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by Bylo Selhi
20 Mar 2024 13:37
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: Power of Attorney
Replies: 52
Views: 9337

Re: Power of Attorney

nice4 wrote: 20 Mar 2024 12:50 Question is

- Does this senior BMO account still legally can be used by my sister (she is over 60 year old too) just like her own BMO senior account or,
- It must remove my mother's name from the account or,
- Mother's account must close and sister must open a new account for her own use ?
I was JTWROS on my parents' TD Plan 60 account (free everything, no minimum balance.) By the time I turned 60 the Plan 60 was no longer available but "grandfathered" for existing customers. So when my parents died I "inherited" both accounts and use them to this day (over a decade) without any issues with TD.

I would call BMO and ask them if they operate the same way.
by Bylo Selhi
20 Mar 2024 13:32
Forum: Taxing Situations
Topic: Record Keeping Practices: Scanned/Digital?
Replies: 31
Views: 921

Re: Record Keeping Practices: Scanned/Digital?

nitro wrote: 20 Mar 2024 12:08 I am curious if anyone has direct experience with providing the CRA with any document that is the scanned copy of an original. I assume in this day and age its fine.
I've been doing so annually with donation receipts when CRA questions the deductions. I've never had any flack from them about scanning. Works better for both of us.

BTW if you want to get rid of paper, keep in mind that CRA only requires you to keep tax records for 7 years. I routinely shred stuff that's older and on paper while archiving the PDFs in the cloud.
by Bylo Selhi
19 Mar 2024 13:01
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Your favorite asset class
Replies: 55
Views: 3280

Re: Your favorite asset class

robgizz wrote: 19 Mar 2024 12:22 what's your favorite asset class Bylo
VBAL (based on what I've learned over the past 50+ years that I've been investing.)
by Bylo Selhi
19 Mar 2024 06:49
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: Blackrock whitepaper on spending in retirement
Replies: 45
Views: 2093

Re: Blackrock whitepaper on spending in retirement

Mudcrab wrote: 19 Mar 2024 03:03 I think it’s pretty easy to see why people try to maintain their stash even though they could spend more. Trick being not to overdo it
"I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it."

I imagine retirees would be willing to give their kids and grandkids more money, and donate more to charities, while they're still alive if only there was some way that they could be insured for the rare but expensive eventualities like out-of-country health care or the need for long term personal care, etc.
by Bylo Selhi
19 Mar 2024 06:44
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Your favorite asset class
Replies: 55
Views: 3280

Re: Your favorite asset class

randomwalker wrote: 19 Mar 2024 06:06 Pretty sure the active/ passive debate has long since been settled.
It wasn't so settled a couple of decades ago. Sadly even now that it is, people still clutch to the hope that they can do better.

I suppose the silver lining for indexers is that this mostly-misguided hope keeps markets active and thus efficient--thus continuing to make indexing a superior strategy.
by Bylo Selhi
18 Mar 2024 12:04
Forum: Taxing Situations
Topic: Final Tax Return / T3 adjusted cost base help
Replies: 9
Views: 448

Re: Final Tax Return / T3 adjusted cost base help

My "grandfather in law" passed in 2018. The problem was far from him not keeping records. He never threw out any records, so there were 14 bankers' boxes of financial records of all kinds, unsorted. Every single bank statement and cancelled cheque, and probably most receipts for anything he ever paid for, e.g. parking meter receipt from 1982. Some boxes had mouse nests. We estimated ACB for his remaining taxable investment account as best we could, and kept records of our assumptions. It was not easy, since he lived below his means and so added to it, modestly, several times a year from the excess of his pension + RRIF earnings minus living expenses, over a period of 25+ years. Our best guess yielded a tax owing on investment gai...
by Bylo Selhi
18 Mar 2024 09:52
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: Best Credit Card (2021 - 2025)
Replies: 515
Views: 33156

Re: Best Credit Card (2021 - 2025)

