees based on balance. You don't want that, you want a straight up RRSP without fees. Once you have that, you want to convert it to buy eseries funds. This will maintain the fee structure of the RRSP and allow you to buy the low-MER funds that you want.

In my experience, most tellers don't really know what eseries is beyond a category of mutual funds that are available to Waterhouse customers.

Reggie Died
Mar 24, 2004

tuyop posted:

The kneejerk reaction of a teller when asked about eseries is to respond with information about self-directed accounts. Self-directed accounts are usually Waterhouse accounts that have fees based on balance. You don't want that, you want a straight up RRSP without fees. Once you have that, you want to convert it to buy eseries funds. This will maintain the fee structure of the RRSP and allow you to buy the low-MER funds that you want.

In my experience, most tellers don't really know what eseries is beyond a category of mutual funds that are available to Waterhouse customers.

Bottom line, though, is that there should be no fee for an E-series RRSP account?

Kalenn Istarion
Nov 2, 2012

Maybe Senpai will finally notice me now that I've dropped :fivebux: on this snazzy av

Reggie Died posted:

I currently don't have any RRSP accounts open, but plan on doing so before the end of the year / 2015 contribution deadline.

I had planned on going the TD e-series route, but they have fee's attached to RRSP accounts under 25k. Conversely, there are no fee's for TFSA accounts.

Should I hold off creating an account and contributing until I have the 25k in hand? If so, I'm assuming just holding cash in a high interest savings account is my best bet? (my regular banking is with a credit union with horrible interest rates right now, but opening accounts and transfer fee's probably make it pointless in chasing interest rates for the next few months).

Conversely, I could pull the difference from my TFSA, and re-contribute that in January. This option might make the most sense as I just recently maxed out my contributions last month, but have only been buying $2000 chunks of ETF's. So I could transfer $6k in cash without having to sell anything, and most likely reach the min requirements within a few paychecks.

Also, can you defer claiming RRSP contribution over the course of multiple years (ie, 5k of the 25k lump sum in 2015, 8k in 2016, 12k in 2017) or can you only defer a single contribution once?

You will make much more over time being invested than any amount of fees. Just get doing it. High interest savings is an option for your emergency fund or something. Consider with only $2000 invested and making a conservative 4% after tax vs 2% in a HISA you will net $40 before fees. If you made a more realistic 6% over time you're $80 a year better off in the RRSP vs a HISA before fees. You'll be out of the fee bucket so quick it won't make a big difference anyways.

RRSP contribution room is cumulative. You always have it once earned until it's used. Same with tfsa except that will regenerate to the extent you take stuff out of it.

Mantle
May 15, 2004

I'm going to max out my TFSA this year and am planning to continue my monthly rate of contributions in a non registered account.

I want to take advantage of the tax free dividend for eligible Canadian shares.

If I hold my preferred shares allocation (ZPR) in the non registered account is there anything I need to be aware of?

E: or should I hold ZPR in my TFSA and my capital gains assets in a non registered account because of the favorable tax treatment on CG?

Mantle fucked around with this message at 21:19 on Aug 10, 2015

Golluk
Oct 22, 2008
I ended up going with a TD Waterhouse Self Directed account for getting into the e-series funds. The fee is 25 bucks a year until you get over 25K in the account. Being a retirement account, that doesn't take too long. Or maybe it does. The teller seemed a bit surprised when I said I'd be over that amount within the year.

cowofwar
Jul 30, 2002

by Athanatos

Golluk posted:

I ended up going with a TD Waterhouse Self Directed account for getting into the e-series funds. The fee is 25 bucks a year until you get over 25K in the account. Being a retirement account, that doesn't take too long. Or maybe it does. The teller seemed a bit surprised when I said I'd be over that amount within the year.
Sounds like lovely deal. No e-series plus a fee? There are plenty of no fee brokers in canada.

tuyop
Sep 15, 2006

Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted

Fun Shoe

cowofwar posted:

Sounds like lovely deal. No e-series plus a fee? There are plenty of no fee brokers in canada.

Waterhouse allows you to buy eseries and/or any ETF you want(afaik). It's arguably better to go with ETFs at a certain point.

Brekelefuw
Dec 16, 2003
I Like Trumpets
I'm getting an inheritance of $4000 next week.
I am buying a car (which I was before the money came about) with about $2500 of it and the rest I want to save.
I don't have any long term saving account currently. Right now I use my tfsa to save for the business that I am starting, and my normal bank account pays for my daily expenses.

