Anyone here know a lot about how RRSP's work and investments? Does anyone know of free sessions that one could attend regarding RRSP's?
[a href="vny!://www.fin.gc.ca/toce/1996/fctshtmar96-e.html"]vny!://www.fin.gc.ca/toce/1996/fctshtmar96-e.html[/a]
[a href="vny!://www.bmo.com/mutualfunds/ps/rrsps_c.html"]vny!://www.bmo.com/mutualfunds/ps/rrsps_c.html[/a]
[a href="vny!://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/individuals/topics/rrsp/menu-e.html"]vny!://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/individuals/topics/rrsp/menu-e.html[/a]
There's a bunch of links for yeah, retirement funds hmm not thinking about that yet lol
the third one is the best link imo.
Sportsdude wrote:
There's a bunch of links for yeah, retirement funds hmm not thinking about that yet lol
Why not? If you are young, it will make it so easy when you get older. That is, if the apocolypse holds off that long.
I'm actually looking for someone who has an interest in funds or know a financial advisor they could recommend me.
I don't want my money in the Money Market fund. It's not even growing.
Orca, are you around? I need you. We need to have that RRSP party you were talking about. :)
well considering I'm 20, haven't even started school yet, this is not one of my concerns. After school when I get a job then I'll think about it but first I'd have to pay off the 100,000 dollars or more I'll be in debt from because of student loans and college bills. So by the time I pay that off I'll be around 35 then I can worry about retirement. There is a reason why I want to go to Canada for school, its cheaper. If I go to this Seattle school its 30k a year x that 4 thats $120,000. My parents can't pay for my schooling we aren't that financially well off at all. So I'm going to have to pay it all through loans.
Now if I get into this school in BC its 11k (CAD) a year (for international students) which is around 9ish last I checked and thats for room and board as well. 9k x 4 is 36k for 4 years. I can pay that off much quicker obviously. So if I can get in that means for 4 years worth of schooling I can get at one university would equal basically 1 year at the other place in Seattle.
Aint america special. Bankrupting our kids. lovely and no end is sight.
I'll give you some info next time we meet, purelife. Or you can talk to my husband.
Are you sure its 11k a year for international students? I think thats for domestic students...
That would be absolutely wonderful Lise. I have searched on Google but it's just so vague.
I wish that I had started RRSP's at 20. I know that there will be absolutely no money in terms of pensions when I hit retirement age. I'm glad that I've started last year.
I've got RRSPs because my husband is an accountant and he recommends that you start one as soon as possible. The great thing about RRSPs is that the government will give you back a portion of what you put in it.
You can invest in different types of mutual funds, depending on how risky you want them. Anyways, I can provide you with the necessary info. I won't divulge it here though.
Yes, I have also invested in some Mutual Funds. Thanks Lise. I would love to have some info.
I thought that it was RESP's that the gov't will match to a certain %? I didn't know they matched RRSP's? That's interesting.
I'll talk to you (and Orca) when I see you soon.
yup Russ 11k even if its a little more for room and board its still a good deal.
Undergraduate Tuition Fees (2006-2007):
[table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1"][tbody][tr][td bgcolor="#336699"][font class="normal"] [/font][/td][td bgcolor="#336699"][font class="normal" color="#ffffff"]Provincial[/font][/td][td bgcolor="#336699"][font class="normal" color="#ffffff"]Canadian[/font][/td][td bgcolor="#336699"][font class="normal" color="#ffffff"]International[/font][/td][/tr] [tr] [td bgcolor="#336699"][font class="normal" color="#ffffff"]Lowest:[/font][/td] [td align="right" bgcolor="#dcdcaf"][font class="normal"]n/s[/font][/td] [td align="right" bgcolor="#dcdcaf"][font class="normal"]$2,370.00[/font][/td] [td align="right" bgcolor="#dcdcaf"][font class="normal"]$9,000.00[/font][/td][/tr] [tr] [td bgcolor="#336699"][font class="normal" color="#ffffff"]Highest:[/font][/td] [td align="right" bgcolor="#dcdcaf"][font class="normal"]n/s[/font][/td] [td align="right" bgcolor="#dcdcaf"][font class="normal"]$3,676.00[/font][/td] [td align="right" bgcolor="#dcdcaf"][font class="normal"]$9,000.00[/font][/td][/tr][/tbody][/table]
Thats the school I'm looking at price tag. If I get in my life is saved from being in debt my entire life and going on welfare.
They do that with RESPs and RRSPs. Only a portion though, not dollar for dollar.
