How much do you know about financial independence?

Then go learn about mutual funds vs index funds before you invest, so you get a 60% return instead of a 4.11% return in 10 years. At least we have another 10 years ahead of us!

Can you believe this mutual fund thinks I'm really going to continue to hold, now that I finally have access to the real information?

yeah im 26 i put 100$/month and 4% of my pay cheque into a RRSP, im thinking that is more then enough and i should save less and spend more on lift tickets. are you going to be-able to maintain you life style and use up most of that 30% in your retirement or are you planing to leave some money in your estate, or planing on living well past the average?

Retiring at 65 is for chumps. Had I known what I do now at 26, I'd be skiing with Lee.

Take a careful look at that graph I just put up and figure out what MER you're paying someone to stash your coin. Feel free to PM if you want a bit of guidance.

Then go read this entire site.

http://canadiancouchpotato.com/about/

Retiring at 65 is for chumps. Had I known what I do now at 26, I'd be skiing with Lee.

interesting, i don't think i ever thought about that option, the brain washing from public school must have been strong in that subject.

Take a careful look at that graph I just put up and figure out what MER you're paying someone to stash your coin. Feel free to PM if you want a bit of guidance.

Then go read this entire site.

http://canadiancouchpotato.com/about/

ok, not enough snow to go skiing, too much to go biking, i guess i have time to read

I never buy mutual funds, ever.

I buy stocks and reinvest the dividends

Funnily enough I see that I own 5 out each of the Canadian and U.S. top 10 stocks noted above.

Doing something right as my returns are just fine.

:rave:

I'm curious how that compares to the S[HTML_REMOVED]P (3 year ~ 45%) and TSX (3 year = ~19%). Don't the transaction costs kill your returns?

ok, not enough snow to go skiing, too much to go biking, i guess i have time to read

:beer: :beer: :beer:

if you need inspiration to unwash the brain, start here…

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich-from-zero-to-hero-in-one-blog-post/

I really need to ditch my non workplace mutual funds (my work funds are around .5% MER and have had decent returns, and I don't have the option of withdrawing them anyways).

I want to get into ETFs or index funds but I would like to keep it with RBC as they are my primary bank. But they seem pretty limited to which funds they DRIP.

Was thinking about something like the couch potatoe using IShares (these are DRIP eligible at RBC for what I understand).

I no longer contribute to my personal RRSP, as I make my contributions via the work plan as it keeps me a bit more diligent if it comes directly off my paycheck, so I am not to concerned about the $9.99 trading fee as I will probably only rebalance once a year.

Any suggestions or comments on my plan or fund suggestions?

Retiring at 65 is for chumps. Had I known what I do now at 26, I'd be skiing with Lee.

Take a careful look at that graph I just put up and figure out what MER you're paying someone to stash your coin. Feel free to PM if you want a bit of guidance.

Then go read this entire site.

http://canadiancouchpotato.com/about/

I'm in a similar boat yellowdog. I'm still contributing to my work Sunlife, but only to the two lowest cost index funds they offer. This is because I can buy biweekly without transaction fees. Then once a year I will pull it out no cost and into my self directed to buy Vanguard. I plan to rebalance only once a year, but only by buying with this annual contribution to self directed.

0.5% MER isn't too bad - mine are 0.4% (S[HTML_REMOVED]P) to 0.6% (EAFE), but that drove me crazy, knowing I could get the same for 0.06% (VUN) and 0.2% (XEF).

You should be able to buy ETFs through RBC self directed RRSP - just move your personal RRSP to a self directed account. Make sure to move it as cash so you don't end up having to sell them for $9.95 each.

Read this, and check out his spreadsheet to figure out if you've got enough for ETFs to make sense.

The current couch potato ETF will cost you $30 to implement, but only makes sense if you have only one account to rebalance.

That Invesco chart shows what 2.61% MER will do to your savings vs buying the index. Yes, I'm kind of pissed.

oh, and the key to DRIP is not if your bank will DRIP them, but if the fund will DRIP. Vanguard Canada's are all DRIP eligable, as are iShares. You need to call RBC once you hold the funds, and they set up the DRIP in your account. BMO didn't have them on their published DRIP list, but the list is too big and always changing to be up to date.

