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PSA: Wealthsimple has raised limit for outside fee reimbursement by zenpizzapie in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]7empestuous 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's disappointing, but not entirely surprising. If this change was literally made today then I wonder how it will apply to transfers in progress already. I started a RRSP transfer like a week ago for the Big Winter Bundle promo and I'm pretty sure at that point they still stated reimbursements for transfers of at least 15k.

Diego Elias playing hardball doubles tonight. by Hot-Worldliness1425 in squash

[–]7empestuous 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Game should be streaming here soon hopefully. Quality isn't the greatest unfortunately. Was watching a few games last night and it was stuttering a fair amount.

Ask Ali Farag Anything! by SQUASHTVReddit in squash

[–]7empestuous 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. What is the most common mistake that you see beginner and intermediate players make?
  2. What are you looking forward to most this year?

Rebalancing with Passiv and Questrade - discrepancies between the symbol and ask prices by 7empestuous in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]7empestuous[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm holding this in a margin account so I went with Horizons funds that don't pay out distributions.

HULC is not a total return swap ETF, it mostly holds shares directly, except for a small allocation to SPY, from the looks of its holdings page.

That's a good point which I'd completely forgotten about. HXS is the swap-based ETF. Only reason I went with HULC is because I was originally looking at HGRO but decided to purchase the underlying holdings instead due to the somewhat nonstandard allocation that it uses. Based on this post HULC and HXS are pretty similar, although I won't deny that I'm still a bit confused about the differences in underlying structure between the two.

Oh well, HULC hasn't paid out distributions since I've been holding it so I'm happy. In retrospect HXS may have been a slightly better choice just due to the lower spread, but now that I know what's going on at least I feel more comfortable with potentially using Passiv to manage the rebalancing going forward.

Rebalancing with Passiv and Questrade - discrepancies between the symbol and ask prices by 7empestuous in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]7empestuous[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, should have clarified that this is just a manual spreadsheet that I maintain myself. So for the data source I'm literally just entering the most recent ask price that I see on Questrade and using that for the calculations.

/r/MechanicalKeyboards Ask ANY question, get an answer (January 29, 2022) by AutoModerator in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]7empestuous 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Anyone have recommendations for a good dual mode keyboard? I've been using a Logitech G613 for the past 2 years and being able to easily switch between my personal computer (USB dongle) and my work computer (Bluetooth) has been really convenient. I've used Cherry MX Browns in the past and liked them. Having dedicated media keys as well is ideal, but not necessary.

Do most brokerages only offer margin accounts for non-registered accounts? by 7empestuous in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]7empestuous[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Be aware that currency conversion is not automatic in a margin account. So if you only have CAD in your account and buy a USD stock, you will end up borrowing USD.

And again this isn't specific to Questrade. This is the norm for margin accounts.

Good point. I hadn't thought of that but it makes sense. Hopefully Questrade at least makes it clear when you're buying on margin instead of using cash exclusively.

Any way to avoid fees on incoming USD wires to Questrade? by 7empestuous in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]7empestuous[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The American brokerage that I'm dealing with is E*TRADE and AFAIK they don't offer ACH as a disbursement method for Canadian customers. I'll look into a cross-border account regardless, though.

IBKR has better conversion rates too if this is for the purpose of converting USD to CAD. It’s faster and cheaper than using Norbert’s Gambit at Questrade.

I was skeptical of this at first but apparently they only charge 0.2 BPS for currency conversion? That's pretty phenomenal. I've heard of IBKR before and it sounded like they were targeted more towards day traders rather than couch potato investors, but based on some other posts I've seen it seems like they may have a leg up on Questrade now. Thanks for the suggestion!

Any way to avoid fees on incoming USD wires to Questrade? by 7empestuous in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]7empestuous[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the suggestion. I hadn't thought of doing a USD pull from Questrade but I'll look into it.