Oh, I didn't know that. Interesting.
Do you know if the government will still match if my employer has already matched it? I can't get a double thing happening, can I?
OK, so thats per semester then... not per year. I remember something about my friends telling me they pay about 4k per semester. I have been known to be wrong though.
Sorry purelife, I'm not sure. You'll have to ask Orca about that. She'll know.
Yeah it might mean 18k I dunno under it it says this:
[font class="normal"]Notes for International Students:
The above numbers are for two 14 week semesters. There are normally two semesters per academic year. Though students may study three semesters (year round) in most programs.
So I its either 9k which is 7k US or 14k US a year either way its a steal.
Gosh I can't believe I'm talking about school like its a sale at walmart. What has the world come to? ugh.
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lol. at the end it doesnt really matter where you go to school, its the piece of paper.
That's right Russ, and after you've got it nobody wants to see it.
LOL, true. I got a diploma and then I had to do the Transport Canada certification. All anyone wants to see is the TC cert. Dont care about the diploma. They dont even ask about that.
Russ wrote:
lol. at the end it doesnt really matter where you go to school, its the piece of paper.
Exactly. I want to go where the piece of paper costs less.
Agreed Russ. If it wasn't for the credits, students wouldn't go to school. Bleh, you wouldn't find me in uni studying. Been there, done that. School isn't my thing unless I was going after some Certification of some sort or taking that odd course now and then.
I miss school badly. I thought I was tired of it as well but then I realized people don't take you seriously unless you have that little piece of paper. I my friend was looking to get a customer service job or a secretary of some kind and it requires 2 to 4 years of education and a couple years of experience. CRAZY! Nobody hires people anymore to teach them things and learn the ropes. They want to see that piece of paper. Plus they've outsourced everything now so you can't start from the bottom and work your way up anymore.
Hmmm, it's different here in Canada. I don't have a piece of paper and have worked my way from the bottom to what will look like soon, the top. There are many many grads who are applying for entry-level jobs paying them less than $30K because they have no experience to back them up.
I find that Canadian employers are looking for those with experience. It's also sad to find out that they don't pay you well enough for the experience. I've seen help wanted ads asking for 3-5 years of office experience offering under $32K. How sad.
It has been drilled into me to get the experience first, then think about education second.
Exactly purelife. All those entry level jobs you did are now going to India so my friend who's 2 sisters and dad all used to work at MasterCard couldn't even start out answering phones because those jobs have been outsourced. Then you look at the paper and like you said 2-4 years of experience. How is one suppose to start out in life? Only thing available is part time grocery store jobs that pay little. My friend needs a full time job because rent is going to cost 400-500 a month, plus car insurance which is at 75 dollars a month for him, plus health insurance (he's not fully covered). Its sad.
Did Teh Borken just remove a post? Or was that my eyes playing tricks with me again. :(
Sportsdude wrote:
[SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic"]Russ wrote:[/SPAN][BR style="FONT-STYLE: italic"] [SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic"]lol. at the end it doesnt really matter where you go to school, its the piece of paper.[/SPAN]
Exactly. I want to go where the piece of paper costs less.
[/DIV]
Not always true. It will depend on the profession you select. More so in professions in the sciences, engineering, accounting and management. As an example........if an employer is a consultant or in the business of providing services, on their proposal to a potential client they'll list the resumes of the staff that will participate in the project. One of the selling points is to show that the staff are graduates of top universities.
I'm not going into business. What I'm going into I've basically done my entire life since I was a little kid (the basics of it) heck and its not even political science I'm going into. If I was going into that I'm easily prepared for that already. I was making political policy solutions and ideas and have been having debates and learning about the system since I was 5. Everyday at dinner it was political science/discussion class.
I'm going into a field where in high school I took the class and got a total grade of 130% out of 100%. The only thing thats ever driven me is geography, politics, and history. I went through high school barely missing any questions in tests. I wrote a 7 page essay on Animal Farm my freshman year. Teacher told me I had to stop for school ended 30 minutes ago and I was late to football practice.
So for the longest time I got really angry that I had to go to school to get a piece of paper on things I already knew. But then I realized that they don't care about what you know, they only care about the piece of paper. And I felt cheated.
So, in the end, what degree or masters are you going after?
Degree in Geography
Masters in Urban Planning
I want to reshape where I live into a sustainable, livable society. BUT I don't want to do it through politics. I don't want to go into politics because I'm afraid of what I could do, I'm vicious when it comes to politics. Its mostly hate fueled and its not good for me or my family. So the past few years I've been trying to find another way where I can accomplish what I want to accomplish without going the law/political route. Just right now in my life politics is too much of a nuclear reactor on melt down for me. I had to find something peaceful that I could enjoy.
