Search found 1842 matches

by Descartes
16 Mar 2024 08:22
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: Social Security is the Biggest Scam of our Lifetimes?
Replies: 29
Views: 1369

Re: Social Security is the Biggest Scam of our Lifetimes?

Not sure which is more irrational in this thread: the opinion or the many futile attempts to change it.
by Descartes
14 Mar 2024 11:09
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: BCE (Symbol-BCE)
Replies: 1860
Views: 286374

Re: BCE (Symbol-BCE)

Putting things in perspective: Rogers is down 1.33% today. Telus is down 1.05%. Bell is down 1.74%. Only one of these is ex-div today.

What I don't understand is were you not pessimistic a month ago when in their quarterly presentation:
1. they cut 10% of their workforce
2. they announced a scale back of the fibre rollout
3. they offered no tangible revenue growth prospects?
by Descartes
11 Mar 2024 07:23
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: BCE (Symbol-BCE)
Replies: 1860
Views: 286374

Re: BCE (Symbol-BCE)

Ex-dividend refers to the period after which a stock is traded without a right to its next dividend payment. The ex-dividend date or "ex-date" is the day the stock starts trading without the value of its next dividend payment. Typically, this date is one business day before the record date, meaning that an investor who buys the stock on its ex-dividend date or later will not be eligible to receive the declared dividend. Rather, the dividend payment is made to whoever owned the stock the day before the ex-dividend date.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/ex-dividend.asp
by Descartes
10 Mar 2024 11:43
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: Any questions about CPP?
Replies: 518
Views: 88156

Re: Any questions about CPP?

I have the impression the government mails you a info package on your potential benefit amount and such at age 59. I'm 59 and have been for a few months. I'm starting to look at the mail box for more than pizza offers. Should I poke the beast or be patient? I don't plan to taking the money right off I just want to know the offer and see it in writing :) Not sure where you got that impression but I would think you will need to request your CPP info... Actually, the OP is correct. You don't need to request it at 59. Here you go: ESDC says a letter is sent to all CPP contributors at age 59 to tell them that they can start receiving their pension as soon as age 60. Another letter is sent at age 64, ahead of the standard CPP starting age of 65....
by Descartes
10 Mar 2024 10:22
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: BCE (Symbol-BCE)
Replies: 1860
Views: 286374

Re: BCE (Symbol-BCE)

Just an FYI, the date of record for the next dividend payment is March 15.
So if you think a lot people are just holding on to get that last dividend payment before dumping it, you might want to factor in the ex-div date this week in your own sell/buy decision.
by Descartes
07 Mar 2024 12:28
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: BMO Investorline
Replies: 1278
Views: 198097

Re: BMO Investorline

mewmew wrote: 04 Mar 2024 20:57 I still haven't received the T5 for the BMO ISAs, e.g. BMT104, etc. Anyone already got his/hers?
Today.
by Descartes
05 Mar 2024 09:32
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: Retirement Countdown: Start of 2025
Replies: 74
Views: 4455

Re: Retirement Countdown: Start of 2025

We might be retiring at the same time. :mrgreen: Two significant differences though, (1) keeping 5 years of expenses not-in-stock (whatever the form), mostly in 1 yr GIC at 4.5-5.X% . If a major international event happens, wake me up when these fools be done; usually markets recover within 2-3 years, but who knows... and (2) I no longer invest in dividends funds, they just let me down for years; I just go by 3 / 5 / 10 yrs total returns. Who knows indeed. It is a lot to read but if you have the inclination you'll see that I actually keep 6 years of expenses in cash and a GIC ladder. I'm not confident the fools are ever done, however. Foolishness is a renewable resource. No, and in fairness, my comment was not pointed specifically at Desca...
by Descartes
04 Mar 2024 06:40
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: Retirement Countdown: Start of 2025
Replies: 74
Views: 4455

Re: Retirement Countdown: Start of 2025

SQRT wrote: 03 Mar 2024 14:07
Descartes wrote: 03 Mar 2024 13:52
Everybody loves a pension but everybody hates an annuity? Difficult to “square” that opinion isn’t it?
Because the company pension appears to be gifted "for free" whereas the annuity seems to take a big bite out of your assets.
Agree but it’s still not rational.
I partially agree that it is not rational.
But you have to admit that being bled a little periodically over a long span of time to help fund your pension is easier to handle, if only from an emotional perspective, than having a couple of litres sucked out in one sitting to buy an annuity.
by Descartes
03 Mar 2024 13:52
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: Retirement Countdown: Start of 2025
Replies: 74
Views: 4455

Re: Retirement Countdown: Start of 2025

have you thought of getting as large as possible/useful HELOC and I imagine you already have margin account It is possibly a good idea for some. But for me, the idea of borrowing money in retirement to simply fund additional risk is totally against my nature and I certainly hope I would never need to borrow to simply pay the bills. wondering if a term certain annuity to bridge to your CPP/OAS years might be another option to generate those payments I'm not too concerned with bridging. Any OAS for me will be entirely clawed back and the bridge to CPP is expected to be an accelerated meltdown of my RRIF. ..More importantly the cost for an annuity is usually less then the cost to provide certainty to your income I don't mean to be so disparag...
by Descartes
03 Mar 2024 09:34
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: Retirement Countdown: Start of 2025
Replies: 74
Views: 4455