Re Brim MC: Brim's main business seems to be offering a CC system to third parties like CWB, Laurentian, AF/KLM who want their own branded cards but don't want to build the infrastructure to support it. Do any of those cards offer 0% FX? I don't think so. Perhaps the explanation for Brim's move is they want to stop competing against the FIs that they're trying to attract. Re Home Trust Visa: HTV uses a US company, eZCard , to operate its CCs. eZCard is essentially a lower-tech version of what Brim is trying to be in Canada (and the US.) They provide their system to numerous US-based FIs and CUs. So perhaps the next shoe to drop will be when HTV decides to replace eZCard's system with Brim's and ends 0% FX as a result :shock: This isn't as ...
by Bylo Selhi
18 Mar 2024 07:35
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Your favorite asset class
Replies: 55
Views: 3280

Re: Your favorite asset class

If, for the next ten years the average global equity index returns 0.0% annually and my assets grow by 1.0% as was the case from (more or less) 2000 to 2010, I'll be more than happy. Indexers, well, they'll be at -0.12% per year. And what if your crystal ball strategy results in growth of only -1% or worse in the next 10 years. Those indexers who lose "only" 0.12% will look pretty good. P.S. How did your assets perform between 2010 and 2024 compared to the same index? I’m not predicting. I’m just stating facts of a certain period in history. My (only one) global equity fund +1%/yr, the index 0%/yr, the average equity fund -1%/yr, index funds -0.12%/yr. "Past performance does not predict future results." Perhaps you have...
by Bylo Selhi
17 Mar 2024 22:30
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Your favorite asset class
Replies: 55
Views: 3280

Re: Your favorite asset class

robgizz wrote: 17 Mar 2024 22:15 If, for the next ten years the average global equity index returns 0.0% annually and my assets grow by 1.0% as was the case from (more or less) 2000 to 2010, I'll be more than happy. Indexers, well, they'll be at -0.12% per year.
And what if your crystal ballstrategy results in growth of only -1% or worse in the next 10 years. Those indexers who lose "only" 0.12% will look pretty good.

P.S. How did your assets perform between 2010 and 2024 compared to the same index?
by Bylo Selhi
17 Mar 2024 17:55
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Your favorite asset class
Replies: 55
Views: 3280

Re: Your favorite asset class

I know a few very good mutual funds and a good closed-end fund You know them based on past performance. You (and I) have no idea what will be their future performance. but I’ll stay away from index ETFs as I find your potential returns are limited to that of the index. That's a feature, not a bug. "Successful investing, based on indexing, depends on trading off the low possibility of doing better than the index, for the high probability of doing better than most other funds." ...Ted Cadsby [From: The Power of Index Funds, 1999] Of course if you know with certainty which of the few funds will outperform AND if you know which funds in each asset class will outperform in their class AND you know this for the entirety of the rest of ...
by Bylo Selhi
17 Mar 2024 16:55
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: T+1 Settlement is Coming! On May 28, 2024
Replies: 58
Views: 2695

Re: T+1 Settlement is Coming! On May 28, 2024

When you buy a GIC the transaction settles that day. Even if you do a Sell on MMF/HISA at the same time to cover, it will take a day for the funds to arrive in the cash portion of the account. TD charges a day's interest on that "loan" even if the GIC you buy is issued by TD and your funds were always at TD. That's why I suggested that at minimum they should detect such simultaneous Buy and Sell transactions and waive the interest. (Of course it will never happen.)
by Bylo Selhi
17 Mar 2024 14:32
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: T+1 Settlement is Coming! On May 28, 2024
Replies: 58
Views: 2695

Re: T+1 Settlement is Coming! On May 28, 2024

Unwise wrote: 17 Mar 2024 14:13 anyone buying with a limit order or option assignment
This also applies to GICs. It even applies to TD-issued GICs where the money remains in TD's hands throughout and the interest is totally gratuitous. (Ask me how I know.)

