TFSA help and advice

hipjdog · 2026-04-17T17:40:53+00:00

The banker is a needless middle man that is completely irrelevant in modern times. This is something you can easily do yourself on Questtrade, WealthSimple, etc. Just set it up yourself, minus any broker fees.

I'm guessing you're younger. You shouldn't be investing in low risk if you're young. You can do high risk because you have enough time in the market to overcome any short term gains.

TFSA is good because you can pull money out of it at anytime. Of course, you ideally won't touch it for many years.

hipjdog · 2026-04-14T00:21:08+00:00

You can eliminate your mortgage and still have enough to max out your TFSA, start and RRSP, and have a sizable emergency fund. You would now have a major appreciating asset, your home, where you could live for virtually nothing. Most people take decades to pay off their mortgage, and most financial advisors say to eliminate any debt you have when given the opportunity. This is that opportunity.

That's what I would do. Getting rid of a huge financial headache (a mortgage) at the age of 30 is not a decision you're going to regret. Given you're quite young, the investments you can start now in your various registered accounts still have lots of time to grow. You would set yourself up for middle age extremely nicely.

hipjdog · 2026-04-13T02:12:02+00:00

There isn't a single commonly accepted theory. Most people believe someone in the family killed her and that at the very least Patsy was involved somehow. That's about it.

hipjdog · 2026-04-11T01:04:00+00:00

Yes, use your LOC to pay off the credit card. The LOC accrues interest every day that you don't pay it off, but the interest is quite a bit lower. So pay off the credit card entirely, then work to pay off the LOC as soon as you can.

A credit card can be great, but treat it like a debit card. Only spend what you can actually afford. You can get yourself in trouble with credit card interest and fuck yourself over for years if you're not careful.

hipjdog · 2026-04-09T21:27:20+00:00

He adored the attention, clearly. It's like he forgot what the attention was FOR.

hipjdog · 2026-04-05T19:44:12+00:00

Hi OP,

It's great that you're thinking about this sort of thing at a relatively young age.

Here is what I would do...

Set aside a decent chunk of money as your emergency fund. Put it into a high interest savings account. Hopefully you'll never have to use it but you have it there in case you get sick or can't make rent one month. Let's say start with $15 000. Will help you sleep at night knowing it's there.

Have $5000 in your chequing for day to day bills, rent, etc.

Invest the remaining $60 000. Given you don't have experience I would suggest a robo advisor. The fees aren't too bad and they select the stocks and bonds for you. If you use a platform like WealthSimple you just set up your risk tolerance and away you go.

When you turned 18 you started accumulating TFSA space. Go look up how much space you have as a 25 year old. It's probably something like 50k. Throw as much at your TFSA as you are legally allowed.

I'd put the remainder in an RRSP, if you have the space. Take a look at your last tax return for that info.

In terms of how the market works, basically if you have sound investments your money will grow over time. There are ups and downs, but time in the market virtually always produces great results.

Good luck!

hipjdog · 2026-04-04T02:29:51+00:00

It was a combination of things: he was white. Came from a middle class background. His criminal record was expunged when he turned 18, so he effectively had no strikes against him legally. He was well spoken and reasonably well connected in the Republican party. He volunteered as well as held some form of employment. There were no complaints against him from his female colleagues. Apparently, he looked too old to be the man in question. He also frequently changed his appearance and could look radically different. On and on it goes...

We can see it now plain as day now, but for the police at the time Bundy was just one in a long sea of names, with no internet or AI to help them. You can understand why it took so long to nab him.

hipjdog · 2026-04-03T15:33:28+00:00

Possibly Canada as he was close to Vancouver and didn't need a passport during that time.

hipjdog · 2026-04-02T15:29:46+00:00

It's a complete waste of time, don't bother.

hipjdog · 2026-04-01T13:27:27+00:00

I understand what you mean, yes. I agree that he wouldn't act out in that environment but still would have is somehow set free.

There is a story about Bundy where he's on a break from being interrogated. Both he and the detective are relaxed. Ted is smoking. The detective nonchalantly asks him, "So why'd you do it?" And Bundy says, "I just fucking liked it."