My other option was to be a social worker type of person. But I realized I can't do that because when I see people struggle it carries with me and then starts to affect the rest of my life. In other words I wouldn't be able to seperate life from work. So I can't do that.
Urban Planning essentially does the politics/social justice thing rolled into one but not its not the main focus.
Thats the best I can explain why. I really don't want to go to that school in Seattle because its a liberal arts school and doesn't offer the geography route only the politics/social welfare route. And I can't take much more of that to be honest.
Degree in Geography
Masters in Urban Planning
With these, you can become a Project Manager.
whats that? I just want to design low income housing areas and more translink lines. lol
You'll need to get into architecture to do up plans for housing and such. Project Mgrs usually work in construction companies or for Real Estate Developers. They help with projects and coordinate the projects.
Anyways, back to RRSP's please.
sure no problem on the RSRPS
(urban planners plan out the lines they don't do the designing for example where you live, your residence is there because it was designed as a residential area by planners)
purelife wrote:
Anyways, back to RRSP's please.
I read this thread from start to end, I'm still not sure what you're asking PL.
There's no mystery to RRSPs, go to your bank they can tell you the basics. Most bank have pamphlets for them already. Or you can buy/borrow a book and read it.
If you're wondering about investing, and what types of investments to hold in RRSPs, there're some basic guidelines but you'd be better off either seeing a financial advisor, or becoming your own advisor...
The latter is the best (yet the hardest) route as it requires lengthy hours of diligent reading.
However you cut down on exorbitant commissions, and learn not to get shafted.
You reach a level where you can make your own decisions, and are not dependent on your advisor and the annual/bi-annual portfolio reviews.
That has a LOT of advantages because sometimes by the time you get around to meeting and evaluating what happened, it might already be too late.
thanks for taking the time to post, Raging Poodle.
is there a book for beginners that you could recommend? i'm very keen about being my own financial advisor.
we don't have RRSPs in the States, we have something similar ..........
IRA - Individual Retirement Account.........you invest a limited amount after taxes each year and the gains are tax deferred. Taxes are paid on the gains when you withdrew at retirement. You control and select how the money is invested
401K and Deferred Compensation Accounts ........ are employer sponsored accounts. Money is deducted from your salary before taxes and deposited into these accounts. Investment choices are limited to what the contracted holding financial institution offers. Taxes are paid when you withdrew from the account. Some employers, as an incentive, will match 100% or a fraction of the employee's savings.
I've have both an IRA and a Deferred Comp.
I opened a brokerage account with my IRA and trade stocks and options with it.
The institution that handles my Deferred Comp offers a diverse assortment of mutual funds for us to select from. I have found that my investment in the overseas mutual funds I selected have provided me with returns of over 20% per year in the last 4-5 years. Money in the the US funds have yielded a lot less.
You can find more on retirement planning at sites like this [A href="vny!s://www.fidelity.com/frameless_pr_A.shtml"]Fidelity[/A] even though its tailored for the US its good background info.
i have my rrsp with canaccord. the reason i go with them is because they dont charge a management fee. there are other firms out there like an odlum brown that do charge a yearly fee.
the main difference is that canaccord will charge a commission for everything they do, so if you only make one contribution a year, and depending on how much, the commission is usually less than a yearly management fee.
[A href="vny!://www.canaccord.com/default.htm"]vny!://www.canaccord.com/default.htm[/A]
[A href="vny!s://www.odlumbrown.com/home.html"]vny!s://www.odlumbrown.com/home.html[/A]
bless you 49er and kingy. i've got the latter one. i have a LIF with my company and that portion can only be withdrawed at retirement or rollover to a GIC. yup, they match my contributions which is great.
thanks for your tip about overseas mutual funds. i was thinking about investing in a china stock. i can't remember the name off hand. i think it's agf china focus something. thanks for the link too. i'll check it out tomorrow.
purelife wrote:
thanks for taking the time to post, Raging Poodle.
is there a book for beginners that you could recommend? i'm very keen about being my own financial advisor. [/DIV]
There isn't just one single book that I know of that can teach you all there's to know about investing and being one's own advisor.
It's a very diverse field, at times requiring highly specialized info.
If you're REALLY serious then I'd say start with the CSC, not to become a broker but for your own education.
CSC will give you the foundation and the theoretical framework, however it'll be short on practicality.