Another compromise would be to check if the customer also did a Sell from MMF or HISA on the same day as they did the Buy.
by Bylo Selhi
17 Mar 2024 14:00
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: Best Credit Card (2021 - 2025)
Replies: 515
Views: 33156

Re: Best Credit Card (2021 - 2025)

johnny cash wrote: 17 Mar 2024 11:32 As others have complained that Home Trust Visa is also prone to billing errors
I've had a HTV since 2017 (when Chase Amazon Visa shut down) and made 100s of transactions using it. I've never had any billing errors or fraudulent use.

Of course it can happen, just as it can with other cards. I know that because I've had billing errors with TD cards and had at least two of them replaced due to fraudulent use.
by Bylo Selhi
17 Mar 2024 13:56
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: T+1 Settlement is Coming! On May 28, 2024
Replies: 58
Views: 2695

Re: T+1 Settlement is Coming! On May 28, 2024

OptsyEagle wrote: 17 Mar 2024 13:25 I suspect the cut off times the brokers use is designed around their own opinion of how much time they feel they might require in order to cancel a mutual fund trade entered by a customer on their trading platform.
They should sweep accounts like all the US brokers. Every night they sweep cash into a MMF (a HISA would be even easier in Canada.) When you buy a security they automatically redeem enough of your MMF holdings to settle it when the time comes.

Simple.
Automatic.
And in the customer's best interest. [Oh wait...I think I know why Canadian brokers don't do this.]
by Bylo Selhi
17 Mar 2024 11:15
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: Best Credit Card (2021 - 2025)
Replies: 515
Views: 33156

Re: Best Credit Card (2021 - 2025)

I have encountered instances that you are unable to opt out in Europe and Asia. Like you only get the pin pad to enter the pin(a small pin pad like a calculator) but the machine itself is away from the till and you cannot see it. And some machines are default to DCC. etc. When that's happened to me, also in Europe, I just handed the terminal [yes, I do know how it looks and how it works...] back to the clerk and repeated Nancy's refrain until they redid the transaction, allowing me to follow her advice. Sometimes these clerks crooks will mumble some bullshit about how they accepted the DCC prompt on my behalf as a "convenience." I don't believe it. Not for a second. Neither should you. If all else fails, you can also do a chargeb...
by Bylo Selhi
17 Mar 2024 10:35
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: Best Credit Card (2021 - 2025)
Replies: 515
Views: 33156

Re: Best Credit Card (2021 - 2025)

johnsmith1 wrote: 17 Mar 2024 09:56 V/M's DCC is a pill too hard to swallow
As Nancy Reagan once advised about pills and other drugs, "Just say no."

I've never met a DCC prompt I couldn't refuse. There's no requirement other than mental disability and/or severe brain-damage to let merchants and FIs suck you into accepting DCC.
by Bylo Selhi
17 Mar 2024 10:31
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: Best Credit Card (2021 - 2025)
Replies: 515
Views: 33156

Re: Best Credit Card (2021 - 2025)

johnny cash wrote: 17 Mar 2024 09:26 Isn't it simpler to keep cash in a WS account, earn a decent 4.5% interest, and use the WS cash card when needed? To use the TD VISA debit card, you must have cash in your TD account anyway.
Prepaid cards often won't work at places like hotels and car rentals that place a hold on the card. They also don't have most features of conventional credit cards like various insurances, etc. And of course you lose the 2x day payment float.

But yes, all of WS or EQ or Wise prepaid card are options to replace Brim. Personally my fallback CC remains Home Trust Visa with all three prepaids for small transactions as well as cash withdrawals at ATMs.
by Bylo Selhi
16 Mar 2024 13:45
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: Boeing
Replies: 6
Views: 415

Re: Boeing

Profit not Prophet wrote: 16 Mar 2024 13:25 I like ask the pilot by patrick smith, lots of good stuff there...this is a little bit on topic
https://askthepilot.com/united-757-slat/

the main page https://askthepilot.com/
"It’s a terrible look for sure, but the danger here was minimal."