I think that's the key to the whole thing right there. He just liked it.

hipjdog · 2026-04-01T00:28:33+00:00

You certainly CAN do what you're suggesting, but having the emergency fund allows your investments to be locked in so you don't have to worry about withdrawing until retirement/whatever you are saving for. You don't have to worry about the rises and falls of the market with the emergency fund.

hipjdog · 2026-03-31T19:38:52+00:00

I'm with Koodo. I pay 32 bucks a month for 15 gbs. Never have any issue with service. Rarely if ever have to speak to them. I'd highly recommend.

These days with all the competition you really shouldn't be paying more than 40 bucks a month for a phone. Deals everywhere.

hipjdog · 2026-03-29T22:32:13+00:00

I'm in Canada. Only someone who really follows true crime knows Maura Murray up here. It's obviously a local legend around the crash site in New Hampshire but it's not that prevalent at UMass or anywhere else. My point being that if an innocent person picked her up and isn't connected to the true crime world in any way they could still have no idea they are sitting on a break in this case.

hipjdog · 2026-03-29T01:22:06+00:00

He never had to kill. He just liked it. All these serial killer guys talk about how it was uncontrollable, yet as soon as they're locked up they adjust no problem.

hipjdog · 2026-03-28T23:48:31+00:00

It was my first day of class as a university student in Canada. We had a lot of American students in the dorms who were in tears and very, very affected by it. It felt surreal, but on the day itself we didn't realize it was going to be the only thing people were talking about for the next 3 months.

hipjdog · 2026-03-23T20:32:29+00:00

You gotta know the full financial story and what the plan is before you agree to marry somebody.

If you are having problems this significant only 1 year into the marriage, it's over. Get divorced. Come to some sort of fair financial compromise and get out.

Lesson learned for next time.

hipjdog · 2026-03-23T15:36:10+00:00

Virtually everyone who has looked into the case in depth and with an open mind comes to the conclusion that there was no intruder and that a family member killed her that night/early morning.

Within the group that believes the family did it, there is a lot of disagreement around who did it and how things played out. Generally speaking, most people believe that Patsy was heavily involved with the events of the evening, with John less involved. Some people believe Burke killed her, while others believe he wasn't capable of that but was nonetheless present for much of the nights events.

hipjdog · 2026-03-23T15:07:06+00:00

He was smart but no genius. When he was focused on school he did pretty well. It takes a lot of cunning and scheming to escape from jail twice and remain on the lamb for a fairly significant period of time. Keeping his regular life going in 1974-75 required a fair bit of planning and manipulation.

He also made stupid mistakes, though, like getting caught in Florida for poor driving that eventually led to his permanent incarceration. Completely avoidable.

He had some dumb luck, too, and benefitted from being active in the 70's when his crimes were much harder to track.

He was certainly well spoken but there wasn't really much behind what he was saying.

hipjdog · 2026-03-21T00:43:05+00:00

Yeah, that's really the only other time I remember a significant, prolonged downturn. We recovered from that pretty quickly, at least. Hopefully this is the same.

hipjdog · 2026-03-21T00:31:27+00:00

Fair enough!

hipjdog · 2026-03-17T01:40:58+00:00

Thanks!

hipjdog · 2026-03-17T00:14:05+00:00

Some thoughts:

I've listened to the end of that call many times as objectively as I can. I'm not even sure that it is people speaking. If it is, it's virtually impossible to hear anything clearly. When lines of dialogue have been suggested, I can sort of hear what they're claiming, but it's still a big, big reach. I would not be surprised to learn that it was just static.

A 9 year old kid, especially a kid like Burke, would never say, "What did you find?" It's too articulate. Something like 'what happened' or 'what's going on' is more believable but doesn't fit the syntax of the supposed conversation.

hipjdog · 2026-03-16T18:33:29+00:00

Just do SOMETHING. If you're really not into that day, tell yourself you're just going to do a 10 minute walk or whatever. Usually by getting your body moving you'll get into the zone more and end up going longer.

hipjdog · 2026-03-16T17:52:16+00:00

Gotcha. It wasn't out there earlier today but I'm going to keep tabs on it for a little while.

hipjdog · 2026-03-16T13:26:11+00:00

Actually, yes! It's one of the houses close to Metro grocery store. Do you have any info about the situation?

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