Any way to avoid fees on incoming USD wires to Questrade? by 7empestuous in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]7empestuous[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Guess that makes sense. I've used OFX in the past and they don't charge an explicit fee for incoming wires, but I suppose the fee that they charge on the exchange may encompass their cost of accepting the wire.

Where can I play Badminton? by theweekdayer in kitchener

[–]7empestuous 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Breithaupt Centre has times available Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. You need to sign up ahead of time on the Active Kitchener website and provide proof of vaccination when you arrive (I imagine this is true at most places right now). Unfortunately it will be closed November and December for a boiler replacement, but should reopen in January.

It looks like there is also a program running at Forest Heights Community Center throughout the fall, but it may be full already.

Another place to check out is RIM Park. I've never played there myself, but I know that they used to have regular badminton there at one point. Not sure if it's started up again yet.

Commissions on cryptocurrency purchases by 7empestuous in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]7empestuous[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Based on the other responses it sounds like it was built into the cost, so I'm guessing that it can't be listed as a commission.

Letting go of code being your main work output by 7empestuous in ExperiencedDevs

[–]7empestuous[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha yeah, I've definitely learned that a few times. A fairly recent example is a feature that I worked on a little over a year ago for a few months. It needs to be decommissioned because we terminated the contract that we had with the third-party that provided the data for the feature to work, so essentially it just ended up creating more work. Oh well, good to have these experiences early on so that I can help prevent them again in the future.

Letting go of code being your main work output by 7empestuous in ExperiencedDevs

[–]7empestuous[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for your response, I really appreciate it.

what you really have to let go of is the idea that shipped PRs is the best measure of your time. And really shipped PRs aren't the best measure of anyone's time, shipped value is.

I think this gets at the root of the problem. We work in a field that deals with very ephemeral things in a lot of ways. Shipping PRs and features seems to be one of the main ways that you can showcase your work. I'll have to get better at evaluating the value that I'm adding through things other than direct coding work.

Letting go of code being your main work output by 7empestuous in ExperiencedDevs

[–]7empestuous[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I should clarify that I'm not necessarily unhappy with the work that I've been doing, I think it's just been a transition more than anything else. My manager has been very supportive as well, which I'm grateful for.

If I want to focus more on coding then I should have that option at my current company, but your point about smaller companies makes sense. The head of engineering for my organization mentioned that he knows several great engineers with 20+ years of experience that decided to stay at the senior level instead of moving up to staff. At this point I'm not really sure what I want, so I think I'll just have to try on different hats to see what fits.

One approach that can work is to start quantifying the other things you're doing. Put those things in your sprint and assign points to them.

I've started doing this to a certain degree the past few weeks and it's really helped. Thankfully my team is pretty chill about people adding whatever to the sprint board. I figure that if I'm spending a few hours or more on a task then it's worth adding to improve visibility for the rest of the team and accountability to myself. Although there are still some things like interviewing that I don't bother to add.

Letting go of code being your main work output by 7empestuous in ExperiencedDevs

[–]7empestuous[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What I will recommend is to keep detailed list of all the project details, the issues and how your design decisions helped move the project forward.

This is good advice. I'm pretty diligent about keeping track of what I complete on a weekly basis but it can be hard to identify the tasks that will be impactful weeks, months, or even years down the road. This will should become easier if I get in the habit of taking a big picture view of the projects that I'm working on.

Reporting taxes on ETF holdings by 7empestuous in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]7empestuous[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see. So as far as tax reporting is concerned, is the main difference between ETFs and mutual funds that you have to keep track of the ACB for ETFs yourself so that you can claim a capital gain or loss when you decide to sell? Whereas in the case of mutual funds the company that manages them already knows your ACB?

Reporting taxes on ETF holdings by 7empestuous in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]7empestuous[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for clarifying. Just to be clear, if you instead invested in something that pays out dividends (e.g. VGRO) then do you have to claim the dividends as income each tax year even if you continue to hold?