It's not unlike what's happening in Ottawa these days. Every government stumble, however minor or benign, reinforces the overall negative narrative.
by Bylo Selhi
16 Mar 2024 13:20
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Electric Cars
Replies: 601
Views: 39602

Re: Electric Cars

Marcus Aurelius wrote: 16 Mar 2024 12:58 I agree that they have concentrated too much on luxury vehicles. For one affordable car example: We have friends that are picking up a Chevy Bolt for 37,555 including taxes and BC/Fed incentives but GM has discontinued the car (for now).
Roughly speaking, the same batteries that would go into a low-profit econobox can be put instead into a high-profit luxury car. It's an easy decision for GM (unless they're trying to grab EV market share, as the Chinese appear to be doing in markets like Europe.)
by Bylo Selhi
16 Mar 2024 13:16
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: Best Credit Card (2021 - 2025)
Replies: 515
Views: 33156

Re: Best Credit Card (2021 - 2025)

agraham wrote: 16 Mar 2024 13:02I get some satisfaction from jumping through these hoops. I just don't like being nickle and dimed. I don't like fx fees, annual fees, minimum balances, service charges and I'll put in the effort to avoid it even if it doesn't pay off.
It's also useful to look at the personal value of jumping through these hoops compared to just the dollar savings. For example, suppose you can save a few $100s by spending a few minutes shuffling funds around. That will buy you and your partner one or more nights out. To many people when viewed that way the pleasure derived from that "reward" makes the decision a no-brainer.
by Bylo Selhi
16 Mar 2024 12:43
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: Best Credit Card (2021 - 2025)
Replies: 515
Views: 33156

Re: Best Credit Card (2021 - 2025)

Insomniac wrote: 16 Mar 2024 12:30 EQ card has a $5K (per day) limit. That's a problem when buying airline tickets for two.
In an emergency, any CC that works is a viable option. Everything else like 0% FX or cash back is secondary.
by Bylo Selhi
16 Mar 2024 11:23
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: Boeing
Replies: 6
Views: 415

Re: Boeing

To add to the mix of Boeing's (and their customers') woes... Left with few options, major U.S. airlines are using Boeing's safety crisis(*) as leverage Airline executives are frustrated with Boeing as its safety crisis has upended their business plans. But in a tight market for large aircraft supplied by two companies, they have little choice but do business with the U.S. plane maker. Despite some public displays of alarm — United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby flew to France to talk with Airbus as Boeing's latest crisis erupted — carriers are still negotiating new plane orders, looking to leverage Boeing's delays to secure better terms... Several weeks ago, American Airlines CEO Robert Isom blasted Boeing for its persistent quality issues, askin...
by Bylo Selhi
16 Mar 2024 09:09
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: Best Credit Card (2021 - 2025)
Replies: 515
Views: 33156

Re: Best Credit Card (2021 - 2025)

If it's going to take days to get funds into your account and unhold them, you're screwed. At least you can pre-fund the accounts with a large amount before travelling, earn some interest on it, and then move it out again after you come back. But still an inconvenience. This may not be the perfect solution to the "$n,000" problem but I found a way to quickly load my card with cash. I went to my Tangerine account and I e-transferred to myself the funds I needed on the Eq card account. A few minutes later the e-transfer arrived in my inbox. From the inbox I completed the transfer to my Eq account. As long as "n" is small enough this can work without multiple transfers from other banks. The other option is to proactively m...
by Bylo Selhi
16 Mar 2024 07:49
Forum: Property: Owning, Renting, Managing, Investing and Mortgaging
Topic: Housing Market 2024
Replies: 56
Views: 3433

Re: Housing Market 2024

freedom2022 wrote: 16 Mar 2024 07:09 We all know about 2008 property crashed in US.
I did google search about how much house prices in US dropped.
Nation wide, the median existing-home price in the U.S. fell by 12.4% in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007.
In certain areas, the price fell by 50%.

I hope if the property prices in Canada fall, it will be only 10% - 15% nation wide.
In the US situation there was outright fraud with mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations along with overly optimistic rating agencies. There were also so-called NINJA (No Income No Job Application) mortgages.

Is there anything comparable happening up here now?