What is a good way to put this away so I can start a long term savings? Another tfsa? Rrsp? Gic?

Koskinator
Nov 4, 2009

MOURNFUL: ALAS,
POOR YORICK
I have a RDSP with RBC that I've been contributing for a year or so now. It's up to $26k, and it's just sitting there. I know I should be doing something with it, but I'm overwhelmed by all the financial info out there (and in this forum) and I'm terrified of doing something wrong and screwing myself out of thousands of dollars in the long run. I know the basics from those forums - low management ratios are good, TD e-series are the best (but unfortunately that's not my bank), and ETFs appear to be overall a better choice than mutual funds in general, but not much else. I've met with an advisor a year ago and he seemed at least okay, talking about options for where to put my money. But where do I go from here?

spoof
Jul 8, 2004

Koskinator posted:

I have a RDSP with RBC that I've been contributing for a year or so now. It's up to $26k, and it's just sitting there. I know I should be doing something with it, but I'm overwhelmed by all the financial info out there (and in this forum) and I'm terrified of doing something wrong and screwing myself out of thousands of dollars in the long run. I know the basics from those forums - low management ratios are good, TD e-series are the best (but unfortunately that's not my bank), and ETFs appear to be overall a better choice than mutual funds in general, but not much else. I've met with an advisor a year ago and he seemed at least okay, talking about options for where to put my money. But where do I go from here?

Is that the only account in your portfolio?
What are the commissions to buy and sell ETFs in your RDSP account?
How often are you contributing?
How hands-on do you want to be?
Does your RDSP have to be at RBC?

I'm not really familiar with RDSPs and their tax treatment but you're on the right track, and just need to put it all together. Generally, mutual funds have a higher MER and no commissions to buy/sell, and ETFs have a lower MER but some fixed commission to buy/sell that depends on your broker. RBC has a pair of Candian and US index MFs now with MERs of 0.72%, which isn't good, just not as bad as it used to be. You'll need to work out what works cheaper for your situation, but let's ballpark out a naive example.

$1000 contribution buying RBC's RBF1015 (Series A) @ 0.72% MER assuming no growth to make the calcs easier will cost you $7.20 to hold for 1 year (and leave you with $992.80), $14.40 to hold for 2 years, $21.60 to hold for 3 years
$1000 contribution buying TD's TDB900 (e-Series) @ 0.33% MER assuming no growth to make the calcs easier will cost you $3.30 to hold for 1 year, $6.60 to hold for 2 years, $9.90 to hold for 3 years
$1000 contribution buying iShare's XIC @ 0.05% MER assuming no growth to make the calcs easier will cost you $0.50 for the MER + (say) $10 for the buy commission for a total of $10.50 to hold for 1 year, $11.00 to hold for 2 years, $11.50 to hold for 3 years

The numbers are a bit off because I didn't factor in our decreasing balance from all of the fees, but the differences only get bigger once you factor in growth. Commissions can be anywhere from $10 to $30, so check that. If you are disciplined and want to be more hands-on, you can save up 2 contributions and buy, say $2000 of ETFs at a time to spread out the commission over more money.

There's no single 'right' allocation. Some model portfolios you've probably already seen based on eSeries and Vanguard ETFs.

If you can switch to TD Waterhouse for your RDSP, do so and follow one of the eSeries model portfolios above. Once you get above $50k when you qualify for cheaper commissions, you can think about switching to ETFs. If you can't, things get more complicated. Try to match up the eSeries model portfolio using Mutual Funds that RBC offers as closely as you can, then compare it against the model ETF portfolio like we did in the example above but using your costs for commissions and MERs for the funds you've chosen.

You're almost there.

Rick Rickshaw
Feb 21, 2007

I am not disappointed I lost the PGA Championship. Nope, I am not.
I am curious about currency hedging due to the low CAD and I came across this article: http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2011/04/04/currency-hedging-in-international-funds/

In the comments, he writes:

CCP Guy posted:

Actually US-listed ETFs can be more tax-efficient than their Canadian versions. If a US-listed ETF is held in an RRSP, there is no withholding tax on dividends.

Is this right? Should I hold VOO or similar US-listed ETF in my RRSP instead of XUS?

Anyway, back to my original quandary. Given the low Canadian dollar, is it not worth it to switch to CAD-hedged ETFs?

