Search found 1842 matches

by Descartes
17 Jan 2024 13:08
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: RESP Withdrawal - Request for Best Practices
Replies: 170
Views: 23711

Re: RESP Withdrawal - Request for Best Practices

Hi I have a question about withdrawing EAP for family plan with two children. I hope some one will know about this, EAP contains the income and the grant. The maximum CESG for each kid is $7200 and we only allow to withdraw that much. Now we want to figure out the EAP amount to withdraw for 1 kid when we can know the total EAP for both kids.. TDDI could give me notation breakdown including the total EAP for 2 kids but not for 1. If we do not know the max EAP for 1 kid and withdraw too much then it can withdraw more than $7200 CESG and we can get penalized. Thank you in advanced My understanding and experience has been that you simply specify a quantity of EAP you want to withdraw. The provider of your family plan (in my case, BMO Investorl...
by Descartes
10 Jan 2024 08:39
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Portfolio Construction Based on Rational Reminder #284 w/Scott Cederburg
Replies: 49
Views: 3197

Re: Portfolio Construction Based on Rational Reminder #284 w/Scott Cederburg

If bonds primarily just play the role of a store for rebalancing (where you siphon cash from them when equities are down or pour cash into them when equities are up) then can't something else play that role that might be more liquid and more reliable in holding its nominal value? laddered GICs, cash, beanie-babies..? :P
by Descartes
02 Jan 2024 08:09
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: Retirement Countdown: Start of 2025
Replies: 74
Views: 4455

Re: Retirement Countdown: Start of 2025

I realize from your questions that I've left out a little background that might help in better understanding my situation and relating it to your own. Let me try to answer some of these initial questions then I'll shut up until I've got something more significant to say. Why not retire now instead of waiting a whole year? I want to extricate myself from my job so that I do as little damage as possible to the company and the people there. I have a handful of projects to complete. I have to make arrangements for people who report to me. I also want some time to think about what I want to do going forward (in or out of pajamas). A year seems reasonable to wrap all of that up. It won't feel rushed but the blessed end is still definitely in sigh...
by Descartes
01 Jan 2024 09:41
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: Retirement Countdown: Start of 2025
Replies: 74
Views: 4455

Retirement Countdown: Start of 2025

Unless there is a truly outrageous counter-offer from my boss, I will quit exactly a year from now. I will periodically write about my preparations for retirement here. Maybe people can learn from this folly. Maybe I can learn from you. Maybe it will be a little entertaining for the both of us. Why am I retiring? For a while now, the balance between what is more important, making more money or better use of my remaining time, has been leaning towards time. What am I going to do with that time? Travel. Write a book. Begin a start-up. Drink a lot of beer and play video games for hours each day in my pajamas. I don't know yet. I have to admit that the freedom to choose what I will do with each day is both exciting and a little frightening. Wha...
by Descartes
22 Dec 2023 09:28
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Winter solstice pix
Replies: 25
Views: 1953

Re: Winter solstice pix

Bylo Selhi wrote: 22 Dec 2023 08:56
SQRT wrote: 21 Dec 2023 16:31I used to get hung up was when people would say “today is the shortest day of the year”. Of course what they meant was “today has the least period of daylight” of any day in the year.
Even the editors of Canada's newspaper of record let that distinction "fall between the cracks"...
Before you crotchety old men get too pedantic: look up the definitions of the word "day". One of them is "the part of a day when it is light; the time between sunrise and sunset."; i.e. the opposite of night.
by Descartes
21 Dec 2023 11:32
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Stocks versus ETFs
Replies: 102
Views: 6779

Re: Stocks versus ETFs

like_to_retire wrote: 20 Dec 2023 16:17
BRIAN5000 wrote: 20 Dec 2023 15:53 Not sure if posters with individual stock portfolios are just keeping to themselves because of this or not.
hehe, good one Brian5000 - posters just don't want to get VBAL'd

ltr
It does seem rather religiously oppressive around here with all of the V-BALLERS.
But I am sure they mean well and don't wish to burn all of the remaining heretics...
Well, reasonably sure, anyway. ;)
by Descartes
17 Dec 2023 06:48
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: What and why did you sell? What might you sell? (2023)
Replies: 104
Views: 15392

Re: What and why did you sell? What might you sell? (2023)

AltaRed wrote: 16 Dec 2023 15:01
Descartes wrote: 16 Dec 2023 14:04 Not all equity investment needs to yield capital gain in my portfolio. Sometimes dividend growth is enough.
Particularly when the company is going through large cap ex.
Before you know it, dividend yield will be 10% of market price. How many dividend stocks do you know reach 10% yield without some sort of cataclysmic reset? If not implosion at 10%, then what about at 15% of market price?
All of a sudden we are at 10% or 15%?