The other key to DRIP is you need to hold enough for the distribution to be enough buy at least another share at the current price.

i.e. if VCN DRIPs $0.14 on a given quarter and if it costs $30.76 on the DRIP date, you need to be holding at least 220 shares to own 221 shares after DRIP. Otherwise, you'll get $30.66 cash in your account you then need to spend $9.95 to reinvest.

VAB DRIPs are monthly but a lower value, so you need to own even more for a DRIP to work out.

It's not as pretty as a mutual fund, where they allow 0.212 of a share to be reinvested no cost. They do have their benefits if you are working with small amounts.

I'm a little confused…
RBC gives this list of eligible DRIP funds:

http://www.rbcdirectinvesting.com/drip-list.html#v

I only see VCE on the list?

oh, and the key to DRIP is not if your bank will DRIP them, but if the fund will DRIP. Vanguard Canada's are all DRIP eligable, as are iShares. You need to call RBC once you hold the funds, and they set up the DRIP in your account. BMO didn't have them on their published DRIP list, but the list is too big and always changing to be up to date.

The other key to DRIP is you need to hold enough for the distribution to be enough buy at least another share at the current price.

i.e. if VCN DRIPs $0.14 on a given quarter and if it costs $30.76 on the DRIP date, you need to be holding at least 220 shares to own 221 shares after DRIP. Otherwise, you'll get $30.66 cash in your account you then need to spend $9.95 to reinvest.

VAB DRIPs are monthly but a lower value, so you need to own even more for a DRIP to work out.

It's not as pretty as a mutual fund, where they allow 0.212 of a share to be reinvested no cost. They do have their benefits if you are working with small amounts.

that's my point. VCE was established in 2011, thus it's made it through RBC's systems and is on the published list.

VCN, established in 2013 - not on the published list, but DRIP eligable and I'll give it 98% chance that RBC will DRIP it no problem.

BMO had the same list published when I bought Vanguard in Q4 last year - they weren't on the list at the time, but in talking to BMO, they are certainly DRIPing - but only the ones I have enough units of! The list has since been updated.

Give RBC a call and ask - they want your business.

Thanks!

that's my point. VCE was established in 2011, thus it's made it through RBC's systems and is on the published list.

VCN, established in 2013 - not on the published list, but DRIP eligable and I'll give it 985% chance that RBC will DRIP it no problem.

BMO had the same list published when I bought Vanguard in Q4 last year - they weren't on the list at the time, but in talking to BMO, they are certainly DRIPing. The list has since been updated. Give RBC a call.

Just make sure that you'll own enough ETF Units to DRIP. I figured it out the hard way, but the solution is to just buy more, so that's not a problem.

at last months prices:

for VCN, it's about $6800 minimum for 1 quarterly DRIP
for VUN, it's about $11,000 minimum for 1 quarterly DRIP
for VEE, it's about $15,000 minimum for 1 quarterly DRIP
for XEF, it's about $1000 minimum for 1 semi-annual DRIP
for VAB, its' about $10,000 minimum for 1 monthly DRIP
for VSB, it's about $13,000 minimum for 1 monthly DRIP

Don't hold me to those numbers, as the divendends always change, as does the reinvestment price. I wouldn't bother with ETFS unless you've got at least $50+K to start with (as also described in great detail in the CCP link I just posted).

I've got about $90K in the non work account so that shouldn't be an issue as long as I don't try and hold a million different ETFs.

Just make sure that you'll own enough ETF Units to DRIP. I figured it out the hard way, but the solution is to just buy more, so that's not a problem.

at last months prices:

for VCN, it's about $6800 minimum for 1 quarterly DRIP
for VUN, it's about $11,000 minimum for 1 quarterly DRIP
for VEE, it's about $15,000 minimum for 1 quarterly DRIP
for XEF, it's about $1000 minimum for 1 semi-annual DRIP
for VAB, its' about $10,000 minimum for 1 monthly DRIP
for VSB, it's about $13,000 minimum for 1 monthly DRIP

Don't hold me to those numbers, as the divendends always change, as does the reinvestment price. I wouldn't bother with ETFS unless you've got at least $50+K to start with (as also described in great detail in the CCP link I just posted).