You need both theory and practical knowledge. You can't skip one or the other without regretting it in the future.
So you'll have to build on top of CSC.
Start slow. And go slow. Pace yourself.
You're looking at a minimum of 2 years' of dedicated and focused studying on a daily basis before you can start making head or tails out of business news, and start seeing what's behind those news, why certain things are happening the way they're happening and what your next move should be.
You'll have to learn how to read annual reports and and go through accounting records to figure out if you want to invest in that company.
This is the investor's way.
You don't invest in what you don't understand.
And you don't commit without due diligence.
However, there's also an easier way: You become a "gambler" and start throwing your money around based on tips you pick up from people with dubious credentials.
The majority choose the latter path, but I can't help you much with that as I'm not a gambler myself.
CSC I take it is Canadian Securities Course? I do plan to take that as well as my Level I insurance. I won't take the Level OFA? exam but just study to learn about life insurance and such.
investing in the stock market: legalized gambling, same premise as gambling except one is legal and one is not. lol
part of investing in mutual funds, SD is a sort of "gamble" you take because if that stock plunges, you lose all or most of you money. everyone who is investing in RRSP's so to speak are "gamblers."
I know, I've got stocks in canadian oil companies. Maybe I can take them over with a hostile takeover and kick all the alberta bums out and clean up alberta lol.
purelife wrote:
CSC I take it is Canadian Securities Course?
Indeed it is.
> investing in the stock market: legalized gambling, same premise as gambling except one is legal and one is not. lol
^ That's how a true gambler would justify their actions. (//vny!://www.discovervancouver.com/forum/icon/icon_smile_wink.gif)
Gambling is not illegal in Canada BTW. There're casinos all over BC.
there is? A casino here has to be on 'water' now defining water is difficult because some places where no water is available just builds a mote and says oh water lets build a casino. Can't go in them anyway not legal.
purelife wrote:
i was thinking about investing in a china stock. i can't remember the name off hand.
At the very least can you answer these questions for the stock you're thinking of investing in:
[A href="vny!://www.discovervancouver.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=96639"]vny!://www.discovervancouver.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=96639[/A]
If you can't answer them, then should you really be investing in that company?
purelife. I've made a mistake. You don't get returns from the government, you get tax deduction for your RRSPs. Sorry. Big mistake. (//vny!://discoverseattle.net/forums/richedit/smileys/Happy/13.gif)
Sportsdude wrote:
there is? A casino here has to be on 'water' now defining water is difficult because some places where no water is available just builds a mote and says oh water lets build a casino. Can't go in them anyway not legal.
Ha ha! That's funny. I might be wrong but AFAIK there's no water requirement here, however casinos have to share their revenue with the government. How's that for encouraging capitalistic free entreprise?
Yeah same here the money goes to the schools but instead of having more money go to the schools on top of money alocated from the government, the conservatives then cut all funding to the schools. What a joke. Gives them an excuse to build more casinos. Missouri has the most gambling addicts that don't live in Vegas. Got 8 casinos in the metro area and 2 are coming on the way so that 10! casinos in a 50 mile radius.
Purelife, you came to mind when I was reading this article.......[A href="vny!://www.fool.com/investing/international/2007/02/16/todays-strong-buys-international-edition.aspx?source=eptyholnk303100&logvisit=y&npu=y"]link[/A]
Thanks 49er. Bless. I've bookmarked that for further in-depth reading.
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[FONT color=#00007f]Personal Confession:[/FONT]
I've never learned anything that I didn't already know, or figured out a way to make money from reading fool.com's articles.
Maybe it's just me, but I get the impression that unless you're paying them to send you direct buy/sell recommendations, they have a dozen or two of these articles they publish on a daily basis, and they say next to nothing at all in them!
Sometimes they rehash what happened in the past, sometimes they brag about how they had already recommended a winning stock a few months back in one of their paid subscriptions (and of course by then it's too late to get in on the action) but that's it. You keep reading and reading and reading, and you get nowhere!
But then perhaps that's the belief they're trying to instill in their readers: "No matter how much you read, this is difficult stuff, you can't figure it out on your own, so better pay us and let us make you rich, otherwise you'll just keep on wasting your time."
Remember, this is just a very subjective observation. So YMMV - your milage might vary.
my only intent of posting the link was because PL had mentioned something about investing in China and another poster mentioned talking to an financial adviser........article discusses both. It was never for her to subscribe to Fools
I'm like you, I have never paid for a subscription or for recommendations. I learned investing by participating in an investment club........and I would recommend this route to anyone who is thinking of investing in the stock market.