Caution is good in making any financial decision. It is worth keeping an eye on and not being complacent as, I think, you are advising.
..but we are in a period of high inflation: one would expect companies that take on debt to make large capital expenditures to suffer in today's market.
by Descartes
16 Dec 2023 14:04
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: What and why did you sell? What might you sell? (2023)
Replies: 104
Views: 15392

Re: What and why did you sell? What might you sell? (2023)

AltaRed wrote: 15 Dec 2023 18:21 I expect all my common equity dividend yielding stocks to have capital (share price) appreciation and some dividend growth to parallel capital appreciation, which of course, should all be a result of earnings growth. Otherwise, why own common equity? I will need to seriously look at some tweaks in 2024.
Annual dividend growth rate of BCE since 2014:
5.2%
5.1%
5.1%
5.0%
5.0%
5.2%
5.1%
5.0%
5.3%
6.0%
Not all equity investment needs to yield capital gain in my portfolio. Sometimes dividend growth is enough.
Particularly when the company is going through large cap ex.
by Descartes
11 Dec 2023 17:38
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: High interest savings, GICs and MMFs (2023)
Replies: 1056
Views: 87816

Re: High interest savings, GICs and MMFs (2023)

A gentle reminder about this purpose of *this* particular thread:
Peculiar_Investor wrote: 01 Jan 2023 08:03 FWF'ers do an amazing job tracking down and reporting on rate changes, questions, special offers, etc. related to high interest savings accounts (HISAs), Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GICs), money market funds (MMFs) and the other savings vehicles.

We would ask that you please do not use this topic to discuss the relative merits of HISAs and GICs as an investment vehicle.
by Descartes
06 Dec 2023 12:50
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: BMO Investorline
Replies: 1278
Views: 198073

Re: BMO Investorline

No problem logging in 5 minutes ago.
by Descartes
05 Dec 2023 07:34
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: High interest savings, GICs and MMFs (2023)
Replies: 1056
Views: 87816

Re: High interest savings, GICs and MMFs (2023)

Check your Tangerine account. My 5.5% expired on November 30. Today I got a new offer of 5.5% till end of April for new deposits. Luckily I pulled out at the end of the last period (and the CSR said there were no offers for me at the time). Details below. This was reported in RFD where some have reported getting 6.0%. The Tangerine Bank (the “Bank”) Savings Interest Offer of 5.50% (the “Offer”) is available to existing Tangerine Clients who: (1) receive a communication about the Offer directly from the Bank, (2) “Activate” (as defined in Section 4 below) the Offer by December 31, 2023 and (3) receive a confirmation to their online Tangerine Account Message Board that the Offer has been successfully activated (“Eligible Clients”). The Offer ...
by Descartes
29 Nov 2023 10:26
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: Define "rich"
Replies: 71
Views: 4268

Re: Define "rich"

Rich = When you can finally stop taking shit and start handing it out?
by Descartes
02 Nov 2023 08:33
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: VBAL vs. VEQT + GIC Ladder
Replies: 35
Views: 3177

Re: VBAL vs. VEQT + GIC Ladder

Bylo Selhi wrote: 02 Nov 2023 08:20 As Norbert pointed out upthread, it is relevant at least for the purposes of rebalancing. Whether that's material to you is quite another matter.
Try to think about it a little more deeply.

The marked to market value of your GIC may temporarily be in a trough or on a swell. But this is temporary.
This "illusion" will vanish within 5 years or less and you will realize the true expected value of the GIC.

Should you really make a balancing decision, which has long term effects, based on a temporary market value that you know 100% will correct itself soon?

This is what I meant by not a sound argument.
by Descartes
02 Nov 2023 07:10
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: VBAL vs. VEQT + GIC Ladder
Replies: 35
Views: 3177

Re: VBAL vs. VEQT + GIC Ladder

How can you make a balancing decision when you don't have an even approximately accurate view of what the balances are? Well, it now becomes a question of what one considers "approximately accurate" or, rather, "sufficiently accurate". In my opinion, it is completely irrelevant what the marked to market is for something that I have no meaningful access to except upon maturity. Now, upon maturity, I am 100% certain of the value. It is sufficiently accurate for me to estimate its current value based on a linear progression to that value from initiation. I recognize you have a different opinion. However, from all that you wrote, it does not really seem backed up by a sound argument. ..But I'm just enlightening you. Not try...
by Descartes
01 Nov 2023 16:32
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: VBAL vs. VEQT + GIC Ladder
Replies: 35
Views: 3177

Re: VBAL vs. VEQT + GIC Ladder

GICs are not marked to market. So you don't know what your ladder is worth! I would suggest it is not relevant. You have points in time when your GICs mature and you know exactly what they are worth. Simply extrapolate what their approximate value is between those points. Let's say you bought a 1.45% four year compounding GIC two years ago today. It has two years left to run. Two year GICs pay 5.75% today. Please show us your calculation of the "approximate value" of the GIC you own. Rather unnecessarily combative but..I will attempt to explain my perspective for your enlightenment: Putting aside death or horrible emergency, I only have access to my GIC when it matures. The value at maturity is absolutely known: principal + compo...
by Descartes
01 Nov 2023 14:47
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: VBAL vs. VEQT + GIC Ladder
Replies: 35
Views: 3177

