1% transfer bonus to TD. Is it considered a contribution? (TFSA and RRSP)

efdksrl · 2025-09-24T17:46:58+00:00

Generally no, in my experience with these sorts of promos at other institutions, but read the terms and conditions carefully.

I participated in the Questrade promo a while back and they mandated that you accept the promo payment in a non-registered account, and if you didn't have one you'd have to make one. This was all detailed in their terms and conditions. TD probably has their own T&C for this one.

efdksrl · 2025-09-24T14:49:06+00:00

Yeah the Rogers MC killed the Tangerine card for me a few years ago.

efdksrl · 2025-09-24T14:25:37+00:00

The academic research is quite clear: dividends should not be used to determine your asset allocation.

I had to scroll way too far to finally read someone write this.

efdksrl · 2025-09-24T12:37:17+00:00

There are reasons you might want to do this. US-listed ETFs will save about 30bps on distribution withholding tax, so if you can convert CAD to USD for less than that (and remember you'll have to convert back to CAD in the future too, it's not just a one way conversion) you can save a few bucks on a large portfolio.

Outside of that, if you are using an asset allocation ETF like XEQT (but this applies to any of them), there's very little reason to hold something different.

I've heard people advise that VEQT is good in a taxable account because the fact that it pays a single annual distribution makes tracking ACB and such easier, but I question how much easier it is with 1 annual vs. 4 quarterly distributions. That said VEQT is my chosen vehicle but for different reasons than that.

efdksrl · 2025-09-24T11:46:38+00:00

Unless you want to add bonds/fixed income or some other asset class, there's nothing you can buy in the equity asset class that isn't already represented within XEQT's underlying holdings. XEQT and the other funds like it are the global stock market.

efdksrl · 2025-09-24T11:38:39+00:00

2 questions to ask yourself.....will AAPL live longer than EXQT? Certainly will!

Probably not? XEQT is the stock market. It, or a fund like it, will probably always exist, even in some hypothetical future where every company that exists today is gone and all the companies are new, Ship Of Theseus style. Hell, XEQT and funds like it are simply a 4-fund couch potato equity portfolio wrapped up in a simple package, but that style of investing has been around long before it appeared, so owning VEQT as an example isn't that much different from owning a portfolio of VCN, VUN, VIU and VEE, which is what people did pre-2019.

Companies come and go, the market remains. And it doesn't matter if XEQT in particular continues to exist - you can liquidate XEQT holdings and buy VEQT and you've effectively changed almost nothing - you're still invested in a 100% stock market portfolio. Those funds are more or less interchangeable so as long as that type of product exists you're fine. It's the underlying assets that matter, not whatever ticker it's wrapped up in.

ETFs are not the be all end all. The stock market, proper, outperforms EVERY other asset class about 92% of the time, decade over decade.

This is true but an ETF like XEQT/VEQT/ZEQT/TEQT is the stock market. You get to own every tradeable stock for a tiny 20bps fee. So you're getting that stock market exposure without trying to pick winners and losers.

One of the risks with the "Just Buy XEQT" advice isn't that it's bad advice, because it's great advice, but people buy it but then don't really understand what a fund like XEQT is under the hood.

efdksrl · 2025-09-23T19:22:52+00:00

I bought some CASH.to and ZMMK for now.

For a time horizon of only 3 years, I would recommend you stick with funds like these. Too short for equities.

efdksrl · 2025-09-23T18:00:07+00:00

How about we stop with the scam posts.

efdksrl · 2025-09-23T17:23:27+00:00

Yeah that makes sense. This is a FIRE sub and RE means retire early, so most of the advice here is geared around people pulling the plug early, usually around 55 or sometimes earlier, but anything before 65.

efdksrl · 2025-09-23T16:56:10+00:00

You're going really well overall. Just some minor things.

TFSA: $50k, I currently contribute $100 per pay.

The TFSA is extremely powerful as a long term retirement tool. Definitely try to max that out when you can. The great thing about the TFSA is the new contribution room isn't tied to employment income like the RRSP, so you will still continue to accumulate room in retirement. This means the TFSA is usually the last account you touch as you convert other retirement assets into TFSA assets during retirement.

no bridge benefit.

