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by NormR
24 Nov 2023 20:16
Forum: Taxing Situations
Topic: OAS • Subsidies to rich seniors make no sense
Replies: 198
Views: 8463

Re: OAS • Subsidies to rich seniors make no sense

Is a $100,000 salary enough for a comfortable life any more?
A $100,000 salary is still a lot of money, but there are many parts of the country where it doesn’t stretch far when basic living costs are taken into account
by NormR
23 Nov 2023 14:20
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Covid 19 - Vaccine shots
Replies: 66
Views: 4577

Re: Covid 19 - Vaccine shots

I had success on getting a course of Paxlovid from a local pharmacy thanks to a neighbor doing the delivery work. It's still fully paid for by Ontario. Good timing because, as with most colds, the symptoms are getting a little worse.
by NormR
23 Nov 2023 01:00
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Covid 19 - Vaccine shots
Replies: 66
Views: 4577

Re: Covid 19 - Vaccine shots

poedin wrote: 23 Nov 2023 00:04 Here's hoping the symptoms stay mild, access to Paxvolid and to a quick and full recovery. :thumbsup:
Me too. :)

Looks like the waste water signal in ON is starting to kick off.

https://www.publichealthontario.ca/en/D ... Wastewater

Image
by NormR
22 Nov 2023 22:00
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Covid 19 - Vaccine shots
Replies: 66
Views: 4577

Re: Flu vaccines

NormR wrote: 05 Nov 2023 09:37 Just walked into a local pharmacy (ON) last Monday and was seen right away for flu+COVID shots. Easy peasy. (Local online booking at a different pharmacy had no availability for a few weeks. As in prior years, walkins are faster than waiting for an online appointment.)
Just tested positive for COVID about 3 weeks after the latest COVID shot. Drat. Had to happen eventually.

So far, mild cold symptoms late today. i.e. those of a cold just starting up.

I'll try to hunt down (over the phone) a pharmacy that'll give me Paxlovid in the morning. (The local Shoppers isn't answering calls at the moment.) The Ontario eligibility tool indicates that I might qualify. Time will tell.
by NormR
18 Nov 2023 18:18
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Basic Stock Portfolio Building (Individual Stocks)
Replies: 48
Views: 4623

Re: Basic Stock Portfolio Building (Individual Stocks)

I'm not sure if what your saying is almost well sort of a direct contradiction to the other posts. Just an alternate view that isn't considered too much. Many active investors tend toward overly concentrated portfolios. Their stocks have ~ perfect scores on the metrics they care about. So, there's no point buying other stocks. Or one can go the other way and buy the index - while accepting the market cap weighting required to make the product efficient. But investors who don't have super strong opinions might tread a middle path. For instance, they might require a better than average yield and a below average volatility. The combo represents a fairly loose set of criteria with something like 50 such stocks on the TSX. For practical reasons...
by NormR
17 Nov 2023 17:33
Forum: Taxing Situations
Topic: UFile 2023
Replies: 28
Views: 3637

Re: UFile 2023

Thanks for the heads up. I'm "looking forward" to doing my taxes early this year.
by NormR
17 Nov 2023 09:30
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Basic Stock Portfolio Building (Individual Stocks)
Replies: 48
Views: 4623

Re: Basic Stock Portfolio Building (Individual Stocks)

I'm a fan of holding a large number of roughly equally-sized stock holdings. The idea is to brew your own low-cost index fund while avoiding market cap weighting. You can get diversification benefits while still being able to focus on a particular factor - and likely obtain more exposure to value and smaller stocks in an organic way. It's best used in a buy it and basically forget sort of portfolio.
by NormR
14 Nov 2023 17:39
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: TD for the loss (again)! [Marketing failures]
Replies: 13
Views: 1086

Re: TD for the loss (again)! [Marketing failures]

Uncle Morris wrote: 14 Nov 2023 14:41 I left TD investing for Questrade over a year ago.
Would you recommend Questrade? If so, what are its good and bad features?
by NormR
13 Nov 2023 16:02
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Retire with VGRO & VEQT
Replies: 16
Views: 2220

Re: Retire with VGRO & VEQT

BRIAN5000 wrote: 13 Nov 2023 14:07
I am 57 years old.
IMO generally I think a good age to retire is somewhere between 50 & top end 65, the sooner the better as long as you're ready.

