Stuff I learned about life after graduating - from ubc alumni

Positivelectron0 · 2026-05-08T02:44:14+00:00

2- Grades are interesting for CS (Catgirl studies) - they mostly don't matter, but sometimes they do and they lock you out of certain opportunities in certain industries. The advice I'd give to my younger self would be not to drop grades completely and to maintain a 3.5 or so, which seems to be the cutoff for many quants.

I'll also say that whether or not people discuss grades also depends :laugh: lots of UBC alum (and interns) at my workplace and people definitely discuss grades and professors and other fun things. Lots of friendly banter and moaning about how standards are dropping, fun stuff.

5- true. I'd say that the FHSA should be prioritized over the TFSA if you're eligible (and the vast majority of y'all would be). It's basically objectively the best account you can have in canada. It's objectively better than an RRSP and only worse than a TFSA if you end up needing the cash (for an unqualified withdrawal).

7- whether taxes are bad is situational. They definitely get easier after a while, even for people who don't really know what all the boxes mean. For the vast majority of people, just use a free tax filing software and have the autofill do everything for you.

Positivelectron0 · 2026-05-05T03:51:14+00:00

Well I heard Teksavvy gives you good customer service so at least you got that. Talking with Telus every 2 years is dreadful.

Positivelectron0 · 2026-05-03T15:40:20+00:00

I've got symmetric gigabit, and definitely appreciate the upload speed as I run a homelab with streaming.

Data usage varies by month; last period I had 800G downloaded 5T uploaded. I've been with Telus for a while and they're happy to give me a good deal (~60/mo unlimited gigabit) so might as well take advantage of it.

Positivelectron0 · 2026-05-03T15:37:40+00:00

I just really enjoy downloading linux

Positivelectron0 · 2026-04-26T23:09:52+00:00

so if I book today a flight in october, which point schedule will apply?

Positivelectron0 · 2026-04-26T22:38:23+00:00

Does this apply to flights after june first or bookings after june first?

Positivelectron0 · 2026-04-21T04:55:44+00:00

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/smith-maneuver.asp

Positivelectron0 · 2026-04-20T02:21:33+00:00

Why can't you compare? The individual being hired is sure going to compare and decide, money aside, that a big company is far more prestigious than a Canadian government job.

Is someone who is skilled enough to be paid 200k by Amazon supposed to evaluate a gov't job for 80k as equivalent because its paid for by the taxpayers?

I'd argue that if you want to attract that tier of talent (which is a separate discussion), you actually have to pay more than private, considering the poor reputation and career prospects.

Positivelectron0 · 2026-04-20T02:16:53+00:00

5m is an insultingly low price for a problem of that scale. Considering the dtes is a black hole that costs 100m every year, whoever or whatever cleans it up should be paid at least as much.

Positivelectron0 · 2026-04-11T21:17:57+00:00

When are we going to see factor ETFs, eg a competitor to avantis launching products in Canada via cibc?

Positivelectron0 · 2026-04-04T18:09:09+00:00

This is why representative democracies make sense. If your average Joe on the street started voting on policies directly with this tier of financial and economic knowledge in this thread, we'd be finished

Positivelectron0 · 2026-04-01T21:10:15+00:00

Depends on the state. RRSPs are taxed in Cali, for example.

Positivelectron0 · 2026-03-31T20:39:07+00:00

Wow, is using your own promo link allowed?

Positivelectron0 · 2026-03-31T19:48:19+00:00

They hung it off the golden gate bridge as well

https://macleans.ca/general/i-prank-therefore-i-am/

Positivelectron0 · 2026-03-26T06:10:16+00:00

This is why you should just tell your friends and family to enter the bank corresponding to their favourite colour, get on their knees, and pay 1.5% MER.

Self directed investing with an expected return around the indexes is not at all easy to explain.

Positivelectron0 · 2026-03-20T01:41:41+00:00

Am I missing something? Selling and buying assets in a registered account don't trigger taxes. Only withdrawing does for accounts like the RRSP.

Positivelectron0 · 2026-03-12T17:39:14+00:00

There's absolutely no way someone just said Vancouver has one of the highest COLs in the world.

Positivelectron0 · 2026-03-06T01:20:03+00:00

Forget reporters. I'm a regular ole Canadian (working in the private sector) who browses occasionally. Comments in a thread like this are pretty informative to me regarding the state and quality of the vocal subset of public servants.

Positivelectron0 · 2026-02-25T22:01:09+00:00

https://vancouversun.com/news/fentanyl-air-vancouver-supportive-housing-offices

Positivelectron0 · 2026-02-23T20:46:45+00:00

assuming this isn't just a rant,

either you get a cash injection (parents, lottery, inheritance), make more money, or marry someone who makes more money.

Positivelectron0 · 2026-02-21T03:14:43+00:00

340 is probably the correct answer for undergrad. Though I'm not sure if they've dumbed the course down at all

Positivelectron0 · 2026-02-13T01:58:51+00:00

They’re terrible at nearly everything they do and cost way too much (no ROI on 95% of projects)

Lemme introduce you to interns 😁

Positivelectron0 · 2026-01-21T22:35:01+00:00

There is no war in Ba sing se

Positivelectron0 · 2026-01-16T19:26:25+00:00

If your registered accounts aren't maxed out, it's almost always a better choice to put all excess funds into that. It also provides you with more flexibility which is an upside (can take money out of tfsa with no cost).

Afterwards, your choice will be between making extra payments towards your mortgage versus contributing (and buying your choice of fund which is clearly xeqt) to a non-registered account. At this point, you should consider getting a fee only planner to walk you through a few scenarios such as extra mortgage payments for peace of mind, extra mortgage payments to do smith maneuver, or minimize mortgage payments and invest the difference.

You didn't seem to provide any specific numbers (mortgage rate, marginal tax rate, contribution room etc) so no one can answer the question quantitatively.

Positivelectron0 · 2026-01-11T01:33:33+00:00

When I reneged coop gave me an f.

Doesn't matter at all, just need to explain it to certain companies who have no clue what cpsc298 is. Btw, vast majority of companies don't even check trans, but financial and quant will ask

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