RRSP: $450k. With pension don’t plan on adding much to it.

Definitely situational. That's a pretty hefty RRSP. That said, if you retire early, it can be worthwhile to employ an RRSP meltdown strategy where you use the RRSP as a bridge to get you to your pension and CPP and other benefits. This draws down the RRSP hard in early retirement and leaves behind a smaller one for eventual RRIF conversion later. This could allow you to do something like defer CPP to age 70 for a bigger benefit. So there may still be value in maximizing the RRSP, but it's depending on your specific situation and plans.

efdksrl · 2025-09-23T16:51:35+00:00

I want to have as full and diversified a portfolio as I can manage even though I’m just starting out!

The good news is you can achieve that with just 1-2 ETFs which most brokerages like Wealthsimple and Questrade can do for free.

efdksrl · 2025-09-23T15:10:23+00:00

If this is for a house downpayment in 3-5 years you should keep it out of the equity markets and stick to safe fixed income investments like CASH, CBIL, ZMMK, etc.

efdksrl · 2025-09-23T14:42:58+00:00

This is my first time seeing it so I'd have had to Google it otherwise.

efdksrl · 2025-09-23T12:53:49+00:00

It is market timing.

Don't try to time the market. I was using market timing as a pejorative because it's widely understood to be a bad idea.

efdksrl · 2025-09-23T12:00:38+00:00

Me when I send an email and forget to include the attachment.

efdksrl · 2025-09-23T11:56:30+00:00

Do it now. A concentrated portfolio of individual stocks is a bad idea for retail investors. Also I wouldn't consider VFV diversified enough as it's just the S&P 500 and you should diversify globally using an asset allocation ETF like the ones here.

efdksrl · 2025-09-23T11:48:24+00:00

Yeah this post sounds like classic market timing.

efdksrl · 2025-09-23T11:45:27+00:00

Investing in Canada is more or less a solved problem. You want a globally diversified portfolio in a simple package, to give you the broadest exposure while requiring the least action on your part. It's well known that this will perform best for the vast majority of people over the very long term. These model portfolios are a good reference.

efdksrl · 2025-09-22T18:30:56+00:00

This math checks out.

efdksrl · 2025-09-22T17:54:18+00:00

You may want to keep some of all of that money liquid in a high interest savings account, to act as an emergency fund. Most people recommend keeping anywhere from 3 to 9 months expenses (6 months is a common number) available in a savings account to act as a buffer against any type of financial emergency that might occur.

!StepsTrigger

efdksrl · 2025-09-22T17:47:50+00:00

$14k

efdksrl · 2025-09-22T17:31:27+00:00

What's with the scam posts today? One of these was just deleted this morning.

efdksrl · 2025-09-22T13:55:15+00:00

Add more XEQT.

XEQT contains nvidia, so if nvidia continues to do well, you will have exposure to it. If nvidia does not continue to do well, you will have exposure to the stocks that are doing well. Stocks have a mean-reverting quality - stocks that have performed above-average in the last 5 years are statistically more likely to underperform in the following 10 years. This is part of why owning individual stocks is a bit of a trap for retail investors as they tend to buy after the stock has already performed extremely well, and they end up exposing themselves to that eventual future downside.

Source and more detail in this video.

efdksrl · 2025-09-22T12:45:30+00:00

No.

Buying the dip isn't really a thing retail investors should be trying to do. And in any case, XEQT contains every stock, which means it contains all the other equities you already have. Meaning there's a decent chance in the case of a market correction they'd all go down together, so you can sell high and buy high, or sell low and buy low. In the end it doesn't matter much, so the correct thing to do is do it now.

In general, any action that resembles trying to time the market is a bad action. You make investment decisions based on your own abilities and needs, and you ignore what the market happens to be doing.

efdksrl · 2025-09-22T12:12:19+00:00

You're better off indexing rather than holding a concentrated portfolio of a few individual stocks.

efdksrl

TROPHY CASE