Re: Retirement Countdown: Start of 2025

If I was being perfectly honest, I would have to say I'm a little jealous of people with company pensions. A pension is a safety net I won't have in ten months when I retire. You can do a lot of risky things if you've got a net. You can be "100%" invested in stock, dump a lot of "play money" into QQQ, and ride a unicycle on a tightrope while balancing a Faberge egg on your nose. But I will be working without a net and this realization has formed a lot of my thinking about investing. Many people focus on return and compare their long-term performance against benchmarks like VEQT, VBAL, or VGRO ..and capitulate if they realize they can't do better or have grown weary of the effort needed. For me, the focus has always been ...
by Descartes
22 Feb 2024 12:50
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: Retirement Strategy of living on Dividend Income?
Replies: 37
Views: 2273

Re: Retirement Strategy of living on Dividend Income?

"Loonie depreciation" risk can be ameliorated by including dividends that pay in USD.
Off the top of my head: Nutrien, BAM and subsidiaries, and AQN (ha! this last is definitely not a recommendation).
by Descartes
21 Feb 2024 12:18
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: The Role Of Luck
Replies: 53
Views: 4389

Re: The Role Of Luck

[Good] “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
Seneca

Conversely, I think bad luck requires no preparation at all.
Seneca ran into some of that at the end of his life.
by Descartes
13 Feb 2024 16:48
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: Inflation
Replies: 1010
Views: 155691

Re: Inflation

That is a case of investors keep hoping that interest rate cuts are coming sooner rather than later, and disappointing inflation numbers suggest the Fed will instead postpone cuts forward in time. This circus is ridiculous but it seems to be an investor obsessive, compulsive fixation for a number of months now. Have you ever played poker with someone who doesn't know how to play poker? That is, someone who doesn't understand the established, logical ways of playing the cards they are dealt? It can be extremely frustrating and you can even lose because you don't realize until too late that your opponent is an idiot. This is how investing feels like for the last several months. There are a lot of investors out there trying to anticipate rate...
by Descartes
09 Feb 2024 10:56
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: High interest savings, GICs and MMFs (2024)
Replies: 200
Views: 16783

Re: High interest savings, GICs and MMFs (2024)

According to Scotiabank's 2023 Annual Report, Tangerine has Canada’s 6th largest personal deposit portfolio.
by Descartes
09 Feb 2024 10:30
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: BCE (Symbol-BCE)
Replies: 1860
Views: 286374

Re: BCE (Symbol-BCE)

Executive compensation changes would have no meaningful effect. When such moves are made they are just PR. The executives would probably see it as not necessary and having a negative effect in attracting or retaining good high-level personnel. I am not sure I would disagree with that (I'm not claiming or denying that they currently have good high-level personnel). I think the focus of stockholders (or even those on the sidelines usefully shouting that they aren't invested in it) might better be: (a) are the announced and planned cuts enough? (b) to what extent do these cuts reduce the potential revenue growth for this company? Here is the Q4 2023 presentation from yesterday: https://www.bce.ca/investors/financial-reporting/2023-Q4/2023-q4-p...
by Descartes
09 Feb 2024 10:13
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: BCE (Symbol-BCE)
Replies: 1860
Views: 286374

Re: BCE (Symbol-BCE)

I don't think any multi-year trend should be a surprise to anyone who hasn't been sleeping.

The interesting new thing about the update, as I said in the dividend increase thread, is the significant slashing of cost: cap-ex, labour..etc. and yet the persistent maintenance of a dividend increase, albeit a reduced one.

They apparently see the need for better balance but don't want to give up their title of a classic "widows and orphans" stock.
by Descartes
08 Feb 2024 08:08
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Dividend and distribution hikes (2024)
Replies: 71
Views: 11501

Re: Dividend and distribution hikes (2024)

JaydoubleU wrote: 08 Feb 2024 07:20 BCE, up 3.1% to $3.99 a share

https://money.tmx.com/en/quote/BCE/news ... 8740041490
The interesting information in the press release (perhaps a bit off topic here but relevant to stockholders):

Planned minimum $500 million reduction in capital expenditures in 2024 and rollback of fibre network expansion reflect unsupportive federal government policies and CRTC decisions that discourage investment

reducing approximately 4,800 positions, or 9% of all BCE employees in 2024, and driving in-year cost savings of $150 million to $200 million; 250 million annualized

..and the dividend increase is a couple of percentage points lower than usual.
by Descartes
02 Feb 2024 17:26
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: Retirement Countdown: Start of 2025
Replies: 74
Views: 4455