Lots of things go into this decision, Finances, expected length of healthy lifespan (totally unknown), having something to do in retirement it goes on and on. Sounds like you got what I think is the easiest park figured out, finances.

I retired at 54.9 now 67 that went by in the blink of an eye.
Gosh, I guess I have to retire now.

So long and thanks for all the fish! :wink:
by NormR
13 Nov 2023 15:45
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Webhosting
Replies: 8
Views: 861

Webhosting

I'd like to pick the collective consciousness here for suggestions for web hosting and/or email servers that are ok with commercial emails.

I'm starting to look around for a new place to park my website, which is well past due for a revamp and will likely be trimmed down in the process.

I don't think my core requirements are particularly large regarding space or bandwidth.
by NormR
13 Nov 2023 08:36
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Stingy Investor
Replies: 272
Views: 35897

Re: Stingy Investor

BRIAN5000 wrote: 13 Nov 2023 02:09 Also since after the Aug 27 post their has only been two screens on the Dow 30 instead of three is this correct? Has P/B been dropped.
Yes, P/B was dropped. It doesn't backtest that well and, theoretically, raw P/B shouldn't be great when dealing with old companies.
by NormR
12 Nov 2023 20:00
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Retire with VGRO & VEQT
Replies: 16
Views: 2220

Re: Retire with VGRO & VEQT

Norbert Schlenker wrote: 12 Nov 2023 18:27 Some period ending 1982?
Closer to 1920. :)

In the post WW2 era, real dividend downturns bottom out near 25% for ~1975 & ~2009.
by NormR
12 Nov 2023 17:18
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Retire with VGRO & VEQT
Replies: 16
Views: 2220

Re: Retire with VGRO & VEQT

Bylo Selhi wrote: 12 Nov 2023 16:41 Then if, even in retirement, you're going to be comfortable with fluctuations in the value of your portfolio and are willing to accept the risk that some dividends could get cut or suspended if economies decline, then I'd say keep on doing what you've been doing.
One might put a number on the potential dividend decline for the S&P 500 by looking at the past.

The index's worst inflation-adjusted dividend decline was 53% from 1871 to September 2023 and it was not in the crash of 1929. I'll briefly take guesses as to when it occurred. :D
by NormR
10 Nov 2023 23:09
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Cellphones 2023 and onwards [and plans]
Replies: 87
Views: 5411

Re: Cellphones 2023 and onwards [and plans]

Bylo Selhi wrote: 10 Nov 2023 21:34 Google Pixel 6a 128GB - Charcoal on sale for $299 at Best Buy until 12Nov. Google charges $479 and has no stock.

Granted this is now two years old. But it's still a modern phone with 5G, eSIM, Android 14, etc. And it's only $300 vs. $600 for the 7a vs. $950 for the 8.
Thanks! Looks like security updates until July 2027. So, sounds good enough to me. Ordered. :)
by NormR
05 Nov 2023 23:37
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Flu vaccines
Replies: 43
Views: 1960

Re: Flu vaccines

brucecohen wrote: 05 Nov 2023 22:51
AltaRed wrote: 05 Nov 2023 09:56 Our GP is agnostic about the need for RSV vaccine.
My GP too. He's big on vaccination, but I had to bring it up. He said he didn't think it was worthwhile for me. Don't know if he feels that way for other patients.
That's a little surprising, but it is new and likely depends on the health of the individual. I suspect it'll eventually become standard for the very young and very old once supplies are sufficient.
by NormR
05 Nov 2023 09:37
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Flu vaccines
Replies: 43
Views: 1960

Re: Flu vaccines

Just walked into a local pharmacy (ON) last Monday and was seen right away for flu+COVID shots. Easy peasy. (Local online booking at a different pharmacy had no availability for a few weeks. As in prior years, walkins are faster than waiting for an online appointment.)