Re: VBAL vs. VEQT + GIC Ladder

DenisD wrote: 01 Nov 2023 14:08 GICs are not marked to market. So you don't know what your ladder is worth!
I would suggest it is not relevant.
You have points in time when your GICs mature and you know exactly what they are worth.
Simply extrapolate what their approximate value is between those points.
by Descartes
01 Nov 2023 12:30
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: VBAL vs. VEQT + GIC Ladder
Replies: 35
Views: 3177

Re: VBAL vs. VEQT + GIC Ladder

Re: sleeping better at night

For fixed, I personally would rather know what quantity of principal will be returned to me when I need it.
Example: compare buying VSB 5 years ago versus buying a 5 year GIC.
It can be a crapshoot.
(Liquidity concerns can be ameliorated with laddering.)
by Descartes
01 Nov 2023 06:30
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: High interest savings, GICs and MMFs (2023)
Replies: 1056
Views: 87816

Re: High interest savings, GICs and MMFs (2023)

For the month of November, Oaken has boosted their interest rate for 1, 1.5, and 2 year GICs to 6.00%.
by Descartes
27 Oct 2023 17:32
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Preferreds
Replies: 2578
Views: 318336

Re: Preferreds

Springbok wrote: 26 Oct 2023 10:22 I would be happy if our whole portfolio could yield 7% perpetually!
Then why not buy BNS commons at 7.56%?
I realize it is not attractive to you. I would like you to enunciate why.
by Descartes
17 Oct 2023 19:17
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: High interest savings, GICs and MMFs (2023)
Replies: 1056
Views: 87816

Re: High interest savings, GICs and MMFs (2023)

Perhaps this is not the best thread to discuss but many of us shift cash between different accounts to take advantage of HISA or GIC promos.

I have noticed the following:
- Oaken pushes appear in the destination the following business day
- Tangerine pulls appear in the following business day but take at least two business days to be removed from the source

I would be curious about other push/pull lag observations.
(..hey, we all have our kinks. Don't judge.)
by Descartes
15 Oct 2023 08:49
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Jump into bonds?
Replies: 21
Views: 1785

Re: Jump into bonds?

That certainly doesn’t jive with standard thinking does it? The ETF should give a representative return over time to a stand alone portfolio of bonds or so the advice goes. I agree that it is hard to consider holding a bond to maturity when it may mature sometime in the 2050's, particularly as we get on in years. But the stand alone portfolio consists of bonds between the issuers and you, the owner, that your (nominal) principal shall be returned upon maturity and that the stated interest shall be paid. There is no bond (i.e. agreement with legal force) involving you when you buy the ETF. The capital you get back is solely dependent on what the market bets is the current value of the ETF's basket of bonds. The interest you get can be varia...
by Descartes
13 Oct 2023 16:58
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Jump into bonds?
Replies: 21
Views: 1785

Re: Jump into bonds?

scomac wrote: 13 Oct 2023 09:05 If I had owned individual bonds, I would probably still own them, but I had an ETF.
No kidding? They aren't the same thing?
I dunno, perhaps you just owned a stock solely controlled by market impulses.
by Descartes
11 Oct 2023 17:37
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: High interest savings, GICs and MMFs (2023)
Replies: 1056
Views: 87816

Re: High interest savings, GICs and MMFs (2023)

Maybe his current Tangerine offer was close to expiring and this one was for a much longer time period.
Maybe it was presumed he liked the liquidity of a HISA over a GIC.
Maybe it was neither ridiculous nor embarrassing...
..just unappealing to him.
by Descartes
10 Oct 2023 17:11
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Preferreds
Replies: 2578
Views: 318336

Re: Preferreds

The optimist's view is that there is dividend growth and capital gain for those common shares in the future.
The pessimist's view is that the preferred shares offer an additional level of income protection in the future.
by Descartes
30 Sep 2023 15:21
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: High interest savings, GICs and MMFs (2023)
Replies: 1056
Views: 87816

Re: High interest savings, GICs and MMFs (2023)

I have two GIC's coming due towards the end of October. I am slowly building an every there month ladder of 1 year GIC's at Tangerine. Their rates have recently changed on their one year (now 5.95%) and 18 month (now 6.00%) maturities. However, 2, 3, 4 and 5 year rates are terrible. Here is the link: https://www.tangerine.ca/en/rates/gic-rates My Tangerine bonus HISA offer of 5.50% ends at the end of November. Based on past experience, I don't have confidence I will get an immediate new HISA offer from them and BMOIL BMT104 is only 4.75%. So, since the beginning of this year, I've been shoveling excess cash, in monthly increments, into short-term GICs: 1 year, 1 1/2 year, and 2 year. I started solely with Oaken for all maturity levels but ...