How much do you know about financial independence?

Posted by: Vikb

This article discusses some ways around this without being out of the market for 30 days:

https://canadiancouchpotato.com/2020/11/05/finding-etf-pairs-for-tax-loss-selling/

Posted by: heckler

Also be aware across your and spouse accounts, that the same ETF you sell at a "loss" cannot be repurchased for 30 days (including an automatic dividend reinvestment you might have set up previously.) This is causing me to pause, as I have VCN in 4 accounts still.

That's a good point that I can see people totally missing, especially if they have DRIPs set up.

Posted by: heckler

Your post leads me to point out...

https://canadiancouchpotato.com/2010/03/05/put-your-assets-in-their-place/

especially as interest rates start rising, bonds to RSP, US to RSP, Canada to non-registered. Still slowly rebalancing my VCN out to non-reg.

This is a matter of weighing the added complexity vs the actual gains. Which way the pendulum swings depends a lot on your situation.

I've realized that most tax efficiency optimizations are not worth the hassle for us but our situation is somewhat uncommon I think.

you gotta look way out like 20 30 40 years

Posted by: XXX_er

you gotta look way out like 20 30 40 years

I literally have a spreadsheet that looks out 50+ years...

Posted by: [email protected]

I literally have a spreadsheet that looks out 50+ years...

Ha. Ha. I do as well. Basically now until I will likely be dead. If we all get uploaded into robot bodies and live forever I'll have to redo my spreadsheet. ;-)

Wow your ^^penis's are much bigger than mine but  the point would be think long term

Posted by: XXX_er

Wow your ^^penis's are much bigger than mine but  the point would be think long term

At least with spreadsheets it's easy to add more columns.

I’d best not show XXXer my Big Spreadsheet then.

My money guy told me he would ask everyone he dealt with " so how much do you think you got ? " and every one guessed low me included ,

so we are old ski/paddle buds so we bulshit & he tells me about what was happening when and he sez yeah it was down and then blah blah blah happened and it was way upso yer way up and I didnt even get to worry about any of it

I never did any of the spread sheet stuff either

I ski sometimes with a 76yr old acountant who can't do accounting while looking at a screen so he needs a real paper spread sheet, except they don't go big enough so the bookkeeper had to print out the spread sheet and tape the pages togetehr

If you are happy with your money guy and trust him to do what's best for you that's great.

I prefer to be my own money guy and a spreadsheet is just a tool that helps put the bits and pieces together and make and execute a long-term plan. In my case the bits and pieces involve fragmented stuff from three countries that are locked up until different points in the future so it's difficult to see the big picture without a spreadsheet.

My partner used to get investment advice from her family's trusted long-term money guy and she ended up with a shitload of garbage mutual funds with high management fees and early redemption penalties. Took a few years before she realized she was getting screwed, then another few years to get rid of all the garbage. Now she is her own money girl and has her own spreadsheet.

i've known people who fucked up their investments all on their own

It goes up it goes down,

at what point is it garbage,

at what what point is it a winah ?

pretty hard to tell when you are in it ,

my best decisions have been entirely by accident

which is why i suggest go long term just in case your decisions suck

Best thing I ever did was get rid of my financial advisor. The parasitic drag of their fees would have cost me hundreds of thousands of $$ over the course of my investing life. I try not to think about how much $$ they got from me in the time I was with them and focus on how much I have saved by breaking free and managing my own money.

My GF has close to zero interest in investing, but about 4hrs of time a few year ago was enough to get her to the point where she opened her own self-serve brokerage account, is able to buy low fee index ETF shares and rebalance her asset allocation. Not only is she saving a lot of money without the FA fees, but I have noticed she's become a better saver/investor. My guess is being so much more connected with her investments keeps it a high priority when making financial decisions.

If I ever have a more complex investing/tax/financial issue to deal with I'll just hire someone on a $/hr basis to give me the advice I need.

Posted by: Vikb

Best thing I ever did was get rid of my Financial Advisor. The parasitic drag of their fees would have cost me hundreds of thousands of $$ over the course of my investing life. 

I ditched my FA mutual funds in 2014, when I learned what the "benchmark" was, and why my mutual fund turned $10K into $17K instead of $22K over the past ten years.  If anyone wants help understanding their mutual fund performance, drop us a fund number (such as AIM1581)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/markets/funds/full-chart/AIM1581.CF/

Even comparing index funds, I figured out that VTI (US, 0.04% MER) instead of VUN (CA, 0.16% MER) would save us $111,000 over 25 years!  Same holdings, just different fee.  That's long term thinking.

Posted by: XXX_er

i've known people who fucked up their investments all on their own

I have a buddy who had to come to the city to buy stable silver after BTC crashed on him.  Sigh...