On the downside, local pharmacies are locking the door and requiring a buzz in. It seems theft has become a big problem.
by NormR
28 Oct 2023 23:02
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: What are you listening to now?
Replies: 100
Views: 9351

Re: What are you listening to now?

'We can't speak': Barenaked Ladies band member on connecting to daughter through music mentions a PG take on The Pogues - Streams of Whiskey, which I had to look up. I had a chuckle at google's inability to provide close captioning. It seems they're not feeding the computers enough whiskey. :lol:
by NormR
19 Oct 2023 23:09
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp (Symbol-AQN)
Replies: 323
Views: 51862

Re: Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp (Symbol-AQN)

Tax loss selling season might be interesting for AQN ...
by NormR
16 Oct 2023 12:17
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: BCE (Symbol-BCE)
Replies: 1858
Views: 286231

Re: BCE (Symbol-BCE)

Interesting point of view. High debt, high (too high?) dividends, capex, etc. We could be talking about pipelines or utilities here, not just the telecoms. BCE's earnings and free cash flow are below its dividend at the moment. But it has been that way, on and off, for the last few years. A key question would be, can they ramp down cap-ex in the next few years? At some point everyone will have fiber and the marginal gains for cell phones will be minimal or too harshly constrained by physics. I don't know. I was interested in the debt angle and took a quick look last night. The latest quarterly presentation indicates, "weighted average annual after-tax cost of public debt of 2.96% with average term to maturity of 12.4 years". That...
by NormR
09 Oct 2023 17:04
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Cellphones 2023 and onwards [and plans]
Replies: 87
Views: 5411

Re: Cellphones 2023 and onwards [and plans]

Bylo Selhi wrote: 09 Oct 2023 16:43 What's your budget? A P8 is good to 2030 but pricey ($950.) A P6a will be almost as good in terms of functionality but supported half as long and at half the price. If you can wait for BF then there should be Pixel bargains. I'd imagine Google will be trying hard to sell out their remaining P6a inventory so maybe under $400. See Pixel. The only phone engineered by Google.
Thanks! I've been thinking about a pixel. Do they fit comfortably in a pocket?
by NormR
09 Oct 2023 16:03
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Cellphones 2023 and onwards [and plans]
Replies: 87
Views: 5411

Re: Cellphones 2023 and onwards [and plans]

I'm starting to look around for a small (or smallish) cellphone that ideally would be reasonably priced and supported by updates/patches for a long time. It can be either android or apple and I'm happy to wait for bargains / black Friday, etc. Any suggestions?
by NormR
05 Oct 2023 23:10
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: Clippings 2023
Replies: 343
Views: 32753

Re: Clippings 2023

Do long-term bonds represent a once-in-a-generation opportunity?
The populations in most developed countries are rapidly aging, a phenomenon which tends to result in lower rather than higher interest rates. ...
Has there been a good study on the quote? Japan being an obvious example...
by NormR
25 Sep 2023 21:47
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Covid 19 - Vaccine shots
Replies: 66
Views: 4577

Re: Covid 19 - Vaccine shots

Dr. Offit addresses the question: Does Everyone Need a Yearly Covid Booster? (Youtube Video ~19min)

Based on a substack post: https://pauloffit.substack.com/p/does-e ... arly-covid

Paul A. Offit, MD, is the Director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He is the co-inventor of a rotavirus vaccine and author of many popular books. He's also on the FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee.
by NormR
13 Sep 2023 21:58
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Covid 19 - Vaccine shots
Replies: 66
Views: 4577

Re: Covid 19 - Vaccine shots

Until I get older I expect to get a booster when the formula changes each year. But the evidence indicates that young people still get good T-cell responses with 3 shots.

On the other hand, the next time you're at your doctor, ask about paxlovid (there are potential drug interactions) and how to get it quickly should you get infected. It has to be taken early but offers something like another 90% reduction in severity. You might want to try to get a prescription to hold onto until you test positive ...