If you compare XUS with VUS, the MER of CAD-hedged VUS is only 0.06 more. I'd be fuckin' pissed if the CAD went up 15-20% relative to USD and I were holding USD funds. Of course, I've enjoyed the opposite scenario over the past year or so, and I realize we may stay low for the foreseeable future.

I suppose I'm trying to time the market here, but is it not worth it given what's at stake? What are the odds the CAD will drop below 0.70 USD and I miss out on a further 5% compared to an eventual rise of 15-20%? If it stays the same I only lost out on 0.06% annually.

edit: Tracking errors seem to add to the cost of hedging. Interesting.

Rick Rickshaw fucked around with this message at 13:52 on Aug 28, 2015

namaste friends
Sep 18, 2004

by Smythe
That sounds like bullshit to me. Enjoy filling out a t1135 though.

The Butcher
Apr 20, 2005

Well, at least we tried.
Nap Ghost

Rick Rickshaw posted:

I am curious about currency hedging due to the low CAD and I came across this article: http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2011/04/04/currency-hedging-in-international-funds/

I've been mulling this one myself. There doesn't really seem to be a hard consensus on it.

Looks like you lose 1-2% annually on hedged vs unhedged with the higher tracking error and the slightly higher MER.

So if a rising CAD would do more than 1-2% damage in an unhedged fund, it would be better to hold a hedged one. CAD falls further or sits in place, unhedged is better.

Definitely a market timing situation.

James Baud
May 24, 2015

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

Cultural Imperial posted:

That sounds like bullshit to me. Enjoy filling out a t1135 though.

Holdings within registered accounts don't count.

Rick Rickshaw
Feb 21, 2007

I am not disappointed I lost the PGA Championship. Nope, I am not.

The Butcher posted:

I've been mulling this one myself. There doesn't really seem to be a hard consensus on it.

Looks like you lose 1-2% annually on hedged vs unhedged with the higher tracking error and the slightly higher MER.

So if a rising CAD would do more than 1-2% damage in an unhedged fund, it would be better to hold a hedged one. CAD falls further or sits in place, unhedged is better.

Definitely a market timing situation.

I'm thinking it might not be worth it now due to tracking errors. 1-2% is a lot to give up when you consider the CAD could remain low for a long time.

Koskinator
Nov 4, 2009

MOURNFUL: ALAS,
POOR YORICK

spoof posted:

Is that the only account in your portfolio?
What are the commissions to buy and sell ETFs in your RDSP account?
How often are you contributing?
How hands-on do you want to be?
Does your RDSP have to be at RBC?

I'm not really familiar with RDSPs and their tax treatment but you're on the right track, and just need to put it all together. Generally, mutual funds have a higher MER and no commissions to buy/sell, and ETFs have a lower MER but some fixed commission to buy/sell that depends on your broker. RBC has a pair of Candian and US index MFs now with MERs of 0.72%, which isn't good, just not as bad as it used to be. You'll need to work out what works cheaper for your situation, but let's ballpark out a naive example.

$1000 contribution buying RBC's RBF1015 (Series A) @ 0.72% MER assuming no growth to make the calcs easier will cost you $7.20 to hold for 1 year (and leave you with $992.80), $14.40 to hold for 2 years, $21.60 to hold for 3 years
$1000 contribution buying TD's TDB900 (e-Series) @ 0.33% MER assuming no growth to make the calcs easier will cost you $3.30 to hold for 1 year, $6.60 to hold for 2 years, $9.90 to hold for 3 years
$1000 contribution buying iShare's XIC @ 0.05% MER assuming no growth to make the calcs easier will cost you $0.50 for the MER + (say) $10 for the buy commission for a total of $10.50 to hold for 1 year, $11.00 to hold for 2 years, $11.50 to hold for 3 years

The numbers are a bit off because I didn't factor in our decreasing balance from all of the fees, but the differences only get bigger once you factor in growth. Commissions can be anywhere from $10 to $30, so check that. If you are disciplined and want to be more hands-on, you can save up 2 contributions and buy, say $2000 of ETFs at a time to spread out the commission over more money.

There's no single 'right' allocation. Some model portfolios you've probably already seen based on eSeries and Vanguard ETFs.