Re: Retirement Countdown: Start of 2025

Have you started telling work yet? No. While 2 weeks notice would be far too short, I think more than 2 months notice would be too long ..and probably not in my best interests. I'll probably let them know in October if I keep to my schedule. I am wondering about keeping the 'emergency pot' in a GIC bouquet that can be redeemed early instead? I don't really see much in the way of redeemable GICs in the last few years. Even when I could, the interest paid out from early redemption wasn't much of a deal. These days I actually get HISA rates that are competitive or sometimes even better than 5 year GIC rates and the cash is instantly available. If you do use the GIC money, do you have a plan to refill it or is it a one-and-done SORR protection...
by Descartes
02 Feb 2024 13:08
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: Retirement Countdown: Start of 2025
Replies: 74
Views: 4455

Re: Retirement Countdown: Start of 2025

if the dividends are already expected to generate enough income to fund your expenses AND you already have a year’s worth of cash saved up, I’m wondering why you need the GICs to be sliced monthly; wouldn’t say a couple of maturing GICs per year be plenty for flexibility and with less hassle? It is a system of intentional redundancy: 1. In an ideal world, the dividends will provide for expenses each month and neither cash nor maturing GIC need be touched. I will blithely renew the matured GICs and they, with the cash, will blithely continue to generate interest. 2. However, in the real world, dividend payments are quarterly and one's portfolio could be weighted more towards one or two of the three possible payment schedules. Furthermore, e...
by Descartes
02 Feb 2024 08:01
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: Retirement Countdown: Start of 2025
Replies: 74
Views: 4455

Re: Retirement Countdown: Start of 2025

One month down. 11 to go before I run smack into the reality of retirement. I dumped the full contribution limit of 31K into my RRSP last month. It may seem counter-intuitive for someone who plans to retire at the end of the year but I need the tax deduction it provides for 2024 and the surplus cash is better sitting in the RRSP than out in the open where most of the interest would be bled away into the CRA coffers. The contribution money joins the distributions accumulating there in a HISA. Why in a HISA and not into my beloved dividend stocks? When I want to know if the weather is good for buying more dividend stocks, I keep an eye on the average trend of GIC and HISA rates. It seems that the rates peaked last year and are trending downwa...
by Descartes
30 Jan 2024 06:29
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: CDIC Insurance
Replies: 4
Views: 514

Re: CDIC Insurance

Further still, each brokerage creates a separate trust with the issuer.. Actually not universally true. It would depend if the brokerage was holding the deposit "in-nominee-name" or not; i.e. you would need to check with the brokerage. From CDIC: Brokers typically place deposits for their clients at CDIC member institutions in two ways: directly in the name of their client (i.e. in-client-name) holding it (i.e. in trust) for their clients (i.e. in-nominee-name) This distinction has an important impact on how deposit insurance protection extends to client deposits held at a CDIC Member Institution, with the key difference being the scope of insurance categories that apply to in-client-name brokered deposits and to nominee brokered...
by Descartes
23 Jan 2024 16:46
Forum: Taxing Situations
Topic: Disclaiming an inheritance
Replies: 20
Views: 1146

Re: Disclaiming an inheritance

Has someone told you that you can only disclaim after the probate process has completed?

Perhaps another (Canadian) link might help:
The legal requirements to disclaim an inheritance are minimal. A disclaimer may be effected by contract, by deed, by writing or even informally through conduct.

The intended recipient of the gift need only renounce the interest, in effect, by saying “I will not be the owner of it”. The key is doing so before dealing with the property in any way.
ref: https://disinherited.com/wills-variatio ... heritance/
by Descartes
22 Jan 2024 12:48
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: RESP Withdrawal - Request for Best Practices
Replies: 170
Views: 23713

Re: RESP Withdrawal - Request for Best Practices

kiki2022 wrote: 22 Jan 2024 12:11 As long as we only have one RESP family plan with one bank (if there are more than 1 plan then we have to keep track ourselves), we do not need to worry that we can get over the max Canada Saving Grant $7200 when keeping withdrawing EAP year by year. When it reaches maximum CSG 7200, the rest of requested EAP will be automatically adjusted to change to let us withdraw only the maximum of CSG . The bank will take care of it.
This is what I said upthread when BMO Investorline is the plan provider. It is good to hear it is true of any provider.

Administrator: maybe this kind of useful RESP information should go into the wiki.
by Descartes
18 Jan 2024 13:48
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: What is the expected average long-term yield on equities?
Replies: 21
Views: 1445

Re: What is the expected average long-term yield on equities?

Try the calculator in this article to answer your own question:
http://www.moneychimp.com/features/market_cagr.htm

You can decide what range of time is "long-term" for you and if you want to include dividends and consideration of inflation.
by Descartes
18 Jan 2024 10:59
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: High interest savings, GICs and MMFs (2024)
Replies: 200
Views: 16783

Re: High interest savings, GICs and MMFs (2024)

New Oaken rates are effective January 24 not today. Place your bets before the wheel spins.

Here is the full list of changes on that date:
1 Year GIC – 5.15% (currently 5.40%)
18 Month GIC – 5.05% (currently 5.35%)
2 Year GIC – 5.00% (currently 5.20%)
3 Year GIC – 4.55% (currently 5.00%)
4 Year GIC – 4.40% (currently 4.90%)
5 Year GIC – 4.35% (currently 4.85%)