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This and That

January 10th, 2008 · 13 Comments

  1. Rob Carrick breaks the news that Questrade will offer the first RRSP that can hold US dollars in Canada.
  2. James Daw writes in The Star that 2008 could be the year in which insurance stocks outperform the big banks.
  3. If you have a variable-rate mortgage or a loan, there may be good news in the form of significant rate cuts. Canadian Mortgage Trends reported that one economist is forecasting that the Bank of Canada will cut rates by 1.25% through 2008.
  4. Does leveraged investing benefit the advisor more than the client? Ellen Roseman writes about the perils of borrowing to invest.
  5. Jonathan Chevreau offers five suggestions for starting 2008 on the right note.
  6. Do you want to see if a book is cheaper in the United States? Thanks to award tour for pointing to this script that automatically reports a book’s price (including standard international shipping converted to Canadian dollars) from Amazon.com.
  7. Larry MacDonald writes about a One-Minute portfolio that is constructed out of just two ETFs and has gained 70% over five years.

Blog Roundup

  1. Canadian Dream adds his voice to those who question the value of another cut to the GST.
  2. Canadian Financial DIY reviews No Hype - The Straight Goods on Investing Your Money by Gail Bebee. His opinions are similar to mine as noted in my review of the book.
  3. Canadian Financial Stuff, who recently moved off Blogger to his own website, finds out how much it costs to recycle old CRT monitors.
  4. Financial Jungle explains why British Columbia is as good a tax haven as the Cayman Islands.
  5. Michael James explains why he is a fan of index funds.
  6. Million Dollar Journey reviews Derek Foster’s new book - The Lazy Investor.
  7. The Financial Blogger updates us on his Smith Manoeuvre experience.
  8. Thicken My Wallet takes a stab at rewriting Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
  9. Where Does All My Money Go? wrote about Henson Trusts - an estate planning tool for families with disabled members.

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Tags: Miscellaneous

13 responses so far ↓

  • 1 MillionDollarJourney // Jan 10, 2008 at 8:35 pm

    Thanks for the mention CC!

  • 2 Leon // Jan 10, 2008 at 8:45 pm

    Funny that in Rob Carrick’s article he mentions that the big banks just can’t do anything because of their ’software’! It’s more like they don’t want to change their software (which they seem to be able to change if it benefits them) because they’ll lose millions in fees.

  • 3 The Financial Blogger // Jan 10, 2008 at 8:56 pm

    Big round up!
    Thx for the mention!

  • 4 thickenmywallet // Jan 10, 2008 at 10:01 pm

    Thanks for the mention. I wonder how long it will be before other brokerage firms follow Questrade’s lead?

  • 5 Michael James // Jan 10, 2008 at 10:47 pm

    Thanks for including me. The Questrade news is great. I find it a pain to be phoning in to wash trades. It’s also a pain to have to park US dollars if I don’t have another stock picked out.

  • 6 Financial Jungle // Jan 11, 2008 at 1:51 am

    Thank you for the referrals.

    I wasn’t aware of the change in Questrade’s system to handle US currency within RRSP. Given the new RRSP contribution room for the new year, timing is perfect as we’re planning to move some dividend-paying US stocks from non-registered to our RRSPs.

  • 7 Canadian Capitalist // Jan 11, 2008 at 9:53 am

    Leon: Of course the big banks won’t want to kill the golden goose. A 2-way currency transfer on a $10,000 trade will work out to $200 or so.

    Thicken: RBC Direct and TD Waterhouse are already saying that they are implementing a USD RRSP, according to Rob’s article.

    Michael: I usually sell a stock and move to an index fund, so the current wash trade method works perfectly for me.

    FJ: Yes, for dividends a USD RRSP will be nice.

  • 8 Michael James // Jan 11, 2008 at 10:36 am

    CC: Your method of switching to an index fund is probably better than what I’ve been doing, but the whole business still bothers me. Making a phone call takes time, I pay an extra commission, and I pay for currency conversion on the slight difference between the $US generated by the stock sale and the $US consumed in the subsequent buy. Another minor annoyance for me is that because I don’t trust banks and brokerages, I monitor my account for a while to see if the trades were actually washed.

    I don’t trade often enough for it to really make a difference, but even though I try to behave rationally, I still have irrational feelings. I’ll be happier when the major brokerages break down and start handling $US in retirement accounts reasonably.

  • 9 Canadian Mortgage // Jan 11, 2008 at 11:36 am

    Thanks CC. Your round-ups always seem to have valuable little nuggets! Have a great weekend. - Melanie

  • 10 WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo // Jan 11, 2008 at 5:56 pm

    Thanks for the link CC! Have a great weekend.

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  • 12 CanadianInvestor // Jan 14, 2008 at 12:45 pm

    Hello CC, thanks for the mention. I especially like the news from Carrick about the Questrade USD RRSP cash account; it’s very welcome news. Yes, strange as it seems, Leon, I have had the same response from BMOIL and TD Waterhouse re the software. Maybe it’s true! Or is it an urban myth of the big banks? One has to believe that they are either incompetent or obstructive for not doing something that became legal in 2001.

  • 13 Jon D. // Jan 14, 2008 at 2:41 pm

    Questrade details were posted on their site last night:

    http://www.questrade.com/trading/registered_accounts_usd.aspx

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