If you can switch to TD Waterhouse for your RDSP, do so and follow one of the eSeries model portfolios above. Once you get above $50k when you qualify for cheaper commissions, you can think about switching to ETFs. If you can't, things get more complicated. Try to match up the eSeries model portfolio using Mutual Funds that RBC offers as closely as you can, then compare it against the model ETF portfolio like we did in the example above but using your costs for commissions and MERs for the funds you've chosen.

You're almost there.

Thanks a lot, this helps me out quite a bit!

It looks like RDSPs are not transferable, so my options seem limited to RBC's offerings. I'm thinking that I will diversify my current RDSP account into smaller chunks - some for long term GICs and some for mutual funds or ETFs. Besides looking at MER ratios, how do I assess mutual funds and ETFs to figure out what is right for me? What are the important things to look up on their info sheets besides MERs? Is it necessary to have a complete understanding of how mutual funds and ETFs work to invest, because at the moment my knowledge doesn't go far past 'invest in funds, pay the MER and/or commissions, and hope you get a profit years down the road'.

edit: It seems that generally speaking, RDSPs cannot invest into ETFs unless they are with TD. Is it possible to transfer my RDSP from RBC to TD? I know there is a form for transferring RRSPs and other similar accounts, but it doesn't list RDSP as an option.

Alternatively, is it possible to have a solid to good investment strategy using only bank-approved mutual funds and GICs? The restrictions on what RDSP money can be invested in are frustrating, but it is still essentially a free pile of money from the Canadian government. I've invested about 6-8k and that was enough to get up to 26k with more grants still available.

Koskinator fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Aug 30, 2015

Boogle
Sep 1, 2004

Nap Ghost

Koskinator posted:

It looks like RDSPs are not transferable, so my options seem limited to RBC's offerings.

They actually are, just a bitch to do so. The receiving institution needs to complete new account application and fill out a special transfer form (ESDC EMP5499), and either mail or fax it to whoever deals with account transfers at your current institution. Most institutions however will only take in-cash transfers, and are limited to their in-house mutual funds.

If you can, transfer it to TD Waterhouse, since you can actually use the e-series and/or ETF's for their RDSP's (all though call them to double check).

spoof
Jul 8, 2004

Koskinator posted:

Besides looking at MER ratios, how do I assess mutual funds and ETFs to figure out what is right for me? What are the important things to look up on their info sheets besides MERs? Is it necessary to have a complete understanding of how mutual funds and ETFs work to invest, because at the moment my knowledge doesn't go far past 'invest in funds, pay the MER and/or commissions, and hope you get a profit years down the road'.

Mutual Funs and ETFs (let's just call them both Funds) are really just collections of other securities, in various combinations and ratios. There are really two methods of determining the composition of Funds: Active and Passive. Active Funds tend to cost more and have a Fund Manager actively buying and selling securities within the Fund based on research and/or hunches that they have. Passive Funds are cheaper and follow a predetermined composition of securities (an index, like the S&P500). Why wouldn't you want an active manager trying to beat the market on your behalf? Because research has shown that they're not only no better than picking compositions at random, they charge you high fees for the privilege of being no better than random choices. What this forum recommends is investing in index funds, which are passive funds.

What you're looking for is to capture the broadest amount of the market at the lowest cost. If you're sticking with RBC, look at their list of funds, and look for anything with 'index' in the name. (RBF556) RBC Canadian Index Fund, (RBF557) RBC U.S. Index Fund, (RBF559) RBC International Index Currency Neutral Fund. These are what you're looking for, and track the S&P/TSX Composite, S&P 500 and MSCI EAFE indices. As far as you're concerned, these funds represent Canada, the US and the whole world, respectively. Use RBF563 for your bond component. You don't really need to know more right now if you don't want to, especially with your somewhat limited options. Take another look at those model portfolios, decide which allocation you're comfortable with, and use the 4 funds we talked about above.

RBC's options aren't great, but if you have no choice, you can still make the most of it. If you can transfer to TD, call them to verify that you can hold at least e-Series in an RDSP account, and do the transfer. You'll pay less in fees embedded in the funds each year, which means that more will be left over to compound every year, meaning more money for you.

Demon_Corsair
Mar 22, 2004

Goodbye stealing souls, hello stealing booty.
At what point is it worth moving from td e series to etfs on questrade?

I have about 13k (although I haven't checked lately) in e series, and have a lump sum of about 35k ready to dump in.

Kalenn Istarion
Nov 2, 2012

Maybe Senpai will finally notice me now that I've dropped :fivebux: on this snazzy av

Demon_Corsair posted:

At what point is it worth moving from td e series to etfs on questrade?

I have about 13k (although I haven't checked lately) in e series, and have a lump sum of about 35k ready to dump in.

You're there.

spoof
Jul 8, 2004

Rick Rickshaw
Feb 21, 2007

I am not disappointed I lost the PGA Championship. Nope, I am not.

Demon_Corsair posted:

At what point is it worth moving from td e series to etfs on questrade?

I have about 13k (although I haven't checked lately) in e series, and have a lump sum of about 35k ready to dump in.

Remember to dump at least 12k of that 35k into TD before you move to Questrade so that Questrade will reimburse you for TD's transfer-out fee. They will reimburse on transfers of 25k or more.

Don't buy any funds with that money though, unless you plan to hold them for 30 or more days before transferring out. e-Series have a minimum holding policy and will ding you hard if you sell too quickly.

Kal Torak
Jul 17, 2003

When Giles sends me on a mission, he says "please". And afterwards I get a cookie.

Rick Rickshaw posted:

Remember to dump at least 12k of that 35k into TD before you move to Questrade so that Questrade will reimburse you for TD's transfer-out fee. They will reimburse on transfers of 25k or more.

Don't buy any funds with that money though, unless you plan to hold them for 30 or more days before transferring out. e-Series have a minimum holding policy and will ding you hard if you sell too quickly.

You can't transfer e-series in-kind so if it's not a registered account, he should just withdraw and deposit instead of doing a transfer.

Rick Rickshaw
Feb 21, 2007

I am not disappointed I lost the PGA Championship. Nope, I am not.

Kal Torak posted:

You can't transfer e-series in-kind so if it's not a registered account, he should just withdraw and deposit instead of doing a transfer.

Oh, right. I am assuming it is a registered account, at which point I think my advice is good. If it's a non-registered then a withdraw and deposit is definitely simpler and better and likely faster.

Xenoborg
Mar 10, 2007

Cross posting from the general investing thread. I know basically nothing about Canada specific investing, but it looks like Vanguard is the go to here too.

Xenoborg posted:

I've got a cousin that lives in Canada who over the last few days has been asking for investment advice. I've convinced him of the benefits to indexing over actively managed funds, but am not sure about the individual fund picks and asset allocation.

Vanguard has a Canadian division, vanguardcanada.ca. They seem to only have ETFs, but at ER's similar to investor class US shares. I'm not 100% clear on the difference between say S&P 500 Index ETF (VFV) and the S&P 500 Index ETF (CAD-hedged) (VSP) . Is it correct that the hedged one is mostly unaffected by changes in the exchange rate the the unhedged on is affected?

In terms of asset allocation whats a good mix for a Canadian? Hes 25 am I was thinking recommending 15% bonds, 20% Canada, 25% US, 40% International.

Just some more info. He is putting 10% in his RRSP and is getting an inheritance of around 60K CAD that he wants to invest and has no plans to use within 10+ years.

Xenoborg fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Sep 4, 2015

Aagar
Mar 30, 2006

E/N Gestapo
I am talking to a mod right now about getting you probated/banned/gassed
You are essentially correct on the difference between VSP and VFV - VSP is supposed to remove fluctuation due to the changing exchange rate. However, there are other considerations that The Butcher succinctly summarized earlier on this page.

The Butcher posted:

I've been mulling this one myself. There doesn't really seem to be a hard consensus on it.

Looks like you lose 1-2% annually on hedged vs unhedged with the higher tracking error and the slightly higher MER.

So if a rising CAD would do more than 1-2% damage in an unhedged fund, it would be better to hold a hedged one. CAD falls further or sits in place, unhedged is better.

Definitely a market timing situation.

Also, a good asset allocation for "a Canadian" is the same as for anyone else in the world. I don't see the advantage of having that much Canadian equity when your cousin already works in Canada, and there have been good arguments in this thread over the last few months to reduce Canadian exposure (crashing oil prices, ready-to-burst housing bubble, etc.) That said, getting him to move to Vanguard ETFs is a great huge step, and one can argue the small details ad nauseum. I'd read the OP and the last few pages to get a general sense of how other Canadians are allocating and what the general fears are for certain asset classes.

Kalenn Istarion
Nov 2, 2012

Maybe Senpai will finally notice me now that I've dropped :fivebux: on this snazzy av
I'm not convinced that now is the best time to be under weighting Canada. You've already eaten a good chunk of the sell-off - balance of probability on the hardest hit sectors us that there's more upside than downside long-term. Oil is at its lowest in over a decade - unless things have changed significantly in the global oil market in terms of supply / demand availabikity it doesn't have much lower to go.

Jan
Feb 27, 2008

The disruptive powers of excessive national fecundity may have played a greater part in bursting the bonds of convention than either the power of ideas or the errors of autocracy.
I recall reading in this thread that you can't stop paper billing with Chases's Amazon.ca card? I can't find an option anywhere on the site and jesus gently caress what a waste of paper.

Lexicon
Jul 29, 2003

I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Jan posted:

I recall reading in this thread that you can't stop paper billing with Chases's Amazon.ca card? I can't find an option anywhere on the site and jesus gently caress what a waste of paper.

Correct. It's silly.

Baronjutter
Dec 31, 2007

"Tiny Trains"

So next week I'm going to europe. Ukraine, CZ, and NL so I get to deal with 3 currencies. What's the least horrible way to get some currency of each country? Should I get it here or there? I also have this silly amazon card that I remember someone saying something about currency conversion is good or special with it. What should I do?

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005

Baronjutter posted:

So next week I'm going to europe. Ukraine, CZ, and NL so I get to deal with 3 currencies. What's the least horrible way to get some currency of each country? Should I get it here or there? I also have this silly amazon card that I remember someone saying something about currency conversion is good or special with it. What should I do?

Use your debit card when you're in the countries to withdraw cash from an ATM. I usually order some from my bank when I'm here of whatever the first currency I need is, but it usually takes 4 days to order it so with a week you're cutting it close.

If the Amazon card doesn't charge a 2.5% currency exchange fee (that's what it sounds like but I dunno because I don't have it) then use that as often as possible.

spoof
Jul 8, 2004

Baronjutter posted:

So next week I'm going to europe. Ukraine, CZ, and NL so I get to deal with 3 currencies. What's the least horrible way to get some currency of each country? Should I get it here or there? I also have this silly amazon card that I remember someone saying something about currency conversion is good or special with it. What should I do?

The Amazon card doesn't charge forex commission, but does charge a 1% cash advance fee, minimum $5. Since your debit card charges a 2.5% commission, with no floor, the lower percentage fee is better after 5/(0.025-0.01) = $333.33, assuming you only pay commission once on the debit card. For less popular currencies, banks will convert first to USD or EUR and then to CAD, so you'll pay the commission twice, and the Amazon card is better sooner. All cash advances start to accrue interest immediately from the transaction, so you'll want to pay them off ASAP without waiting for the statement to come in.

You may also get a better rate by bringing EUR or USD to the Ukraine and changing there, but the less-hassle option is to use an ATM.

ray_finkle
Aug 31, 2001
Laces out, Dan!
This also may have already been stated but you can get chequing accounts that are favorable when traveling. My TD account (all inclusive plan) won't charge me a five dollar fee when using international ATMs which adds up when you're traveling extensively and constantly pulling out cash.

spoof
Jul 8, 2004

ray_finkle posted:

This also may have already been stated but you can get chequing accounts that are favorable when traveling. My TD account (all inclusive plan) won't charge me a five dollar fee when using international ATMs which adds up when you're traveling extensively and constantly pulling out cash.

You still pay the 2.5% forex commission though.

Segue
May 23, 2007

So I've signed up with Questrade and put bought a portfolio for my TFSA. Since I haven't reached the TFSA limit, I'm going to be saving about $1k or so each month to keep putting into my investments, rather than doing the lump sum rebalancing every year.

When I buy into my ETFs every month, should I

1) buy to rebalance my portfolio, ie., buying the ETFs I have that are underperforming and buying less of the ones that have been doing well so that my allocation stays the same throughout the year. It'll be more work every month to figure out the percentages.
or 2) keep buying at my current 10/30/40/whatever allocation and just rebalance at the end of the year (thereby incurring selling fees, but buying less and just waiting things out overall)

I'm leaning toward Option 1, I'm still buying low, and not selling in a panic when things crash, but I'm also riding stock highs and lows a lot more than just waiting for a once a year thing to take a look.

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Guest2553
Aug 3, 2012


I'm rebalance with buys. Like you said it avoids unneeded commissions and always keeps you where you want to be. Making lots of little changes is mentally easier to deal with than infrequent larger changes if that's a sticky point for you as well.

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